Well, it’s actually 7-9 where I’m at – 15 hours ahead of you at present.

At any rate, here were my top five favorite political cartoons for the week, beginning with a “you got that right” one by liberal Joel Pett at GoComics.com…

 by Henry Payne at Townhall.com…

 by Michael Ramirez at Townhall.com…

 by Robert Ariail at Townhall.com…

 by Stuart Carlson at GoComics.com…

Crain’s Chicago Business is reporting that  Illinois Planned Parenthood’s medical director, abortionist Caroline Hoke, is being investigated for overbilling to Medicaid.

Crain’s found that of 30,000 physicians, Hoke received the second-highest reimbursement from Medicaid in 2009, over $3 million, but her reimbursements plunged to zero in 2011. Per Crain’s:

The state Department of Healthcare and Family Services has withheld payments to Dr. Hoke until “billing issues” are resolved, a DHFS spokesman confirms….

Planned Parenthood of Illinois CEO Carole Brite denies any wrongdoing, calling the inquiry a “routine review.” She says the organization will have to repay the state, but she declines to say how much….

The probe raises questions about an important source of funding for the organization, which received about half of its $25 million revenue from Medicaid in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011, the most recent data available.

Planned Parenthood’s explanation, again per Crain’s:

After the merger, Dr. Hoke’s reimbursements rose because DHFS instructed the organization to bill services at all locations under her name, Ms. Brite says. But the agency changed its position, effective February 2009, advising the organization to bill providers separately, she says. The inspector general’s examination began in April 2010, she adds.

“There’s no fraud, no wrongdoing,” Ms. Brite says. “We came to an agreement long ago – we’re just waiting for the final paperwork.”

As Dr. Hoke’s billings have faded, payments have grown to the other providers who use Planned Parenthood’s Chicago headquarters address. In fiscal 2009, those 52 providers were paid $2.8 million, records show. By 2011, the number of providers rose to 62 while payments shot up to $7 million.…

Medicaid officials typically suspend payments only when additional payments would be improper, says Linda Gombac, an auditor at Lafayette, Ind.-based BlickenStaff LLC, a health care compliance consulting firm.

“Especially if they end up taking back some money,” she says.

Exactly. If PP did nothing wrong, why does it have to repay the state?

Son-in-law Andy Moore forwarded me a link to thisismyabortion.com.

A mother using the pseudonym “Jane” took secret photos with her cell phone of her aborted baby and posted them online.

Jane’s rationale:

My intention in documenting and sharing my abortion is to demystify the sensationalist images propagated by the religious and political right on this matter. The perverse use of lifeless fetus photographs are a propaganda tool in the prolife/prochoice debate in which women and their bodies are used as pawns to push a cultural, political, and religious agenda in the United States.

At 6 weeks of pregnancy, my abortion looked very different than the images I saw when I entered the clinic that day.

Yes, a young baby murdered by suction abortion will look very different than an older baby murdered by a D&C, RU-486, D&E, or induced labor abortion.

So what? I am still overwhelmed with sadness looking at that jar of bloody pulp. Jane’s dead baby is in there, even if unrecognizable, and Jane had the great idea to “document” the murder. Both the visual and the thought are hard to bear.

The comments are hard to bear, too. Jane is being called “brave… incredible… thoughtful… helpful… an amazing chica… incredibly courageous,” etc., all for posting photographs of the baby she just murdered.

When asked in an interview whether she thought she would ever regret either her abortion or her decision to photograph the remains of her baby, Jane responded, “So far, I have not regretted having my abortion or sharing these photographs. I don’t think that I will.”

I’m not sure anything a pro-lifer has to say will get through to Jane at this point, but we can try. What would you like to say to her? What would you like to say to all those giving her kudos?

I have given much thought to Richard Stoecker’s letter (“Vote for Mormon against beliefs,”June 15). I am also a Christian and differ with the Mormon religion.

But I think any Christian should spend much time in prayer before refusing to vote for a family man with high morals, business experience, who is against abortion, and shares Christian conviction concerning homosexuality just because he is a Mormon.

Any Christian who does not vote or writes in a name is casting a vote for Romney’s opponent, Barack Hussein Obama – a man who sat in Jeremiah Wright’s church for years, did not hold a public ceremony to mark the National Day of Prayer, and is a liberal who supports the killing of unborn babies and same-sex marriage.

I hope all Christians give their vote prayerful consideration because voting is a sacred privilege and a serious responsibility.

~ Brad Pitt’s mom Jane, News-Leader.com, July 3, at odds with her famous son

[HT: LifeNews.com]

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli

We welcome your suggestions for additions to our Top Blogs (see tab on right side of home page)! Email Susie@jillstanek.com.

