I said earlier today UCLA pro-lifers would be releasing a blockbuster issue of their student newspaper, The Advocate. Lila Rose just called to say its live, and here 'tis. Click cover, right, to enlarge.

Here's the story:

Over the summer, The Advocate... [had] an actor call [Planned Parenthood] clinics across the country and pose as a donor. The actor... communicated... a very racist agenda, the one Margaret Sanger, PP's founder, envisioned.

He... asked to donate money specifically for the abortions of African-American babies... to "lower the number of blacks in America." Despite his bigoted requests, no PP employee (or director of development, in one case) declined the tainted money.... In fact, some even went as far as agreeing with the antiblack agenda....

PP's 800 clinics receive more than $200 million of taxpayer money annually. It is unacceptable for a nonprofit to accept donations that target specific races....

The Advocate's investigation discovered this is official policy. The calls unearthed a PP program that poses a threat to minority communities. Many centers set up "women in need" or "justice" funds designating money specifically for minority abortions.

With more than 79% of clinics in minority neighborhoods, and more than 1400 black abortions daily, these programs are doing precisely what our actor asked them to do. PP is (intentionally or not) exterminating the black community.

The Advocate is calling on UCLA to sever ties with PP. Here's an excellent video on the sting.

Earlier this month NARAL Pro-Choice Washington breathlessly reported 10% of Washington state pharmacies don't stock or refuse to dispense the morning-after pill, thereby creating a crisis.

It is irrelevant but fun to note that, according to the Abortion in Washington blog, the Washington State Pharmacy Association, although pro-MAP, promptly released a statement that it was "appalled by [NARAL's] sloppy data collection process and inaccurate conclusions... littered with errors, out-of-date information and inaccuracies." These included marking 30 pharmacies as both stocking and not stocking the MAP, etc.

But what could NARAL do about it anyway, even if the number was truly scary, say 12%? In November a district court judge enjoined a new rule that would have forced pharmacists to stock and dispense the MAP, in violation of their 1st Amendment rights.

I said all that to get to this....

Somehow the peeps at AIW got the head of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington, Karen Cooper, to do a triple-gotcha phone interview. Great questions (underlined). Some cuts:

Some have argued that it is hypocritical for an organization calling itself "Pro-Choice Washington" to be actively trying to coerce pharmacists, to take away their freedom to choose.

Ms. Cooper described such views as "ridiculous."

"We don't see that as a contradiction at all. There's no analogy there whatsoever. One is a personal choice, the other is a retail choice."

And...

But what interest does an abortion organization have in reducing the number of unintended pregnancies? Ms. Cooper laughed loudly (and somewhat nervously) at the question.

While hearing the question repeated, Ms. Cooper interrupted after the word 'abortion': "Listen, this isn't an abortion pill, it's a birth control pill," she asserted....

When asked if the medication works sometimes by preventing implantation of a human embryo... Ms. Cooper claimed that "nobody knows'.... "It might work that way," she admitted when pushed.

And...

AIW pressed for... why an abortion group would be so determined to prevent unplanned pregnancies... especially... a group which believes abortion should be legal through all 9 months of pregnancy, by any procedure, for any reason, at any age, without delay, at taxpayers' expense, and without apology.

This was met with a long silence, followed by a nervous confession that "abortion is a very hard thing for women emotionally... a very hard decision."...

After responding to this last question, clearly uncomfortable, she hung up.

[HT: Pharmacists for Life International]

Oh, please.

Pro-abort, pro-gay Drury University professor Teresa Hornsby has been handed a grant by the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion to develop a "historic" college teaching program on abortion "that takes into consideration many different viewpoints."

Hornsby is an expert on the pro-abort viewpoint, that's for sure.

She sits on the board of the Abortion Conversation Project, where they "envision a world in which abortion is affirmed as a moral decision without stigma."...

In 2005 Hornsby was the faculty contact for the talk, "Why abortion rights should be preserved."

In 2007 Hornsby authored the book, Sex Texts from the Bible, about which a reviewer wrote:

The Bible sends no message, or mixed messages, about divorce, adultery, masturbation, abortion, celibacy, sexual abstinence, homosexual relations and even sex with slaves, says Hornsby, who could be described as a moderate-to-liberal Bible scholar....

Abortion? The issue that makes or breaks political elections in dozens of countries? There is no specific word for abortion in the Bible, Hornsby says.

It is equally difficult, she maintains, to determine any clearcut message from the Bible about the touchy subject of birth control....

[T]he first book of Samuel... describes an intimate, loving and sometimes physical relationship between two men, Jonathan and David, the latter of whom became the King of Israel.

Hornsby is listed in the Lesbian and Gay Archives and Libraries Life for the United States as the holder of the Tennessee Lesbian Archive.

When at Vanderbilt Hornsby headed the Department of Religion's Office of Gay, Bisexual and Lesbian Concerns.

Hornsby did say she wants to "invite insiders from both sides of the issue" to her workshops when she develops her curriculum, the one from our side being an official from the local crisis pregnancy care center.

She has got to be kidding. That will be her pro-life apologist? I mean, let's at least feign fairness, Professor. Email me. I'll give you a name or 2.

You may have read a February 23 Associated Press story about Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Missouri's epiphany....

Suddenly late last week PP decided it wanted to cooperate with a grand jury investigation it had stone-walled from the get-go.

Suddenly its attorney said, according to the AP, "We want to turn over the information," that being medical records the grand jury had subpoenaed 6 weeks prior to determine whether PP broke several laws. At that time PP immediately filed a motion to halt the subpoena.

Smell a rat? Here's one: the grand jury's ill-advising special counsel, Larry McClain, who okd terms with PP by which it would honor the subpoena.

And here's another, the Democrat judge overseeing the case, Kevin Moriarty, who asked McClain (who he appointed) to work with PP on a "compromise" on the subpoena dilemma in the 1st place.

Apparently the terms sucked, because DA Phill Kline nixed them. I'd be interested to laugh at those terms.

In the real legal world, when a grand jury issues subpoenas the entity being investigated either complies or gets thrown in the slammer and its records seized.

In the real world, there are ways to determine if laws are broken.

There are laws in KS against aborting late-term mothers not in the throes of death, against not reporting child rape, against selling aborted baby parts, against falsifying records, against aborting minors without parents knowing, and against ignoring the 24-hour waiting period.

But abortion brings with it super duper legal exceptions. There is no right to investigate higher than the right to abort. An abortionist has the right to break the law if s/he’s committing an abortion, as does the mother. The abortionist's attorney has the right to agree to terms of the abortionist's subpoena if anyone dares to snoop.

Predictions

Prediction #1: The 90-day KS grand jury investigating for illegal activity will expire March 9 having gotten nowhere because PP simply refused to cooperate. That's the plan, to beat off the clock.

Prediction #2: Moriarty will not extend the grand jury's time.

Prediction #3: PP will issue a statement that it has been exonerated.

[HT: American Papist]

On the heels of its victory over YouTube censorship, American Life League today released a new video, "Planned Parenthood kills for profit." PP has energized its streamlined enterprise to become a more lean, mean, killing machine.

A month ago I posted American Life League's new video, which it had posted on YouTube, spotlighting Planned Parenthood's new "Mile High" ad as well as other PP best of's.

On February 11, ALL got notice YouTube had yanked its video for its "inappropriate nature."

But get this. YouTube did not yank PP's original "Mile High" ad.

Now, thanks to the pro-life community's outrage about YouTube's obvious viewpoint discrimination, it reinstated ALL's video yesterday, apologizing in an email there had been a "technical malfunction."

Not true. YouTube's guidelines state, "If we remove your video after reviewing it, you can assume that we removed it purposefully, and you should take our warning notification seriously."

So YouTube was unfairly censoring and just got caught.

And now, back by demands for fairness, ALL's Planned Parenthood Sells Sex video:

Whoops.

Yesterday was supposed to celebrate V-Day, devised 10 years ago by activist Eve Ensler to combat violence against women.

In that decade V-Day has raised over $50 million, according to Fundraising Success magazine, largely by allowing groups to produce Ensler's play, The Vagina Monologues, as a benefit. Groups must apply, and V-Day must approve donation plans as well as receive 10% of proceeds.

Sometimes star power helps sell VM tickets. Enter Jane Fonda, who has performed the play and yesterday appeared with Ensler on The Today Show to promote V-Day.

The ever judgment-challenged Fonda decided to utter a word on morning network television from the VM that will never be ready for prime time and is, in fact, the most despicably sexist word in the English language: the c-word....

They say any publicity is good publicity, and it may be Ensler and Fonda are giggling between themselves today about all the adverse attention Fonda brought V-Day, although in actuality Fonda's indiscretion overshadowed it. This will inspire liberals, though, who will certain rally and produce VM with even wilder abandon.

BTW, some of V-Day's goals are laudable. It fights rape, incest, female genital mutliation, and sex slavery around the world.

But Ensler is an outspoken pro-abort, and one of VM's producers and V-Day supporters is Planned Parenthood.

It is simply illogical to decry violence against women while promoting abortion, of which well over half its victims are female.

See Jane run (her mouth off) here.

[Photo courtesy of Fundaising Success magazine]

by Mary Kay Hastings

Last month the City of Aurora dismissed motions pro-life attorneys filed to reverse permit decisions allowing Planned Parenthood to build.

Now, pro-life advocates have filed suit against officials for the City's inexplicable contention that PP's permit approvals did not violate City zoning rules.

The plaintiffs, including residents and Fox Valley Families Against Planned Parenthood, say the clinic misrepresented itself to the city and to the public, using a fictitious name, the Gemini Office Development corporation, to hide behind during the zoning approval process....

Because of this, neighbors and residents were denied the right to oppose the abortion mill.

The lawsuit seeks to revoke the clinic's occupancy permit.

Says Tom Brechja, lead pro-life attorney at the Thomas More Society:

By concealing the true planned use of the property, Planned Parenthood evaded the process that would have provided local residents and city officials with the opportunity to question how their neighborhood and community would be changed.

Democracy can't work for people if they are denied an opportunity to impact even their own neighborhoods, he added. It simply isn’t fair to allow any entity, including Planned Parenthood, to operate outside the law .

by Jill Stanek

Planned Parenthood Chicago Area recently announced it closed its Naperville PP Express due to the opening of its nearby mega-abortion mill in Aurora.

And IL Family Institute linked to a January 1 State Journal-Register article reporting the PP family planning clinic in Logan, IL, has closed due to "flat" government funding of many years.

Citizen reported yesterday PP also "recently closed four sites in Michigan and merged several in Ohio."

Shortage of funding is a ruse, since PP is almost a $1 billion annual operation with $400 MILLION sitting in the bank, according to Life Decisions International.

PP has also increased its market share of abortions from 5% to 20% over the last decade, reported of IL Right to Life, incidentally made easier by the fact it gets government funding so it can undercut the competition.

I have previously reported it appears PP launched a new marketing plan in the early 2000's to increase its share even more. Part of that plan is obviously to create new regional box stores, such as Aurora (22k sq ft) and Denver (50k sq ft). Graphic design of the latter mill below (sans security fence) is courtesy of PP Rocky Mountains:

This all leads to some great questions posed by reader Eileen in an email, which I'll paraphrase.

Why is PP merging and building bigger regional box mills? If they complain about the shortage of abortion clinics around the country, and that close access is imperative to garnering abortions, what is the benefit to women by merging and building bigger? Wouldn't they want to market smaller stores in more places?

by Jill Stanek

Americans held thousands of Super Bowl parties last Sunday to watch the New York Giants spoil the New England Patriots' perfect record.

But I'll bet none were quite like this one.

Fifty pro-life activists enjoyed the Super Bowl while picketing in front of the home of Lakewood, CO, resident Gary Meggison, senior executive of The Weitz Company, general contractor of Planned Parenthood's new Denver mega-mill....

Weitz was just given "permanent collaborator status" by activists when it refused to pull from the project by January 31. This means Weitz executives can anticipate being picketed as long as the PP Denver chop shop operates.

Reported activist Leslie Hanks of Sunday's block party in an email:

The time of food, fun and fellowship was topped off with excellent hot dogs, brats and even buffalo dogs. One pro-lifer, Grandma Connie, brought spinach stromboli and eggplant parmesan. The pro-lifers considered this one of the best Super Bowl parties they have ever attended....

These tenacious pro-life activists plan to expand their pickets to Weitz customers. Reported Rocky Mountain News on February 4:

The group has plans to protest at the grand opening of Hermes, a French fashion house and Weitz Company client, which will open its first Colorado store in the retail component of the new NorthCreek development in Denver's Cherry Creek North shopping district.

Certainly, picketing homes and businesses of abortion participants is disturbing. This is exactly the goal, wrote Leslie: to "increas[e] the social tension that has all but disappeared in this country, despite the slaughter of thousands of innocent babies each day." In fact, the group's motto is, "No child killing in tranquility!"

And don't forget, picketing is the American way. Continued the RMN:

The residential picketing performed by the group has caused considerable controversy and has led several city councils in the Denver Metro area to consider ordinances which would place limitations on the picketers. In general, they would like the residential picketing problem to go away, but they are unwilling to go with an all out ban due to first amendment rights issues and the potential for a long drawn out and expensive battle supporting such a ban.

Gary Meggison... attended a Lakewood City Council meeting recently and requested them to pass an ordinance to eliminate the residential picketers. So far, there is no action planned by the council.

[Top photo courtesy of Leslie Hanks; 3-photo montage courtesy of Rocky Mountain News]

This sad story is all over the British press.

It appears the Muslim family of 22-year-old Sabia Walla forced her to get a late-term abortion in Pakistan at 5 months gestation after learning she was pregnant by British national Usman Gulzar, 24 and pictured right, who she married in secret on December 27 in Scotland, where both families live.

Walla died January 23 following a botched abortion. She was apparently pregnant when married.

Here's a story snip, from The Daily Record, January 30:

Usman Gulzar was last night dealing with the shocking revelation that his pregnant wife died after a botched abortion....

As revealed in the Record yesterday, Sobia's death came just weeks after the Glasgow couple married in secret, infuriating her family.

Now it has emerged that 22-year-old Sobia, who was nearly five months pregnant, died in agony after the operation at a hospital in Gujranwala, near the Pakistani city of Lahore.

Sobia went to Gujranwala's Najma Zia clinic for the abortion but suffered complications.

She was then transferred to the bigger private Surgimed Hospital, in Lahore, where she died of massive bleeding.

Usman, 24, called in police after refusing to accept Sobia had died from food poisoning while attending a family funeral in Pakistan....

The Record revealed yesterday how Sobia had been afraid to tell her parents of her pregnancy and subsequent secret marriage...

Sobia's parents, Mohammad and Safia Wali, have said they do not want a police investigation.

But detectives are expected to interview them and her [four] brothers... on their return from Pakistan.

Kansas law only allows abortions after 22 weeks if two physicians who are not legally or financially affiliated agree "a continuation of the patient's pregnancy would cause a substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function." That's it.

If you haven't been following the story, a grand jury investigating George Tiller's late-term abortions has issued 2 subpoenas: One, for all abortions Tiller committed after 21 weeks from July 1, 2003, to January 18, 2008; and one for all patients post-21 weeks who did not get one. The jury has specified that all identifiers be removed.

Tiller attorneys say this amounts to 2,000 records, and they filed a motion yesterday to block the subpoenas.

Troy Newman of Operation Rescue testified before the grand jury the week before they issued the subpoenas, providing 200 pages of evidence, including photos of obviously late-term mothers entering Tiller's mill, below. My guess is many of these moms were carrying babies who were diagnosed, in their 2nd trimester, with handicaps.

To this day, Tiller advertises late term abortions for fetal handicaps, which is not an accepted exemption by KS law.

The first photo is of a non-aborting 22-week pregnant mom, to provide context.

See more photos on page 2.

The photos make me sick. How could they?

In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, two people pass by a man on the side of the road who has been robbed, beaten, and left for dead. But a noble 3rd passerby sees that the beaten man has a child and stops to kill the child to spare the man more angst.

Wait. That's not what happened.

No, the 3rd person spots the beaten man, roughs him up for more money, and then kills the child.

Yes, that's it.

That is actually the Parable of the Good Abortionist, as told by abortionist Willie Parker at the Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health website....

Ultimately, the parable of the Good Samaritan persuaded Dr. Parker that he had to offer abortion services to the women he treats. The story of an injured traveler being ignored by passersby resonated with Dr. Parker, who once worked in a hospital that did not allow abortions. "The Good Samaritan was the one person who didn't think about himself," he says. "Instead, he asked what would happen to the injured traveler if he didn't help."

In the real parable, the Good Samaritan bandages the injured person's wounds, provides transportation, pays for his lodging, and offers to provide additional financial support if needed.

This is the sort of help pro-lifers -- not pro-aborts -- provide to pregnant mothers and their preborn children in crisis. Plus we'll pay for physician care, maternal and baby clothing, diapers, furniture, child care education, etc., etc., etc.

Actually, pro-aborts invert the parable. They won't lift a finger unless given cold hard cash, or a credit card not over the limit. No checks, please.

And then the finger they'll lift holds a knife.

[HT: Arlene]

My, it was only yesterday that I posted NARAL prez Nancy Keenan's plead for factions within the abortion cabal to stop verbally aborting one another.

Now comes this whopper of a rant, verging on hysterical, which doesn't bode well for the group that tries so hard to be men, NOW.

And, strange that NOW expresses surprise at Kennedy's abandonment of women. Leaving them to drown must not meet NOW's criteria.

This really is a remarkable display of total loss of control, and Keenan saw it coming. Liberals, who always try so hard to put on a unified face, are fracturing. Click to enlarge:

[HT: Nathan Sheets]

Within one day, the smart collegians at Yale Daily News last week yanked a garish article on a commemoration of the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade by the Reproductive Rights Action League at Yale and Yale Medical Students for Choice.

Ah, but through the wonders of caching, the piece is still available in all its tawdry glory:

Students who walked into WLH 119 on Tuesday night were greeted with models of the female pelvis complete with fallopian tubes, cervixes, vaginas - and papayas on which to perform mock abortions....

[RALY and YMSC] demonstrated different abortion methods and techniques, answered questions students had about the procedures and encouraged... the assembled crowd of about 15 students... to be active in abortion-rights groups....

The presenters began by showing the students different surgical tools used during different stages of a pregnancy....

[Merritt] Evans [MED '09] and Rasha Khoury MED '08, another member of YMSC, who said she... expects to perform abortions, went on to describe one of the most common abortion procedures, manual vacuum aspiration, which "creates suction to evacuate pregnancy," Evans said. The technique is a good option because the device involved is reusable and relatively cheap, she said.

"It's not as scary as it seems. It's just blood and mucus," Khoury said, referring to the fetus remains in the device. She added, "You'll be able to see arms and stuff, but still just minuscule."

Evans and Khoury also explained the finer points of abortion-clinic etiquette, including some potentially sensitive terminology. Khoury said physicians performing abortions generally refer to the aborted fetus remains as "POC," an acronym for "product of conception," and refer to fetus' hearts as "FH."

The most complicated part of the procedure can be the emotional fallout some patients experience, she said.

"Often times, women are crying and cursing and saying they’re going to hell," Khoury said. "It may be a quick and easy medical procedure, but it definitely is a very involved social-medical procedure."

The presenters also urged the crowd to... join[ ] Reproductive Health Externships, a campaign in which volunteers are taught how to conduct abortions.

"It's fun because you meet people from all over the country who do them," Khoury said. "It's pretty inspiring."...

To see whether your neighborhood POC removal mill is staffed by students, view the inspiring list of participating externship clinics here.

Thanks to all the pro-life bloggers who "dangerously misinterpreted" Khoury, according to YDN, not only was the aforementioned article yanked, but she was forced on January 24 to try to sanitize it.

Incidentally, Khoury is an anti-Semitic member of the Arab Students' Assocation who said she "look[s] forward to returning to Palestine after many years at Yale."

Good riddance.

[HT: proofreader Angela]

Yesterday, I spotlighted 1 of 2 pro-life ads sponsored by the Second Look Project running on radio stations in liberal cities including the worst, San Francisco.

Dawn Eden of Dawn Patrol just sent me this email alert from Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, trying to censor the ads (click to enlarge):

Interestingly, when I clicked on PP's link that it said would disprove the radio ad, I got this:

Perhaps PP will fix that link soon.

The ads have always been scheduled to run through today, January 26. I would not be surprised if PP claims censorship victory when the ads coincidentally end 2 days after PP sent its alert.

Meanwhile, here are the facts, including docket and page numbers, sourced by Focus on the Family:

I've included the facts in written form below, so you can cut and paste them into an email to KFRC and KCBS, thanking them for airing the truth.

Under Roe, the Supreme Court gave free reign for abortion in the first trimester, but seemed to rule that abortion could be restricted significantly or prohibited in the second and third trimesters. However, the court said that later regulations must allow for abortions needed to protect the woman's health. Roe's companion case, Doe v. Bolton (issued on the same day as Roe) defined maternal "health" as: "all factors - physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman's age - relevant to the well-being of the patient." These factors are so vague and open-ended that almost any reason can be and is cited to allow abortion in the second and third trimesters.

(SOURCE: Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 164 (1973); Roe, 410 U.S. at 164; Roe, 410 U.S. at 164-5; Doe v. Bolton, 41 U.S. 179, 192 (1973).

These freaky videos were taken in front of a Vienna, Austria, abortion mill owned by inaptly named abortionist Christian Fiala. He pays "escorts" to taunt pro-lifers from Human Life International praying in front of his mill.

Each video is described in English and is between 4-4:30 minutes long. (See 2nd video on page 2.)

WorldNetDaily.com picked up the story yesterday:

A new video posted by the Catholic-based Gloria TV has documented the "demonic" behavior of pro-abortion activists who grunt, bark and shriek in the faces of pro-life prayer warriors in Vienna....

The video...shows animalistic behavior, with growling, name-calling, barking, groaning, screaming and uncontrolled laughing and giggling sounds.

Father Markus Doppelbauer, who contributes to the editing of the website, told WND that abortion remains a flashpoint topic in Austria.

"Part of the socialist strategy is to systematically denigrate the pro-lifers," he said. "The socialists love to accuse them in public statements of 'psycho-terror' and other atrocities."...

"This video is, at the same time, shocking and frightening. It shows to what extent a human being who does not respect each person's right to live can degenerate," Doppelbauer said.

These people do seem possessed, which would absolutely come as no surprise.

WND continued:

An earlier video by Gloria TV also revealed the sexual and physical assaults inflicted on prayer warriors by Fiala's staff on the public streets in front of the abortion business, the organization said.

I was shocked by the graphic sexual intrusions....

[HT: Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth]

From the Los Angeles Times, January 22, a fairly candid op ed by Frances Kissling (pictured 1st), former president of Catholics for a Free Choice, and Kate Michelman (pictured 2nd), former president of NARAL. Am posting excerpts here. Read entire piece on page 2.

Abortion's battle of messages
It's not 1973. Pro-choice forces must adjust to regain the moral high ground.

... Since Roe, U.S. public opinion has been relatively stable and favorable to legal abortion. Early efforts to overturn Roe failed miserably. Given this reality, the anti-choice movement changed tactics. It no longer focused primarily on banning abortions but concentrated on restricting the circumstances under which abortion would be available. It succeeded in shifting public attention from broad support for legal abortion to strong support for restricting access. Twenty years ago, being pro-life was déclassé. Now it is a respectable point of view.

How did this happen? Did the pro-choice movement fail? Or did those opposed to abortion simply respond more effectively to the changing science as well as the social shift from the rights rage of the '60s to the responsibility culture of the '90s?

In the 1970s, the arguments were simple and polarized: Abortion was either murder or a woman's right to control her body. The fetus, however, stayed largely invisible. The pro-choice movement stayed on the message offensive, tactically shifting in 1989 from women's bodies to the "who decides" question posed by NARAL.... But this was rapidly parried by the anti-choice demand that we look at what was being decided, not just who was deciding....

Science facilitated the swing of the pendulum. Three-dimensional ultrasound images of babies in utero began to grace the family fridge. Fetuses underwent surgery. More premature babies survived and were healthier. They commanded our attention, and the question of what we owe them, if anything, could not be dismissed.

These trends gave antiabortionists an advantage, and they made the best of it. Now, we rarely hear them talk about murdering babies. Instead, they present a sophisticated philosophical and political challenge. Caring societies, they say, seek to expand inclusion into "the human community." Those once excluded, such as women and minorities, are now equal. Why not welcome the fetus (who, after all, is us) into our community?

Advocates of choice have had a hard time dealing with the increased visibility of the fetus. The preferred strategy is still to ignore it and try to shift the conversation back to women. At times, this makes us appear insensitive, a bit too pragmatic in a world where the desire to live more communitarian and "life-affirming" lives is palpable. To some people, pro-choice values seem to have been unaffected by the desire to save the whales and the trees, to respect animal life and to end violence at all levels. Pope John Paul II got that, and coined the term "culture of life." President Bush adopted it, and the slogan, as much as it pains us to admit it, moved some hearts and minds. Supporting abortion is tough to fit into this package.

... The specter of women forced into back alleys as a result of a one-time "mistake" has been replaced with hard questions about why women get pregnant when they don't want to have babies.

In recent years, the antiabortion movement successfully put the nitty-gritty details of abortion procedures on public display, increasing the belief that abortion is serious business and that some societal involvement is appropriate. Those who are pro-choice have not convinced America that we support a public discussion of the moral dimensions of abortion. Likewise, we haven't convinced people that we are the ones actually doing things to make it possible for women to avoid needing abortions....

It is inadequate to try to message our way out of this problem. Our vigorous defense of the right to choose needs to be accompanied by greater openness regarding the real conflict between life and choice, between rights and responsibility. It is time for a serious reassessment of how to think about abortion in a world that is radically changed from 1973.

