by Hans Johnson

A project called Killers Among Us was launched last year by Created Equal. It has distributed thousands of postcards in Columbus, Ohio, alerting the public to the “work” of Mervyn and Milroy Samuel. The father and son late-term abortionists have admitting privileges at several area Catholic hospitals.

Mervyn Samuel (pictured) took photos of protesters outside his clinic, saying to one boy, “Here! Here boy!” and to his mother, “Look, I got your son!”  After “guessing” she had had an abortion (and why should that trouble her?) he walked back to his clinic with the parting shot: “So, you will be on Facebook!”

Turning back, he scolded, “This is how he learns bad habits,” and “So, he is going to get somebody pregnant!” And last but not least: “You’re a bad mother!”

Clearly, he doesn’t want this or any young person to be informed of what he does. That would be bad for business.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/yGxe2y0D8Cg[/youtube]

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

[HT: Mark Harrington]

Heartbroken by the events unfolding in #Ferguson?. A parent’s right to raise their child in love and safety, and to dream that their child will have every opportunity in the world to grow into a fiercely independent adult is a fundamental issue of reproductive justice. As a feminist, as an organizer, and most of all as a parent, my thoughts are with Lesley McSpadden.

~ Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards on Facebook, August 14, adding this graphic, with the fine print, “Repeal Hyde Art Project,” which seeks to force taxpayer funding of abortions for all pregnant mothers on Medicaid. Click to enlarge:

[HT: Townhall.com via Kelli]

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

• Wesley J. Smith responds to the recent Washington Post opinion piece opposing the use of the phrase “difficult decision” to describe abortion:
  

  With this kind of advocacy increasing, it is clear now that pro-abortionists also want Roe v. Wade overturned. Why? Roe permitted limits. In contrast – as I have written – a ruling that protects abortion as necessary to protect sexual equality would permit abortion through the ninth month – if not beyond – with the only regulations permitted being those required for basic sanitation.

  After that, the next step would be to require free abortion, either paid by the state or required as coverage under Obamacare. Pro-abortionists believe that women won’t really be free until they are guaranteed the right to a dead fetus.

• At Priests for Life, Kevin Burke, who has a men’s post-abortion ministry, clarifies his controversial post about the late Robin Williams (pictured left) as a post-abortive father:
  

  My previous blog focused on the possible relationship between Robin Williams’s very public struggle with addiction and a previous abortion loss. I have since learned that some saw this as an exploitation of his tragic death.

How did I come to write this piece? As I read of Williams’s death, his addiction struggle was prominent in many articles I was reading… but with no mention of his abortion loss in the 1970’s. I saw this as an opportunity to draw attention to something I have learned in my 20 years’ experience in after-abortion recovery ministry; people often self-medicate the very painful and complex emotions and memories of their abortion experience with drugs and alcohol. This sometimes leads to serious addiction issues at great personal cost and also brings pain and suffering upon their loved ones.

• At Bound4Life, Josh Shepherd contrasts the stiff penalties imposed on pro-lifers’ free speech with the lack of penalties received by abortionists who flout the Born Alive Infants Protection Act (like Kermit Gosnell). Star Parker of The Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE) “is laser-focused on getting Congress to give the Born Alive Infants Protection Act a second look, most recently meeting with key leaders on Capitol Hill.”
• At ProLife365, Kevin Kukla posts his six reasons why pro-lifers should stop ceding the hard cases as reasons to allow abortion – for instance, in the case of rape, which is one of the most compelling.
• Secular Pro-Life has a post about the hijacking of the term “feminism” by radical abortion supporters:
  

  I’ll close with a personal confession, which I’ve been wanting to write about for a while, and now seems like a good opportunity: when I see an organization or campaign about “women’s health,” I always dig to see if it’s an abortion group before expressing any support. And that disgusts me. I’m a woman. Women’s health is my health!! How did we get to the point where I have to be suspicious of my health?! But my suspicions are justified, because the phrase “women’s health,” like “feminism,” has been hijacked by people with values that are starkly opposed to those of 57% of the female population of the United States.Yes, it’s beyond frustrating, and I understand why some people just throw their hands in the air and reject feminism. But I’m convinced that the better response is to reclaim it!

