NOLA Planned Parenthood resumes construction; contractor says will walk for payoff
The New Orleans Advocate reported today construction on the troubled New Orleans Planned Parenthood abortion facility has resumed amidst problems within and without.
The 8,000 square foot mill project stalled almost immediately after its ballyhooed groundbreaking in May 2013.
In the 22 months since, only the foundation has been dug.
Meanwhile, in January the Louisiana Health Department rejected Planned Parenthood’s certificate of need, so at this point even if the building is completed, it can’t commit abortions.
But this is shaky assurance to local pro-lifers, who are still fighting to keep the building from ever being completed.
Originally estimated to cost $4.2 million, the clinic is now “millions” more underwater, according to an unnamed inside source to NOA.
A major hold-up has been concrete. Four concrete companies had turned down the job until Absolute Concrete Services took Planned Parenthood’s financial bait. Louisiana Coalition for Life has posted a list of collaborators.
On February 27, Pastor Bill Shanks of New Covenant Fellowship Church in Kenner was one of two pastors who visited the home of Absolute Concrete owners Melvin and Linda Backes. Click to enlarge photo of the pastor in front of their home…
The couple told the pastors they owned the company but son Ronald runs it.
I spoke with Pastor Shanks by phone, and he said Melvin told him, “This is just business. If you give me $20,000, I’ll tear up the contract.”
Melvin is a retired firefighter.
“My son is a firefighter, too, and knows Melvin as a brave man,” Pastor Shanks told me. “I told him to be brave for the babies. And I warned him that I’ve been involved in this fight for years and have seen one after another business crumble after becoming involved in abortion.”
Pastor Shanks said Linda’s heart was “as hard as concrete.” She told him she supported abortion and Planned Parenthood, adding, “If we let these babies live, they’ll just grow up and kill us.”
Absolute Concrete has not returned my calls requesting comment.
This past Saturday, about 50 pro-lifers protested and prayed at the site, getting workers to leave….
The workers were back today, but pro-lifers will not rest.
Take the poll! Should pro-lifers collect the $20,000 to get Absolute Concrete to walk off the job?
[Top photo Absolute Concrete; Louisiana pro-lifer; bottom photo New Orleans Advocate]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Just emailed 3 collaborators.
My husband was in Opus Dei with Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana!
Nope. I think we should let good ol’ Linda there keep right on talking about how babies are “gonna grow up and kill us.”
I’m sure that will be great for their business.
If their business crumbles, it crumbles. If it prospers due to their collaboration, the bloodguilt of children in the womb killed by abortion will follow them. Either way… it’s not going to be good for them.
Raise the 20K for a crisis pregnancy center or give it to 40 Days for Life – not to someone who will will just blow the $. If they do the job, you still have a mightier weapon – prayer – so use it!
A bribe is “money or favor given or promised in order to influence the judgment or conduct of a person in a position of trust.”
It would be a bribe if Absolute Concrete were legally bound or in some way duty-bound to build the clinic. But they’re not. It’s not a bribe, it’s just outbidding Planned Parenthood.
So if no other concrete company is likely to fill the breach, and if the number of necessary abortions thwarted are likely to be zero or very few in comparison to the number of unnecessary abortions thwarted, pay the money. It could end up saving lives for a few dollars each.
NEITHER OF THOSE STATEMENTS WERE MADE BY THE MELVIN OR LINDA BACKES. WHO WOULD BELIEVE ANYONE WOULD MAKE STATEMENTS LIKE THAT TO A PASTOR?
Who would say that, unless we abort these undesirables, they will grow up to kill us?
How about a Harvard/MIT/Univ of Chicago PhD economist?
http://freakonomics.com/2005/05/15/abortion-and-crime-who-should-you-believe/
Melvin and Linda Backes are two of the most compassionate people that I have ever known and without a shadow of a doubt did NOT make the statements quoted in this article. Someone should sit pastor shanks down and remind him that he is supposedly a man of God and that to lie like he has done is a direct ticket to hell. If he wants to promote his agenda in a logical and informed way let him do so, but for a supposed pastor to lie as he has done only makes him look like an uninformed idiot. Remember pastor shanks, the road to hell is paved with false Christians. If you choose to go down that road, as you clearly have, stop trying to take descent, hard working people with you. You only make yourself and your flock of mindless followers look like what you are…………..FOOLS!!!!!
I would hope two of the most compassionate people would not help a business set on taking thousands of lives, as they appear to be doing. Compassion means to suffer with, please suffer with the unborn child here, even at the cost of a business deal.
If they are indeed compassionate then why are they building an abortion facility? You can protest and say you didn’t say those things but your actions speak louder–you are building a building where they will kill babies. Makes it entirely believable that Linda did indeed say what Pastor Shanks said she said.
If you build that building the blood of those babies will be on your hands as well. God is a just God. God hates a lying tongue but he also hates hands that shed innocent blood. And by using your hands to build the killing center you are just as guilty as the doctor tearing children limb from limb. So don’t lecture about “false Christians” when you have a CONTRACT with the NUMBER ONE ABORTION PROVIDER in the US–Planned Parenthood.
