Planned Parenthood CEO’s husband also had a very bad day in court yesterday
Most everyone knows by now the Supreme Court ruled in favor of religious freedom and against the Obama administration yesterday in its Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood decisions.
This was a stunning rebuke against not only President Obama but also pro-abortion HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, whose office wrote the rules attempting to force employers with religious convictions to pay for abortion-inducing drugs. The contraception mandate was never passed by Congress.
I love this headline. Even if factually incorrect, it is accurate in the sense that Planned Parenthood stood to gain financially by the mandate and lost in the Hobby Lobby decision as well…
“Our opponents think they have momentum on their side,” wrote Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards in a fundraising email yesterday, which was for once a true statement. When you consider the buffer zone and Hobby Lobby decisions, the vast number of abortion clinics closing, the horrific Gosnell scandal, the public opinion polls, the tsunami of pro-life laws being passed, and the 2014 political landscape, we do appear to have a bit of momentum.
Meanwhile, the other Supreme Court decision handed down yesterday was a major slam against the company for whom Richards’ husband Kirk Adams (pictured left) works. Adams is the International Executive Vice President of the Service Employees International Union, heading up its North America healthcare division.
Particularly since I’m from Illinois, I was also watching this court case. In Harris v Quinn (as in Illinois Governor Patrick Quinn) the Supreme Court struck down an IL law that forced Medicaid-paid home health care workers who were family members of those being cared for to pay dues to the SEIU. The mandate was originally the quid pro quo brain child of imprisoned former IL Governor Rod Blagojevich.
World Socialist Website explains the back room deal, the likes of which are too common in the Land of Lincoln:
[T]he case is remarkable as a further exposure of the extent to which the unions - in a period of declining popular support and membership - have sought to secure their dues revenue streams by entrenching themselves in the corporate and government superstructure….
Since they cannot rely on popular support, unions are increasingly looking to secure their dues revenue streams by backroom deals with government and corporate officials. It is significant that the IL home health care workers were not unionized in a popular struggle for better wages and working conditions, but by an executive order from Blagojevich.
This executive order was a windfall for the SEIU, which thereby acquired hundreds of thousands of workers who were compelled by law to pay tribute to the union in perpetuity. According to the Supreme Court, the SEIU-HII was raking in over $3.6 million in dues each year from the personal assistants under the deal.
It is worth noting that Blagojevich - who established the Illinois regime for home health care workers - was subsequently convicted on federal corruption charges. Among the charges was that Blagojevich attempted to sell President Obama’s federal Senate seat in return for a job at an SEIU affiliate that paid $300,000 a year. According to the Wall Street Journal, the SEIU contributed about $1.8 million to Blagojevich’s two campaigns for governor, receiving the home health care workers’ yearly tribute in return.
Planned Parenthood’s political correcuptness
There are several correlations between Planned Parenthood and SEIU. Planned Parenthood is also increasingly reliant on the government for revenue. And it, too, gets windfall profits from government officials it helps empower, say, for instance, Barack Obama.
Recall Obama was perfectly willing to shut down the government in 2011 to keep Planned Parenthood on the public dole – to the tune of over $500 million a year.
Additionally, with the help of another Planned Parenthood patron, Sebelius, the Obama administration connived to hand Planned Parenthood millions more, perhaps billions, through Obamacare.
But both Planned Parenthood and the SEIU were blocked yesterday, making for a depressing mood at dinner for Cecile and Kirk, to be sure.
Hope their house staff thought to put away the knives.
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
I owe Blagojevich a debt of thanks.
In January, 2008, a state-wide smoking ban supported and signed by Blagojevich fell upon Illinois. Since I live in Wisconsin (which, at the time, still had the appearances of being part of a free country), I took up the grand hobby of pipe smoking. This has been a great joy to my family. My sons and I have made many friends and enjoyed many hours via the hobbit-like art of smoking.
Of course, Wisconsin took that freedom away from us a few years later. I can still take my granddaughter to be killed at Planned Parenthood, but I would be arrested for lighting a pipe there.
Anyhow…. As American families make progress in taking back our freedom to run our lives and businesses and raise our children as we best we can without government interference, we will also save a lot of money by cleaning out the graft and abuse.
Home caregivers were forced to pay dues to SEIU, for no benefit whatsoever? That’s extortion…
I am a union member and even though they are not perfect and I don’t agree with them on everything, I am pro-union. That’s another thing about Republicans and conservatives I don’t like, their anti-union stance. The 35 hour work week, the weekend, child labor laws — thank the labor movement for those innovations.
Phillymiss, visit a state capitol building during a right to work protest, and you might feel differently. They don’t care about workers, they care about cash and sticking it to people. I will forever remember telling my pregnant wife to go home rather than attend a legislative rally for a prolife law because I feared for her safety in our state capitol building. They are thugs, and the SEIU was wrong to try to force home health care workers to join their criminal ring.
Labor movement? Yes, it did a lot of good
Huge Unions? No. They have become about themselves and not the workers anymore
“As American families make progress in taking back our freedom to run our lives and businesses and raise our children as we best we can without government interference” – how do you expect that to happen while you don’t support the same concept for others?
Chris I am sorry about your wife, but not all union members act like that. I have been to many rallies for AFSCME and people are often loud and boisterous but not violent or intimidating
There are good unions, and there are bad ones.
The citizens of Wisconsin treat our government workers and teachers very well. We do not understand why they felt a need to organize against us.
When the government workers union in Wisconsin staged a recall election of our governor, the private-sector union members did not campaign with them and did not vote with them! They went to the polls as taxpayers who resented the bloated organization and fraud.
We all appreciate the union organizers who fought bravely and heroically to create or modern culture: The 40-hour week, the weekend, the health benefits, the vacation days. But modern unions suffer from the same problem as feminists and other progressives: They don’t know when they are done and won, and it’s time to go home.
“They don’t know when they are done and won, and it’s time to go home” – you can’t know if they know when they are done and won or not. The battles aren’t over.
Smoking bans are a good thing, unless you’re on your own property (with no children in the house, of course), or in an area with a lot of fresh air and ventilation like a parking lot or something (and even then you should be courteous and not smoke close to people). Second hand smoke kills people, smells horrible, and can trigger asthma attacks, among other things. It’s exceedingly selfish to put your vice above other people’s health.
I say this as a smoker. It’s a disgusting, deadly addiction and if I could go back I’d smack my child self for thinking it was a good idea to start lighting up.
It’s never too late to quit, Jack. Jeanne Calment was 117 when she finally managed to kick the habit.
Reality, for once I agree with you.
UNION YES!
“It’s never too late to quit, Jack. Jeanne Calment was 117 when she finally managed to kick the habit.”
So you’re saying he shouldn’t worry about it because he might live until 117 anyway? :)