• Pro-Life Action League posts one of the videos from the recent Converted Conference which features Catherine Adair. Adair had an abortion and became a radical feminist, working for Planned Parenthood. In this 45-minute video, she discusses what she witnessed as a PP employee, along with the heart and mind conversion that took place in her life after leaving the abortion industry.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/wncJ7uZz3tE[/youtube]

[Williams photo via fanpop.com]

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• A judge in Iowa has upheld the ban on telemed/Skype abortions in the state:
  

  The judge wrote that the medical board has significant authority to regulate such issues. “There is no question that the board has the power to establish standards of practice for the medical profession. Those standards include the authority to adopt and enforce standards regarding the minimal standards of acceptable and prevailing practice,” he wrote.

  The system has remained in use while the two sides wrangled in court. The judge’s ruling is set to take effect in 30 days. A Planned Parenthood spokeswoman said her agency would file a legal appeal.

• Gillian Ropespierre, director of Obvious Child, wants people to stop calling her film an “abortion comedy”:
  

  But, because the plot revolves around an abortion, it’s not being called, simply, a ‘comedy’. Instead, it’s being referred to as – whisper it – ‘that abortion comedy.’

  Director Gillian Robespierre isn’t particularly pleased that her work of art has been given this label.

  “‘Abortion comedy’ gives a sense, in the semantics of that sentence, that we’re making light of abortion. And we’re not doing that,” she tells me. “I was a little angry because it makes our movie sound glib and sarcastic.”

• At the Washington Post, liberal political strategist Carter Eskew joins the trend of abortion advocates who are criticizing “choice” language:
  

  The pro-choice side cannot win the debate as it is currently framed; it can achieve only small victories when the other side overreaches. An example: Requiring an ultrasound is okay, not just an invasive one. The reason pro-choice advocates can’t and won’t win is because they don’t have an affirmative argument, only a defensive one….

  The problem is “choice” will never trump “life.” Choice is valuable, but life is precious. As long as there is no competing affirmative value for abortion, then life will always win.

by Hans Johnson

During Pope Francis‘ trip to South Korea, he visited the House of Hope in Kkottongnae, which cares for the elderly and disabled who were rejected by their families.

While there he saw a memorial garden of small white crosses representing children aborted because of their genetic abnormalities. He bowed his head in prayer and spoke with a pro-life activist who had no arms or legs.

In his homily given the day before, he referred to the “culture of death,” as had his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, listing a number of threats to the world, among which was a “culture of death which devalues the image of God of life, and violates the dignity of every man, woman, and child.”

[youtube]http://youtu.be/ivm6Y-j3NBw[/youtube]

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

[HT: TheBlaze]

by Kelli

Weddings are a celebration of love, of the entwining of two lives, of the exciting possibility of creating even more lives from this union.

I didn’t expect to have to endorse a “pro-life” stance.

~ XOJane.com and Lesbian.com writer Natasia Langfelder (pictured), lamenting her participation in a relative’s Catholic wedding where she felt there was too much of a pro-life message, as quoted by Live Action News, August 16

[Photo via xojane.com]

Any distrust Women of Color felt toward Planned Parenthood was kept out of the public eye until July 28, when the abortion giant blew any remaining shreds of good will.

It was on that day a story Planned Parenthood shopped to the New York Times was published, within which Planned Parenthood failed to give WOC credit for the concept of “reproductive justice” and submitted names of only white female leaders of the abortion lobby to interview – seven to be exact – but no WOC.

Enter into the fracas Melissa Flournoy, pictured right, Louisiana State Director for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast – until August 15, that is, when she was forced to resign.

PPGC already had problems fending off three Medicaid fraud lawsuits as well as pro-lifers battling its plan to open an abortion clinic in New Orleans, where the population is 67% minority.

