the scandal that never was... no surprise... yet another witch hunt by the right falls on it's face... but as some of us know, the truth never gets in the way of what the right wants people to think





Republican committee chair admits: No evidence Planned Parenthood misused federal funding




http://www.rawstory.com/2015/10/republican-committee-chair-admits-no-evidence-planned-parenthood-misused-federal-funding/





p. Jason Caffetz (R-UT), who spearheaded the House GOP committee that investigated Planned Parenthood, admitted on Thursday that there was no indication that the womens’ health organization had misused its federal funding, theHuffington Post reported.

“Did I look at the finances and have a hearing specifically as to the revenue portion and how they spend? Yes,” Chaffetz said during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee meeting. “Was there any wrongdoing? I didn’t find any.”

The congressman’s concession came just over a week after he began the committee’s hearings by suggesting that his parents would still be alive today if some of the $500 million Planned Parenthood gets every year had been used to boost cancer research, instead.

Chaffetz’s admission is also the latest setback in Republicans’ efforts to strip funding from the organization, which were instigated by a series of quickly-debunked videos promoted by an anti-abortion group, the Center for Medical Progress.

Democrats on the committee are now asking to speak to the man behind the videos, David Daleiden, accusing him of taking part in “a host of potentially illegal activities, including filing false documents with government agencies, falsely impersonating a legitimate business concern, soliciting charitable contributions under false pretenses, and secretly recording Planned Parenthood officials without their consent.”

Daleiden’s organization claimed that the videos showed Planned Parenthood officials negotiating the sale of fetal tissue, which is prohibited under the terms of its federal funding agreement. Those allegations incited some conservatives into accusing Planned Parenthood of using that money for abortions, which is not the case.

Moreover, as MSNBC reported, the organization has also been cleared of any allegations of wrongdoing after investigations in several states.

Chaffetz, who is bidding to become House Speaker following John Boehner’s (R-OH) resignation, said on Thursday that he supported further investigations into Planned Parenthood’s activities, but that “Did we find any wrongdoing? The answer was no.”

Republicans Finally Admit Planned Parenthood Did Nothing Wrong, Investigation Was A Sham

by Colin Taylor • October 9, 2015

After months of hurling vile slander and gruesome accusations at Planned Parenthood, Rep. John Chaffetz (R-UT) announced that his investigation of the beleaguered healthcare provider has, predictably, turned up no wrongdoing of any sort. During a judiciary committee meeting, he admitted that “did I look at the finances and have a hearing specifically as to the revenue portion and how they spend? Yes. Was there any wrongdoing? I didn’t find any.”

It is a bitter vindication for pro-choice advocates. Planned Parenthood, an organization which was granted its federal funding by Republicans, has had their good name and vital work dragged through the mud. They have been slandered in heavily edited, illegally recorded videos that give false impressions. They were called out on national television by opportunist and reprehensible gender-traitor Carly Fiorina who demanded that we “watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.” The footage used belonged to a miscarriage, and did not take place in a Planned Parenthood, let alone in the United States.

The GOP’s relentless witch-hunt led to the president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, being summoned to Congress for several hours to withstand an insulting barrage of outrageous misogyny and ignorance that even pro-life activists condemned as a “circus.” The Huffington Post described it like this: “It went mostly like this: Republican asks question. Richards starts to respond, and Republican interrupts and asks question again. Richards starts to respond, and Republican interrupts and demands answer. Richards starts to respond, and the chairman, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), interrupts to move to next questioner.”

After all of this wasted time and effort and counterproductive libel just to deny women access to reproductive healthcare, and the delusional GOP comes up with nothing. This whole affair would be a farce if the consequences weren’t so significant. How many Americans will now believe these stupid lies? How long will it be before we have this same fight again?

Planned Parenthood deserves an apology and a public declaration of innocence. The work that Planned Parenthood does every day has a much more tangible impact on the lives of the American people than anything our do-nothing Republican Congress does. The complete disregard of facts and truth, the sheer rudeness, the absurd sob stories from Chaffetz, and the obvious foregone conclusion all combine to make one of the most disgraceful smear campaigns that our nation has ever seen.