The question is, how do those promoting and making money off abortion admit it is morally problematic? How do they admit products of conception may indeed be babies, but mothers should still chop them up and suction their brains out if inconvient? They can't.

This column admits that ultrasounds work, graphic pictures work, stories of saving premature babies work, that today's society is more responsible than the '60s free lover society.

Kissling and Michelman were not entirely honest, however. The pro-abortion side has attempted a new tactic, to focus on contraception. Their complaints that abortion rights may be taken away at any minute are now accompanied by complaints of same for contraceptives. At first I thought this tactic might be difficult to combat. But so far, no. Kissling and Michelman admit this message has failed. The American public likely considers it typical hysteria, another real problem for pro-aborts.

[HT: moderator Valerie]

Op ed in entirety....

Abortion's battle of messages
It's not 1973. Pro-choice forces must adjust to regain the moral high ground.
By Frances Kissling and Kate Michelman
January 22, 2008

Thirty-five years ago, the Supreme Court affirmed in Roe vs. Wade that women have a fundamental right to choose abortion without government interference. Now, on this anniversary of that landmark decision, the United States has some of the most restrictive policies on abortion in the developed world. In contrast to Europe, the U.S. forbids the use of federal funds for abortions, and the Supreme Court has upheld state laws that require parental consent or notification, mandatory waiting periods and antiabortion counseling. The court's 2007 decision on so-called partial-birth abortions was an unprecedented infringement on physician autonomy.

Since Roe, U.S. public opinion has been relatively stable and favorable to legal abortion. Early efforts to overturn Roe failed miserably. Given this reality, the anti-choice movement changed tactics. It no longer focused primarily on banning abortions but concentrated on restricting the circumstances under which abortion would be available. It succeeded in shifting public attention from broad support for legal abortion to strong support for restricting access. Twenty years ago, being pro-life was déclassé. Now it is a respectable point of view.

How did this happen? Did the pro-choice movement fail? Or did those opposed to abortion simply respond more effectively to the changing science as well as the social shift from the rights rage of the '60s to the responsibility culture of the '90s?

In the 1970s, the arguments were simple and polarized: Abortion was either murder or a woman's right to control her body. The fetus, however, stayed largely invisible. The pro-choice movement stayed on the message offensive, tactically shifting in 1989 from women's bodies to the "who decides" question posed by NARAL Pro-Choice America. But this was rapidly parried by the anti-choice demand that we look at what was being decided, not just who was deciding.

Science facilitated the swing of the pendulum. Three-dimensional ultrasound images of babies in utero began to grace the family fridge. Fetuses underwent surgery. More premature babies survived and were healthier. They commanded our attention, and the question of what we owe them, if anything, could not be dismissed.

These trends gave antiabortionists an advantage, and they made the best of it. Now, we rarely hear them talk about murdering babies. Instead, they present a sophisticated philosophical and political challenge. Caring societies, they say, seek to expand inclusion into "the human community." Those once excluded, such as women and minorities, are now equal. Why not welcome the fetus (who, after all, is us) into our community?

Advocates of choice have had a hard time dealing with the increased visibility of the fetus. The preferred strategy is still to ignore it and try to shift the conversation back to women. At times, this makes us appear insensitive, a bit too pragmatic in a world where the desire to live more communitarian and "life-affirming" lives is palpable. To some people, pro-choice values seem to have been unaffected by the desire to save the whales and the trees, to respect animal life and to end violence at all levels. Pope John Paul II got that, and coined the term "culture of life." President Bush adopted it, and the slogan, as much as it pains us to admit it, moved some hearts and minds. Supporting abortion is tough to fit into this package.

At the same time, women and their decisions have come under ever more powerful microscopes. The specter of women forced into back alleys as a result of a one-time "mistake" has been replaced with hard questions about why women get pregnant when they don't want to have babies.

In recent years, the antiabortion movement successfully put the nitty-gritty details of abortion procedures on public display, increasing the belief that abortion is serious business and that some societal involvement is appropriate. Those who are pro-choice have not convinced America that we support a public discussion of the moral dimensions of abortion. Likewise, we haven't convinced people that we are the ones actually doing things to make it possible for women to avoid needing abortions.

Let's face it: Disapproval of women's sexuality is a historical constant. So our claim that women can be trusted still falls on deaf ears. And when the choice movement seems to defend every individual abortion decision, rather than the right to make the decision, it too becomes suspect.

If pro-choice values are to regain the moral high ground, genuine discussion about these challenges needs to take place within the movement. It is inadequate to try to message our way out of this problem. Our vigorous defense of the right to choose needs to be accompanied by greater openness regarding the real conflict between life and choice, between rights and responsibility. It is time for a serious reassessment of how to think about abortion in a world that is radically changed from 1973.

Frances Kissling, a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, is the former president of Catholics for a Free Choice. Kate Michelman is the former president of NARAL Pro-Choice America and the author of "Protecting the Right to Choose

I reported earlier in the week I was skeptical of The Guttmacher Institute's most recent report indicating that by 2005 abortion had dropped 25% from its all time high of 1.6 million in 1990 to 1.2 million. Guttmacher, after all, is the research arm of the head of the abortion cabal, Planned Parenthood. Why no one in the MSM was skeptical comes as no surprise.

Now Guttmacher has been found way off its numbers in at least 1 state, Illinois. Kudos to Bill Beckman of IL Right to Life for uncovering this. According to the Chicago Tribune, January 17:

Rachel Jones, lead author of the report, noted that abortion rates can differ... from one part of the country to another. "Some states, such as Connecticut, had increases in the abortion rate," Jones said. "But Illinois had a larger-than-average decline -- the rate came down 19% from 2000 to 2005."

Beckman responded in a Trib letter to the editor, published January 18:

... I did not recall such a drop being consistent with the data published by Illinois Dept of Public Health. I checked the IDPH Web site. [See stats right; click to enlarge]....

Abortions in 2000 were 45,884 and in 2005 43,409. That change is only a 5.4% drop, far lower than the stated 19% drop. In my mind, this raises questions about what data is being used in the Guttmacher Institute report... and what level of reliability it should be given. If such inconsistencies exist for Illinois, what about the data for other states?

To further emphasize my point, IDPH data for 2006 shows 46,467 abortions in Illinois, higher than the total for 2000, so no decrease at all.

Why would Guttmacher lie? Lots of reasons....

One, to improve the industry's image as being anti-abortion and pro-prevention, like the tobacco industry and its lame anti-smoking campaigns.

Two, to create false studies showing that states with pro-life laws do not have lower abortion rates than states without. IL, for instance, has no pro-life laws whatsoever. No clinic regulations. No Women's Right to Know. Its parental notification law has been tied up in the courts for 12 years.

Another possibility would be to create false studies showing states with more abstinence education have higher pregnancy rates than states with more comprehensive sex ed.

Etc., etc., etc. We'll see what they do with this. They've already succeeded in comforting liberals and perhaps lulling certain pro-lifers into complacency.

It was so easy to prove Guttmacher wrong. What bold-faced liars. Its IL numbers are wildly off compared to legitimate stats accessible on the Internet. Where is MSM?

Planned Parenthood Mohawk Hudson announced the blessing of its new 18k sq. ft. building, which includes a "surgical wing," by press release, "On Sacred Ground - Blessing of the Building by Schenectady Clergy," according to the Times Union blog.

Someone snapped a couple of photos of the clergy, although, I didn't think images of these people showed up on pictures. Maybe I'm thinking of vampires.

A vampire blessing would have been more fitting, but they don't come out during the day, even one as tempting as the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, January 22, when this blessing was held.

Speaking of which, the Times Union eeked a 438 word article on the March for Life, with crowd estimates anywhere from 100-250k, while lavishing 804 words to the PP blessing with "about three dozen" attendees. Plus that 127 word blog announcement. But I'm just getting picky. Back to the blessing. Quoting the TU:

[T]he Rev. Larry Phillips of Schenectady's Emmanuel-Friedens Church declared the ground "sacred and holy ... where women's voices and stories are welcomed, valued and affirmed; sacred ground where women are treated with dignity, supported in their role as moral decision-makers ... sacred ground where the violent voices of hatred and oppression are quelled."...

The Rev. Abby Norton-Levering... [said], "We pray that you will make this a place of safety and give a sense of sanctuary."...

The Rev. Bill Levering, senior pastor of First Reformed Church of Schenectady, said the right to privacy is endowed by God....

"Even God respects the right of privacy. We make women into children when we say they cannot control their own bodies," Levering said.

Phillips led everyone outside where they laid their hands on the brick and limestone as the minister declared, "This is sacred ground."

"We make women into children when we say they cannot control their own bodies"? What?

[HT: Dawn Patrol]

A 54-minute documentary called Killing Girls is supposed to be in production now for release in 2008. (I wrote the director, David Kinsella, for more info but have not yet received a response.)

The film is about a Russion late term abortion "department" for teens who abort up to 8 months gestation. Abortion is epidemic in Russia, where they say mothers have 2-10 each, despite the availability of contraceptives.

I watched the trailer a few days ago on YouTube and remain distressed about these killing girls.

Last week it was Vogue showing us partial birth abortion chic with a photo of a post-pba mother modeling the latest in fashion smiling at her wanted live child.

This week it's Planned Parenthood of Hawaii's tacky "Choice is fashionable" fundraiser (click to enlarge):

If "choice" is indeed fashionable, they've chosen the wrong "haute" color.

Should be red.

[HT: Rock for Life]

Last week, someone forwarded me a LifeSiteNews.com article listing Life Decisions International's updated partial boycott list of businesses and non-profit organizations that donate or are affiliated with Planned Parenthood.

I spotted two companies our family does business with: Carlson Travel Agencies and Wachovia.

In fact, we were in the process of planning a vacation through Carlson, and I called my agent and said the deal was off if Carlson did not refute. I told the same to our Wachovia rep. Neither was happy about news of the possible PP connection, and both immediately checked into it.

Carlson's corporate response came the next day....

We have just become aware that Life Decisions International has erroneously included Carlson on "The Boycott List" for 2008. It is my understanding that Carlson has not supported Planned Parenthood in any way in 2007. Prior to that time, small amounts had been contributed as directed by employees participating in the company's matching plan program. Our parent company is in the process of notifying the organization so they may correct their information.

As someone who cares deeply for children, you may be interested in knowing that....

And the letter went on to describe kid-friendly organizations that Carlson had donated to and received awards from.

My Wachovia rep forwarded me an October 22, 2007, Weekly Standard expose on PP's "unseemly empire" that included this:

[I]n the case of Wachovia, the donations in question had consisted of nugatory sums of a few hundred dollars given by a few distant local branches.

A relevant section of the WS article grabbed my attention:

[O]ne might wonder why corporations that generally shy away from controversial causes and activities continue to donate to the organization. The answer is that, in increasing numbers, they don't, or at least they say they don't....

Research for this story included contacting by telephone or email a cross-section of those Life Decisions-listed megacorporations... expecting to hear, for example, praise for PP's teen-pregnancy prevention programs offered as justification for the corporate gifts.

Instead....the uniform responses of the public-relations offices at the firms were either categorical denial or explanations....

Indeed, there is some evidence that the $212.2 million in private contributions reported by PP for its 2005-06 fiscal year might be an exaggeration. For fiscal 2004-05, PP reported $215.8 million in income from private donations and bequests.

That same year, about $61.8 million in "private support" to PP was calculated by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, on the basis of information supplied by PP to the IRS.

Asked what could account for such a large discrepancy, Noelle Barton, a Chronicle editor... said, "They could be counting income from investing previous donations." PP's balance sheet contains no separate entry for investment income....

I was reminded of investments I spotted when viewing PP Chicago Area's tax returns for another post, so I checked PP Federation's and saw it had over $40 million in investments (click to enlarge):

Two points to take away. PP is likely hiding its shrinking donation base by adding in investment income.

And since when do non-profits have over $40 million to invest?

And that was just the nonmother ship. According to Guidestar.com, which posts tax returns of non-profits, 272 PP's across the country filed returns last year.

Below see a partial listing of companies LDI says contribute to PP. To order a complete list, go to LDI's website.

Adobe (software)

AlphaGraphics

Bank of America

Basics Office Products

BBJ Linen (home products)

Carlson Companies (travel agencies)

CCA Global (Carpet One, Flooring America, Flooring Canada, Flooring One, Lighting One, etc.)

Chevron (fuel/energy; Xpress Lube, Texaco)

CIGNA (insurance)

Comcast (cable television, Internet, etc.)

Country Inns & Suites

Dallas Cowboys

DuPont (chemicals)

eBay (online marketplace; PayPal)

FastSigns (graphics/printing)

Four Seasons Hotels (Regent Hotels)

GlaxoSmithKline (over-the-counter medication, prescription drugs, etc.)

InterContinental Hotels (Candlewood, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Indigo, InterContinental, and Staybridge)

Johnson & Johnson

Lost Arrow (Patagonia, etc.)

Marriott (Courtyard Hotels, Fairfield Inn, Grand Residences, Horizons Hotels, JW Marriott Hotels, Renaissance Hotels & Inns, Ritz-Carlton Hotels, SpringHill Suites, TownePlace Suites)

Midas (motor vehicle care)

Nationwide (insurance)

Nike (shoes/apparel, etc.)

OSI Restaurant Partners (Outback Steakhouse, etc.)

Paul Ecke Ranch (poinsettias)

Park Inn (hotel)

Park Plaza (hotel)

Pick Up Stix (restaurant)

Radisson (hotel)

Regent (hotel)

Sears (Kmart)

Sonic (drive-in restaurants)

T.G.I. Friday's (restaurant)

Time Warner (Cinemax, HBO, AOL, etc.)

Wachovia (finance)

Walt Disney

Wells Fargo

Whole Foods Market

Charitable organizations associated with Planned Parenthood:

Audubon Society

Alzheimer's Association

American Association of Retired Persons

American Automobile Association (AAA)

American Cancer Society

American Diabetes Association

Amnesty International

Camp Fire Girls

Council of Churches (including Church World Service, and CROP Hunger Walks)

Doctors Without Borders

Dr. Phil Foundation

Girl Scouts

Glaucoma Research Foundation

Human Rights Watch

Juvenile Diabetes Foundation

Kaiser Permanente

Kiwanis Club

Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Lion's Club

March of Dimes

Muscular Dystrophy Association

National Education Association

National Multiple Sclerosis Society

Outward Bound West

Rotary International

Save the Children

Sierra Club

Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation

Young Womens Christian Association (YWCA)

We the taxpayers do. American Life League has just posted its latest video report spotlighting Planned Parenthood's new "Mile High" ad as well as favorite moments from other PP ads. Who could forget, for instance, the PP superhero who blasted pro-lifers to smithereens with a gun loaded with condoms?

ALL makes the connection between selling sex, selling contraceptives, and selling abortion. Of course.

In ALL's release announcing its latest video it noted that PP is starting to take notice of its ads in blogs and podcasts. Kudos!

I'm flattered. The Truth About Margaret Sanger blog is calling Day Gardner and me "the other Obama girls." Day is president of the National Black Pro-Life Union and also has had plenty to say about Obama's radical pro-abortion position.

But Obama girls like us won't be sending him any valentines this year. Not to worry, Obama's girls at Planned Parenthood are sending him plenty of love. This will be tricky since they're all heartless.

Obama loves PP, too. Actually, they prostitute one another. PP helps elect Obama so he can turn around and appropriate tax money to it. He's trying to legislate PP an abortuary load of cash at the moment. PP explains why in its Obama love note....

tax $$ for PP's "comprehensive" sex ed classes - ✓
tax $$ for contraceptives and the morning-after pill - ✓
tax $$ for other PP "services" like examinations, pregnancy and STD testing - ✓

Basically, the PFA will give PP tax $$ for every service and product it sells except candles and abortion.

And this $$ isn't for poor women. It's for women who make too much $$ to qualify for any other assistance. Middle class socialized reproductive health care.

Ah, love $$ is in the air. So, happy VD! Whoops, VD is also short for Venereal Disease, which we now know as Sexually Transmitted Disease, or STD. Yeah, I guess that works.

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains is now advertising its new mega-abortion mill, currently under construction (click to enlarge):

Two probs with the ad....

The first is with the prominently presented pregnant mother who could not have worn any flashier clothes, and just in case the viewer thinks she's just fat, she's in pat-baby-with-hand position.

The thing is, PP doesn't offer prenatal care. It wouldn't know what to do with a live preborn baby other than kill it. It refers out if the mother doesn't want to do that.

The second problem is with one of its primary services PP has conveniently omitted from advertising. After all, PP is the largest a-word provider in the U.S. Not proud?

[HT: Will Duffy]

Bill and Hillary Clinton recently complained the press has not scrutinized Barack Obama's "poetry" and "fairy tales."

Yesterday, several political pundits anticipated that any day now the MSM will begin knocking Obama off the pedestal upon which they have placed him, particularly in light of the Clintons' criticism and the embarrassment of their pollsters getting the NH primary so wrong.

That day has arrived. Finally.

From ABC News today, titled, "The abortion vote the GOP is planning to use to bring down Obama"...

.... Republican operatives have been examining Obama's record in Springfield, Illinois, and think they have caught Obama voting the wrong side of an abortion bill that will turn off the public "like partial birth abortion cubed," in the words of one GOP operative.

The bill would have required medical care for babies born alive during unsuccessful abortions - an issue no Democrat trying to win over independents and Republicans would want to spend any time discussing.

The Republican party, of course, plans on attacking whoever wins the Democratic nomination.... Whoever wins will be painted as too liberal for America.

But Obama's abortion vote, the GOP hopes, may prove to be the sort that Clinton alludes to when she suggests he has not been vetted, his having been blessed by the Gods of Fate during his 2004 US Senate campaign....

Republicans suspect Americans will find the vote indicative of out-of-the-mainstream liberal views.....

MK and Sara emailed me a link to this ad last week, and I just didn't see anything new to get worked up about. I think I'm jaded. But pro-life news orgs and friends have been spotlighting it, so I'll join the gang:

The only part of the ad I think worth noting is Planned Parenthood's flagrant stereotyping of homosexuals. Were our side to make a comedic ad featuring a flaming lispy gay with bent wrists, the movement would beat us with rainbow flags.

But the homosexual and abortion movements are best buds, as I often say, so they laugh and work together. They both have the same goal: illicit sex with no consequences.

Perhaps you see something else in the ad to discuss...

Is this Planned Parenthood promoting Natural Family Planning? Not quite, but close.

Cyclebeads are based on the new Standard Days Method developed in 1998 by the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University.

The diff?...

NFP relies on a woman charting her waking temperature, cervical mucus secretions, and cervical changes to determine those days of the month when she is fertile. Properly used, it is over 99% effective in avoiding pregnancy.

SDM, over 95% effective when properly used, is based on computer models showing that women whose menstrual cycles are between 26-32 days are potentially fertile on days 8-19.

Cyclebeads are a string of 32 color-coded beads and a black rubber ring. When a woman starts her period, she puts the ring on the first bead, which is red, and moves it in the direction of the arrow once every day. When she gets to the white beads, she is potentially fertile.

I don't know if the Catholic Church has taken a position on Cyclebeads, but at least some Catholic officials have accepted it.

I view NFP and now SDM as natural forms of contraception. If you click on the aforementioned article, you can see how SDM is being used for population control.

Still, it is odd that any PP would promote Cyclebeads, since it's not a repeat money maker like all other forms of contraception. There must be a there there I don't yet know.

They'll show us. The New York Times reports today that abortion mills in Spain began a 5-day strike yesterday....

Private clinics in Spain, which perform most of the country's abortions, began a five-day strike on Tuesday to protest what they said was persecution by anti-abortion campaigners and government inspectors, who have swept clinics in recent weeks to crack down on illegal terminations.

The strike... involves about 40 clinics....

The strike could affect as many as 2,000 women.... The number of abortions in Spain has doubled in the past decade, to about 100,000 a year....

The raids followed the arrest in December of Carlos Morin, a gynecologist who ran a group of clinics in Barcelona and who was secretly filmed by a Danish journalist apparently agreeing to her request for an abortion in her seventh month....

One private television producer released a video, said to have been made in a Madrid clinic, that showed an abortion at 21 weeks.

I previously blogged on that video, lamenting it wasn't translated into English. Just checked, and someone coincidentally did that 2 days ago:

The abortions start at 7:50. We see many correlations in the U.S., including collusion with psychiatrists to conjure a mental reason to abort late-term.

Back to the strike, what is the abortion industry trying to prove, that without them Spanish life will grind to a halt?

Actually, it's they who grind Spanish life to a halt.

We've been chronicling the Denver Families Against Planned Parenthood protests of various executives helping build the Denver Planned Parenthood mega-abortion mill.

On December 29, they were again protesting the home of Bill Hornaday, president of The Weitz Company Rocky Mountain division, the PP project's general contractor, when his son appeared, home from college. What a sterling example his father has set for him. Hope the big, fat bonus is worth it.

At any rate, father and son packed up and left right after the group arrived, son shielding his face from the video camera with a newspaper. As Will Duffy, group organizer, said in an email to me, "Who would want to put up with this?" I agree. And they certainly don't have to.

Here's a funny addendum. The Greenwood Village City Council, where Hornaday lives, recently passed ordinances trying to stifle pro-life protests, limiting length of stay, number of protesters, etc. So on New Year's Day, pro-lifers protested the home of Jerry Presley, ringleader of the city council First Amendment squash attempt. He promptly called the police, but the group was following the rules, so they couldn't be stopped....

[More photos on page 2]

Go to Families Against Planned Parenthood now.

[HT: AB Laura]

UPDATE, 8:05p: The Aurora Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimously to dismiss our side's appeal. We're going to state court.

[Photos of our side's attorneys courtesy of Families Against Planned Parenthood]

I didn't know Borat had gotten into the abortion business, but clearly he wrote the tantalizing press release today about this big announcement (click to enlarge):

Curious to learn more about abortion clinics in dire need as well as how the world of female medical problems could be revolutionized, I went to abortionplace.com....

And I found one abortion provider strangely missing from every state listing: Planned Parenthood. Ah, the independents finally banding together to take on Big Abortion? About time. They've been complaining for years that PP, with its government subsidies, unfairly undercuts (pardon the pun) the market.

I called the number on the press release and got the webmaster, i.e., Borat, who I asked about the missing PP. He responded, "We were expecting to accept clinics or providers not associated with Planned Parenthood." When I pressed him as to why, he changed his answer to something nonsensical and then told me good-bye.

Abortion turf wars by demonstrable idiots, I love it.

Protests. This is what executives of The Weitz Company, general contractor helping Planned Parenthood build its new mega-abortion mill in Denver, can expect for as long as the facility is open if they don't bail on the project by January 31. The aforementioned was taken at a New Year's picket January 1.

The Denver Families Against Planned Parenthood has drawn a line in the sand by launching the Collaborator's Project:

The deadline has been set. The Weitz Company has until January 31st to stop building America's largest child-killing facility or inherit permanent collaborator's status. Permanent collaborator's status includes home protests as long as they are killing little children in the facility they build.

The group includes as collaborators....

1. PP abortionists
2. PP facility workers
3. PP donors
4. Those willing to build PP facilities

Pro-lifers have been picketing Weitz officials almost nonstop for months, including Christmas morning.

Then, in a cooperative bi-state effort, pro-lifers helped three Weitz executives ring in the new year by picketing them on January 1. Weitz officials should expect to be greeted by pro-lifers every holiday and in-between. Here are the addresses of the homes being picketed, per FAPP:

Craig and Sue Damos 1623 Plum Thicket Ln West Des Moines, IA 50266 Phone: 515-327-1844 Email: craig.damos@weitz.com

Craig Damos is the CEO of The Weitz Company and has the authority to stop The Weitz Company Rocky Mountain from building America's largest death camp. And remember his wife Sue tried to defend PP by saying they don't do abortions. Yes Sue, they do kill children.

[Hear audio of phone call to Sue here.]

Bill and Marti Hornaday 1998 Oak Creek Dr Greenwood Village, CO 80121 Phone: 303-770-1767 Email: bill.hornaday@weitz.com

Bill Hornaday is the president of The Weitz Company Rocky Mountain and is the general contractor responsible for building America's largest child-killing facility.

Gary and Kathy Meggison 11284 W Asbury Ave Lakewood, CO 80227 Phone: 720-962-8564 Email: gary.meggison@weitz.com

Gary Meggison is the Senior VP of The Weitz Company Rocky Mountain.

See more New Year's photos on page 2.

In May 2007 Planned Parenthood Chicago Area requested and received a bond rating as a nonprofit organization ("501(c)3") from the IL Finance Authority that allowed it to borrow at a cheaper rate to build its Aurora abortion mill (click to enlarge):

In an excellent article today, WorldNetDaily is raising that issue as well as recapping multiple zoning and ordinance violations by PP as well as city official apparent cover-ups....

... Peter Breen [pictured below with fellow TMS attorneys Rich Baker and Tom Brejcha], a lawyer working with the team assembled by the Thomas More Society to handle the case, said there are several issues the city will need to address at a hearing scheduled for Monday, including the fact that the land's zoning requires a for-profit corporation, while Planned Parenthood itself is non-profit, and through that status, obtained more than $8 million in state bonds to build the project....

Part of the cover-up by Planned Parenthood was its application for building permission for the ostensibly "for-profit" GOD [Gemini Office Development] project. But Breen told WND the zoning for the location is "B-B," which is "Business Boulevard," and does not allow non-profit health-related facilities under any circumstances.

Planned Parenthood of the Chicago area is incorporated as a non-profit, and in that status used more than $8 million in state bond funding mechanisms for the facility, officials said.