• The SBA List decries the Obama Administration’s most recent act against the will of the people, this time extending a federal grant of almost $400k to Planned Parenthood of Greater Memphis in Tennessee. The state recently defunded PP, rerouting funds to local health departments.
• At Moral Outcry, Susan Tyrrell explains why she believes it really doesn’t matter what else is in Obamacare – the bill’s taxpayer funding for abortion should be enough reason to vigorously oppose it.
• Pro-Life in TN links to a story describing the failure of Knoxville abortionists to comply with a new law requiring them to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. Could Knoxville become abortion-free? Interestingly, the two clinics there claim most of their clients come from outside the area.

• Down on the Pharm shares good news from North Carolina:
  

  The NC legislature overrode Gov. Bev Perdue’s [pictured left] veto, to redirect $343,000 in state family planning funding away from the abortionists towards the county health departments.

• Women’s Rights Without Frontiers lauds the European Parliament’s recent condemnation of forced abortion in China, urging investigation into its contributions toward the country’s family planning to ensure the funds are not being used to further the hideous practice.
• At National Review, Michael New discusses why despite the recent setback in Mississippi in which a judge allowed an abortion clinic to remain open despite violating state law, the pro-life movement’s strategies overall appear to be succeeding.
• Wesley J. Smith comments on the latest example of “consumerist medicine” – ovary transplants to stave off menopause:
  

  The controversial notion would allow career women peace of mind with a fertility insurance policy so they can find a partner, settle down and become financially secure before starting a family. By delaying the menopause they could also avoid the increased risk of osteoporosis and heart disease that come with the end of their fertile life but may raise the risk of breast and womb cancer.

• ProLife NZ reports that a complaint filed against the New Zealand government’s prenatal screening program by the group Saving Downs will be examined by the International Criminal Court on charges of eugenics:
  

  The basis of the complaint is that the screening programme targets unborn children with Down syndrome and other rare conditions such as Spina Bifida for birth prevention. New Zealand is signatory to the Rome Statute, under which the ICC operates. The persecution of an identifiable group of the civilian population through birth prevention is prohibited under the Statute.

[Photo via Charlotte Observer]

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• NPR has a long story on forced abortion, the One-Child Policy, and future population problems in China.
• Fifteen Chinese scholars have issued a public letter calling for the Chinese government to rethink their One-Child Policy:
  

  “The birth approval system built on the idea of controlling population size as emphasized in the current ‘Population and Family Planning Law‘ does not accord with provisions on the protection of human rights contained in the nation’s constitution,” the authors of Thursday’s letter wrote, adding that a rewriting of the law was “imperative.” …

  Researchers with the Research Development Center, a prominent government-affiliated think tank, added their voices to the chorus on Tuesday with an open call for Beijing to consider revising the policy, though they made no mention of Ms. Feng. Instead, the researchers focused on China’s rapidly aging population and a predicted dearth of young workers that some have said could bring about a demographic crisis.

• A husband and wife abortionist team in India has been arrested on suspicion of performing sex-selection abortions. They were on the run for 2 weeks after one of their midwives was caught attempting to bury an aborted female child.

by LauraLoo

Today starts the 2012 Face the Truth Tour by Chicago’s Pro-Life Action League.

Wrote organizer Eric Scheidler in an email yesterday:

On the Face the Truth Tour, League staff and volunteers take large posters of aborted babies out to major intersections to bring the ugly reality of abortion to the public.

This is a controversial campaign, and even many in the pro-life movement are uncomfortable with it.

To address that controversy and show why a campaign like this is needed, the League has put together a short, 2-minute video on Face the Truth:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UT5zSsHxA8[/youtube]

Continued Eric:

As the video shows, the League’s approach to showing these difficult pictures is peaceful, thoughtful and prayerful.  And at the end of the day, I can tell you first hand these pictures save lives.  That’s really what it’s all about.

Last summer a young couple came upon the Truth Tour in downtown Chicago. They had just found out about an untimely pregnancy and had been praying for a sign whether or not to get an abortion.  Not only did the signs convince them to choose life for their baby, but the League’s staff got them plugged into a pro-life pregnancy center where they could get help.

Here’s the 2012 Face the Tour schedule.  If you can’t make it to the Tour in person, please remember the League’s crew and all of their volunteers in your prayers from July 6 to 14.

Send your e-mail suggestions to dailyvid@jillstanek.com.

[HT: Jill]

Ms. Sheng recalls seeing lines of girls, most of whom had little sex education and scant knowledge of contraceptives, queuing for abortions. The gynecology ward in the average Shenzhen hospital was the most profitable of all.

“The drains in the city are filled with blood,” she says.

~ The Wall Street Journal, quoting author Sheng Keyi, who used her experience as a birth control propagandist in China as the inspiration for her debut novel, Northern Girls, July 5