Compassion and truth go hand in hand. If you want to fight the good fight go ahead but be honest about it. Pastor shanks has lied and therefore invalidated any credibility that he or any of his flock may have had. I, for one, would listen more closely to someone that is honest about their position over a liar any day, especially a liar that stands behind a pulpit as pastor shanks has proven to be. I know Linda and Melvin and stand by what I know. THEY DID NOT MAKE THE COMMENTS QUOTED TO THEM IN THIS SLANDEROUS PIECE OF ONE SIDED REPORTING. Maybe pastor shanks and his followers would be best served by suffering with the homeless and hungry on the streets of his and every city in this country.
Sydney M. has proven my point by saying that it is ok to lie if it helps to advance your pro life agenda. She said it, just look up a few comments. At least in her not to well thought out way she is being honest in her hypocrisy.
Where did I say it was okay Bob? Lying is not okay. Please quote where I said it was. Stop misrepresenting me in your little tizzy.
What I SAID–and let me make it clear–is that I BELIEVE the pastor and I do not believe you. I BELIEVE Linda indeed said those wicked things because she and her husband and son are building an abortion clinic. Anyone wicked enough to build a place where children will be torn apart is wicked enough to say the things she said. Her actions tell me a lot about her character.
HOW DO YOU KNOW THE PASTOR IS MAKING THIS STORY UP? BECAUSE THERE IS NO CONTRACT TO POUR CONCRETE SO HOW COULD IT BE TORN UP. THE PASTOR MADE IT UP. WHY WERE THE STATEMENTS NOT IN THE FIRST ARTICLE BY THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE? COME ON PEOPLE DONT DRINK THE KOOL AID!!!!
Read your own post Sydney. By saying “God hates a lying tongue but” you have all but admitted that lying to further your agenda is ok and that in your own mind pastor shanks lying regarding this situation is ok. That, in my mind, makes you as big a hypocrite and as false a christian as pastor shanks. Believe what you will about the vile lies that have been spoken by someone that you yourself, have labeled a liar. Linda nor Melvin Backes did not say what you and your holier than thou flock are spewing. I can say this because I know it for a fact. You are helping no one accomplish anything by following blindly someone that you know to be dishonest to further a cause.
[…] my post yesterday, “NOLA Planned Parenthood resumes construction; contractor says will walk for payoff,” I wrote that Absolute Concrete Services had not returned my calls requesting […]
No Bob–I was not excusing lying. You’re projecting.
What I said was God hates a lying tongue–why would I defend something God hates? If Pastor Shanks lied, then he has done something God hates. I do not in any way defend that.
I said BUT because you’re shrieking about supposed lying while completely ignoring the KNOWN FACT that your friends here are building a child killing center. God hates a lying tongue AND hands that shed innocent blood. Is that better for you? It is ridiculous for you to be wringing your hands over a conversation you did not witness and shouting accusations that someone is a liar while completely ignoring that your friends are indeed participating in the shedding of innocent blood by building an abortuary.
Your reading comprehension is very bad Bob. You shouldn’t read into things. You didn’t catch me defending lying. I don’t think Pastor Shanks lied. Your friends actions speak volumes about their mindset. So I absolutely believe she said those things.
But just because I don’t want there to be any confusion–LYING is WRONG AND–got it? AND so is child killing.
Sydney, Sydney, Sydney, now I understand thanks to you. I had no earthly idea that stating my opinion (just as you are) was shrieking. Nor was I aware, until you pointed it out, that the fact that pastor shanks was a liar was something that I alone supposed. I was also unaware of the fact that Linda and Melvin were building an abortion clinic totally on there own. Thank you for enlightening me. Now let me respond by saying that my comprehension is very clear Sydney. I am not shouting accusations that pastor shanks is a liar, I am stating a fact. He is a liar, and the worse kind, a Bible thumping liar with an agenda. Innocent blood is being shed daily among the living yet that is of no concern to people like you? You are defending lying, and worse, by blindly believing what liars like shanks are telling you. The fundamental issues here are much deeper than concrete and abortions. IGNORANCE IS WRONG AND-got it? I know the truth regarding the statements made in this article and you blindly believe a bold faced liar. Not shrieking, snitting, shouting accusations or wringing my hands. How do you know that I did not witness the entire conversation? You don’t, do you? Once again Sydney, my comprehension is very clear and shanks is a liar. Believe what you will, say what you know for a fact. Just sayin.
Well Bob, if you had witnessed the conversation I truly believe you would have SAID that now wouldn’t you? But whatevs. They’re your friends and you’re gonna defend em. I get it. Seriously, I do.
There is still time for them to walk away from this nasty business before it destroys them. Businesses that cooperate with the abortion industry tend to not fare well. I’ve seen it in my area with businesses supporting PP. Their revenue dropped so steeply and quickly they couldn’t move to sever ties with the abortion giant fast enough.
I hope your friends will do the right thing and not build this killing center. But if they do go ahead and cooperate with the abortion giant PP then I hope their business dries up (ha ha pun intended). I hope they go bankrupt. Because any company that would help build a building where innocent little preborn children will be torn into pieces deserves that.
The bigger lie is PLANNED PARENTHOOD…a secret holocaust, fraud, people with no medical background performing tests, anesthesia, giving medication, not calling emergency personnel for hemmorhaging women…leaving them to die, rape in the offices, abortions on women not even pregnant, no follow up or counseling, forget inspections being done for “safe” procedures, etc. the biggest lie…..homicide.