"By pretending to be building a taxpaying, for-profit medical facility, GOD and Planned Parenthood evaded zoning laws that Aurora purports to enforce against its citizens, fairly and even-handedly," the center said.

Also, WND lists specific zoning violations that would be impossible for PP to fix without destroying the building and purchasing extra property for parking:

The project also fails to comply with the 35-foot setback requirements and parking-related minimums under its city zoning. The zoning calculations require 95 oversized parking spaces for a building of that size, and there exists space for only 71, Breen said.

[HT: Robert King; photo courtesy of WorldNetDaily.com]

There will be an important Aurora Zoning Board of Appeals meeting this coming Monday, January 7, with 3 big issues on tap.

Based on the 3 issues, the ZBA will either decide to close down Planned Parenthood for multiple ordinance and zoning violations, or not.

If so great, the rule of law has prevailed. If not, our side will take the City of Aurora to court if the ZBA agrees with it on #1 to force the City to follow its own city laws, according to Thomas More Society attorney Peter Breen in an email to me.

The 3 issues....

1. City's motion to dismiss

Get this hubris. Two ZBA hearing dates and a full month after the ZBA expressed intent to agree to subpoena (see #2), Weingartz has now challenged the ZBA's authority to subpoena! Here's our side's response.

So that's issue #1: Can the Aurora ZBA subpoena Aurora officials? If the ZBA agrees it has no subpoena power, then #2 and #3 are moot.

2. Subpoenas

Our side has filed a 2nd motion with the ZBA to subpoena city officials to find out who knew what when about Planned Parenthood, and how much they knew, as well as subpoena the so-called "independent" investigators to find out what information Weingartz gave them by which to make their opinions. You'll recall the ZBA slapped Weingartz (pictured right) at last month's meeting for refusing to hand over documents to our side and told her to cough up most. We want all.

3. Backdating

This is a new one. When last we left Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner and his legal sidekick Alayne Weingartz, they were trying to figure out how to keep Planned Parenthood open despite the fact PP's 3rd and final temporary permit expired December 17.

The clever pair simply decided to backdate the permit to say it was issued October 1 and expires July 1, 2008.

"Foul!" cried TMS attorneys, who immediately filed a motion on December 18 with the ZBA to nullify that move.

Breen explained backdating, particularly in this case, was "absolutely illegal" according to Aurora zoning ordinances, ZBA rules and regs, and various IL laws. Why?

A) Aurora officials have admitted zoning irregularities occurred during the PP approval process. Aurora zoning ordinances (i.e., local city law) state tht certificates of occupancy can't be issued when there are zoning irregularities. Aurora can't issue new permits or certificates when plans don't meet zoning requirements. Not only have city officials acknowledged zoning screw-ups, zoning violations are now clearly visible, including parking, set-backs, and wrong approvals from the City.

B) Whenever anyone files an appeal to the ZBA, which our side has done, that action stays "all proceedings in furtherance of the action appeal from," according to ZBA rules and regs, meaning the city can't make any further actions until the appeal is resolved.

So issue #3 is for the ZBA to resolve whether to nullify the backdated temporary certificates of occupancy.

The smell of rats only grows stronger. Stay tuned.

Recall that Dominick's/Safeway erected a now illegal temporary fence on its vacant lot across from Planned Parenthood after PP complained. (The fence is now illegal because its temporary permit expired a couple of weeks ago.)

Well, Mary Lu at the Families Against Planned Parenthood blog posted a photo on Christmas morning of an empty manger spotted inside the fence (click to enlarge):

That's the PP mill in the background. The roof of the manger was a two-sided sign....

Commenter Jerry K. reported the sign stated on one side:

PP
X-Mas
No Christ

And on the other:

PP SAYS
✔young
✔poor
✔shunned
ABORT CHRIST

By December 26 the empty manger had been removed. It was up for the most important day, however.

[HT: Pete]

Debs over at the Abortion is a Woman's Right blog has created what she is aptly calling the Pro-Choice Carnival.

"This Carnival aims to highlight some of the best writing on the theme of a woman's right to choose," explained Debs, who then listed some winners, including an interesting January 2007 post from Jill at Feministe. I missed that one, although I'm often too busy to keep up with the pro-abort circus, I admit. But it's a new argument to me:

I am pro-choice because I believe that if we outlaw a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy, there is no legal argument against forcing a woman to terminate a pregnancy, or disallowing certain people from reproducing.

Love the logo, btw.

What Jill means is if we outlaw a woman the right to say yes or no to abortion, the government can force her to abort....

I don't know any other way to say this. Jill, frankly my dear shared name, you're crazy. You must have ventured too close at the Pro-Choice Carnival to the guy in the sideshow who sticks pins all over his body and yourself become a pinhead.

Outlawing slavery, the closest analogy, did not contradictorily give the government or anyone the right to own slaves, for heaven's sakes. Outlawing anything for that matter does not translate into forcing what was outlawed onto the public. Get real.

But specifically, any and all plans to outlaw abortion are solely based on the fact that the entity being aborted is a human being, a legal person, eradicating the legality of a China abortion syndrome in the U.S.

As for forced sterilization, it was your side, the eugenics movement, that forwarded that during the late 1800s/early-to-mid 1900s, Jill. In fact, your heroine, Margaret Sanger, and her friends were proponents of forced sterilization. Thankfully, that was long ago outlawed and has nothing to do with abortion.

Sheesh. Send in the clowns.

Oh, they already did.

I'm so excited! According to blogger spatula at the left wing Morons.org, the #1 Most Moronic Story of 2007 was (drumroll, please)...

Had the other side not been damaged by the Aurora PP debacle, it would not even have been remembered to make the list, but #1! It even beat Iraq!

And by the way, there is plenty of evidence of wrong-doing. But Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner and city attorney Alayne Weingartz are going to moronic lengths to overlook the rule of law in their strange quest to enable PP. Meanwhile, pro-life investigations, lawsuits and subpoenas still abound. Stay tuned.

And to all pro-lifers helping fueling the Aurora PP story, please take a bow.

2007 saw pro-lifers really begin to tap into the power of videos and YouTube to present our message. Who can forget the clips by seminarians at Institute for Priestly Formation in Omaha who spun Apple vs. Microsoft ads into witty NFP vs. contraception ads?

And who knew abortion could be satired? Well, abortiondoc did....

As for Aurora Planned Parenthood, I'm convinced theMSM would have ignored its magnitude were it not for bloggers and videos propelling the story. I counted 140 Aurora PP videos on YouTube, 75% of which were by pro-lifers Just today OpenLineBlog posted an outstanding video wrap-up of the Aurora PP debacle:

The Internet has opened a whole new world for pro-lifers to go around liberals and the MSM directly to the people. 2007 saw large pro-life growth in this area. Keep it up.

I reported December 23 that the pro-life group Families Against Planned Parenthood in Denver planned to picket the home of a Weitz Company official on Christmas morning. Weitz is the general contractor for PP's new mega-abortion mill.

The picket recipient was Bill Hornaday, president of Weitz's Rocky Mountain outlet.

A pro-abort commenter recently suggested that pro-aborts picket homes of pro-lifers. I responded that will never happen because pro-aborts have no drive or intestinal fortitude. You only see a sprinkling, if any, at a pro-life rally. Note, for instance, the Aurora PP protests, where pro-lifers consistently outnumber pro-aborts 1000:17 (or less). And forget it if the temperature drops below 70 or climbs above 80.

The photos below demonstrate the utmost of pro-life resolve: Picketing during a blizzard on Christmas morning. Whether or not you agreed with their strategy, you must admire their dedication.

UPDATE, 2:45p: One of the pro-life protesters informed me they protested five executives altogether: Bill Hornaday, previously noted; Gary Meggison, Weitz senior vp; Don Gendol, Weitz executive; Reid Goodman, abortionist; and Ed Kubly of Big R Construction.

See more photos on page 2.

Tell me again feminists are pro-"choice" and not pro-abortion. Tell me again they don't push abortion.

Clearly the feminist community prefers mothers in unplanned or crisis pregnancies abort. What an odd turn of events if girls have decided to listen to only half their message: have sex like rabbits but not abort the bunnies?

If this is indeed a cultural shift, eugenicist Margaret Sanger will turn over in her grave. Her scheme will have backfired.

From The Star, December 20:

Could something as unglamorous as an unplanned pregnancy be Hollywood's latest hot trend?

Earlier this week, Jamie Lynn Spears, the 16-year-old sister of Britney Spears, said she was expecting and plans to keep the baby.

She's hardly alone. Lily Allen, Nicole Richie, Bridget Moynahan and Keisha Castle-Hughes are among the young stars who have recently announced surprise babies.

(Let's take a quiz. How many of the aforementioned were products of comprehensive sex ed vs. abstinence ed?)...

And two of the year's biggest movies, Juno and Knocked Up, deal with the same issue....

(Same quiz of movie characters.)

For some pro-choice advocates, the proud parade of surprise pregnancies is a cause for concern.

"It certainly shows any young women watching these movies or following these celebrities that the best option is to have the baby and it glorifies that choice," Joyce McArthur of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada said Thursday....

(It was glorified throughout human history until McArthur's s ilk began degrading it so as to make women into men, their definition of equality, oh, and also to make scads of money - millions, billions.)

"Single motherhood, for the average teenaged girl, is just about the least glamorous thing you can possibly imagine," McArthur said. "It's very, very difficult. There is just so much evidence out there to show the poor results from teenagers having babies, just all sorts of social ills for both the mothers and for the children."

(Pro-lifers agree. But while McArthur solely promotes abortion as the solution, we promote abstinence, high-quality self child-rearing, or adoption. Which of those 4 is the least healthy choice?)

The apparently burgeoning trend has everyone from pro-choice activists like McArthur to feminist journalists and those in the blogosphere wondering about the conspicuous absence of a common option for women, both real and fictional, who find themselves unexpectedly pregnant: abortion.

In Juno... the teenaged title character only gives abortion passing consideration.

"The old-school feminist in me wishes Juno spent more time, even a tart sentence or two, acknowledging that the options taken for granted by this one attractive, articulate teen are in fact hard-won, precious rights," Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly wrote in her review of the film.

Others fear the success of Juno might even influence teenaged girls who find themselves pregnant....

(What's wrong with that, for heaven's sake? The author admits the other side discourages carrying a crisis pregnancy to term.)

McArthur says she found it disappointing that in Knocked Up, in particular, abortion was barely mentioned as an option - and when it was, it was presented as something too shameful to even ponder.

"It is Hollywood, I know, and Hollywood specializes in being unrealistic about things in general," she said.

"But it's just sort of being totally ignored as though no one would ever even think of doing that. But abortion is a very commonly resorted-to option for women, especially unmarried teenaged girls. It should be acknowledged that it's an important and common option for women and, more importantly, that there's nothing wrong with making that choice."

On the Feministe blog, one commenter bemoaned how rarely a woman's decision to abort a fetus is explored in the movies....

Hollywood may say abortion is politically correct, but by its action it shows that even there, it really is not. Hollywood risks losing money making movies about other countercultural topics like the war, but not so with abortion. It's too disgusting for even them.

Earlier this month Planned Parenthood issued its 13th annual "Choice on Earth" anti-Christmas cards, as I reported here.

Apparently, I overlooked a couple....

Actually, these are just suggestions for PP from The Curt Jester, but I like them, I really like them. See more at Curt's site.

[HT: moderator MK]

That means, "This is How Abortions are Done in Spain," a groundbreaking program showing abortions on Spanish national television for the first time last week. If only the American media were so honest.

According to LifeSiteNews.com, a reporter posing as an abortionist seeking work at El Bosque de Madrid got the footage. The report is entirely in Spanish, a tad frustrating.

Following is the exposé. The first of 2 abortions is shown at 9:12. They are induced labor abortions, such as I witnessed at Christ Hospital. The first mother in the video appears to have had an epidural because her legs are floppy. Not sure on the 2nd. The brown tube is a catheter into the bladder, inserted because pregnant mothers with epidurals have lost the urge to urinate, and an empty bladder also makes more room for the baby to come down.

These mothers have had medication or laminaria (seaweed sticks) inserted into the birth canal to open the cervix, a process that can take 1 day to several days. The nurse has assessed they're ready to deliver. Little push, and the babies are out. The video states 1 of the babies, shown in the soiled utility room later, was 20-21 weeks old, or 5 months. LSN reported staff killed the baby beforehand by lethal injection. I wish someone would translate the video into English. LSN has done some transcribing, which I've excerpted on page 2.

In a strange development, after that broadcast someone anonymously brought a chopped up fetus to the television studio, which filmed the remains and then took them to police. This baby was aborted via the D&E procedure, or dilatation & evacuation.

Since November, Spanish police have been conducting raids on illegal late-term mills. If only the American justice system were so diligent.

[HT: reader Gary]

Quoting LSN:

"The baby is born dead. His cradle: a trash can," says the commentator in voice-over on the tape. An abortion of the baby of a second woman is also shown.

After showing the second abortion, the commentator remarks. "As soon as the baby is born, the doctor must cover it up. No one looks at it. No one examines it."

Later, the undercover reporter examines one of the dead children. "Hands, feet, a face. The cadaver of a human being," the commentator notes. The doctor, a woman, remarks that the baby is 21 weeks old, but says she "never" looks at the bodies of the fetuses.

"Never?" asks the undercover reporter, who is posing as a doctor looking for work at the clinic. "Never," the woman repeats "Never, never, never again!" When asked why, the doctor says "Because I don't like it." "Of course, you are a mother, I assume, right?" the reporter asks. No answer is given.

All of the patients preparing for abortions were over five months pregnant, "a period in which the fetus is completely formed and in possession of all of its senses," notes the voice-over. One of the patients is only 15 years old.

The doctor explicitly acknowledges in the video that many of the patients have no valid reason for their abortions. However, she assures the reporter that the clinic has a psychiatrist who will automatically sign the necessary forms to authorize it because of "psychological" need as required under Spanish law.

"Here they sign everything," she says. "The psychiatrist is a member of the clinic and everything is done in house." The test she gives is "a mere procedure."

"Here, whoever wants an abortion, gets one," says the commentator, noting that such procedures described are illegal. The doctor admits that this is business as usual....

The clinic is in desperate need of personnel, explains the commentator.

In the video, the owner explains that they used to have the nurses do the abortions, although the law will no longer allow this. He blithely describes the procedure as it was done by nurses, telling the undercover reporter... it is only necessary to "wait until the woman expels it (the fetus), and to take it out by its rear end. If the placenta doesn't come out they call me."

He assures the undercover reporter that if if that happens "you grab the pincers...and 'pin pin pin' and that's it," waving his hands around with a casual look on his face.

The owner of Lucht's Concrete Pumping in Denver is a Christian.

So he was watching for any job proposals crossing his desk to help construct the new Denver Planned Parenthood abortion mill from PP's front company, Fuller 38 LLC, or PP's general contractor, Weitz Company.

But he didn't know to watch for a proposal coming from JOB Concrete, Inc., owned by John O'Brien of Bloomfield, CO, hired by Weitz to hire a concrete pumping subcontractor.

One of Lucht's workers was watching the following December 16 local Fox News broadcast about pro-life protests at the PP site as well as at the home last weekend of Ed Kubly of Big R Construction, a subcontractor who has agreed to work for PP's blood money, and realized the site at which they were working was PP's. Click on image to link:

The morning after that broadcast, December 17, Lucht's pulled its equipment and workers off the site and donated the $1800 it had been paid to Keep Peace in Stapleton, the group organizing the PP protests.

When Steve Lucht called O'Brien to ask why he didn't tell him he was being hired to build for PP, he said O'Brien's response was, "Just cover the logos on your vehicle and you should be fine."

In October, Gary Meggison, Weitz senior vp, told Rocky Mountain News, "he... has been up front with subcontractors on the project about its controversial nature."

Mr. Meggison, it appears quite the opposite. Why? Aren't you "pro-choice" on allowing your subcontractors and workers to decide whether they want to help build an abortion mill?

Here is American Life League's take on Planned Parenthood's 2007 "Choice on Earth" cards, which I posted a couple of weeks ago. The ALL video also shows a blasphemous soft porn commercial by PP:

In a press statement with release of the video, ALL's vp Jim Sedlak said, "By changing the word 'peace' to 'choice', Planned Parenthood is effectively implying that Mary should have considered aborting Jesus.... King Herod sent soldiers out to slaughter babies because he wanted to kill Jesus. Two thousand years later, Planned Parenthood is still doing all it can to kill babies. That is what their motto 'Choice on Earth' really means."

[HT: moderator jasper and ALL's Michael Hichborn]

UPDATE, 1:10p: Read "release [of] some atheist angst" over my post at The Huntress' Domain.

I received a call this afternoon from Eileen Smith, mother of Laura Hope Smith, who was killed by abortionist Rapin Osathanondh at Women's Health Center, 68 Camp St., Hyannis, MA, on September 13, 2007.

Laura was 22 years old and 13 weeks pregnant. Her fiance, a soldier stationed in Iraq, left to her the "choice" whether their baby lived or died. Laura sadly chose death.

Osathanondh, still in business, operates a one-man mill. He's the only medical professional on his premises with two sidekicks, a receptionist and a patient "hand holder".

Incredibly, Osathanondh to this day administers general anesthesia by himself and then commits the abortion by himself. There is apparently no MA law against this.

Laura died on Osathanondh's table. Details are unknown, but her toxicology report came back normal. Apparently, the anesthesia simply overcame her. Osathanondh may or may not have been in the room at the time. When he found her or realized she wasn't breathing, he yelled for his receptionist to call 911, but she had already left for the day. So the hand holder called. I think she was confused and thought she was ordering a pizza. Hear for yourself....

Audio of 911 call

Transcript of 911 call:

Hyannis Dispatcher: 911. What's the location of the emergency?
Caller: I'm at 68 Camp Street. I'm here at the Women's Health Center.
Hyannis Dispatcher: The Women's Heath Center?
Caller: Yes, at 68 Camp Street, Hyannis.
Hyannis Dispatcher: Okay, and what's going on there?
Caller: Uh, well, this girl aspirated. She's not breathing.
Hyannis Dispatcher: Okay. What's your name?
Caller: Kim.
Hyannis Dispatcher: Kim, what's your phone number.
Caller: It's 508-775-7088.
Hyannis Dispatcher: 7088. I'll have rescue right there.
Caller: Thanks.

EMTs reported Laura was DOA. They administered CPR at the mill, in the ambulance, and for an hour at the hospital. Osathanondh later met with Eileen and said he would have accompanied Laura in the ambulance, but he had another abortion waiting who had driven a long way.

Eileen lived in FL until September 13. She is now camped in Hyannis and says she will not leave until Osathanondh is shut down and arrested.

That may be a problem.

The Public Health Department says clinic regulations don't apply to Osathanondh because he doesn't operate a clinic, just a doctor's office. The Health Department was unaware of physician's office guidelines.

The DA is waiting for the results of a second opinion autopsy report to determine whether a crime was committed. Had Osathanondh killed a dog in his office, a crime would certainly have been committed. But this was an abortion. Osathanondh may have committed no arrestable offense.

The state medical board could take Osathanondh's license away, but it is still gathering information. Meanwhile, he aborts.

Laura was a confessed Christian. Of course Jesus hated what Laura did on September 13, but He hates the daily, minute-by-minute sins we all commit.

Eileen read to me Laura's last journal entry, which expressed fear she was pregnant but counted on help from God, saying, "Jesus, you've always had my back."

I pray for swift justice.

Eileen and her husband adopted Laura from an abusive home when she was 5. Read Eileen's account of that process below.

The Laura Hope Smith Story

May 25, 1985 - September 13, 2007

by Eileen Smith, her mother

Laura, a Mayan Indian born into poverty in San Pedro, Honduras was a survivor. This may be a strange opening sentence to describe the daughter I just buried, but read on and you will understand.

A US/Honduran adoption agent told me it was the custom of the poor Mayan natives, when their infants became sick with life threatening illnesses to abandon them at a local hospital. Not out of indifference but out of love and a hope of a better life for them. The parents knew that they would be sent to the orphanage and adopted out of poverty and out of the country.

Laura's abandonment to the hospital happened when she was only 11 months old. When she was well enough, she was sent to the orphanage to join the other orphans. Her earliest memory in life was of the orphanage which she confused with home and the matron, whom she thought was her mother.

An American Dr. was at the orphanage picking up his 3rd adopted child while his wife waited at home. When he saw 2 yr old Laura there, he wanted to adopt her also. Even at that young age she must have been so engaging to draw his attention over all the others. Six months later she was part of their family. But they were not to live happily ever after. The mother, seeing Laura for the first time upon her arrival in the US, never bonded with her. There were many reasons she said, and none of them made sense. Her skin was too dark, she pulled out her own hair, the list went on. The neglect and abuse started shortly thereafter.

Laura first came to our house at age 4-1/2 with a black eye and black and blue marks on her body. Her parents gave her away to me and Laura agreed to go after knowing me only 20 minutes. I had driven to their house in PA from MA after a request by the parents was made over the phone. Laura was only in my home 2 weeks when they called, they were sorry, they changed their mind. They wanted her back. I was happy for Laura. I thought they realized the error of their ways, they said they would get help and things would get better for Laura. They didn't.

Six months later they called me. “It didn’t work out. Please take her“. I did. Two weeks later, "give her back" I had to. They had all the legal rights, I had none. They kept agreeing to release their parental rights in court so I could adopt her, they never followed thru. I continued talking to them only to keep contact with Laura. I now feared for her safety and sanity.

Six months passed again, the parents brought her back to me for a third time making more false promises.. Shortly after that, the familiar phone call came. The parents threatened to take her away, to give her to someone else if I didn't put her on the phone immediately. I hung up on them. I cried out to God to do something and He answered. He impressed on me to call the US/Honduran adoption agent whose office was in PA. When I did, the agent was so grateful. They heard that they gave her away. They had been begging the parents for my name and number, the parents refused to give it them. We compared stories of abuse, the agent called the authorities in PA and reported them.

The agents lawyer advised me to go to court here. I arrived at the Probate Court office the next day with no child, no birth certificate, no money and a wild story. They listened intently, filed the case, waived the fees and sent me to the court room. The judge gave me temporary custody. God told me the name of the lawyer sitting next to me. She followed me out of the court room and volunteered to be Laura's advocate. Laura never left our home from that day on. She was 5-1/2.

Following that day, there were yrs. of court hearings meant to decide Laura's fate. The other parents never showed up, never released her for adoption, never contacted her or us. They were turned into the authorities for child abuse and blamed us for it. The best we could get was guardianship but no adoption. The parents needed to cooperate for us to be able to adopt her, they refused.

God was so good to send us a lawyer to represent us for nothing all those years. He even sent a retired judge who "adopted" Laura as his grandchild. It was through this man that we were finally able to adopt Laura. He knew the head of probate who had the authority to help us and one day he went to see him. Two weeks later she was a "real" Smith at 12 yrs old. The adoption was final. Her old parents were pressured to release and they did.

Laura didn't know then about the many court appearances we had to go through nor the miracles that happened on her behalf. She thought the minute she parked her lone little brown shopping bag of belongings at my house that she was a Smith. We let her think that.

In the beginning I thought I had rescued her and given her a new life, but as time went on I believed we received so much more from her. Laura had a beautiful, loving spirit. She sang with the voice of an angel, danced and put on shows, wanted to be carried and had a constant smile on her face. She clung to us and never asked about her other mother. Instantly she was the baby sister of 3 older siblings. She blossomed. Everyone who met her, loved her instantly.

That didn't change as she grew older. She was like the pied piper. There was always a group of kids following her around. The parents of her friends always wanted her to come back to visit them! Laura made everyone feel like they were her best friend, she loved everyone and extended grace where grace was lacking. In high school there were at least 5 boys in love with her at the same time. This past April Laura got engaged to her high school sweetheart who was getting shipped out to Iraq in July. She became pregnant before he left for overseas.

Laura never made distinctions with people. All were worthy of her attention and friendship. Her friends were her life. If she could just work and spend all her time with them, she was in heaven. When she was offered a great job promotion to NJ, she told me her "heart hurt" to think of leaving Cape Cod and her life there.

Laura turned down the job and returned to Cape Cod from the summer spent with us at the New Jersey shore. She arrived home on a Friday and died the following Thursday. The life that she returned to was taken from her.

So you see how Laura was a survivor. She survived abandonment, life threatening illness, rejection, abuse, and loss.... What she didn't survive was the abortion that took her life on September 13, 2007.

A week or so ago I posted as quote of the day this comment by Des Plaines, IL, Police Chief James Prandini, taken from the Chicago Tribune, on the firing of Officer Dick Lalowski for harrassing pro-life sidewalk counselors at an abortion mill:

"This was an important case for us. It sets the tone for our conduct. We can't have officers treat people like this."

I didn't put 2 and 2 together until later that our own moderator Mary Kay (MK) was one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit that drew the termination! She told me about the lawsuit awhile back, but pro-lifers around the country are so busy suing police and cities for First Amendment violations, I at first considered this "just" another victory - because we do inevitably win.

So, congrats, MK!

Here is the story in brief, from the Daily Herald....

Officer Dick V. Lalowski was stripped of his job after 11 years on the force for prodding a protester in the shoulder with his index fingers and calling her a "fat (expletive) cow" during a protest outside a Des Plaines women's health clinic....

Lalowski had claimed he was exercising his freedom of speech. He had stopped during his shift at the clinic to tell the protesters not to block the entrance, threatening arrest.

After his shift ended, Lalowski returned in plainclothes to confront the female protesters.

Lalowski had said he felt a 6-foot-tall photo of an aborted fetus that the protesters held was too graphic and could offend a woman who had just had a miscarriage. He also admitted that he accused a protester of gluttony because she was overweight.