Republicans Finally Admit Planned Parenthood Did Nothing Wrong, Investigation Was A Sham

by Colin Taylor • October 9, 2015

After months of hurling vile slander and gruesome accusations at Planned Parenthood, Rep. John Chaffetz (R-UT) announced that his investigation of the beleaguered healthcare provider has, predictably, turned up no wrongdoing of any sort. During a judiciary committee meeting, he admitted that “did I look at the finances and have a hearing specifically as to the revenue portion and how they spend? Yes. Was there any wrongdoing? I didn’t find any.”

It is a bitter vindication for pro-choice advocates. Planned Parenthood, an organization which was granted its federal funding by Republicans, has had their good name and vital work dragged through the mud. They have been slandered in heavily edited, illegally recorded videos that give false impressions. They were called out on national television by opportunist and reprehensible gender-traitor Carly Fiorina who demanded that we “watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.” The footage used belonged to a miscarriage, and did not take place in a Planned Parenthood, let alone in the United States.

The GOP’s relentless witch-hunt led to the president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, being summoned to Congress for several hours to withstand an insulting barrage of outrageous misogyny and ignorance that even pro-life activists condemned as a “circus.” The Huffington Post described it like this: “It went mostly like this: Republican asks question. Richards starts to respond, and Republican interrupts and asks question again. Richards starts to respond, and Republican interrupts and demands answer. Richards starts to respond, and the chairman, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), interrupts to move to next questioner.”

After all of this wasted time and effort and counterproductive libel just to deny women access to reproductive healthcare, and the delusional GOP comes up with nothing. This whole affair would be a farce if the consequences weren’t so significant. How many Americans will now believe these stupid lies? How long will it be before we have this same fight again?

Planned Parenthood deserves an apology and a public declaration of innocence. The work that Planned Parenthood does every day has a much more tangible impact on the lives of the American people than anything our do-nothing Republican Congress does. The complete disregard of facts and truth, the sheer rudeness, the absurd sob stories from Chaffetz, and the obvious foregone conclusion all combine to make one of the most disgraceful smear campaigns that our nation has ever seen.

It appears that you are under the mistaken impression that anyone, but a few, are interested in the truth about - well - anything.

A rumor is a powerful tool, even more powerful than the truth. Some will believe something because they hope it's true and some will because they are afraid it MIGHT be true. Either way, a rumor will shape thoughts and even actions, more effectively than a royal command.

I once did an experiment at a place I worked. I told one person, as though it slipped out, that I was slated to become the next Director of Nurses. It wasn't remotely true of course. Within 24 hours, I was being "cozened" by nearly every Nurse there, even those senior to me. The remarkable thing was, the harder I denied the "lie", the more convinced everyone was that it was true, right up until the real DON was announced. After that, no one believed me when I told them I had made the whole thing up. They were convinced that I had been shafted by management and was merely trying to cover my disappointment.

I warn you, a rumor will persist long after definitive proof is presented that the rumor was false. Si, it ain't over yet.

“It’s a pretty sick company,” phlebotomist and former Stem Express “procurement technician” Holly O’Donnell says about her former employer. The latest video from Center for Medical Progress features O’Donnell explaining the trade in organ harvesting from Planned Parenthood. The clinics reprimanded employees who failed to produce enough specimens, because “Planned Parenthood needs ‘compensation’,” O’Donnell explains. “The harder and more valuable the tissue, the more money you can get,” she continues. “If you can somehow procure a brain or a heart, you’re going to get more money” than just for tissue samples. “I guess that’s an incentive to try and get the hard stuff — to get more money.”

CMP reviews some of their previous videos, and also features a new undercover video of a conversation with a Planned Parenthood clinic executive, Dr. Savita Ginde of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains in Denver, along with one of her technicians. She explains that they prefer to set compensation by the item, because “a per-item thing works a little better, just because we can see how much we can get out of it.”