So Flournoy threw gas over a few fires on August 13 when she attended a screening of We Always Resist: Trust Black Women and took over the discussion afterward, telling WOC they needed to drop what they were doing and get behind Planned Parenthood’s political agenda and also telling a black leader she needed to kick a black Democrat pro-life representative’s ass.

Kris Ford of Women’s Health And Justice Initiative detailed Flournoy’s ghastly behavior in an open letter to Flournoy and PPGC. The entire letter is well worth the read. Here are excerpts (bold emphases theirs):

You felt that last night’s discussions should have centered on how organizations like Women With A Vision, the communities they serve, and women of color as a whole could “show up” for Planned Parenthood’s pro-choice fight….

The pro-choice/pro-life framework that Planned Parenthood supports and fuels largely leaves marginalized women behind. We gain nothing from joining your parade or lending our faces or our children’s faces to your billboards.

You, Melissa Flournoy, are a perfect example of the schism in work around reproductive rights. Your refusal to listen, your insistence on centering the conversation on your personal wants, and your flippant disregard for the work that organizations led by women of color have done. Worse, the huge organization that supports you is guilty of the same.

Part of why I’m wary of Planned Parenthood is that I lead an intersectional life by default…. You push us to the front of one charge after another so that you can wave your diversity banners. We fall first and are left bleeding every time….

Trust Black Women… [is] produced by Sister Song, the same organization whose member Monica Simpson wrote an open letter to Planned Parenthood on August 5th. Monica’s letter details the ways that Planned Parenthood consistently omits the intersectional work of grassroots organizations on reproductive issues….

Monica published her letter barely two weeks ago, and yet here I am publishing this one today because of your appalling behavior last night….

There was a feeling of reverence for the heaviness of the topics we’d discussed. Out of the three seconds of silence, your hand went up and the whole meeting went off the tracks. You started by introducing yourself as the Louisiana State director of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast. After that, you proceeded to ask Deon what she could “do about Katrina.” Though you didn’t pause to give context, you were talking about Katrina Jackson, the state representative out of Monroe, Louisiana who penned HB388. The bill effectively shuts down some of the abortion providers here in Louisiana. You complained about the representative’s unwillingness to hear your pleas, and jokingly said that you wanted to “put (Deon) into a ring and let you kick her ass!” Didn’t we JUST get done talking about how hurtful it is for black women to constantly be profiled as dangerous? Violent? Subhuman? How is this helpful? Deon had told us about the police reports she sees where police officers describe black women as primarily “big,” “black,” and “angry.” YOU TURNED AROUND AND DID THE SAME THING. Deon stated that she’s not going to go fight any other black women. She’s not doing this work to go be the black person who can tame other black people for you. None of us are. It was clear that you weren’t getting the answers or feedback that you wanted. I’m sure you were aware of the people expressing their dismay in the background as you charged on to talk at length about how what we REALLY need to just focus on less race stuff and more political stuff. According to you, the solution lies in pressuring elected officials and voting the bad eggs out of office. You asked question after question, made statement after statement, and barely paused for Deon or anyone else to answer. When she was able to sneak a word in edgewise, you cut her off again! This went round and around. You interrupted most of the people who spoke last night, including me. I explained that I rejected the Pro Choice vs. Pro Life framework because it leaves behind many of the communities represented in that room. I stated that while I was glad you came, I didn’t want this entire conversation to become us simply focused on and responding to you. I also said that when you ask questions of people like Deon, like Paris, like the many activists and organizers in that room who have exactly the kind of analysis that your organization sorely lacks, you need to shut up and listen. You didn’t. In fact, you cut me off before I could finish talking. Here’s more of what I want to say:

How dare you, Melissa? How dare you show up to an event by and for women of color, then go ahead to tell us that we’re not focusing on YOUR organization enough? That we aren’t showing up for YOU enough? We afforded you every opportunity last night to get a feel for where women of color are coming from on this issue. The answers to why we aren’t as common as we could be among the Planned Parenthood ranks was staring you in the face, and you turned away every time. You heard it from black women, you heard it from black men, you heard it from faith leaders and scholars and activists and average folks walking down the street. You even heard it from Laura McTighe, a white ally who was so upset by your behavior that she stepped forward to name that you had effectively derailed the entire conversation and wrapped it around yourself, and that it was inappropriate of you to ask women of color why they weren’t doing more for YOU. Did you listen to her? Did you listen when she said that she felt the more appropriate question to ask was how you, your organization, and white people in general could show up and be better allies for US?