During the hearings, 911 tapes showed that a police officer and dispatcher had downplayed the incident as Lalowski challenging the women about their abortion views. The officer and dispatcher have since been disciplined, Prandini said.

It was MK who made the 911 calls. You can read MK's account of the day below. You can also read the account from a legal perspective at Thomas More Society's website, the pro-life law firm that filed the lawsuit.

MK's account of the day....

When I arrived that morning the first thing Paula told me was that a police officer had been there and threatened to arrest us all if we stepped off the curb, or tried to give any of our "gift basket" to clients entering the abortion clinic.

An hour later he was back, this time out of uniform, and this time yelling at her sister who was at the other end of the abortion clinic. Paula asked me to go down and make sure it was the same guy, and see what he wanted. I had never seen him, so for the first 15 minutes, I wasn't even sure he was a cop.

When I got there, he was screaming at Paula's sister, a quiet, gentle, mousy woman, telling her she was fat and threatening to arrest her. When he saw me, he switched prey. He came so close to me our noses were touching. He was screaming that I hated men, was a terrorist and that he was going to arrest me also. I repeatedly asked him to back away. He wanted to know why. I told him he was frightening me and making me very uncomfortable. He didn't budge.

I turned and went to the unmarked, moonlighting police officer parked halfway between Paula and her sister. He never got out of the car. Wasn't even facing the scene. He glanced in his rearview and side mirrors but that was the extent of his "investigation". Except for while he was talking to me, his windows were rolled up so he couldn't even hear what was taking place.

I informed him that a call was putting thru to 911 and it was in his best interest as a representative of the Des Plaines Police Dept. to nip this now, before 911 got involved. At this point Lalowski walked up to the other side of the car and I went and spoke with Paula's sister. She was very shaken up.

Turns out no less than three calls were put through to 911. No one responded.
By now Lalowski had switched victims yet again and was harassing Paula again. The moonlighting officer never got out of his car.

An hour later squad cars pulled up from everywhere. Turns out Lalowski has a history of this behavior. The moonlighting officer apologized profusely to us, and admitted he was nervous. He'd heard all the rumors about the "violence" pro- lifers are infamous for and was hesitant to get involved.

Paula was stuck with him for an hour before the police arrived. She handled it beautifully. She played along with him, hoping to appease him. Every time I came near him he got riled up again so I kept my distance. But I watched closely.

I have been in the pro life movement for more than 25 years. Had a lot of things happen in that time. Nasty notes left on my car, food thrown at me, the F-word screamed at me so many times I couldn't count them, people in my face screaming... even had a gun pointed at us by a guy in a car driving by... but honestly, I have never been as frightened as I was that day. It was like dealing with an abusive drunk, knowing that the wrong word could get you beaten or killed. It was like walking a tightrope. This guy was a second away from a total explosion, and you just knew someone was going to get hurt. God bless Paula. She managed to soothe the savage beast until help arrived.

Regardless of how you feel about the prolife/prochoice issue, the police have an obligation to protect the public. And they were woefully remiss in their duties that day. In their defense, they have always treated us with the utmost respect. Their job is not an easy one, and I thank them for their commitment. Just as I hate carrying around the fallout of the bad actions of a few prolifers, I would not want to paint the entire police department in a bad light. A few bad Catholics do not negate the Church as a whole, a few bad pro-choicers do not represent all pro-choicers and one bad police officer should not discredit an entire department. I'm grateful that they didn't sweep this under the rug, instead dealing with it head on and eliminating one undesirable employee, thus boosting the credibility of the whole department.

I wish Officer Lalowski the best and hope he finds peace. I'm just grateful that he no longer carries a gun...

I've never known a city government to commit anarchy against itself, but now there's Aurora.

City officials have ignored their own ordinances and zoning requirements to allow liar and thug Planned Parenthood to settle in after weaseling in, creating havoc and lowering property values. That was a great idea.

So when I found out Dominick/Safeway's temporary permit for its hideous temporary chain link ghetto fence expires tomorrow, I thought not to expect Aurora officials to suddenly become law-abiding and demand they tear down that see-through wall.

Dominick's has owned a vacant lot across from the new PP mill for several years but suddenly erected the fence 9 days after PP's opening.

But wait, there's more anarchy to behold, on a grander scale....

Not content overthrow city law, Aurora officials have felt feisty enough to take on the U.S. Constitution.

Tomorrow, 9-10:30a, is the monthly protest at PP Aurora, an opportunity for Aurora police to once again use the First Amendment as target practice in their attempts to silence pro-lifers.

You'll recall that at last month's protest police went so far as to interrogate and threaten to arrest a man for praying while walking his baby on a sidewalk across the street from PP as his wife participated in the protest.

I think some who attend the protest tomorrow should change their minds about protesting after they arrive and instead walk up and down the sidewalk praying.

With a video camera.

I previously posted about the Aurora police threatening to arrest a man for praying on a sidewalk while walking his baby across the street from Planned Parenthood.

Well, Jeff Eschbach of ChicagoProLifeActivist shot video that day and has posted it on YouTube.

The video demonstrates that the clear violation of Roger Earl's First Amendment rights was worse than thought. A female police officer actually dared to ask him what he was praying about. Incredible.

Well, well. Turns out the occupancy permits the City of Aurora issued Planned Parenthood on October 2 were only temporary, and the last of the three issued expires December 17.

What will the City do? Neighborhood property owners filed an appeal moments before PP opened, which should have stopped it but didn't. Now? "It would be blatantly improper for the City to keep issuing permits while hearings are underway," Peter Breen told me, speaking on behalf of the Thomas More Society, the legal group leading the effort to shut down PP.

Meanwhile, pro-PP (or anti-discovery of incompetence) Aurora counsel Alayne Weingartz, pictured left at last night's Zoning Board of Appeals meeting, has since November 15 been admitting without fanfare that all along PP's approval process city officials were going by the wrong ordinance. She now correctly refers to ordinance 093-124 in her written documents about PP rather than the incorrect 093-123.

So what? 093-124 states the PP property is zoned BB (business boulevard), which flat out prohibits nonprofit health facilities from being built, and 093-123 doesn't.

Aurora officials have now admitted they screwed up but are still asking the Zoning Board of Appeals to dismiss the appeal, i.e., to dismiss the rights of Aurora citizens. They are also trying to argue the ZBA has no jurisdiction anyway.

As this goes on, it is becoming clear that Aurora officials, foremost Weingartz and Mayor Tom Weisner, are either grossly incompetent or covering up a scandal.

Which leads to our side's request of the ZBA for permission to issue subpoenas. Weingartz has refused to hand over relevant documents.

The ZBA slapped Weingartz at last night's ZBA meeting and ordered her to cough up several. But she's still fighting several, including emails and phone calls made to the supposed independent investigators who stated PP and its front company, Gemini Office Development, were slimy but not crooks for hiding until the last minute that the "medical building" GOD constructed was actually a PP abortion mill.

It appears by their reports that two of the investigators made their decisions based on bad information: ordinance 093-123. So our side wants to deposition those two, along with city workers, to whom Weingartz has issued a gag order, threatening our attorneys with disbarment if they try to talk to any of them.

Stay tuned until January 7, when the ZBA will decide whether it has authority to hear the appeal and whether it will allow Thomas More Society to issue subpoenas.

Also see posts by Families Against Planned Parenthood and OpenlineBlog, and an article in today's Aurora Beacon.

WARNING: Explicit material follows....

Last night my friend Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth was interviewed on Hannity and Colmes to discuss his new video expose of September's 25th annual Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco, which included public oral sex and mutual masturbation.

The FSF calls itself "the grand daddy of all leather events," and has been geared mostly toward homosexuals, but Peter on his site described one photo of a masochistic hetero couple, which makes the FSF germane to this site:

Man leads bare-breasted female slave "partner" around by a dog collar. It appears that in recent years, heterosexual perverts have joined their “ "gay" brethren at the "fair" in increasing numbers. Talk about a setback for women’s rights … On the flip side, women were also seen leading around their male "slaves" at the twisted "fair"....

This year's poster ad, which included a hetero couple of the latter persuasion, was the most shocking ever, blaspheming The Last Supper (above, click to enlarge).

Peter explained the poster:

Those are "sex toys" on the table including a red fist used to mimic the bizarre and grotesque sadistic act of "fisting." A man in the black doggie mask represents another twisted fetish seen at this annual street festival glorifying "consensual" sexual violence and degradation.... The black-and-blue flag is the “leather pride” flag for sadomasochists - their version of the "gay" rainbow flag.

WARNING: Americans for Truth's photo display of this year's FSF is pornographic, showing actual sex acts being committed on the streets of San Francisco.

Following is the video clip of Peter on Hannity last night. Colmes is so annoying.

The abortion industry, which promotes promiscuity, is partially responsible for this swift, shocking demise of our culture.

I've said many times abortion activists and homosexual activists are closely related. They synergize one another, flip sides of a coin that wants to commit sexual illicit behavior with no consequences, either bodily or by reprobation.

I reported last week that Ann, Joe, and Eric Scheidler, and Jeff Eschbach were planning to travel to Denver this past weekend to rally the troops to fight Planned Parenthood building its new largest mill in the Mile High City.

Keith Mason provided me with details of the action.

The above photo is of nearly 300 people picketing outside the proposed abortuary Saturday morning. (That's Eric Scheidler speaking into the megaphone, with Joe's hat to his left.)

As planned, the rally moved to the nearby Radisson. Fortunately, the hotel was under contract, because PP tried to shut the pro-life event down by calling the hotel and saying it would be hosting America's most renown anti-abortion extremist....

(More photos on page 2.)

The event coordinator called Keith 5 days before the rally and said they had to hire four security guards, which doubled event costs. Here's a photo of America's most renown anti-abortion extremist, Joe Scheidler, speaking at the hotel:

After the wildly peaceful hotel rally, America's most renown anti-abortion extremist and pals moved on to picket the neighborhood of PP's general contractor, Weitz president Bill Hornaday. This was the latest of many, which Keith reported have been going well with pressure high.

The wear and tear on this community with an abortuary builder in its midst was evidenced when the chief of police and a lieutenant insisted on meeting organizer Will Duffy at his home the day before the rally.

Will told them the only two ways protests would cease were "if Bill snapped his fingers to end his involvement with the building, or if Bill moved, in which case protesters would follow him to his new house." Duffy reported, "the eyes of the officers got big" when he said house protests would go on as long as PP killed kids at the mill, if Bill continued to build it.

As for progress with slowing the building down, Keith reported, "We are now up to three contractors that have quit! Not including three laborers who literally threw down their shovels and walked off the job when a few pro-lifers explained to them what they were a part of. Praise God!"

Since 1994 Planned Parenthood has enjoyed poking Christians with sticks at Christmas, mocking the birth of Jesus with their unique holiday greeting cards. This year PP offers the same ole same ole "Choice on Earth" options along with a lie for good measure - pretending to like children.

The creative geniuses at Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, who previously brought us "Superheroes for Choice," a cartoon depicting violence against pro-lifers that included decapitation, have designed their own Hanukkah styled card (last in row). Their festival of lights includes justice, safety, and prevention. We share the same goals but are just 180 degrees separated on how to meet them.

In 2002, then-PP president Gloria Feldt said PP's supporters were "energized by the vicious criticism of our holiday card." But I'm not seeing much attention paid to PP's cards this year. They've apparently become blase.

So as not to disappoint PP, I now present them for your vicious criticism (click to enlarge, except last):

See 6 more festive holiday abortion cards on page 2.

I was given this news tip yesterday, but actually Time magazine broke the story November 21, which no one apparently picked up on, perhaps because it was only posted online:

[B]ut what's clear is that the anti-abortion movement is fractured. Colorado Right to Life has a mailing list of 10,000 and a $100,000 budget but is no longer affiliated with the National Right to Life Committee - "kicked out," says [CRTL spokesman and Denver Christian radio talk show host Bob] Enyart. He explains that the NRLC has refused to back "personhood" for decades, citing the unlikelihood that it would pass muster with the U.S. Supreme Court....

And this week in Washington, the same coalition, with representatives from 12 states, plans to announce a new national splinter group - American Right to Life - which will be headed by Brian Rohrbough, whose son Daniel died in the Columbine shootings and who has been an outspoken critic of the American "culture of death."

Here's more of the scoop, provided by Leslie Hanks of CRTL and ARTL, who I called after getting the tip....

The foundational group met in mid-November to formally organize. It includes heavy hitters in the pro-life movement:

John Archibold, co-founder of Americans United for Life and NRLC
Flip Benham of Operation Save America
Judie Brown of American Life League
Bob Dornan, 20-year U.S. Congressman
Fr. Tom Euteneuer of Human Life International
Dr. Alan Keyes
Judge Roy Moore
Matt Trewhella, Missionaries to the Preborn

Read more names of charter members on ARTL's website.

As Time stated, Rohrbough is president. Vice president is Steve Curtis, former CO Republican state chairman and co-owner of Lifecommercials.com.

ARTL will be a subsidiary of CRTL and therefore have 501(c)3 and 501(c)4 status. Legal paperwork is being finalized. ARTL is not affiliated with the former ARTL of the late 90s. This group received permission from that group to take the name.

ARTL is taking on NRLC for 2 principle reasons. According to ARTL:

NRLC has deemphasized personhood as the focal point of the pro-life movement, i.e., the Human Life Amendment, guaranteeing constitutional protect from the moment of fertilization.

and

"For a quarter century, NRTL and others have dictated a strategy of child-killing regulations (consent; waiting, consent, PBA, etc., 'and then you can kill the baby')," as quoted from ARTL's website.

Two noteworthy points, from ARTL's website:

ARTL Timeframe: Our charter gives the founding leaders (directors and officers) twelve years in which to end abortion in America. At that time, if they have not, they are required to turn over ARTL to an entirely new slate of leaders, their leadership coming to an end, either because they have succeeded, or failed. In the fall of 2008, ARTL will host a conference on ending abortion, titled 11 Years Till D Day, and the year after that, 10 Years, then 9 Years, etc., instead of the never-ending, perpetual conventions of NRTL (so far at 35th Annual and counting).

ARTL Salary & Benefits: ARTL's board members, officers, and spokesmen serve without salary. Ministry workers have every right to receive salaries, but that model has not well served the fight to end "legal" abortion and euthanasia. The pro-life industry has become too comfortable as it receives millions of dollars a month in salaries. As a result, ARTL has broken the mold, with no salary for its leaders, and no retirement benefits.

Read ARTL's principles here.

The Georgia Right to Life PAC released a press release yesterday afternoon endorsing Mike Huckabee for president, snubbing National Right to Life's pick, Fred Thompson.

The first paragraph is verrrry interesting....

The mission of Georgia Right to Life PAC is... pleased to endorse Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee for the 2008 Presidential primary. We appreciate and respect the pro-life positions of all pro-life candidates. We commend Rep. Duncan Hunter, Dr. Alan Keyes and Rep. Tom Tancredo for their strong pro-life positions, but find that Governor Mike Huckabee is the only candidate which qualified under Georgia Right to Life PAC guidelines. We examined three factors in our decision to endorse Gov. Mike Huckabee: the positions of the candidates on the life issues, their records on the life issues and their ability to win.

GRTL PAC left a few names off its list of commended pro-life candidates, the most telling being NRLC's endorsed candidate! Wow.

There's more going on behind the scenes. NRLC is actively opposing Georgia's Personhood Amendment, now working its way through the legislature, which makes these paragraphs in the release rich with coded message and a genteel southern slap of NRLC's face:

Gov. Huckabee responded to our inquiry of his position on the life issues by stating, "... I support the Georgia Personhood Amendment. I also support, and have consistently done so, the Human Life Amendment to the United States Constitution."...

As an affiliate of National Right to Life, we give grateful recognition for the role they play in protecting the unborn. "We want to acknowledge their leadership and thank them for allowing individual states to do what they believe is best for their state. Under normal circumstances we would communicate their Presidential endorsement to our 225,000 households." said Bryan Lash, PAC Director for GRTL. "While we appreciate their leadership and support, we believe that Gov. Huckabee is the strongest and most effective pro-life candidate in this race," continues Lash. "Passing a Personhood Amendment here in Georgia is our key issue in achieving our objective to extend the protections of the law to all 'persons' both born and unborn. Support of a candidate who ushered a similar amendment through his own state speaks volumes to us. Mr. Huckabee's recent surge in the polls, we believe, demonstrates that he is the pro-life movement's best hope in defeating pro-abortion candidate Rudy Giuliani...."

This is major. Read the entire release below.

Also recall Iowa Right to Life has decided not to endorse Thompson but to go neutral on this race.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 30, 2007
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Contact: Daniel Becker, President
danielbecker@grtl.org | (770) 667-3777

Contact: Bryan Lash, PAC Director
bryanlash@grtl.org (770)295-9001

Georgia Right to Life PAC Endorses Mike Huckabee for President

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA - The mission of Georgia Right to Life PAC (GRTL PAC) is to endorse and support candidates for public office who have a proven commitment to the sanctity of human life and will be a strong and effective voice for the unborn. We are pleased to endorse Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee for the 2008 Presidential primary. We appreciate and respect the pro-life positions of all pro-life candidates. We commend Rep. Duncan Hunter, Dr. Alan Keyes and Rep. Tom Tancredo for their strong pro-life positions, but find that Governor Mike Huckabee is the only candidate which qualified under Georgia Right to Life PAC guidelines. We examined three factors in our decision to endorse Gov. Mike Huckabee: the positions of the candidates on the life issues, their records on the life issues and their ability to win.

Gov. Huckabee responded to our inquiry of his position on the life issues by stating, "In keeping with my consistent support for life, I believe in the 'one exception' clause for the life of the mother and I support the Georgia Personhood Amendment. I also support, and have consistently done so, the Human Life Amendment to the United States Constitution."

Gov. Huckabee has a proven track record of solid pro-life legislation during his terms as governor of Arkansas. He is noted for having passed a state "Human Life Amendment" which says that "the policy of Arkansas is to protect the life of every unborn child from conception to birth." Arkansas Amendment 68 will take effect the moment that Roe vs. Wade is reversed. He is especially supportive of our efforts here in Georgia, to promote the passage of H.R. 536, the Paramount Right to Life Amendment (www.personhood.net).

As an affiliate of National Right to Life, we give grateful recognition for the role they play in protecting the unborn. "We want to acknowledge their leadership and thank them for allowing individual states to do what they believe is best for their state. Under normal circumstances we would communicate their Presidential endorsement to our 225,000 households." said Bryan Lash, PAC Director for GRTL. "While we appreciate their leadership and support, we believe that Gov. Huckabee is the strongest and most effective pro-life candidate in this race," continues Lash. "Passing a Personhood Amendment here in Georgia is our key issue in achieving our objective to extend the protections of the law to all 'persons' both born and unborn. Support of a candidate who ushered a similar amendment through his own state speaks volumes to us. Mr. Huckabee's recent surge in the polls, we believe, demonstrates that he is the pro-life movement's best hope in defeating pro-abortion candidate Rudy Giuliani. When elected, Mike Huckabee will work hard to establish our goal of restoring respect and effective legal protection to all innocent human beings, from the moment of fertilization until natural death."

CNN featured a photo of Rudy Giuliani signing autographs in Hialeah, FL, yesterday, which prompted me to check on the status of the Hialeah baby abortion murder case.

Backdrop:

On the morning of July 20, 2006, an 18-year-old pregnant mother returned to A Gyn Diagnostics Center in Hialeah, now shut down, to abort her 23-week-old baby after having been given a medication to dilate her cervix the day before.

She complained of abdominal pain all day with abortionist Frantz Basile nowhere to be found. Finally, between 2-2:30p, she delivered the baby alive with at least one clinic worker present. Both saw the baby gasping for air and moving.

Clinic owner Belkis Gonzales allegedly came into the room, cut the cord, and put the living baby into a biohazard bag containing bleach....

An anonymous source notified police, who searched the premises but could not find the baby. Nine days later the source called police again, reporting staff had put the baby on the roof during the search but she was now back inside.

Police came again and retrieved the baby. DNA testing proved this baby belonged to the 18-year-old mother, who I have since spoken with. An autopsy determined the baby was born alive but was inconclusive as to the cause of death.

Here's the status.

Dade County prosecutors have so far failed to take action. Meanwhile, the baby's mother has retained the services of the Thomas More Society to pursue a wrongful death claim against Basile. Thomas More has in turn retained a private investigator and pathologist and is now pressing the prosecutor to let its pathologist conduct a second autopsy.

My sources tell me Dade County prosecutors are hung up on whether the baby was viable or not, as if it matters. 23 weeks is the typical line of viability. However, the baby's age is not relevant. The baby was killed.

Thomas More has also retained local counsel to pursue a civil case if a criminal case is dropped.

American Life League/Rock for Life are making good use of YouTube.

They've just uploaded a video expose of, It's Perfectly Normal, a book supposedly for kids ages 9-12 that has been banned from at least one prison as pornographic.

News to me, the book lists the anus as a sex organ, certainly not its original or ongoing purpose.

And the decent among us have united. It's Perfectly Normal topped the American Library Association's list of "most frequently challenged books of 2005" for "homosexuality, nudity, sex education, religious viewpoint, abortion and being unsuited to age group," and ranked #15 in ALA's list of "100 most frequently challenged books 1990-2000" - even though it was published more than halfway through the decade, in 1996.

Of course, Planned Parenthood endorses It's Perfectly Normal. Good for business. The book promotes abortion, of course.

[HT: moderator Bethany]

Get ready, Planned Parenthood. Pro-Life Action League's Ann, Joe, and Eric Scheidler, along with Jeff Eschbach of ChicagoProLifeActivist fame, will travel to Denver Friday to launch two days of events, including a strategy meeting, a rally at the proposed Denver PP site, and a fundraiser.

Click on page 1 of flyer to see enlarged pdf and page 2:

Also see www.noplannedparenthood.org for up-to-date info.

This makes sense. After an abortion business lies its way into a city and citizens overwhelmingly oppose it, city officials turn on the citizens.

With no plan in sight to pour sidewalks so those citizens can safely protest according to their First Amendment rights, or even so the poor women of America can safely trudge barefoot and accidentally pregnant to Planned Parenthood's largest abortion mill in the U.S., Aurora city officials have instead erected nonsensical signs to nowhere banning pro-life presense from anywhere across the street from PP (click to enlarge)....

Reports Eric Scheidler of Pro-Life Action League, who took the photos:

The "beyond this point" one is funny. There isn't any "point" there. It's just in the middle of Oakhurst, sort of facing the south, as if to say you can't protest north of this sign. But the other one, that just says "no protesting," is actually SOUTH of the "beyond this point" sign. It's nonsense. Typical Aurora incompetence.

There are a similar pair of signs farther south. One faces west, out into the street, and says "beyond this point." But there's no logical "point" the sign could be referring to. Across the street is a regular "no protesting" sign. But that's the one place where a "beyond this point" sign might make a little sense. Heigh ho.

But there's more. Aurora police are apparently privy to pro-life terrorist activity involving get-aways in baby carriages. Because while a pro-life protest was taking place on November 17 far and away from the First Amendment rights prohibition signs, police surrounded and threatened to arrest a man walking his baby on the only sidewalk in the PP vicinicty - along Oakhurst. According to the Chicago Tribune:

Police threatened to arrest a man praying and walking with his infant along the east side of Oakhurst, near a residential community.

"I wasn't planning to be part of the protest today," said Aurora resident Roger Earl. "I didn't realize that I was breaking any law by walking along the sidewalk praying."

Earl said he was near the protest because his wife was participating, and he was watching their infant. He said police approached him and asked him whether he was part of the protest, warned him twice and then threatened to arrest him.

Police spokesman Dan Ferrelli said Earl was praying and wearing an insignia indicating he opposed abortion.

Powell defended the police enforcement.

"If he's praying here, he's here because of the building. He can pray at home or anywhere," he said.

So the Aurora gestapo also serve double duty as the Aurora prayer police. Must be exhausting. Jeff Eschbach of ProLifeChicagoActivist captured the drama on film, first a police officer interrogating Earl's baby...

... and then a shot of the diabolical "insignia" that aroused police suspicion:

It's amazing that Aurora officials could spot like hawks a pro-lifer wearing a 1" pin on one weekend morning when they failed to notice Planned Parenthood erecting a 22,000 sq. ft. building for 8 months.

Click to enlarge....

Know that a very expensive public relations firm designed this message and the message within the message, including the prominently pregnant worker and Cecile's "family" imagery. I always like to analyze how PP tries to portray itself and then, of course, why.

Thought you also might be interested in this video I stumbled on of Cecile speaking at Planned Parenthood Aurora on October 10, about a week after it opened.

"... some of the ugliest protesters we've seen in more than a decade.... we're on the blogosphere...."

*bow*

[HT for Cecile's Thanksgiving message: John Jansen at Pro-Life Action League]

In Chicago we have tailgate parties before Bears games. In Colorado pro-lifers have tailgate parties at protests. Major hoot.

Here's the report from Leslie Hanks:

On November 18, 30-40 Denver pro-life activists enjoyed hot dogs and hamburgers at a protest and BBQ in front of the Cherry Hills Village home of Weitz Construction executive, Bill Hornaday.

Although it appeared that the Hornadays were not home, most of his neighbors saw the signs of aborted babies and "Abortion is always wrong" signs Planned Parenthood opponents carried. The youngest protester was a 5 day old baby boy....

One forlorn young woman... sat in her front yard with a hand made sign indicating her family will donate to Planned Parenthood every time there is a protest of the new super death camp's construction company executive. Ironically, she told pro-lifers she was adopted, but she sadly championed a woman's right to "choose."

See more photos, including that sign, on page 2.

The West is certainly wild... :)

I blogged here and here that Wayne State University's Medical Students for Choice invited late-term MI abortionist Alberto Hodari to speak November 9.