There are very disturbing images in this video, including the dissection of an aborted fetus — and a description from the technician of the body parts found intact in the remains. He mentions a spinal cord, two kidneys, and neural tissue, which once again puts lie to the notion that all this involved is a “clump of cells” or “a pile of goop.” He estimates that they could get between $200-$300 charging per item rather than charging per specimen. That’s obviously not a reference to “covering costs” (excerpt from YouTube page):

Episode 1 introduces Holly O’Donnell, a licensed phlebotomist who unsuspectingly took a job as a “procurement technician” at the fetal tissue company and biotech start-up StemExpress in late 2012. “I thought I was going to be just drawing blood, not procuring tissue from aborted fetuses,” says O’Donnell, who fainted in shock on her first day of work in a Planned Parenthood clinic when suddenly asked to dissect a freshly-aborted fetus during her on-the-job training.

For 6 months, O’Donnell’s job was to identify pregnant women at Planned Parenthood who met criteria for fetal tissue orders and to harvest the fetal body parts after their abortions. O’Donnell describes the financial benefit Planned Parenthood received from StemExpress: “For whatever we could procure, they would get a certain percentage. The main nurse was always trying to make sure we got our specimens. No one else really cared, but the main nurse did because she knew that Planned Parenthood was getting compensated.”

Episode 1 also shows undercover video featuring the Vice President and Medical Director of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM) in Denver, CO, Dr. Savita Ginde. PPRM is one of the largest and wealthiest Planned Parenthood affiliates and operates clinics in Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Nevada. Standing in the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic pathology laboratory, where fetuses are brought after abortions, Ginde concludes that payment per organ removed from a fetus will be the most beneficial to Planned Parenthood: “I think a per-item thing works a little better, just because we can see how much we can get out of it.”

The sale or purchase of human fetal tissue is a federal felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison or a fine of up to $500,000 (42 U.S.C. 289g-2).

Dr. Katherine Sheehan, Medical Director emerita of Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest in San Diego, describes her affiliate’s long-time relationship with Advanced Bioscience Resources, a middleman company that has been providing aborted fetal organs since 1989: “We’ve been using them for over 10 years, really a long time, you know, just kind of renegotiated the contract. They’re doing the big government-level collections and things like that.”

John McCormack made a big point about the financial incentives for Planned Parenthood in organ harvesting and maximizing their “compensation,” too:

The simple fact is that after Planned Parenthood performs an abortion, it can either pay a medical waste company to dispose of the baby’s remains or it can receive $30 to $100 or more “per specimen” to have the baby’s body parts taken by a biotech company. The latter practice certainly leaves Planned Parenthood better off financially. As a top Planned Parenthood official said in the first undercover video, they “want to break even. And if they can do a little better than break even, and do so in a way that seems reasonable, they’re happy to do that.”

Let’s not lose sight of the fact that Planned Parenthood charges for the abortions, too. They don’t need the organ harvesting to compensate them for their costs; they want to reduce their disposal costs and take money in from both sides of the transaction. That makes perfect business sense if all one cares about is the bottom line and “doing a little better than break even,” as long as one never thinks about the fact that they’re killing children to do so.

Exposing the Planned Parenthood business model

By Abby Johnson

Though 98 percent of Planned Parenthood’s services to pregnant women is abortion, Planned Parenthood and its political allies have sworn up and down that taxpayer dollars do not to pay for abortion. But of course they do. Planned Parenthood gets one-third of its entire budget from taxpayer funding and performed more than 650,000 abortions between 2008 and 2009. An abortion is expensive. Its cost includes pay for the doctor, supporting medical staff, their health benefits packages and malpractice insurance. As clinic director, I saw how money affiliate clinics receive from several sources is combined into one pot, not set aside for specific services.

Planned Parenthood’s claim that abortions make up just 3 percent of its services is also a gimmick. That number is actually closer to 12 percent, but strategically skewed by unbundling family planning services so that each patient shows anywhere from five to 20 “visits” per appointment (i.e., 12 packs of birth control equals 12 visits) and doing the opposite with abortion visits, bundling them together so that each appointment equals one visit. The resulting difference between family planning and abortion “visits” is striking.

But that’s not the only deception Planned Parenthood is spreading.

It also claims to help reduce the number of abortions. Not only is this not what Planned Parenthood actually accomplishes, but its goal couldn’t be more opposite. As a Planned Parenthood clinic manager, I was directed to double the number of abortions our clinic performed in order to drive up revenue. In keeping, Planned Parenthood headquarters recently issued a directive mandating that all of its affiliates provide abortions by 2013.