I don’t think you did. What you did was talk over people, take up too much space emotionally and physically in the room. I knew you weren’t really engaged with us because people were standing uncomfortably in the back of the room while you sprawled across two chairs of your own…

If the Louisiana State director of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast can listen to the lived experiences of women of color and then try to mock us and disrupt our meetings, then what hope is there for Planned Parenthood to work in an anti-racist framework? Why should I bother with trusting or investing in any of your political ventures if you can’t see the merit in my community based activism?

Black women’s bodies are the scapegoat here. No matter how you turn it, when we view ourselves on your terms, the jokes fly about how we should go fight people for you. We are damned for having children, damned for having abortions, damned for refusing to navigate our bodies within your framework, and then chastised for not showing up for you….

Rather than resist the urge to stack oppressions like a playground contest, you tossed out you’re a lesbian from Shreveport and that I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. I think I judged you appropriately. I think I had you figured out when I reluctantly had to lump you in with the rest of the big money non-profits that just want to hijack our stories for convenient marketing. I think I had you right when I assumed that you wouldn’t be able to simply be a member of the community that night. I think I was correct in assuming that you and the organization that you represent have a long way to go. If you commonly behave this way professionally, expect to alienate more and more people.

Well, wow. I’ve certainly been impressed by the depth and insight of these open letters. I may disagree with the bottom line of these particular WOC, who believe they need abortion in their equation, but I certainly come away with a better understanding of where they are coming from. It is also clear there is unbridled animus against Planned Parenthood.

TheHayRide.com added:

This is Deon Haywood… 

So naturally, telling a room full of people that you’d like to put Katrina Jackson in a ring with her so she could kick Jackson’s ass isn’t going to go over all that well.

By the next day the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast issued an open letter apologizing for Flournoy.

By August 15 Flournoy had posted news of her resignation on Facebook (now private)…

While it relieves me to see WOC “wary” of Planned Parenthood for using them to further its political agenda, this is only the display of a deeper insidious agenda, which is to profit from their woes. WOC must know by now they have a disproportionate share of abortions. This is because Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry target them.

The roots of the abortion industry are in the eugenics movement, which became popular in America after blacks were freed from slavery and no longer needed or wanted.

[HT: @Defund_PP; LifeNews.com; thehayride.com]

People are such lemmings. Now that Planned Parenthood has decided the abortion movement’s most prized obfuscation, “pro-choice,” is uncool, everyone is jumping on the bandwagon.

Suddenly, “[p]ro-choice sounds stark, institutional and impersonal,” proclaimed ad agency exec Shireen Jiwan of Sleuth in the AdWeek post, “How 6 ad women would rebrand pro-choice.”

Womankind’s Sandy Sabean added, “What needs to be made clearer is that what we are against is anti-choice.” Well, that really does clear things up. I’d think the correct phrase would then be “pro-choice,” but what do I know?

Then there’s NARAL Pro-Choice America. For obvious reasons this group likes the term pro-choice.

I would love to have been in the room when Planned Parenthood’s people told NARAL’s people their name was outdated. Ha.

But NARAL isn’t towing the “pro-me” line (ad exec Amanda Hughes-Watkins’ suggestion for the name replacement, which is actually pretty much on the dime, since abortion is about me, me, me).

NARAL is asking people to vote on three new t-shirt designs (warning: one of the choices is vulgar), and the third one is, ”I AM PRO-CHOICE AMERICA.”

This is really just a ploy to snag members (by voting “you are affirming your membership in NARAL Pro-Choice America”), but the bottom line is NARAL isn’t going to let go of “pro-choice” without a fight.

Which I love.