Students for Life of America was there to catch the 50 minute speech on videotape with two cameras and will be releasing "best of" clips. The first is below.

Let me preface the clip by giving a shout out to the WSU abortion apprentices who invited Hodari: Kia Jones, Jonathan Oakes, Katie O'Connell, and Cynthia Velting-Kidder. I'm not sure which one introduced Hodari, but there's her picture on the right.

And we upset her, sorry to say. At the close of her intro she said, "I'm sure pretty much everyone here knows that this has been... there's been a lot of [unintelligible] surrounding this talk. One of our fellow students sent our flyer to the national pro-life people. We are now all blogged on their blogs, and you know, it's pretty upsetting that a fellow student would do that to us, brand us, so people know what kind of people we are. But we're here to stay and we're not intimidated by that and we really appreciate everyone coming out becuase it makes all that perhaps worth it."

I'm not sure why we would be considered intimidating when the young woman was standing next to a man who has been accused of killing at least two women and maiming many more.

And "brand"? Why would publicizing one's profession be considered "branding"? She should thank us. I'm hurt. And my dear, you don't need pro-life bloggers to broadcast what kind of people you are. You're doing fine broadcasting that on your own.

At any rate, here is the first clip, and it will not disappoint After ridiculing aborting fathers who pass out while observing their child being sliced and diced, Hodari admits to lying to both father and patients about the procedure. Hodari's braggadocio is quite shocking, quite stupid, actually. What a guy. How long will abortion proponents try to say these quack abortionists are anomalies?

Note this abortionist only lies less now thanks to public education about abortion, no thanks to the industry. This video clip should be shown at every legislative hearing on Women's Right to Know laws - which the industry always fights. It's no wonder.

I'm not too happy with the National Right to Life Committee these days.

The tipping point was learning on November 3 while attending a speech given by Hadley Arkes at Valparaiso University that NRLC originally opposed the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, which Hadley wrote and which I testified regarding. Hadley explained during his speech the Partial Birth Abortion Ban was coming to the fore about that time, and NRLC thought it more important and that BAIPA was too soft.

Add to that, NRLC actively opposed the South Dakota Abortion Ban and is currently actively opposing the Georgia Human Life Amendment.

There may be pragmatism and smart politics and all involved in these NRLC decisions, but when a pro-life organization takes the same position as pro-abortion organizations, something is wrong.

There are other things, but that's enough of a backdrop.

So about Fred Thompson.

NRLC's endorsement might be the best decision. I just know he's not the best pro-life candidate. There is at least one other who is polling as well or stronger, and he's more pro-life, and that's Mike Huckabee. I'm not in Huckabee's camp, but when I compare the two, I just don't get NRLC's endorsement. I'm cynical.

I'm wondering if the leadership of NRLC, which has been the same forever, has become too immersed in the DC culture. This would go a long way toward explaining support for Thompson (and his wife) over Huckabee. Also recall NRLC immediately jumped on board the Harriet Miers bandwagon.

I'm wondering when pragmatism and smart politics become something else.

UPDATE, 10:10a: Email from "Washington insider," as s/he wants to be identified, on the question of NRLC's endorsement of Thompson:

Don't really know what to make of it. It's a prudential judgment, obviously: the result of a no-doubt complicated calculation of who is most likely to win divided by the square of who is least objectionable on the issue times an estimate of what states they can make a difference for him in.... Like any early endorsement, it's a gamble: if he wins, they're in like Flynn. If he loses....

Both Judge Judy and Judge Roy Brown are vying to hear a small claims court case filed by KS pro-life activist Mark Gietzen against late-term Wichita abortionist George Tiller, who was served yesterday.

Gietzen is requesting the maximum allowable, $4,000, for injuries he sustained after Tiller allegedly ran him over and then fled the scene outside his abortion mill last year.

The details of the hit-and-run, according to an Operation Rescue press release:

Gietzen says that as he and another man were measuring the driveway to insure that certain prayer activities were within the law, when Tiller accelerated his Jeep Grand Cherokee directly at them, even turning to continue to aim at them as they began to move out of the way. Tiller’s Jeep struck Gietzen as he attempted to move, bruising his arm and leg, and causing pain for several months.

Tiller should definitely agree to let either Judge Judy or Roy hear this case. The shows pay the claim, so Tiller would get to keep a late-term abortion's worth of money rather than hand it over to a pro-lifer.

See letters from both show producers on page 2.

Click to see pdf view:

Click to see pdf view:

Citizens for a Pro-Life Society is planning a protest today of late-term abortionist Alberto Hodari's scheduled appearance at the behest of Wayne State University's Medical Students for Choice for an unappetizing "lunchtime seminar":

Students for Choice anticipated in their email alert the other day, which I posted, learning from Hodari "what it is to deal with protesters...."

Yet when I listed the names of the apprentice abortionists to give them firsthand experience with protesters not just to sate their curiosity but also prepare them for some of the perks of their intended profession, pro-aborts called me immature and a harrasser.

I don't underestand why pro-aborts call abortionists noble yet consider free publicity a negative.

I anticipate a good report and photos from pro-lifers of today's Hodari event.

This will be a great learning experience for the fledgling baby killers. Speaking of fledglings, these kids are young enough for Hodari to have been happy to abort them 20 years back. Who knows, maybe he aborted a sibling.

Following the lead of 60 pro-life/pro-family groups who on October 24 sent a letter to every US senator and congressman asking them to suspend federal funding of Planned Parenthood, US Sen. Sam Brownback and 12 other senators sent a letter Tuesday to chairmen of both the Senate and House Appropriations Committees. asking the same:

We write to urge you to suspend funding... for organizations that promote abortion. While an amendment to this effect was not adopted in the U.S. Senate last month, we believe recent findings warrant such a suspension pending further investigation....

One recipient of such funding is the Planned Parenthood Federation of America which receives more than $300 million in taxpayer funding each year. According to a 107-count complaint filed in Kansas' Johnson County District Court two weeks ago, Planned Parenthood is accused of performing illegal late-term abortions in violation of state law. It is also accused of falsifying documents and failing to comply with medical reporting requirements.

Unfortunately this is just one example of a troubling trend....

The other senators signing the letter, Republicans all, were John Barrasso (WY), Jim Bunning (KY), Elizabeth Dole (NC), Mike Enzi (WY), Chuck Hagel (NE), James Inhofe (OK), Jon Kyl (AZ), Trent Lott (MS), Mel Martinez (FL), Pat Roberts (KS), John Thune (SD), and David Vitter (LA).

While naysayers will dismiss all this, consider the following, from July:

Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN) tried to eliminate a sizable portion of Planned Parenthood's government grants, sponsoring an amendment that would have ended funding of the organization under Title X, the federal government's family planning program.

The House... defeated Pence's amendment in a 231-189 vote in July, meaning Planned Parenthood remains the largest recipient of Title X funding.

The action, however, marked an apparent first. There had never been such an "up-or-down vote" on funding for Planned Parenthood, Jim Sedlak, vice president of the American Life League, said....

That was a strong vote. Had only 22 gone our way who didn't, and it would have passed.

Keeping banging the door.

Here's an example of Planned Parenthood Title X funds at work. The video is entitled, "Complementary Waterballoons From Planned Parenthood," and was put up on YouTube a week ago:

{HT for Brownback letter: Operation Rescue via reader Angela]

Hm. A late-term abortionist speaking at a "lunchtime seminar." Doesn't sound digestionally conducive to me.

But of all who could stomach it, I expect it would be Medical Students for Choice, the group sponsoring abortionist Alberto Hodari Friday at Wayne State University:

"Proud"? Well, I guess only future abortionists would be proud of Dr. Hodari's bloody trail of deaths, hemorrhages, hysterectomies, and, of course, drawn and quartered late-term babies.

Can you see me raising my hand in cyberspace to ask some questions of Dr. Hodari?

1. Dr. Hodari, can you explain the partial birth abortion procedure you recently argued in favor of? You said the passage of the PBA Ban forced abortionists to commit more dangerous procedures. What exactly are those? And how can abortion possibly be dangerous in safe, legal hands like yours?

2. Dr. Hodari, would you care to provide details of the abortion you committed on 15-year-old, 6 months pregnant Tamiia Russell on January 7, 2004, that resulted in her death by infection and hemmorhage? And I thought minor abortions without parental consent were illegal? Yet she got this one secretly. Did you report she had been statutorily raped by her 24-year-old boyfriend, Stacy Glenn?

There are many others, but I don't want to monopolize Q&A. Also found this:

Yes, future abortionists, you're right that "you won't get this kind of education in class," because, of course, abortionists are bottom-feeding losers who didn't pay attention in class.

[HT: Students for Life of America, which has also established a petition opposing Hodari's appearance. If he does show, I'd love to hear the place was stacked with pro-lifers.]

UPDATE, 3:50p: I'd like to type the names of WSU's Med Students for Choice in case any friends, family, dating prospects, job prospects, etc., ever google them. In that case this article will pop up and they'll know exactly what sort of person they're dealing with. They are: Kia Jones, Jonathan Oakes, Katie O'Connell, and Cynthia Velting-Kidder.

In yesterday's autumn 2007 Aurora Borealis, the City of Aurora's quarterly newsletter, Mayor Tom Weisner rationalized allowing Planned Parenthood to lie its way into his city by saying he investigated PP from every angle for naught.

But all along, pro-lifers smelled a rat, particularly since the mayor's current chief of staff, Bill Wiet, admitted knowing PP was coming to town beforehand.

So while Weisner ramrodded an investigation of PP that ended with the verdict pro-lifers suspected Weisner wanted, pro-lifers called for an investigation of Weisner, which to date has not been conducted.

Against that backdrop, OpenLineBlog today caught Clintonspeak in the mayor's newsletter....

"Entire building"? This can only mean someone in "the city" knew beforehand that PP was planning to inhabit at least part of the building. More than ever an investigation is called for to learn what Weisner and/or city officials knew when they knew it, and whether/how they greased PP's skids into Aurora.

This also confirms it was entirely inappropriate - although certainly understandable - for Weisner to oversee the investigation of PP and unilaterally decide to let it open its doors.

Other PP Aurora news

Does this sound like Aurora deja vu?

On January 11, 2007, a corporation named Fuller 38 LLC bought the property at 7155 E. 38th Ave. in Denver from United Airlines for $1,350,000 according to this HomeInfoMaxReport.

Fuller 38 LLC was created two weeks before, on December 27, 2006. See deed to property and Fuller 38 incorporation papers here (pages 3-5).

On August 20, 2007, the Denver Post broke the story of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains' stealth purchase of the United Airlines Denver property with this map acknowledging the purchase was made "under a different name":

So why as recently as October 3, 2007, did the Weitz Company, which I've previously documented is PP Denver's general contractor, apply for construct permits from the City of Denver listing United Airlines as the property owner? Click to see enlarged view:

I moved the date up so all would fit in one screen....

This was no fluke. Here is a permit document dated May 25, 2007. Click to see enlarged view; I moved the date up so all would fit on one screen:

See copies of permits in their entirety here (pages 1-2).

Planned Parenthood CEOs in both Denver and Chicago have stated they kept PP's name out of the construction process as long as possible to keep pro-lifers from interfering.

But does that give them license to lie on permit documents? And what about the right of subcontractors and workers to make the "choice" not to help build this abortion monstrosity?

CO Pro-life activist Keith Mason contacted two subcontractors last week working on the PP project, MTECH Mechanical Company and Haynes Mechanical Systems.

According to Mason, MTECH was told the name of the project was Fuller M.O.B. (medical office building). Haynes was told it was a United Airlines call center. Both stated their work was completed and they wished to avoid the controversy.

"We're not surprised that the abortion industry would be so deceptive," wrote Mason in an email. "We are surprised that The Weitz Company is putting their reputation and credibility on the line to collaborate with Planned Parenthood."

I'm not.

Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa, where Weitz Company's parent company is located, listed great-grandsons of Weitz's founder, Fred (and wife Emily) and Steve (and wife Linda), as contributors in its 2005-06 annual report:

[HT for Weitz donations to PP: Iowa Right to Life; all other documentation: Keith Mason]

Planned Parenthood has only one thing on its mind: SEX.

You would call PP perverted unless you understood the organization makes all its money off the unmerry-go-round of selling illicit sex and fixing the consequences of illicit sex.

Case in point, the Voices for Planned Parenthood hook-up club* at Louisiana State University, aka Vox LSU.

(*Comedian Chris Rock astutely noted during one of his routines (warning: explicit) that the best women to pick up are self-identified pro-aborts. "I love going to abortion rallies to pick up women, because you know they're f***... You ain't gonna find a bunch of virgins at at abortion rally.")

On Halloween, Vox LSU members dressed as "their favorite form of birth control," i.e., walking advertisements for PP products, "to raise awareness about the need for prevention and contraception." Click all photos (more on page 2) to see enlarged view:

These students had gender identification issues:

I know they meant this poster to be blasphemous, but I actually found it pretty funny:

See more photos on Vox LSU's facebook website.

I do think had a Vox LSU student dressed as an abortion, s/he would have gone a long way toward educating "about the need for prevention" as well.

[HT: friend Michael New; see Louisiana Students for Life website for Vox LSU's worthy opponent]

You may be unfamiliar with the word, "doula." It is the term for women who offer professional labor support that may also encompass prenatal and postnatal/
breastfeeding/newborn care support.

Miriam Perez at RH Reality Check reported October 30 that feminists and the abortion industry are trying to establish abortion doulas....

This is tricky, since one important role of doulas is to help minimize pain through labor, which pro-aborts either deny or deemphasize as a part of abortion, and another important role is to offer emotional and psychological support before, during, and after delivery, which pro-aborts maintain isn't necessary for abortion since it is a positive experience with no emotional or psychological after effects.

Yet while pro-aborts fervently deny the physical and psychological pain of abortion, they furtively acknowledge them by trialing abortion doulas, also an attempt to legitimize and destigmatize abortion by making it a component of maternity.

So you'll get a schizophrenic explanation of the role of ab-doulas, as seen in this article, which would be laughable if the endeavor weren't so disgusting and pathetic.

Disgusting? Oh, yes. Prepare to be repulsed, from the article:

Explaining how the abortion procedure works is similar to visualization used by doulas during labor, when the doula helps the woman to visualize the baby moving down into the birth canal with the strength of each contraction...."

Exactly what is an aborting mother supposed to visualize coming down her birth canal?

Also note acknowledgement that abortion mills are cold and calloused, where aborting mothers are cattle:

Erin [who aborted at age 18] explained, "... The medical staff at the hospital were not kind to me and there was no discussion about what was happening to my body, it was just a procedure that they were doing to me as coldly and clinically as possible."...

As the number of providers decreases (it has dropped 37% since 1982) and the number of women having abortions continues to go up, clinics and abortion providers are overextended and under-resourced.... [M]any providers [are] not well equipped to provide adequate support....

[M]ost clinics and providers are unable to provide the longer-term support....

And what, abortion mills aren't providing teaching?

Erin explained why she would have wanted a doula at her abortion: "I feel that a doula would have helped me understand what was happening to my newly pregnant body, the process of the abortion, and the after care for my body."...

Dr. Nilda Moreno, an OB/GYN and member of the Birth Sisters [doula] program, explained, "We don't only want to provide emotional support but also contraceptive support. We want them to have all the information to prevent unintended pregnancies."

Then there's the pain of it all, due solely to the bottom line I might add, no matter what they say, since appropriate anesthesia would require the added expense of product and personnel:

[T]he procedure itself can also be a painful one, during which many women are fully or at least partially conscious. Raquel Valentin, Practice Manager for the Family Planning Division at Beth Israel Hospital explained, "Many first trimester abortions are being done with local and moderate sedation. This means that the women are still awake and emotional." The decision to use moderate sedation is based on both the women's choices and the higher risks associated with full anesthesia but can result in an experience that can be both frightening and, at times, painful....

[P]ain mediation techniques, like massage, acupressure and breathing could all be helpful for some women during these abortion procedures.

And I'll let you in on one of their dirty little secrets. They give aborting mothers Versed, an amnesiac, so they forget whatever pain, trauma, resistance - and change of mind - they experienced during the abortion.

Then we get to the psychological aspect of abortion, a minefield ab-doula supporters don't tip toe very well through:

Susan Yanow... former director of the Abortion Access Project... "I don't want to carve out abortion in any way that minimizes or maximizes it," she explained. Instead of implying that women who have abortions need a lot of support, this is simply another opportunity to help women within the broader context of doula care. To her it's important that women do not feel that abortion is being stigmatized and that women are not being sent the message that they need support during their abortion....

Susan explained that what she doesn't want to do is send the message that all women need support; and she worries that it will simply add to the stigma that women already feel around abortion....

All I can say about that gobbledygook is, what?

There was much more to this article. Dawn Eden of Dawn Patrol, who was gracious to give me the tip, had her own thoughts:

Among the issues raised:

the targeting of abortion "doulas" to Latino women

the discomfort among doulas of having their "pro-life" (as one doula calls it) profession turned towards aiding and abetting abortions

the insinuation that doulas could convince women that abortion will not affect their fertility

the reluctance of some abortion advocates to promote a program that would suggest some women are not 100% happy with their abortion experience

the references to women's "complicated" feelings on abortion (are these the same women who are so certain about the rightness their decision that they would be insulted by the offer of an ultrasound?)

"I was very clear in my heart and mind that the abortion was exactly the right thing to do for me at that point in my life...."

and a quote by Erin at the end:

"I had a hard first labor. I wonder if I had trouble connecting to my birthing body as a result of the abortion experience."

Lots of stuff in that last statement: disassociation with her "wanted and planned child[]," guilt, an underlying concern about payback.

Ab-doulas, just one more failed attempt to mainstream abortion. After almost 35 years of legalized but stigmatized abortion, you'd think they'd realize it's not gonna happen.

It's the day after Halloween, and I'm still feeling spirited.

The Planned Parenthood Aurora blog was complaining about pro-life pickets of the Weitz Company in Denver and homes of its leaders, which I've reported on extensively. Weitz has agreed to build PP's new largest abortion mill in the U.S. there, coming in at 50k sq. ft., more than double the size of the Aurora mill. Said blogger Marie...

... [I]n light of these types of situations, why do some people still not understand why some Planned Parenthood affiliates must choose to use a low-visibility approach regarding permitting processes for new facilities? This is EXACTLY what Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area wanted to avoid in Aurora.

As I said, I'm feeling feisty. Probably had too many Skittles last night. I've never commented on the PPA blog before but wrote:

"low-visibility approach"? Planned Parenthood's new term for fraud and lying?

But PPA censored my comment.

I'm highly visibly hurt.

I had lengthy conversations yesterday with pro-life IL attorneys Peter Breen and Vince Tessitore about the Aurora Planned Parenthood zoning appeal situation....

They have both spent a significant amount of time on this key plan to shut down PP Aurora, for which we are all grateful.

In fact and coincidentally, when I spoke in Charlottesville, VA, earlier this month, I connected with pro-life attorney Mike Sharmon, who has overseen that city's successful legal effort to shut down its PP for zoning violations, and he said Peter had called him that very day.

(The Charlottesville PP is still open, despite 5, yes FIVE, straight court losses for PP and zero wins, because the county thus far has not acted on the court decision.)

So here's the update on our zoning appeal.

First, our side has located a high profile law firm willing to take our case that specializes in zoning litigation. But the cost will run somewhere between $180-360k, and the firm requires 30% down. Money is the hold-up. If you want to donate to this endeavor that could realistically shut down PP Aurora while sending a shock through the industry, please email me.

We have already discussed two planks of the zoning appeal:

1. PP used a for-profit front corporation to construct a building actually owned by a nonprofit, for which there are different zoning rules and for which a special use permit was required.

2. PP's front company, Gemini Office Development, lied on five separate permit applications and in response to a direct question from a city alderman in an open hearing about PP being the intended occupant. (This fraud was not without consequences. Had Aurora known this was to be PP's largest U.S. mill, it would certainly have made PP install sidewalks, particularly for poor patrons who have to get there by mass transit or on foot. And Aurora certainly would have moved PP's entrance from the busy Dominick's mall thoroughfare to the better prepared Oakhurst St. Etc., etc., etc.)

But here's a third, a B-2 bomb, if you will.

3. PP's plans were designed according to the wrong building code. The plans were for B-2 zoning (general retail) when they should have been for B-B zoning (business boulevard district). This means, for example, the PP building should have been set back from the lot line 35 feet, when it is currently set back about 25 feet. And PP's parking lot was calculated by the wrong multipliers. Instead of its current 71 parking spaces, it should have 90+. Etc., etc., etc.

These are three strong, valid arguments to revoke PP's permits and oust it. The plan is try to work through Aurora's Zoning Board of Appeals but continue on to sue PP in court if need be.

It is time for big donors to step up to the plate. The other side has billionaires willing to invest in their cause. We have are own millionaires if not billionaires that need to step up, too. And this would be a great investment. Read more details on the tenets of the zoning appeal here.

[Photo, top right, courtesy of Families Against Planned Parenthood, is of shrubs being planted at the PP Aurora mill Monday. Were they planted according to code? Which code? What about the illegal fencing you can barely see on the right side of the photo barricading the public parkway? When will Aurora remove that?]

I received the letter below a week ago from head of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists with the following preface:

PLEASE READ THIS LETTER CAREFULLY. It concerns the world-level meeting in London to discuss improving women's healthcare on a worldwide basis, and especially in the undeveloped countries....

The agenda for this meeting was not set up by flesh and blood, but by the rulers, the authorities, the powers of this dark world and by spiritual forces of evil in high places, to quote a well known writer. This is what we face on a world scale.

Well, I did read the letter carefully. Our side wrote it in response to the recently held Women Deliver Global Conference, held under the guise of reducing infant and maternal mortality, as you would think by this graphic from its site as all others on this post:

I didn't post the letter because frankly I thought your eyes might glaze over. But it shocked me, helping me see the pervasiveness of the abortion industry in the world, and that abortion in America is but one part, indeed a small part.

The letter's gravity has stuck with me. The health and safety of women, pregnant mothers, and children worldwide, particularly in poor countries, is being ignored to promote abortion.

Furthermore, the funding to abort poor women has obviously to come from elsewhere - us. This is the reason pro-aborts have targeted the overturn of the U.S.'s Mexico City Policy (in upcoming post) as its number one priority.

So I am posting the letter now and hope you will read it:

LETTER TO THE ORGANISING COMMITTEE OF THE CONFERENCE "WOMAN DELIVER"

London, 20 October 2007

WE, THE UNDERSIGNED ORGANISATIONS, wish to express our profound disappointment and dismay that the Women Deliver conference has failed to meet its stated objective of addressing Millennium Development Goal 5, which is to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity.

Delegates were invited to attend a global conference on the causes, prevention and treatment of the complications of pregnancy and childbirth which lead to the deaths of so many mothers, particularly in developing countries, and to consider effective solutions.

Regrettably, the conference agenda was so preoccupied with promoting the ideology and practice of abortion that the genuine healthcare needs of women and children were virtually ignored in the plenary sessions and overwhelmed in the panel discussions.

Numerous UN reports, such as The World's Women 2005: Progress in Statistics, have concluded that accurate data about maternal mortality, including abortion, are not available, especially for the developing world. Therefore, the presentation of unsubstantiated and unreliable data on illegal abortion as fact can only be seen as a deliberate attempt to mislead the conferees and the international community.

To assert that "unsafe abortions" are only those that are illegal, and to subsequently imply that legal abortion is therefore safe, is both disingenuous and scientifically flawed. The fact that the WHO [World Health Organization] will not be collecting information on the morbidity and mortality related to legal abortion is unconscionable if there is truly a commitment to accurate and meaningful data collection on morbidity and mortality statistics.

The consistent assertions that improvements in the maternal mortality rate are dependent on the promotion of legal abortion not only diverts attention from the urgent need for basic heath care, skilled birth attendants and emergency obstetrics, it threatens to undermine the field of obstetrics and gynaecology if implemented on a wide scale.

Furthermore, we oppose the fact that:

~ Members of the organising committee, including the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and Marie Stopes International, who have financial interests in the provision of abortion, have used the conference to promote a private agenda to spread abortion throughout the developing world;

~ The organising committee has attempted to manufacture a false consensus by ensuring that only the views which reinforced its pre-conceived ideas were represented during the conference;

~ The conference has sidelined the main issues related to maternal mortality (basic health conditions based on vaccine availability, clean water, sanitation, basic nutritional supplementation, primary medical post-natal and peri-natal care, fistula, female genital mutilation, haemorrhage, sepsis, obstructed labour, eclampsia). Such sidelining is a serious act of negligence which leads not only to continuing, but increasing, the risks associated with maternal health.

We call upon the conference partners to focus on basic health care, skilled attendants and emergency obstetrics, which have been the key to decreasing maternal mortality in the developed world, instead of exploiting the tragedy of maternal mortality to promote abortion rights.

It never occurred to me before today that the shorthand we use for Planned Parenthood, "PP," could also stand for Peyton Place.

Eric Scheidler has posted two juicy lawsuits against PP Chicago Area and its CEO Steve Trombley.

First there's the one filed by former PPCA head abortionist Murray Pelta. According to the lawsuit, he started aborting for PPCA in 1992, was promoted to chief baby killer in 1997, and was fired by Trombley on February 28, 2007.

Here's one bit of juice from the lawsuit, leading up to the reason for the complaint (click to enlarge; page break removed for flow)....

Eww.

Then the reason Pelton got fired (click to enlarge; page break removed for flow):

You can't make this stuff up. What a seedy, pathetic world these people live in. Understandably.