Planned Parenthood is also spending a lot of money convincing its primary income providers – taxpayers – that its highest priority is women's health and safety. Live Action and the Expose Planned Parenthood coalition released numerous undercover videos showing clinic staff aiding and abetting alleged sex traffickers in exploiting underage girls – some as young as 14.

After initially downplaying the first video as a scam, Planned Parenthood of Central New Jersey came under so much pressure that it fired the office manager in the footage. New Jersey Attorney General Paula Dow quickly called for an investigation, but Planned Parenthood’s problems don’t end with firing one office manager. Later Live Action videos revealed an unbroken chain of similar problems in clinics up and down the East Coast.

Planned Parenthood has found other ways to increase revenue at the expense of women’s safety. Abortion consultations are now often done without a doctor in the room through online “telemedicine.” Abortion is a severely traumatic and potentially dangerous procedure. Even as Planned Parenthood's 2008 Employee of the Year, I saw this aggressive push toward more “efficient” telemedicine as risky.

Another nuisance the organization is seeking to do away with is reporting sex abuse of minors. It has sued to overturn a child abuse reporting law applying to minors under 14 on the grounds that it violated a girl’s “constitutional right to privacy.” Planned Parenthood called the bill unnecessary given that its medical personnel are already obliged to report such matters and that filing additional reports would only “overload” the government. Planned Parenthood doesn’t want to bother the government with protecting minors.

It also can’t be bothered to enable women to make informed decisions. Planned Parenthood has adamantly opposed laws in nearly two dozen states that require clinic staff to show a woman a sonogram before an abortion. With all the supposed health services these clinics provide, why should they fear sonograms? Because they cut down on its biggest income source.

With the Continuing Resolution battle before us, we can, at very least, stop making taxpayers perpetuate a culture that puts profit margins before women’s safety. Congress has and must seize the opportunity to stop directing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to recipients who deliberately deceive the public and violate federal law.

I joined Planned Parenthood because I wanted to help poor women with real health care needs. I still do -- that’s why I left. Planned Parenthood doesn’t care about women’s health care needs, it cares about abortion.

It’s time to defund Planned Parenthood of our tax dollars.

Republicans Finally Admit Planned Parenthood Did Nothing Wrong, Investigation Was A Sham

by Colin Taylor • October 9, 2015

After months of hurling vile slander and gruesome accusations at Planned Parenthood, Rep. John Chaffetz (R-UT) announced that his investigation of the beleaguered healthcare provider has, predictably, turned up no wrongdoing of any sort. During a judiciary committee meeting, he admitted that “did I look at the finances and have a hearing specifically as to the revenue portion and how they spend? Yes. Was there any wrongdoing? I didn’t find any.”

It is a bitter vindication for pro-choice advocates. Planned Parenthood, an organization which was granted its federal funding by Republicans, has had their good name and vital work dragged through the mud. They have been slandered in heavily edited, illegally recorded videos that give false impressions. They were called out on national television by opportunist and reprehensible gender-traitor Carly Fiorina who demanded that we “watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.” The footage used belonged to a miscarriage, and did not take place in a Planned Parenthood, let alone in the United States.

The GOP’s relentless witch-hunt led to the president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, being summoned to Congress for several hours to withstand an insulting barrage of outrageous misogyny and ignorance that even pro-life activists condemned as a “circus.” The Huffington Post described it like this: “It went mostly like this: Republican asks question. Richards starts to respond, and Republican interrupts and asks question again. Richards starts to respond, and Republican interrupts and demands answer. Richards starts to respond, and the chairman, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), interrupts to move to next questioner.”

After all of this wasted time and effort and counterproductive libel just to deny women access to reproductive healthcare, and the delusional GOP comes up with nothing. This whole affair would be a farce if the consequences weren’t so significant. How many Americans will now believe these stupid lies? How long will it be before we have this same fight again?

Planned Parenthood deserves an apology and a public declaration of innocence. The work that Planned Parenthood does every day has a much more tangible impact on the lives of the American people than anything our do-nothing Republican Congress does. The complete disregard of facts and truth, the sheer rudeness, the absurd sob stories from Chaffetz, and the obvious foregone conclusion all combine to make one of the most disgraceful smear campaigns that our nation has ever seen.