by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• Here’s the roll call on the Pence Amendment to defund Planned Parenthood.
• David Freddoso writes about how Congress voted on the Pence Amendment including this about Congressman Justin Amash (R–MI), who voted present:


… Justin Amash, a freshman from western Michigan, was the only member to vote “present.” Here is the explanation he gives on his Facebook page:


Legislation that names a specific private organization to defund (rather than all organizations that engage in a particular activity) is improper and arguably unconstitutional. Moreover, the legislation is easily thwarted because the organization may simply change its name.

As a conservative, and as the Representative for the people of MI’s 3rd District, I cannot vote “yes” on legislation that violates the rule of law and does not take the process of legislating seriously. A responsible amendment—one that I would fully support—would defund all abortion providers. That is why I support Mike Pence’s HR 217, which cuts off all federal funds to any organization that performs an abortion—including Planned Parenthood.

I think he makes a mistake by accepting the premise that individual groups have some kind of right to federal money and that barring them is constitutionally dubious. No such right exists, and the 2nd Circuit Appeals Court ruled on the latter issue this last year when it upheld the ACORN defunding provision.

• 2 of the women who appeared alongside Markai Durham to talk about their abortions in MTV’s No Easy Decision are hosting screenings of the show with Planned Parenthood in Wisconsin:

  Natalia got involved with the MTV program because she was active in the reproductive rights community. Katie worked for Barack Obama’s campaign and got in touch with some people through her work with the National Abortion Right Action League (NARAL).

• Kacey Jordan, the “adult” film actress Charlie Sheen recently partied with, had an abortion in her home state of Oregon. Jordan told RadarOnline that she gets pregnant easily and has had 3 previous abortions.