Pelter also alleged in his complaint that Trombley pegged him as the fall guy after a successful lawsuit of a patient who claimed she was given "improper medical advice" from "non-licensed PPCA personnel, this after Pelter said he had warned Trombley this was bad form.

The second lawsuit was brought by RN Nicole Chesis against PPCA and associate medical director, Darryn Dunbar*. Dunbar fired Chesis on April 10, 2007. It would be a typical disgruntled employee lawsuit except it had to do with PP, which picqued my interest. Accusations flew, and mind you, these are by PP employees, not by pro-lifers:

"... changing dates on ultrasounds so that patients would have to pay a higher price for abortion servics...."

"... failure to ensure the presence of an anesthesiologist, licensed physician or registered nurse in or around the recovery room when sedation patients are present...."

"... unlicensed employees with no medical training, were performing improper ultrasounds and were making ultrasound diagnoses...."

"... prescrib[ing] Depo-Provera to a patient with a history of depression" with the counter charge that "prescribing of Depo-Provera to patients with depressive orders is not prohibited...."

In that lawsuit Chesis mentioned the names of two other PPCA employees, and since I'm always interested in outting them, here they are: "Tina Boyer, the manager of the Near North Center" and "Rachel Bergstrom-Carlson, PP/CA's Regional Manager."

UPDATE, 11/5, 3p: *I have corrected Dunbar's title.

They think we'll eventually tire of the battle and go away, but we won't. Please plan to show our persevering determination by attending this rally tomorrow.

There are several ways to participate: Truth tour picket, baby shower, pro-life display, and a big rally. Go to Families Against Planned Parenthood for details and info on parking. The first 200 off the shuttle bus will get a free Choose Life cap!

Our moderator mother MK is planning for we bloggers to meet up at the Planned Parenthood sign immediately after the rally to introduce ourselves if we haven't met before and to potentially go to breakfast/lunch.

We've been tracking Denver Planned Parenthood's plans to build a 50,000 sq. ft. abortuary, in an apparent contest to earn the coveted title of PP's largest U.S. abortion mill, which Aurora Planned Parenthood currently holds at 22,000 st. ft.

Weitz Construction is the Denver PP's intended builder, and pro-lifers have been picketing Weitz and homes of its vp's for a month now. (See here, here, here, and here.)

Now word comes that a meeting held yesterday between pro-lifers and the CO head of the IA based company did not go well. Its president, Bill Hornaday, refused to reconsider building the mill.

Meanwhile, Denver pro-lifer Will Duffy recorded a conversation with Sue Damos, wife of the IA Weitz CEO
Craig Damos, wherein she said Planned Parenthood does not commit abortions. Listen:

Sue Damos audio

Seriously, how ignorant can a person be?

Worse, the PP Denver mill will focus on killing black babies in the heart of a minority neighborhood, 1/2 block from Martin Luther King Jr. Park no less, standing true to its founder Margaret Sanger's eugenic plans.

[HT: John Jansen, Lolita, Will]

150 years ago it became known as Bloody Kansas for violence erupting between pro-choice slavery supporters of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and anti-slavery abolitionists.

Now the state known as the abortion capital of the world thanks to infamous late-term abortionist George Tiller is at the center of identical opposing ideologies, erupting in nationwide warfare against the US's largest preborn baby killer, Planned Parenthood.

Columnist Robert Novak reported today....

National anti-abortion leaders Wednesday put finishing touches on a letter to be sent to all members of Congress urging suspension of more than $300 million in federal funding of Planned Parenthood until a massive criminal case brought in Kansas against the abortion rights organization is settled. That launches an attack against the nation's largest purveyor of "reproductive health care" - including abortions.

On Oct. 16, Kansas District Judge James F. Vano in suburban Kansas City reviewed a 107-count grand jury indictment against Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri Inc. and decided there was probable cause to proceed. Allegations of unlawful late-term abortions and other abortion-connected crimes were brought by Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline, a pro-life hero nationally who is viewed as a fanatic by abortion rights advocates. The prosecution alleges violation of state and federal laws and falsification of documents to justify it.

This opens a new front in the endless abortion wars. The offensive against abortion now takes dead aim at Planned Parenthood and attempts to expand a Kansas criminal prosecution into a nationwide assault....

[A]nti-abortion strategists are aiming at Planned Parenthood and its 860 facilities nationwide. Concerned Women for America and other pro-life organizations signed this week's letter to members of Congress asking for suspension of more than $300 million in federal funding, about one-third of the organization's budget.

While the Democratic-controlled Congress surely will not defund Planned Parenthood, it will be pressed to fulfill its oversight mission with congressional hearings. The socially conservative Family Research Council called Wednesday for a Justice Department investigation. And Republican presidential candidates - who proceed gingerly on abortion -- will be called to combat in this war.

Trigger

Per the Associated Press, October 17:

Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline charged the Overland Park, Kan., [Planned Parenthood] clinic with 107 counts, 23 of them felonies. Besides 29 misdemeanor counts of providing unlawful late-term abortions, the clinic is charged with multiple counts of making a false writing, failure to maintain records and failure to determine viability.

Added the Kansas City Star, October 17:

After Kline filed the complaint Wednesday, District Judge James F. Vano found probable cause for the charges, a step that allows the case to proceed. Planned Parenthood is scheduled to appear in court Nov. 16.

The specific charges, according to the Kansas City Star, October 17:

23 felony counts: Submitting false pregnancy termination reports.

26 misdemeanors: Failing to maintain termination reports.

29 misdemeanors: Failing to perform viability tests on fetuses.

29 misdemeanors: Unlawful late-term abortion....

The 23 felony counts filed Wednesday allege that Planned Parenthood submitted false pregnancy termination reports to a court on Aug. 21 in response to a subpoena. Planned Parenthood said the reports were copies of original reports kept in patient files and sent to the state, the district attorney’s office alleges.

Twenty-six misdemeanor counts allege that Planned Parenthood failed to maintain termination reports for 26 cases from 2003.

The clinic also is accused of performing illegal late-term abortions in those same cases and in three others that took place that year, accounting for 29 misdemeanor counts. Those abortions allegedly were done without a finding that they were medically necessary.

Kline also filed 29 misdemeanor counts accusing Planned Parenthood of failing to perform viability tests on the fetuses.

Added ABC News in an otherwise terribly biased story, October 22:

[W]omen's reproductive rights activists are beginning to wonder whether Kline might deliver a big blow to abortion rights not only in Kansas but across the country.

Other related outbursts

... against LS AG Paul Morrison. The Kansas City Star reported October 22:

Now that Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline has filed charges against Planned Parenthood, three Johnson County lawmakers want to know why charges weren’t filed earlier. They submitted a letter Monday to Attorney General Paul Morrison asking him to explain why he cleared Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri of any criminal wrongdoing.

Last week, using the same records available to Morrison, Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline filed charges - 107 counts in all - alleging that Planned Parenthood's Overland Park clinic falsified, forged and failed to maintain records and performed illegal late-term abortions.

Rep. Ben Hodge, an Overland Park Republican, and Reps. Rob Olson and Mike Kiegerl, both Olathe Republicans, submitted the letter Monday.

... against the liberal media. Brent Bozell, president of Media Research Center, wrote yesterday:

As much as liberals decry major corporations that act as if they're above the law, there's always quiet when the subject is Planned Parenthood, America's No. 1 corporate provider of abortions. During its 2005-2006 fiscal year, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America performed a record 264,943 abortions, reported a tidy profit of $55.8 million — and received a record high in taxpayer funding of $305.3 million.

This is one corporation the media hold in the highest regard.....

[T]he press studiously avoids scrutiny of its liberal sacred cows — or focuses its guns on that person who would dare to get in their way. They'd lionize a state official attacking crisis-pregnancy centers that try to talk women out of abortions. But investigate the abortion industry, and you're a national disgrace....

Planned Parenthood is a formidable force in national (and state) politics. One major reason is networks like ABC, news outlets that don't really care whether this corporation plays by the rules, as long as the abortion assembly line keeps running.

... against Planned Parenthood of Overland Park (KS) by another route. Reported the Kansas City Star, October 21:

Organizers of a petition effort seeking a grand jury investigation of Planned Parenthood of Overland Park allege wrongdoing beyond the charges filed last week by District Attorney Phill Kline.

What's more, they say, the work of a grand jury could have national implications. They contend the Overland Park clinic is breaking the law and what is happening there probably is happening at all Planned Parenthood clinics....

On Sept. 30, [Troy] Newman announced that Operation Rescue was teaming up with two other groups to start a petition drive to seat a grand jury in Johnson County....

The petition alleges wrongdoing in other areas. Like Kline, they allege that the clinic is performing illegal abortions and providing false information to government officials. The organizers also allege that the clinic fails to report suspected child abuse, that it participates in the illegal trafficking of fetal tissue, that it fails to comply with parental consent requirements and that it fails to enforce the required 24-hour waiting period.

Planned Parenthood has not yet recovered from its PR hemorrhage thanks to the ongoing fight against the Aurora Planned Parenthood as well as the revelation this summer that 41-year-old Adam Gault's 15-year-old kidnap victim got an abortion at Planned Parenthood in West Hartford, CT, in May without its apparently notifying authorities of suspected sexual abuse.

[Photo credits: Bloody Kansas scene, National Constitution Center; Phill Kline, ABC News]

This past Saturday a student at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh learned something new: Planned Parenthood commits abortion. Duh to many of us, but not to that college freshman.

RMU requires that first year students complete some form of community service throughout the year, and on Saturday's Day of Service, the Planned Parenthood of Western PA abortion mill in Pittsburgh was one of 14 options RMU offered. RMU representative Kyle Fisher told me this was PP's 2nd year on the list.

10 students chose PP to volunteer to assemble "safer sex kits." Five calls to various PA PP's yielded ignorant staffers who had no idea what was in those kits. Nor did Ms. Fisher.

But I found perusing the web the kits contain a male condom, female condom, flavored lubricant, latex glove, dental dam, and finger cot....

Back in the day, and today under proper circumstances, sex was natural and carefree. But the prevalence of disease and potential death, never mind pregnancy, from engaging in sex under illicit circumanstances forces modern day participants to don latex body armor - only after undergoing pre-coital belt-notch interrogations and medical exams. And no one sees that something has gone terribly awry?

But I digress. Back to that freshman.

Pro-lifer Michael Forse, who regularly prays in front of this PP and who spoke to the girl, told me:

We were out there praying, and a group of about 10 women came across the street and went into the building.

After about a half hour or so, this young student, one of the girls who had gone in, came out weeping, shaking, visibly shaken and upset. The leader of the group came out with her.

We went to comfort her. The words out of her mouth: "I didn't know what they did in there. I didn't know what kind of place this was."

Then she was on the cell phone to come and get her.

That someone was a family member who came and picked her up and took her to St. Barnabas Church to complete her service.

Students for Life of America, which reported this incident, concluded in a press release:

"A lot of colleges want to educate students on issues of community concern, and yet the RMU administration is teaching how to destroy a community," Kristan Hawkins, Executive Director... said. "Planned Parenthood targets minorities and the poor, and now RMU is showing students that view is acceptable and that the poor are worth less than the privileged who can attend their expensive private school."

An expose on Planned Parenthood in the October 22 issue of The Weekly Standard explains how PP does the math to say with a straight face abortion accounts for only 3% of its services, as this pie chart from PP's 2005-06 report (click to enlarge) tries to show:

Deciphers The Weekly Standard....

One way Planned Parenthood massages the numbers to make its abortion business look trivial is to unbundle its services for purposes of counting.

Those 10.1 million different medical procedures in the last fiscal year, for instance, were administered to only 3 million clients.

An abortion is invariably preceded by a pregnancy test--a separate service in Planned Parenthood's reckoning--and is almost always followed at the organization's clinics by a "going home" packet of contraceptives, which counts as another separate service. Throw in a pelvic exam and a lab test for STDs--you get the picture. In terms of absolute numbers of clients, one in three visited Planned Parenthood for a pregnancy test, and of those, a little under one in three had a Planned Parenthood abortion.

It should be noted our moderator and resident statistician Valerie has written the same conclusion.

[HT: Phil E. of Rock for Life]

On Saturday, pro-lifers displayed the truth of abortion with graphic signs to everyone driving into and by all entrances of the Aurora Dominick's shopping mall:

Regretfully, Dominick's forced pro-lifers to spread out to all possible Planned Parenthood Aurora access points when it erected an urban ghetto chain link fence around its vacant lot across from PP late last week....

Dominick's action stopped pro-lifers from focusing their educational efforts solely across from the PP parking lot.

Meanwhile, Denver pro-lifers picketed the home of Don Gendall, a Weitz Construction vp, on Sunday. Weitz is the current general contractor for the proposed Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains' 50,000 sq. ft. mega-mill to be built in a Denver minority neighborhood.

Pro-lifers previously picketed the Weitz office and also the home of senior Weitz vp Gary Meggison.

[HT: Dolores Weber for Aurora photos and Leslie Hanks for Denver photos]

Eric Scheidler just sent over photos of the striking fence Safeway/Dominick's erected around its vacant lot across from Planned Parenthood Aurora late last night.

I'm sure neighbors will be pleased as Aurora begins to look more like Auschwitz by the day.

Here, I'll show you. You won't know unless I explain, but Aurora PP is on the left and Auschwitz on the right:

Again, PP Aurora on the left, Auschwitz on the right....

And again, PP Aurora left, Auschwitz right:

NARAL has put together a fun little quiz on the pro-life/pro-abortion position of the major presidential candidates:

I scored 8 out of 9, or 89% (missed #4).

How well do you know their positions? I hope I'm not giving away any answers when noting this test underscores why the Democrat Party is known as the Party of Death.

Received information from reader Dennis that beginning at 10p last night and completed by 11:30p, a fencing company erected a fence around the perimeter of the vacant lot owned by Safeway/Dominicks across from Planned Parenthood Aurora.

Just spoke with Eric Scheidler, who has also received the same information from numerous sources. He is going to the site to take pictures. Will post when up. The fence is apparently an 8-foot chain link.

Also see:
"Planned Parenthood Aurora: Dominick's freaks, police check grocery lists," October 7
"Planned Parenthood Aurora targets neighborhood grocery store," October 5

Pro-abort commenter Laura queried late last night, "How did the big council meeting go? Was anyone there? It's pretty hard to drum up a crowd once these things are a done deal..."

Laura was right if she was speaking of Planned Parenthood, which had a total of three protesters outside and not many more inside. Otherwise the place was packed with pro-lifers and police, both protesting the mayor.

Pro-lifers dominated the comments portion of the meeting, which the City Council limited to two hours.

Eric Scheidler live-blogged the evening.

Laura, one major point continually brought up: If they thought pro-lifers were going away, they were wrong.

Related articles:
"Aurora faces its critics," Daily Herald
"Aurora mayor defends his actions over clinic," Daily Herald

[Photos courtesy of Families Against Planned Parenthood]

1. Attend city council meeting tonight

Tonight will afford citizens their first opportunity to respond to the three investigative reports about the shady manner in which Planned Parenthood built its abortion mill in Aurora and Mayor Tom Weisner's hasty response.

Preceding that will be picket heaven. Eric Scheidler has called for a pro-life rally at 5p. Also, police ("hundreds" according to OpenlineBlog) will be protesting against the Mayor because they are working without a contract, and the pink PP's will likely show for another of their adolescent abortion pep rallies....

I'll be there to report on the fracas, so come join it.

2. Questions, questions

Eric has listed quite a few doozy questions pro-lifers might ask during their signed-up comment times tonight during the City Council meeting. Here are the first 5. Read the rest on page 2.

Why did the mayor announce his decision to let PP open before anyone in the community got to see the investigation reports?

Why weren't the aldermen consulted at all before this decision was announced?

Why were the aldermen included in the process of launching the investigation if they were only to be ignored in the end?

Why was Richard Martens told to complete his report after he had been replaced at the request of several aldermen?

Why was Kane County States Attorney John Barsanti asked to look for criminal fraud when none was ever alleged?

3. Analyzing the investigators and mayor

Eric has analyzed the three investigative reports by attorney Phillip Luetkehans, attorney Richard Martens, and Kane Co. State Attorney John Barsanti about the manner in which Planned Parenthood built its abortion mill in Aurora.

Eric also evaluated Mayor Tom Weisner's rapid response.

Eric's report contains helpful information. Based on it, I need to correct a previous point I made. I said none of the three addressed the nonprofit medical building zoning issue. Most know PP, a nonprofit entity, created Gemini LLC, a for-profit entity, to hide behind while planning with the city and building. Doing so allowed PP to avoid stringent zoning requirements like public hearings and votes before it built.

But according to Eric's report, Luetkehans submitted an amended report I did not receive, which briefly addressed that issue. The underscore is not mine. It was Luetkehans', meaning it was a new addition:

It has recently come to my attention that some property owners believe that the Special Use requirement for "Social service agencies, charitable organizations, health-related facilities, meeting halls and similar uses when not operated for profit in and [sic] use district" (herinafter "Social Service Agency") should require a Special Use hearing. This Special Use is not defined anywhere in the Zoning Ordinance and, hence, is not as specific as the Medical Clinic and Medical Center definitions. Any ambiguity in zoning ordinances must be found in favor of the applicant. Given the lack of definition for Social Service Agency and the definitions for Medical Clinic, Medical Center and Hospital, the ambiguity would have to be looked at as stating that the planned use is akin to either a Hospital or Medical Clinic.

Part of Eric's response:

Now, I'm not a lawyer, but it seems to me that Luetkehans' assertion that the Special Use in question is not defined anywhere is debunked by the very passage of the Zoning Ordinance that he quotes. And what's "ambiguous" about a "health related facility . . . not operated for profit"?

_______________

More citizen questions:

I previously reported pro-lifer Chris Danze planned to travel from TX to CO to help Denver pro-lifers plot a boycott drive against Planned Parenthood's planned 50,000 sq. ft. mega-mill on one square city block in a minority neighborhood.

Following is a photo of Chris' visit over the weekend, taken at PP's 29th and Vine mill location. Two more are on page 2. You can't see the building due to the great lengths PP went to erect a Berlinesque wall to evade democracy and protect its lies and bondage from truth and freedom. Click to enlarge.

UPDATE, 11:10a:: To clarify, these aren't photos of the property PP is intending to build on. These are photos outside another established PP mill in Denver.

Chris on left, pro-lifer on right

Pro-lifer on right, Chris on left

Guess next time we'll need a taller ladder....

The information on page 2 comes from an email sent by a Planned Parenthood Aurora sidewalk counselor yesterday, who took copious notes of the day's events.

Apparently Safeway, the parent company of the Aurora Dominick's grocery store, which owns the vacant lot across from Planned Parenthood Aurora, would rather appease it than the pro-life community surrounding Dominick's....

Dominick's financial trouble and store closings are well documented. According to Wikipedia:

Dominick's lost market share and profits following the Safeway takeover. Between 2002 and 2007, Dominick's market share in the Chicago region declined from 24.4% to 14.5%. Jewel-Osco's 40.5% is the market's leader. During labor negotiations in 2003, Safeway unsuccessfully attempted to sell Dominick's, and reported Dominick's financial information as a discontinued operation....

After closing more than 20 stores since its acquisition, Safeway announced in February 2007 that it would close another 14 stores in the Chicago area.... After the store closings, Dominick's operates 83 locations.

Safeway seemingly wants to lower that to 82.

And apparently Aurora police intend to establish roadblocks on New York Street at the entrance of the access road into the Dominick's mall past PP to inquire of US citizens' planned excursions.

Dominick's and all other shop owners in that mall should start adding their 2 cents to rid the neighborhood of the business poison in their midst that is PP.

And as long as PP operates (pardon the pun) at that location, the short-term solution is for Aurora to pour sidewalks on both sides of the access road.

UPDATE, 9:27a: OpenlineBlog.com has posted additional information on the vacant lot and the City of Aurora's ambiguous knowledge of the law (including video clip of City attorney Alayne Weingartz), which only creates more chaos.

Email....

From: ana...
Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2007 19:37:48

Arrived to the site and spoke to Mr. Mayer security guard for PP in regards to the property boundaries including the access road. He pointed boundaries to the east and west up the "pine tree" and including to the middle of the road were protected....

Around 10:27 a.m., Mr. Terry D. Rogers, Chief Investigator with Dominick's finer Foods, Inc., located on 711 Jorie Boulevard, MS 4325, Oak Broak, IL 60523 (Phone 630/891-5474 - Cell 630/688-2821 - Fax 630/891-5470 - terry.rogers@safeway.com), approach[ed] the crowd gathered across the entrance from Planned Parenthood and request[ed] that we move from the site. He explained that the site was owned by Safeway and due to liability issues we were required to move. He also claimed that several complaints has been filed in regards to protestors at the vacant lot....

I requested time to move the chairs, signs, etc, but Mr. Rogers requested we move everything asap.

Around 10:41 a.m. Sgt. Woods came to the sidewalk and took several pictures. He approached Bruce and requested his name and birthday. Bruce inquired as for the reasons and Sgt. Woods stated that he (Bruce) has been warned previously about placing signs against the "fence" and therefore he was going to issue a written (...). Sgt. Woods also stated that signs could not be around the sidewalk and he began to inquire about a larger sign and further explain the signs could only be hold by a person and place down on the sidewalk if the person was resting from holding the sign. Bruce explained that the signs were not his and I proceeded to tell Sgt. Woods what transpired minutes before as we had just moved the signs. After Sgt. Woods learned that I was responsible for the signs but he did not issue a warning to me. He stated that he has made a few warnings and in fact he remembers seven (7) warnings in regards to the signs. This transpired as several St. Patrick's St. Charles parishioners came to the site to pray.

Paul Usher came to the side walk and requested phone numbers for Dominick's staff and requested to speak to Eric Scheidler. Paul asked me if he should be arrested and I pleaded to please not to at which time I dialed Eric Scheidler. Paul Usher goes inside Dominick's store and speaks to the manager Victor Karlson despite threats of arrest by Mr. Rogers and pleads from us to avoid any incidents. He was warned that if he loitered or entered the store he was going to be arrested and he was warned as he walked inside the store.... However, Mr. Karlson, Dominick's General Manager, addressed Paul's concerns with repect and peacefully spoke to him. Paul stated that he was going to boycott Dominick's and walked out.

Seconds later Officer Gallardo with badge # 230 accompanied by Officer Zegar (#288) requested that Paul Usher stop walking up and down the road and in front of the clinic. As Paul prayed and chanted walking up and down the road. Others inquired if this new rule applied to any other person walking to the Dominick's store and Mr. Gallardo said "no" if a person goes to Dominick's to make a purchase and walks back after making this purchase this rule does not apply.

Mr. Gallardo warned that Paul Usher and any other person from our group walking continuously up and down the road was going to be arrested. As we inquired for a business card, Mr. Gallardo pointed that Sgt. Jim Boatman (#424) as the Sergeant in charge. Sgt Jim Boatman reiterated that in fact any person walking on the side of the clinic was going to be arrested. He added that we needed to walk on the other side of the street and next to the empty lot. He also explained that the Dominick's is required to file certain documents with the city in order to request people to vacate the site. During this events there were around 20 pro-lifers praying... All spoke to the police in regards this new rules....

11:28 a.m. Mr. Terry D. Rogers came outside and call[ed] me. He stated that vacating the lot was legal procedure and until such was acquired from the City we could return to the empty lot until further notice.

1. Someone asked for the actual occupancy permit zoning appeal pro-lifers filed with the City of Aurora. Here 'tis:

Appeal as filed with the City of Aurora Clerk's office
Appeal as filed with the Aurora Zoning Board of Appeals

Both are the same, just submitted to different City departments . Of note is they were dated and timed before Planned Parenthood's scheduled opening October 2 at 10a.

2. Jeff at Chicago ProLife Activist attended Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner's hastily assembled October 1, 3p, press conference, to forego alerting, and certainly involving, the City Council in his unilateral decision to let PP open 19 hours later, the following morning at 10a.

Of particular interest in Jeff's as usual well done and pithily cut video is the admission by the Mayor's office that it did apparently think to alert PP of his decision beforehand:

3. NAUSEA ALERT: If you were looking not to get riled on this pleasant autumn Saturday, do not watch the following t.v. ad PP Aurora began airing this week, which contains not just misinformation but actual false advertising. Can you spot it? Click on this very nice graphic to go to the ad:

[HT: reader Pat B.; moderator MK]

4. INSANE MSM BIASED BLAME GAME ALERT: This Aurora Beacon editorial blames pro-lifers for the legal stir PP provoked by its deceptive and stealth entry into its fine city (read entire piece on page 2):

Anti-abortion activists pushed for an investigation and got it, which cost the city thousands of dollars in legal fees. But now that they don't like the outcome, they want to fight another expensive court battle that will cost the city more tax dollars. They should accept the result of the independent review they influenced in the first place.

[HT: OpenlineBlog]

5. Eric Scheidler's October 5 email alert answers the question (read entire alert with plan and instructions on page 2):

Last week I asked you to sign up to speak at the next City Council meeting, this Tuesday, October 9. Now that Planned Parenthood has opened (at least for now) people are asking whether we still need to go to the meeting.

The answer is ABSOLUTELY. In fact, this is arguably the most important City Council meeting for us yet.

Aurora Beacon

Aurora mayor right to allow clinic to open

October 3, 2007
After a five-week investigation involving three attorneys, Aurora officials announced Monday that Planned Parenthood did not misrepresent itself enough during the development process for the city to deny an occupancy permit for its far East Side clinic. While anti-abortion activists will continue to push the city to find a reason to shut it down, the mayor had no choice but to allow the clinic to open, which it did Tuesday morning under protest.

We criticized Planned Parenthood for being dishonest by coming into Aurora under a subsidiary name and withholding information from aldermen while getting approval for the medical complex at Oakhurst Drive and New York Street. The two reports from independent attorneys hired by the city confirm that Gemini Office Development hid its affiliation with Planned Parenthood, but they concluded the developer did nothing that would allow the city to legally keep the clinic shuttered.

"Gemini's failure to state the user or elaborate on the intended use of the facility cannot be seen as a material misrepresentation that can be used as a basis to refuse an occupancy permit," wrote attorney Phillip Luetkehans in his report.

With the two attorneys finding no reason in civil law to deny a permit, and Kane County State's Attorney John Barsanti finding no criminal conduct on the part of Planned Parenthood, the city was left with no other options. To deny a permit after the investigation found no basis for doing so would have opened the city up to "a significant risk of a lawsuit under the Civil Rights Act," according to Luetkehans.

Either way, however, the city was going to land in court -- again. The Pro-Life Action League has vowed to file a lawsuit claiming Aurora isn't enforcing its zoning laws because it didn't require a special-use permit and public hearing for the clinic. The attorney reports, however, dismissed that argument.

Anti-abortion activists pushed for an investigation and got it, which cost the city thousands of dollars in legal fees. But now that they don't like the outcome, they want to fight another expensive court battle that will cost the city more tax dollars. They should accept the result of the independent review they influenced in the first place.

Protesters have lost this battle, although they will continue to picket the clinic, as is their right. We just ask that they treat Planned Parenthood's employees and clients with respect. Aurora has already been thrust into the national spotlight during this process; we don't need to make headlines for harassment, threats or violence.

Planned Parenthood followed the law and the clinic is open. Let's move on.

_______________

From: Eric Scheidler [mailto:eric@prolifeaction.org]
Sent: Friday, October 05, 2007 3:34 PM
To: Jill Stanek
Subject: Yes, we're still on for City Hall Tuesday, Jill

Dear Jill,

Last week I asked you to sign up to speak at the next City Council meeting, this Tuesday, October 9. Now that Planned Parenthood has opened (at least for now) people are asking whether we still need to go to the meeting.

The answer is ABSOLUTELY. In fact, this is arguably the most important City Council meeting for us yet.

What Planned Parenthood and City officials have been counting on is that we would GIVE UP and GO AWAY once they managed to get the place open.

We need to show up Tuesday to show them that WE'RE HERE TO STAY and this fight is just beginning.

We also need to be there to counteract any Planned Parenthood supporters who show up to thank the Mayor Weisner for helping them.

Like last time, there will be two "fronts" at City Hall on Tuesday:

1. Citizen comments inside before the Council
2. A pro-life Rally outside to reach the public

What will we have to say to the City Council?

Our message Tuesday will be twofold:

OpenlineBlog tells me Mayor Tom Weisner cancelled his police protection at 5p last night, which I mentioned yesterday he had initiated.

The mayor likely feared an et tu Brutus scenario, since Aurora police are planning a protest before the Aurora City Council meeting this Tuesday over an ongoing labor dispute. OLB is calling for every contingent with any complaint against the mayor to pile on the protest, which sounds like fun.

Meanwhile, OLB reports Alayne Weingartz has zoned out on our side's zoning appeal....

... Weingartz, the so-called corporation counsel for the City of Aurora, has apparently been either confused or not competent enough to respond to the request filed to Aurora's Zoning Board of Appeals on the Planned Parenthood permit.

Attorneys say the filing of the appeal should grant a stay of the permit for 30 days or in the interim while the appeal is being considered.

So, does Weingartz say yes or no?

Nothing. She says nothing. Maybe she thinks if she stays AWOL on the issue, it will evaporate?

Weisner and Weingartz apparently thought, as the US Supreme Court did 34.5 years ago, that proclaiming an abortion issue resolved settles it. Haha.

On that zoning topic, Eric Scheidler said in an email alert yesterday:

I also want you to know that we really do have a good shot at halting operations at the Planned Parenthood facility soon through the law.

I'm not at liberty to discuss the details yet, but our legal team is hard at work and feeling more confident every day.

But it's going to take a week before we make our next move.

I've been privy to reading some of those details. Stay tuned. Do not for a second lose hope on this.

UPDATE, 10:03a: Eric also reported PP Aurora committed no abortions this week but likely will next week.

For the previously naive, one enlightenment from the Aurora Planned Parenthood spectacle is it's a Chamber of Commerce's anti-Christ.

Forcing its way into Aurora with brazen lies, PP broke every CC business conduct rule and I'm sure gave CC pause to consider new ones.

Then, on the very day it opened, PP began executing its successful city sundering model on the neighborhood level, setting its sights on the nearby Dominick's grocery store, which owns the vacant lot across from PP's private drive. (Photo I took, above, looks south across the vacant lot to PP. PP's driveway and parking lot are just off the right side of the picture.)

Reported the PP Aurora blog on October 3....

At yesterday's press conference there was a lot of controversy over a vacant lot that anti-choice protesters are using as a base to harass Planned Parenthood staff and patients.... So our question is why is Safeway/Dominick's allowing anti-choice protesters to use their land to harass patients seeking health care?

To find out yourself, contact Dominick's at:

1-877-SAFEWAY(1-877-723-3929)

Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m, Local Time
Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Local Time

Or visit the store at 3025 E. New York St, Aurora.

Also read Aurora Beacon and RH Reality Check articles.

Obviously, one reason PP chose its location was to avoid sidewalk protestors, because there is no sidewalk in front of its private driveway/parking lot or on the edge of the vacant lot facing it.

Up to now, Dominick's has not stopped pro-lifers from gathering on the lot across from PP.

The best solution is for Aurora officials concerned for resident safety to build sidewalks on both Planned Parenthood's side of the street and the vacant lot, particularly in consideration of the increased traffic.

And if Dominick's considers caving to PP's new demands, it should beforehand simply consider who gives it more business, people with children or people without children.

It should also be noted that stupid, ballless ('scuse me) city officials opened this PPPandora's box and are fully to blame for the havoc all will continually have to bear until they force the thugs out, as they should based on PP's zoning violations.

[HT: readers grsroots, SEG; moderator MK]

Here was the backdrop (click for enlarged pdf view):

Playing a spy of the spy game, The Interim reporter Samantha Singson infiltrated the NOW event to hear about Bader's infiltration of the NRLC event....

Singson reported on it in the upcoming October issue, but here's an excerpt from LifeSiteNews.com:

Bader's opening salvo to the crowd was, "People! This is not a marginal group of crazies!"...

Bader spoke of how she had registered for the convention under a false name to observe the proceedings....

Three things really struck me about Bader's presentation:

They underestimate pro-lifers. Believing in the stereotype of a movement dominated by old white men and subscribed to by marginalized, zealous, religiously motivated, uneducated "church ladies," Bader couldn't quite keep the surprise out of her voice when she reported that those at the NRLC Convention were "smart, educated, beautiful and articulate."

In Bader's own words, "This just isn't what you always heard the 'anti-choicers' were like."

Bader also expressed amazement at the level of organization and professionalism exhibited by the NRLC convention hosts, its speakers and its participants. Passing around the 100-page convention program for the audience to look at, Bader pointed out the number of sponsors, as well as the quality and the variety of topics that were being addressed.

Comparing her 1992 NRLC convention experience to 2007, Bader was shocked by how savvy the pro-life side had become. She sternly warned her audience that the pro-life movement's leaders were "covering all their bases" by not just filling people's head with the rhetoric, but equipping them by providing information on lobbying, organization-building, political campaigning and youth outreach.

They're intimidated and feeling marginalized. Detailing the NRLC presidential forum, which was attended in person by three Republican presidential candidates, NOW New York staffers shook their heads and asked, "Why aren't we getting presidential candidates to address our annual conference?"

Discussing some of the movement's current efforts, Bader was appalled by the "chipping away of Roe" through legislative action and media campaigns on mandatory sonograms, the partial-birth abortion ban, informed consent and fetal pain.

They are struggling to articulate their argument. Bader stated that "even NARAL doesn't use the 'A-word' anymore. Part of what we need to do is talk up the social good that abortion is. Abortion is a moral good and a social good."

Seeming to be heartened by the positive response from the crowd, Bader pumped and loudly proclaimed "It's abortion and it's good!"

Encouraging report about us, Eleanor. Thanks.

[HT: moderator jasper]

From Tom Brejcha, lead attorney at Thomas More Society, comes this news.

At 9:54a this morning, right before Planned Parenthood Aurora was scheduled to open, attorney Peter Breen, on behalf of TMS, filed an appeal of the granting of the occupany permit with the Aurora Zoning Board of Appeals. He filed a copy of the appeal with the Aurora zoning administrator at 9:58a.

Explained Brejcha in an email to me....

TMS was acting on behalf of nearby property owners who are aggrieved by the violation of their rights to have notice and a public hearing on a proper application for a special use permit, which PP never applied for, let alone obtained.

We also filed on behalf of the Fox Valley Families Against Planned Parenthood, other members of which are affected property owners and citizens of Aurora.

Thus Peter accomplished the filing before 10 a.m. when PP said that it would open for business pursuant to the occupancy permit.

This filing, legally speaking, is supposed to trigger an automatic "stay" of the decision by which the permit was granted.

Whether the decision was made by the zoning administrator or by the mayor or by other officials remains to be seen. No finding was made to the effect that any emergency would occur if the stay were honored, and the law provides that absent such a finding the stay of any further proceedings pursuant to the challenged administrative action will be effective immediately.

Again, we are testing whether Aurora will follow the law or fudge it. We're shortly to send copies of the appeal to the lawyers for Planned Parenthood and Aurora's Corporation Counsel and outside counsel.

The thrust of our appeal is rather simple and straightforward: to test whether the rule of law still applies in Aurora, as elsewhere. That is, the question is whether the city is to be run by executive fiat, where the Mayor can read out of the law those provisions that he finds politically or otherwise inconvenient... or whether those entrusted with jurisdiction to make proper planning and zoning decisions in accordance with state law and city ordinances should make those decisions on the merits, without bending the law to suit the demands of cash-rich special interests....

The only rationale I've seen so far for the other side is the zoning administrator's rather flimsy suggestion that the "non-profit" and "charitable" use category in the zoning code is somehow ambiguous (he never explains how it is so), whereas the medical office category is more specific and clear. But if there ever was a "non-profit," it's the massive tax-exempt entity called Planned Parenthood -- a charity and, as such, the beneficiary of millions of dollars in tax-exempt donations as well as government largesse.

And, of course, if our appeal is somehow brushed aside we'll most certainly have "exhausted our administrative remedies" and we'll then proceed to court to seek judicial relief.

UPDATE, 11a: Just spoke with Eric Scheidler at the PP site. "PP opened at 10a," said Eric. "We don't know if any clients have come. They had their press conference; we had ours. Press coverage was huge. All press vans are still here. We have a couple hundred people protesting and praying."

Openlineblog.com has posted links to the three investigative reports that led Mayor Tom Weisner to declare yesterday Planned Parenthood Aurora could open for business.

You can access pdfs for the 18 supporting documents at OLB. Here are pdfs of the 3 reports:

Barsanti's opinion
Luetkehans report
Martens report

Neither the Luetkehans nor Martens reports, completed September 17 and 13 respectively, evaluated whether PP was required as a nonprofit entity to file for special use permits. Luetkehans did not address that issue at all, and Martens did only to say he did not have enough information (click to enlarge)....

A couple other tidbits.

This was included as an attachment to the Martens report (tab 18 at OLB). When he wrote the memo, Bill Wiet was Aurora's community development director. He is now Mayor Weisner's chief of staff. So here is one of the inner circle who knew PP was coming to town 5 months before the public did (click to enlarge):

And this, from the Luetkehans report:

[HT for latter: reader Charles]

Last night (this morning's coverage is on page 2):

Fox News Chicago:

NBC:

Today:

Associated Press:

... Planned Parenthood officials say the 22,000-square-foot, $7.5 million building will be decorated today with a 40-foot banner reading "This Center is Now Open."...

Chicago Sun-Times:

... Abortion foe Eric Scheidler blasted the decision, saying city officials ignored their own zoning laws in allowing the center to be built and to open....

The city council still may review the situation to see if a special-use permit is required to allow the clinic to operate, said Ald. Rick Lawrence, who was critical of [Mayor Tom] Weisner's decision to allow the temporary occupancy permit to be issued. "We're going to have to look into it as a council to see what we can do," said Lawrence....

Aurora Beacon:

Planned Parenthood's new medical center on East New York Street will open at about 10 a.m. today....

Planned Parenthood representatives signed a letter Monday afternoon agreeing... they would only perform first-trimester and early second-trimester abortions....

"The mayor has betrayed us," [Eric Scheidler] said. "He has lied to us. We're going to sue the city so they enforce their own zoning laws."

Daily Herald:

Despite Planned Parenthood being "less than forthcoming in some ways," Weisner said, the city's review shows no legal basis on which to deny an opening.

"All a government can do is try to treat people fairly, which I believe we have," Weisner said.

UPDATE, 8:07a: Televised news reports this morning [HT: OpenlineBlog.com]

ABC:

CBS:

It really does appear as if the fix was in between Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner and Planned Parenthood.

I cannot believe his audacity in thinking he can unilaterally make such a monumental decision with national eyes watching sans input from the City Council or the people of Aurora.

Eric Scheidler wrote in an email a little while ago, "[I]t looks like Planned Parenthood was the first to learn about this decision - before the City Council, before the press, before the people."

I just received this PP email from pro-lifer Brian Burch. The time on the email is odd, but here 'tis....

From: "Planned Parenthood Action Illinois"
Date: Mon, 01 Oct 2007 22:56:18
To:
Subject: Aurora permit issued just minutes ago!

Our Aurora health center is now open!

Thank you for your support

Dear Brian,

Finally! Just minutes ago we received our occupancy permit from city of Aurora Mayor, Tom Weisner and we will be OPEN FOR BUSINESS TOMORROW!

Instead of holding a rally* at city hall tomorrow night, we invite you to attend a press conference at our Aurora health center to celebrate our first day of business! Here are the details -

What: Press Conference
Where: Aurora Planned Parenthood Health Center, 3051 E. New York Street, Aurora, IL
When: Tuesday, October 2, at 10 am

*We encourage anyone who is interested to attend the Aurora city council meeting on their own to monitor the discussion, but we will not be rallying outside city hall.

While it's a travesty that the opening of our health center became such a politicized issue, we never could have won this battle without the incredible support of pro-choice residents in Aurora, Naperville, and other local communities, as well as our supporters throughout the state and the nation. Thank you to every person that stood up for us at City Council, that rallied at City Hall, that gave a donation, that signed a petition, and that supported us in so many ways during this fight.

Thank you for all you've done!

Being reported by the Associated Press via WBBM radio in Chicago:

Aurora Gives Up Fight Against Planned Parenthood

AURORA, Ill. (AP) -- City officials say they will allow a new Planned Parenthood clinic to open.

[HT: reader Chicagoplow]

Developing story....

UPDATE, 4:03p: This report comes from Jeff of Chicago Pro-Life Activist, who just left the press conference....

Mayor Tom Weisner came out and said legally the City found no grounds for which they could keep the clinic closed.

Weisner agreed PP was not forthright. But he said there was nothing the City could do legally to keep the clinic closed based on the independent investigation reports.

After the press conference, Alderman Rick Lawrence said in so many words the mayor was railroading this decision. The City Council found out only just prior to the press conference what his decision was. Lawrence said they were shocked. He said the mayor made a unilateral decision and it was completely inappropriate.

The Aurora PP situation is not on Tuesday's City Council agenda, but Lawrence and other aldermen are going to push for it. They need a total of three, and he thinks they can do that.

Lawrence said they were supposed to have a discusion before a decision was made, which did not happen. This is a matter that all the elected officials were supposed to be involved in, not just one.

Eric Scheidler said our side will be filing a lawsuit early tomorrow morning based on the special use permit issue.

UPDATE, 4:10p: Read broadened AP story here.

UPDATE, 4:19p: Read Fox News Chicago report [HT: MK]

UPDATE, 4:30: According to the Daily Herald:

A controversial Planned Parenthood clinic could open as early as Tuesday on Aurora's far east side, city officials said this afternoon....

See press release on page 2.

See also the Daily Herald, Associated Press, Aurora Beacon, and Chicago Tribune.

October 1, 2007
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tom Brejcha, Thomas More Society
312-782-1680 (office) 312-590-3408 (cell)
Drew Schadegg, TC Public Relations 312-422-1333

Planned Parenthood Sued for Libelous Statements Against Pro-Life Advocates

Thomas More Society of Chicago Will Seek Maximum Damages on Behalf of Protesters in Aurora Accused of Advocating Violence

Aurora, IL - In Kane County District Court this morning, a libel lawsuit was filed against Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area (PP/CA), its CEO and Director Steve Trombley, and Gemini Office Development LLC, based on a letter sent to Aurora's Mayor and Aldermen and released to the press and one or more advertisements that PP/CA placed in the Aurora Beacon News accusing those who oppose their facility as having "a well-documented history of violence and criminal activity" as well as "advocating violence against both persons and property as well as other related criminal activity."

The documents filed in court today insist that these statements are not only false, but maliciously false and libelous. The lawsuit was filed by Chief Counsel Tom Brejcha of the Thomas More Society of Chicago and Jason Craddock of Sauk Village, Illinois.

Plaintiffs are nineteen individual residents of Aurora and neighboring communities, including Eric Scheidler, volunteer coordinator of Fox Valley Families Against Planned Parenthood, who helped to organize the prayer vigil and protests at the Aurora PP facility.

Trombley's letter and the first ad, which ran in the Beacon on September 6, 2007, were followed by a "cease and desist" letter from Tom Brejcha on behalf of Eric Scheidler and the Fox Valley Families Against Planned Parenthood. This letter demanded a "prompt and public retraction of false, libelous, and malicious statements."

Planned Parenthood responded with public statements and another ad that were more inflammatory and accusatory than the original.

"Trombley and Planned Parenthood need to be held accountable for the outrageous statements they made both to Aurora officials and to the public," stated Brejcha. "You cannot accuse the peaceful citizens of Aurora of violent crimes and advocating violence simply because you disagree with their message. This is just one more black eye on an organization that regularly uses deception in their tactics, but the good people of the Fox River Valley aren't going to let them get away with it."

The 22,000 square foot Planned Parenthood facility in Aurora, the nation's largest, has set off a firestorm of controversy and is now being referred to as "Ground Zero" in the national abortion battle. The City of Aurora is currently investigating the facility on allegations of fraud for not disclosing the tenant of the building during the application process.

In addition, the pro-life community in Aurora and the surrounding area have been gathering daily at the facility, seeing as many as 1,500 march in organized peaceful protest.

In addition to the ongoing investigation, which has kept the facility from opening, the libel lawsuit will be another in a series of court battles Planned Parenthood is facing.

"Planned Parenthood is a money-making machine that profits from their abortion business," states Brejcha. "A young family with two children carrying crosses or a grandmother praying the Rosary should not be subjected to these malicious accusations made by Trombley and his organization. And while court rules prohibit insertion of large monetary claims in initial complaints, let it be said that our clients would be happy to take Planned Parenthood's $7.5 million building off its hands in lieu of damages, and then lease it to respectable, taxpaying legitimate health professionals - those who strive to heal, and not kill, human beings."

From Eric Scheidler, in an email alert, followed by Planned Parenthood Aurora from its blog....

Kane County States Attorney John Barsanti released his findings today, and he found no evidence of crime by Gemini/PP.

But before you feel even a whiff of disappointment, let me explain that this report is COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT. It changes nothing.

We never alleged criminal fraud. Our questions have been about CIVIL fraud in the application process and a crucial underlying ZONING question.

Both of these issues are left completely unanswered by Barsanti's report. In fact, Barsanti states that he doesn't even have the authority to address these questions.

I suspect Mayor Weisner is going to try to use this report as an excuse to issue an occupancy permit to Planned Parenthood.

So we need to be down there at 2:30 [prior to press conference] to make sure the mayor - and the press - know that we expect the mayor to follow through on his promise that CIVIL fraud be investigated.

We also must demand that the city explain how Planned Parenthood can be allowed to operate in a location clearly not zoned for a not-for-profit medical office.

And from PP Aurora's blog:

State's Attorney finds NO FRAUD

Usually we hate to say "we told you so", but in this case we all deserve the vindication. Just this morning, State's Attorney John Barsanti issued a press release stating that he found no fraud or criminal action in our application for a permit for our Aurora health center.

We knew the only way we could build our facility without the fear of pickets, violence or other delay tactics that anti-Planned Parenthood extremists have employed in other cities was to use a low-visibility approach. At the same time, we were extremely respectful of the law and State's Attorney Barsanti's findings bear that out.

We look forward to opening our health center shortly so that we can serve the women of Kane, DuPage, Will and Kendall counties.

From the Naperville Sun, this morning:

Kane County State's Attorney John Barsanti announced this morning that Planned Parenthood did not commit any crimes while gaining approval for its new Aurora clinic under a subsidiary name....

Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area received approval to build its new 22,000-square-foot facility on East New York Street under the name Gemini Office Development, which has led anti-abortion activists to accuse the organization of deception and fraud. The city hired two lawyers to conduct independent investigations into the approval and permitting processes, and Barsanti reviewed the reports from both attorneys.

Barsanti said his office has no jurisdiction over city ordinances, land use or zoning, and he offered no opinion on those matters. He considers the review to be closed, and has returned all documents to the city of Aurora.

Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner will hold a press conference at 3 p.m. at City Hall to discuss Barsanti's findings and the reports from attorneys Phillip A. Luetkehans and Richard Martens. The reports will be released to the media at that time.

Planned Parenthood had hoped to open the health center Sept. 18, but the clinic's temporary occupancy permit expired Sept. 17. It cannot open until after the city's investigation is complete.

Keep your powder dry....

[HT: reader Deborah H.]

UPDATE, 12p: From the Chicago Tribune:

Barsanti said he could not advise Aurora on how to interpret city ordinances or the zoning code.

"I offer no opinions on matters of which I have no authority or jurisdiction," Barsanti said.

UPDATE, 12:11p: Misleading MSM headline of the day:

Quite simply, Planned Parenthood didn't apply for any clinic permit.

UPDATE, 1:27p: See Barsanti press release below.

[HT for that: reader ChicagoPlow]

Click to see pdf view:

Ah, those sly devils at Planned Parenthood caught him in the act.

Using a hidden video camera across the street from Chicago's near north Planned Parenthood, the PP techno-geeks managed to catch Joe Scheidler reading prayers!

Veronica from PP Aurora blogged histrionically:

With all the action happening over here in Aurora, you would think that the anti's would have other things to do with their free time. Nope. Joseph Scheidler has been spotted outside the Near North clinic in Chicago....

This is even more evidence that what is happening in Aurora is happening to you. Chicago is not immune to the anti's....

I talked about fear in my first post and I'll do it again. Fear is a powerful tool. Even if not one more act of violence occurs outside or inside a women's health care clinic, that fear will remain....

This man and his followers are outside the Near North clinic as part of "40 Days of Life." ...

I think that reasonable people hold differing religious views on abortion, but gathering in prayer and protest in front of health centers has been used repeatedly as a tool to intimidate and harass patients and staff.

I think it's time pro-lifers began relishing this power. Woudn't it be fun to sneak up behind a pro-abort and yell boo to see how far s/he'll jump?

I'm going to write more about this in my column Wednesday, but it appears even as Veronica complains of fearing pro-lifers - the most peaceful social justice movement in American history - she perpetuates more fear (for praying? give me a break), showing she has yet no clue that fear-mongering has backfired big time on pro-aborts.

The false stigma pro-aborts have attached to pro-lifers is the reaons for all their current woes.

They say fear of us is what caused them to deceptively sneak into Aurora, causing perhaps the biggest PR nightmare with the most serious ramifications in PP's history.

They say fear of us is what keeps their people from protesting and speaking out, making them appear as overwhelmed paper tigers.

They say fear of us is what sends women crying back to their cars, fearful to keep appointments, therefore hurting PP's pocketbook.

I say the fear they have provoked of us is contributing to their shortage of abortionists and workers.

And that bulletproof glass? Wow, huge pro-life talking point. More on that later.

Anyway, great video expose, Veronica. Is PP going to sue Joe for praying now?

[HT: Paul W.]

This past "glorious autumn" Saturday, pro-lifers picketed the Lakewood, CO, home of Gary Meggison, Senior VP of Weitz Construction.

Weitz is the current general contractor for the proposed Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains' 50,000 sq. ft. abortuary to be built on one city block in a Denver minority neighborhood.

CO Right to Life VP Leslie Hanks was on hand to file a report and take photos....

Noteworthy was Dan Cram, who works as a paid security guard at the Denver PP mill at 20th and Vine and who pulled double duty Saturday as security guard at Meggison's home, filming the protest.

Photo on left is Cram at Meggison's. Photo on right is Cram at the mill (wearing blazer, facing camera), during the jolly Christmas aborting season. Click to enlarge:

The only excitement came after a neighbor woman copied license numbers of protesters and called police, whereupon 3 squad cars raced to the scene to warn protesters about their limits.

Reported Leslie, "Mrs. Meggison and her teenage daughter returned home to see the signs and hear the pleas of pro-lifers to have Gary abandon his plans to build the biggest abortuary in the nation."

Concerned citizens may contact Meggison at Weitz Construction at (303) 860-6600 or gary.meggison@weitz.com.

Jeff from Chicago Pro-Life Activist has boiled down 3 hours of testimony from the September 25 Aurora City Council meeting to a 4-minute "best of" video montage of the most shocking, profound, and comical statements (sometimes all by the same person) made about Planned Parenthood that night....

Well, just because it's the weekend doesn't mean the news stops.

First, Eric Scheidler's delayed appearance from last week's Fox News Live will be TODAY, in less than an hour. It can come any time after 11a CST but is expected about 11:20a CST.

Next, the pro-life libel suit against Planned Parenthood has been delayed, I hear, because additional plaintiffs are continually being added. Look for that to be filed early next week.

Finally, here's the report of another sort of delay from the Aurora Beacon, today:

Kane County State's Attorney John Barsanti will wait until next week to issue his much-anticipated decision on whether officials from Planned Parenthood broke the law in applying to build a women's health center in Aurora....

Barsanti has been reviewing Planned Parenthood/Gemini Office Development's application, permitting and approval process for possible criminal fraud after anti-abortion activists raised concerns a couple of weeks ago. The state's attorney's office had been expected to release its report on Friday, but officials said the release has been put off to next week, noting "Monday is still viable."...

Read entire story on page 2. This will likely make Chicago PP that much more antsy to file their second promised motion for an emergency injunction.

Aurora Beacon

Barsanti's report on Planned Parenthood delayed
September 29, 2007
By Kristen Zambo Staff Writer
AURORA -- Kane County State's Attorney John Barsanti will wait until next week to issue his much-anticipated decision on whether officials from Planned Parenthood broke the law in applying to build a women's health center in Aurora.

Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area officials want to open a $7.5 million full-service health center at East New York Street and Oakhurst Drive in the DuPage County section of Aurora.

Abortion services, which Planned Parenthood officials say will account for about 10 percent of the care to be provided there, would be available at the clinic.

Tuesday gatherings

If you are a pro-lifer with a residence or business within one-quarter mile of the Planned Parenthood Aurora site, please email me. Click to enlarge:

As promised, CO Right to Life staged its first picket of Weitz Company Wednesday. Weitz is currently the general contractor for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains' planned 50,000 sq. ft. mega-mill in Denver.

Pro-lifers held their picket during Weitz's lunch hour. It included graphic signs and a touring Truth Truck (sans the stolen Sanger sign)....

Weitz's space is rented. There are other tenants in the building.

Pro-lifers will stop picketing Weitz the minute it pulls out from building this death camp. No amount of blood money should be worth mutilated preborn children on one's conscience.

And Planned Parenthood on one's resume tarnishes it forever. Believe me, pro-lifers never forget.

You really must read this post on the Daily Kos. Here is the first combination intelligent, honest abortion proponent I've encountered in this entire PP Aurora debate who is actively involved in the process. S/he wrote so much good stuff, but I'm going to focus on excerpts about the crowd:

A 10 minute recess was taken, at which time, for reasons I cannot fathom, a sizable portion of the Planned Parenthood supporters, already outnumbered, left....

[T]he spots vacated by the Planned Parenthood folks and those who had said their piece on other issues were taken by more anti-abortion types...

The crowd inside was in inverse proportion to the one outside. Of the maybe 250 people in the room, I'd say that maybe 30 of them were Planned Parenthood supporters, and that's an overly generous estimate....

Of the first 12 speakers, only two were Planned Parenthood supporters. I was becoming dismayed but still hopeful. The ratio for the next 6 turned out to be the same, 1 in support, the rest against....

At the halfway point of the meeting, we took another 10 minute break.... And I was angry. Not just a little angry, but burst into flame angry. But not for the reasons you think.

Yes, I was not at all happy at what I'd heard from the anti-abortion crowd, but it wasn't anything I hadn't expected....

[T]here just weren't many pro-choice supporters who had signed up to speak. The street outside was still full of pro-choice protesters, but the City Council saw none of that, not until they went home and saw the news. What they saw was wall to wall anti-abortionists... a well-oiled machine of right-wing, fundie talking points....

What really pissed me off was the lack of opposition to the anti-abortionists inside the City Council Chamber. Yeah, the rally outside was good, but who, exactly, were we trying to influence here?

I encourage you again to read Got a Grip's entire post. It is insightful.

The Aurora PP blog posted video of their outdoor display, remarking:

The rally has been totally exhilerating [sic]! At the height of it, we had about 250-300 people there and we outnumbered the anti-choice demonstrators by around 2 to 1. People driving by on the street were honking and waving and our chants and screams were the only thing that could be heard for blocks in any direction.

Jeff from CPLA had reported to me the pro-aborts were "shrieking" outside, in his words, which I thought might be an exaggeration. But if the PP Aurora blog reported their "chants and screams were the only thing that could be heard for blocks in any direction," Jeff was correct.

PP's email blast to supporters yesterday was equally breathless (click to enlarge):

When I watched the video of that which they were so proud, I just didn't get what they were so proud of. I thought, I truly do not understand these people. They were behaving like high school cheerleaders advertising a car wash, and for that they were proud? They were "exhilerat[ed]" by their adolescent pep rally to forcibly sneak abortion into Aurora?

Honestly, this display was a dagger in my heart. If that makes them happy, so be it. But this is not fun and games. This is life and death, often torturous. And these people are bonafide blind, insert-expletive-here-I don't-allow-on-this blog, simply useful idiots. That's what I got from watching the video.

[HT for Kos post: readers grsroots and Phil E.; for PP email: Brian Burch]

Click to enlarge:

At Tuesday night's Aurora City Council meeting, pro-life attorneys presented evidence Planned Parenthood committed further deceit than originally thought by evading the special use permit Aurora zoning ordinances require for nonprofit medical centers. PP did this by creating a for-profit front company, Gemini Office Development.

A nonprofit medical center has to undergo a rigourous approval process that requires public notice in a local paper and public hearings. If a mere 20% of surrounding property owners object, a 2/3 supermajority approval for use by the City Council would be required.

Thursday morning, the Aurora Beacon reported Aurora officials had rejected this argument.

The Chicago Tribune reported a similar response by Aurora officials, although more hesitant.

Around midnight this morning, Aurora attorney Vince Tessitore faxed a response to City officials that included a 2-page memo and 18 pages of corroborating documents.

Tessitore's conclusion is similar to Eric Scheidler's in an email he sent yesterday with preliminary thoughts to Aurora's quick negative analysis of the information presented by pro-life attorneys:

What's disturbing about this announcement isn't WHAT the City is saying - because they're wrong - but THAT the City is saying it.

We handed them a clear way out of this mess. They could have at least said, "Wow, we need to look into this."

They could have said, "We never considered the special use permit issue because we thought Gemini was a for-profit medical office. This is worth a closer look."

Instead, less than 24 hours after learning about this important zoning issue, they came out emphatically insisting that the special use permit doesn't apply to PP.

How is one to make sense of this eagerness to defend PP's alleged right to do business at New York and Oakhurst? I shudder to think.

It appears more and more certain PP has friendlies on the inside.

UPDATE, 6:56a: Here's more analysis by Eric on Families Against Planned Parenthood blog. [HT: Jeff a CPLA]

UPDATE, 9:45a: Is it possible Aurora officials were in a position to so quickly disparage Tessitore's Tuesday memo because someone on the inside changed the zoning ordinance in December 2006 specifically to try to cover for PP?

In this case, I agree with NARAL. If Verizon censors pro-aborts on the topic of abortion, that means it will censor pro-lifers. A private company has that right, but this was a bad call.

In any event, the decision has already been reversed.

Backdrop, New York Times, this morning....

Saying it had the right to block "controversial or unsavory" text messages, Verizon Wireless has rejected a request from Naral Pro-Choice America, the abortion rights group, to make Verizon's mobile network available for a text-message program.

The other leading wireless carriers have accepted the program, which allows people to sign up for text messages from Naral by sending a message to a five-digit number known as a short code.

Text messaging is a growing political tool in the United States ....

In turning down the program, Verizon, one of the nation's two largest wireless carriers, told Naral that it does not accept programs from any group "that seeks to promote an agenda or distribute content that, in its discretion, may be seen as controversial or unsavory to any of our users."...

A spokesman for Verizon said the decision turned on the subject matter of the messages and not on Naral's position on abortion. "Our internal policy is in fact neutral on the position," said the spokesman, Jeffrey Nelson. "It is the topic itself" - abortion - "that has been on our list."...

Naral provided an example of a recent text message that it has sent to supporters: "End Bush's global gag rule against birth control for world's poorest women! Call Congress. (202) 224-3121. Thnx! Naral Text4Choice."...

Text messaging programs based on five- and six-digit short codes are a popular way to receive updates on news, sports, weather and entertainment....

Most of the candidates and advocacy groups that use text message programs are liberal, which may reflect the demographics of the technology's users and developers. A spokeswoman for the National Right to Life Committee, which is in some ways Naral's anti-abortion counterpart, said, for instance, that it has not dabbled in text messaging.

Texting has proved to be an extraordinarily effective political tool....

Then, according to the Internet Broadcasting Systems/Associated Press, also this morning:

Verizon Wireless has reversed course and will allow NARAL Pro-Choice America to use its mobile network for a sign-up text messaging program.

Company spokesman Jeffrey Nelson said the decision not to allow text messaging was incorrect.

Nelson had said Wednesday that abortion was among topics barred from mass distribution based on the company's code of content.

However, the code was developed before text-messaging became a mass-market phenomenon.

NARAL lets people sign up to receive its text messages by keying in a message to a five-digit number.

Lesson for pro-lifers to learn from this: Use this technology.

P.S. NARAL's sample text message was a gross mischaracterization, btw. It opposes the Mexico City Policy, which disallows American tax dollars to go to any overseas "family planning group" that advocates or commits abortion. The Senate just overturned this long-standing policy, which Reagan enacted, Bush I continued, Clinton overturned (on first day in office), and Bush II reinstated. Bush II has vowed to veto this latest measure.

[HT: NARAL e-alert, reader Rosie, friends Arlene and Jim]

From the Aurora Beacon today:

Denying anti-abortion activists' assertions, city officials on Wednesday said it doesn't appear that Planned Parenthood officials needed a special-use permit before building a women's health center on the city's far East Side....

Attorney Vincent Tessitore, an Auroran, approached city staff Tuesday, saying that part of Aurora's zoning code requires special-use permits for not-for-profit medical centers. To obtain one of those permits, a public hearing at the city Plan Commission level is required, and applicants must notify all property owners within 250 feet of the property.

However, city officials on Wednesday said that since the Planned Parenthood health center is in a planned development district, those codes don't apply.

The center occupies land that was part of a 4,000-acre annexation in August 1973, the same one that brought the Westfield Fox Valley mall into Aurora. This area has its own zoning laws, through planned development district rules, and those laws don't require a special-use permit for medical centers, said Carie Anne Ergo, the city's public information officer.

Tessitore countered that the agreement doesn't specifically exclude not-for-profit medical centers from obtaining this permit, and that he would continue researching the issue....

Sara Knaub, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area, told The Beacon News Tuesday night that the property's planned development district status is the ruling zoning code, and the special permit wasn't required.

Last week, city officials asked Kane County State's Attorney John Barsanti to review Planned Parenthood and Gemini Office Development for possible criminal action based on the companies' handling of the application, approval and permitting process. Barsanti's investigation may be completed Friday....

[HT: Jeff from ChicagoProLifeActivist; photo of inside the PP Aurora mill courtesy of the Aurora Beacon]

At the Aurora City Council meeting this past Tuesday night, Mayor Tom Weisner headed off citizen complaints about PP occupying the building with no occupancy permit by having a statement read:

So, "In early August" - at least 8 weeks ago - the City granted PP "prestock approval"... "to set up office furniture and equipment with limited staff training activities at the facility."

Yet PP's September 20 court complaint centered on its contention it was ready to open for business, i.e., office furniture and staff were ready.

The Aurora Beacon reported September 19:

City officials said Tuesday they will not ask Planned Parenthood's staff to vacate their East New York Street building, despite the expiration of their temporary occupancy permit Monday.

"At this point, the city has opted to maintain the status quo," said city spokesman Carie Anne Ergo.

Ergo said ordinarily, a building owner in violation of the occupancy permit ordinance would be asked to vacate, and most comply willingly. If they do not, the city usually seeks a court order to remove them.

However, since this case is already before a judge, Ergo said the city has decided to leave things as they are for now....

Aurora-based lawyer Vincent Tessitore wrote a letter to city staffers Tuesday, demanding the city enforce its ordinances....

On September 20 PP lost its motion to open for business. According to Aurora ordinances, PP should not be allowed on the property, never mind commit the higher offense of conducting business, which Aurora attorney Alayne Weingartz wrote Tessitore September 19 she would investigate (click to enlarge):

PP, of course, is pulling a fast one. This photo, taken September 5 and displayed on PP Aurora's website, shows the "training" being conducted is not how to run the chop shop but how to conduct phone-banking to convince residents PP should be there and to portray adversaries as "extremists":

The signboard reads:

Why Phone?

Services needed in Aurora

Targeted by extremists
Need to show public support

These photos, taken 3 days later on September 8, show workers actually conducting phone-banking, clearly not in training. They were making calls, reading from a script, to drum up support. So, in fact, they were conducting business at the site at least 10 days before their anticipated opening.

This photo, also taken September 8, shows a worker at a laptop, holding a form.

These photos, taken September 4 and 8, again show workers conducting business, preparing signs which many photos later corroborate are being used to advertise PP

And on its website, PP Aurora still lists its business address and phone number.

The City of Aurora, to comply with its own ordinances, should force PP out of that building today. PP is using that building not only in violation of ordinances but also to undermine the City's investigation and resident opposition.

[HT: for video clip of Aurora City Council meeting, Jeff at ChicagoProLifeActivist; for PP photos, reader Paul W.]

This legal precedent addresses the PP Aurora complaint that some aldermen opposing it are doing so because they oppose abortion. Nevertheless, the court concluded in the Collinsville case, the abortionist disguised his intent and lost constitutional standing. Click to enlarge:

Aurora attorney Vince Tessitore presented it last night at the third Aurora City Council meeting addressing citizen concerns about Planned Parenthood in a memo of research.

The research concerned the special use permit required in Aurora zoning ordinances of nonprofit medical facilities, which PP escaped obtaining by creating a for-profit company to hide behind.

At the very least, Tessitore wrote me in an email, "PP would still have to go through a public hearing process and it is their burden in that process to prove that their use is good for the surrounding area (property values, health, welfare, and morality, etc.)."

At most, Aurora could revoke PP permits, and PP would have to sell or tear down the building.

Tessitore's memo included legal IL precedent for denying an abortion clinic, which I found helpful.

Read about contest on page 2. Here's a previous winner:

Our troupe has many artists, some who we have showcased. So I'm sure your creative juices will flow with my announcement of the 3rd Annual Margaret Sanger at the Ku Klux Klan Rally Art Contest! Go to The Truth About Margaret Sanger for rules.

I'm honored to have been selected as a judge! I should warn you, though, I'm more a Simon Cowell type than Paula Abdul type.

The contest, which runs through October, marks the 81st anniversary of Margaret Sanger's speech to the Women's Branch of the Silver Lake Ku Klux Klan. So entries must involve that exciting KKK theme:

Participants in this year's contest are encouraged to commemorate Sanger at the Klan rally in unique artistic ways. Drawings, cartoons, historical novels, haiku, dance, plays, videos, paintings, quilts, rap, puppetry, modern interpretations of Sanger speaking to the Klan, reenactments of the speech on YouTube, mime, audio recordings of actual Sanger quotes she may have reused when speaking to the Klan - there is no limit to the artistic ways this historic event can be commemorated. Please note, this year we will not be accepting photoshopped entries.

Good luck! I'll post the winning artwork when it is announced November 1.

I reported in July the New Jersey Health Department had closed the Alternatives abortion mill in Atlantic City for multiple health and safety violations, including this, lifted directly from the 116-page report, which I received:

The soiled utility room... is equipped with a garbage disposal. Staff member #6 stated the garbage disposal was used for the "disposal of tissue"....

Today came word the fetal garbage dump has disposed of itself. According to The Press of Atlantic City....

The decades-long presence of an embattled city abortion clinic has finally come to an end. A New Jersey Health Department spokesman confirmed Tuesday that the Alternatives abortion clinic has opted to surrender its license to the state instead of correcting the list of violations detailed in a report that caused the sudden closing of the clinic more than three months ago.

Atlantic City Councilman John Schultz, who leased the facility to Alternatives, said the clinic's equipment was emptied out of the building last month and the space is available for lease.

"They moved out, everything is out of there," Schultz said in a phone interview. "My lawyers just sent them a letter telling them they're like a month behind on their rent."

The state's report detailed a slew of violations at the clinic, including bloodstained operating tables, expired drugs and the absence of a sterilization sink.

All worried that women's access to safe, legal, and rare abortions may be encumbered by this closure need not fear. According to The Press:

Alternatives owner Dr. Alan Kline... also owns the Princeton Women's Center in Princeton....

This is located just three miles from Princeton University. I'm sure, given his upscale clientele, Kline runs this chop shop much cleaner and safer than he did the Alternatives mill.

[HT: Operation Rescue]

A pro-life hero and friend Chris Danze alerted me this morning he and his wife will travel to Colorado in 10 days to help "get a construction boycott off the ground" at the site of Planned Parenthood's 50,000 sq. ft. planned mega-mill in Denver.

Little did Chris know in 2003 that his effort to block the construction of a Planned Parenthood mill in his home town of Austin, TX, would have such a long-lasting nationwide impact.

It was Chris's boycott that PP has acknowledged caused it to go stealth with plans for future mills, including Aurora, Denver, and Portland, OR.

You may not know what Chris accomplished. Here's a little history....

CNN, November 14, 2003:

Weeks into the project, the contractor hired to build an abortion clinic hit a brick wall: Plumbers and carpenters would not work for him. Drywall installers and heating subcontractors would not do business with him. Cement suppliers for miles around would not touch the job.

He had been hit with a boycott organized by abortion foe and construction-industry executive Chris Danze.

The builder finally quit the job this month, stopping the clinic project in its tracks, in what national Planned Parenthood officials said was the first such boycott they have ever seen.

Danze, a 48-year-old who has protested outside clinics, compares the building of an abortion clinic to construction of a concentration camp during the Holocaust....

The decision by Browning Construction Co., one of the state's largest contractors, to pull out of the project stunned Planned Parenthood, which denounced the boycott and said it will press on with construction to discourage similar tactics elsewhere....

Danze, an owner of Maldonado & Danze Inc., a concrete-foundation contractor, oversaw a telephone and letter-writing campaign urging more than 750 Austin- and San Antonio-area businesses not to provide supplies or services for the project. He recruited contractors to join what he called the Texas Contractors and Suppliers for Life Association.

Soon, contractors were flooded with phone calls from the public warning them to stay away from the clinic project or face losing business....

Danze said hundreds of subcontractors agreed to boycott the project, though not all of them said whether they were anti-abortion. Some simply did not want to get involved in a controversial project, he said.

Newsweek, April 18, 2004:

On a Web site designed for the protest... Danze posted the phone numbers of each company involved in the clinic's construction [and photos, see right], many of them mom-and-pop businesses with a lot to lose.

The calls started immediately, and became so overwhelming that one subcontractor reported receiving 1,200 phone calls in one week. Other companies received faxes of aborted fetuses.

After six weeks, the main contractor pulled out, halting the project. Construction resumed in January after Planned Parenthood took over as general contractor, fueled by what it says was an outpouring of monetary and moral support.

But Danze's disruptions had earned the organization's attention. "In the beginning, we did regard Chris Danze as some[one] that was simply nipping at our heels," says Danielle Tierney, spokeswoman for the group's Texas Capital Region. "There was no way we could have predicted his ability to convince our general contractor to withdraw from the project."...

Since then, her affiliate has become more organized, stepping up volunteer recruiting, talking to the media and calling on local and state political allies, including former Texas Governor Ann Richards, to reassure subcontractors that they wouldn't be put out of business for aligning with Planned Parenthood.

(Side note: Ann Richards, now deceased, was mother to Cecile Richards, PP Federation's current president.)

Video by Jeff at ChicagoProLifeActivist from last night's Aurora City Council meeting.

Speaking is Gay Bruhn, vice president of communication for Illinois NOW, and a resident of Aurora:

This information came to me late this afternoon, and pro-lifers hammered on it over and over at the Aurora City Council meeting tonight, which finished about 11p.

The deal is Planned Parenthood's created front company, Gemini Office Development, LLC, is a for-profit company, and PP is a nonprofit company.

Eric Scheidler told me the Aurora Zoning Administrator corroborated that as a nonprofit organization, PP requires a "special use permit" to occupy and operate in its building.

According to Aurora zoning ordinances, a special use permit requires public notice in a local paper and public hearings, and property owners nearby can raise objections to the use. If 20% object, a supermajority of the City Council (2/3) must approve the use....

See zoning ordinances here.

Wrote Eric, "We now know the real reason PP came in under the for-profit Gemini scheme - to avoid any public hearings about their 'special use' of this land. Everything about this building is illegal. It ought to be torn down, and that's what we're asking for tonight."

Indeed they did. NBC5 quoted Eric this evening as stating, "We're out here today to ask the city of Aurora to to demolish their building that they were illegally operating. We discovered just this morning that Planned Parenthood failed to obtain a special use permit as required by law for a not-for-profit medical facility."

UPDATE, 9/26, 1:05a: From the Chicago Tribune, late tonight:

Planned Parenthood did not get a special-use permit required by the City of Aurora for non-profit organizations before building its controversial new clinic, opponents said at a City Council meeting Tuesday night, adding it was the "silver bullet" that could keep the clinic from ever opening.

Peter Breen, an intellectual property lawyer who directs a network of crisis pregnancy centers in Lombard and Downers Grove, is credited with finding the zoning provision, which was confirmed by city officials.

"Every brick, every sheet of bulletproof glass is illegal," Breen said outside the meeting, punctuated with chants both for and against the clinic by some 500 demonstrators. He added that he intends to seek destruction of the 22,000-square-foot, $7.5 million clinic at New York Street and Oakhurst Drive....

Aurora zoning law requires a special-use permit for a non-profit medical clinic. To acquire such a permit, the applicant must schedule a public hearing, notify property owners within 250 feet of the proposed building and advertise the hearing in a local newspaper, [Aurora spokeswoman Carie Anne] Ergo said.

None of that happened in this case....

Read entire Trib story below.

UPDATE, 9/26, 7:18a: From the Aurora Beacon this morning:

On Tuesday, Aurora-based lawyer Vincent Tessitore, an anti-abortion activist, approached the city with his discovery - a section of the Aurora zoning code that seems to mandate a special-use permit for health facilities operated by not-for-profit entities....

Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area is a not-for-profit corporation. However, the facility was approved through a subsidiary, Gemini Office Development, a limited liability corporation, and no special-use permit was applied for or granted....

City spokesman Carie Anne Ergo said that Tessitore's concerns had been forwarded to Kane County State's Attorney John Barsanti, who is completing a review of two independent investigations into Planned Parenthood and Gemini Office Development's approval process.

That review is expected to be wrapped up Friday, and Ergo emphasized that this question would be part of the investigation.

Read entire Beacon story below.

www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-auroraclinic_a-mattersep26,1,6527545.story

Chicago Tribune
Foes: Clinic lacking permit
Agency says it didn't require special-use approval by Aurora
By Rhianna Wisniewski

Special to the Tribune

11:34 PM CDT, September 25, 2007

Planned Parenthood did not get a special-use permit required by the City of Aurora for non-profit organizations before building its controversial new clinic, opponents said at a City Council meeting Tuesday night, adding it was the "silver bullet" that could keep the clinic from ever opening.

Peter Breen, an intellectual property lawyer who directs a network of crisis pregnancy centers in Lombard and Downers Grove, is credited with finding the zoning provision, which was confirmed by city officials.

"Every brick, every sheet of bulletproof glass is illegal," Breen said outside the meeting, punctuated with chants both for and against the clinic by some 500 demonstrators. He added that he intends to seek destruction of the 22,000-square-foot, $7.5 million clinic at New York Street and Oakhurst Drive.

The clinic, though completed, has been prevented from opening by Aurora officials who have asked the Kane County state's attorney's office to probe whether the permitting process was proper. That review is expected to be completed by Monday and the results will be released to the public next week, Aurora spokeswoman Carie Anne Ergo said.

Planned Parenthood has acknowledged applying for permits for the clinic under the name of Gemini Office Development LLC, a for-profit subsidiary. It insists it did nothing wrong.

Sara Knaub, a spokeswoman for the agency, declined to answer questions at the meeting but issued a statement: "Officials from Gemini Development discussed this [special-permit issue] with the city. It was determined that this project did not require a special-use permit," she said.

"This project was part of a planning and development district whose underlying use was already zoned for medical use. If Gemini needed a special-use permit, the city would never have issued a construction permit without it," the statement said.

Aurora zoning law requires a special-use permit for a non-profit medical clinic. To acquire such a permit, the applicant must schedule a public hearing, notify property owners within 250 feet of the proposed building and advertise the hearing in a local newspaper, Ergo said.

None of that happened in this case.

Vince Tessitore, an Aurora-based attorney who is a critic of the clinic, sent a memo to council members and the state's attorney Tuesday afternoon outlining the special-use permit argument.

"I am pro-life. If I had a legal basis to overturn Roe v. Wade right now, I would do it," he said of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. "I don't do anything unless I have a legal basis."

More than 180 people signed up to speak about the clinic at the meeting.

The council limited debate to 3 hours.

Bonnie Grabenhofer, president of Illinois NOW, defended the low-visibility approach taken by Planned Parenthood.

"If they had waved a flag and announced themselves, surely we would have seen harassment and intimidation of construction workers at the clinic, at their homes and at their businesses and perhaps a boycott similar to that in Austin, Texas," she said.

Ald. Rick Lawrence, a critic of the clinic, said earlier Tuesday that either Planned Parenthood committed fraud, or the city's legal and planning departments are incompetent if they didn't inform Gemini of the permit requirement. In either case, he said, a majority of the City Council has to approve a permit.

Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

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