WASHINGTON UPDATE 07/21/2015

July 21, 2015 | Permalink Planned Profits: New Video Casts Doubts on Group's Claims While Planned Parenthood is being investigated, President Obama is tightening federal funding rules -- for pro-lifers! That's right. After three congressional committees and seven states have launched probes into a possible organ harvesting ring, the White House is not only ignoring the scandal -- but focusing its fire on organizations providing real care to women. When the rest of the country's attention is on an organization who may be peddling parts for profit, the President is finalizing rules to stop faith-based groups from getting a dime of federal funding. Their crime? Believing that all life has value and refusing to refer women to groups who disagree. In a jab at organizations like Catholic Charities, HHS quietly disqualified pro-life groups from sex trafficking victim grants unless they offer "the full range of legally permissible gynecological and obstetric care," (read: abortion referrals). On the other hand, if you aid and abet sex traffickers, the government will happily write your organization a check for a half-billion taxpayer dollars a year! Of course, the timing of the rules couldn't be worse from a PR standpoint -- not that the President cares about that sort of thing. On Monday, White House Secretary Josh Earnest shrugged off an undercover video so revolting that Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he'd "vomit" just talking about it. Asked if the President would reconsider federal funding to a group that may be endangering women to farm out their babies' organs, Earnest said, "No. Next question." Two seconds. That's all the time this administration could spare for the profound inhumanity on display at the clinics of his closest ally. Unfortunately for the President, this issue isn't going away any time soon -- not with a second video making headlines this morning. The footage opens with Cecile Richards's insistence that Planned Parenthood doesn't profit from the sale of human remains, then proceeds to cast serious doubts on her claim in a lengthy lunch with another of Richards's top executives. Filmed earlier this year, the President of Planned Parenthood's Medical Directors' Council spends the majority of the time casually bartering over baby organ prices like trinkets at a local bazaar. Of course, the negotiations wouldn't be necessary if Planned Parenthood truly didn't profit from the sales. Instead, the rates were quite fluid -- so much so that at one point, the group's executive said, "If it's low, then we can bump it up. But it has to be big enough that it's worthwhile to me." After some back-and-forth -- in which the Planned Parenthood rep admits she wants to do more than "break even" -- the group settles on $100 per piece. But the price wasn't the only thing that was negotiable. So was the abortion technique. As in the first video, this woman was very open to changing abortion protocol to protect the babies' most valuable parts. "I wouldn't object to asking Ian, who's our surgeon who does the cases, to use an IPAS [manual vacuum aspirator] at that gestational age in order to increase the odds that he's going to get an intact specimen." That means, she explains, "using a less crunchy technique to get more whole specimens." When the "buyers" asked about the legality of it, the doctor seemed unconcerned. "To me, that's kind of a specious little argument." After all, she explains, other companies come in during the procedure to scavenge what they need -- keeping Planned Parenthood's hands clean in the process. That will be more difficult now, especially as Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) are digging deeper into the grisly side business. Letters have already landed at NIH, local medical buyers, Planned Parenthood, Attorney General Loretta Lynch's office, and HHS headquarters -- all demanding answers on possible criminal activity. Like a wounded animal, Planned Parenthood lashed out at the Center for Medical Progress, arguing to the House Energy and Commerce Committee that CMP is the one who broke the law by exposing this. But Congress isn't fooled. And neither is the American public. According to Rasmussen's latest poll, only 25% can rationalize their ghoulish practice. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood insists, "We're not in it for the money." If that's true, then it doesn't need ours. Sign FRC's petition asking Congress to put the emergency brakes on all Planned Parenthood funding until we know the full extent of its involvement in the dark world of organ trafficking. For more on FRC Action's call for Members of Congress to return contributions from Planned Parenthood's PAC, click on the video to watch my conversation with Megyn Kelly on Fox News last night. License to Kill Religious Liberty? When did the ACLU stop defending people's rights and start attacking them? Probably when it jumped on the same-sex "marriage" bandwagon. Like most liberal groups, the ACLU can't seem to reconcile the fact that the half of America opposing same-sex marriage has the same rights and freedom to do so as the half of the country supporting the redefinition. Of course, religious liberty becomes the casualty of this kind of thinking by the ACLU, as we've seen in the wake of the Supreme Court's redefinition of marriage. Clerks like Kim Davis of Kentucky are finding themselves on the wrong end of this selective application of the First Amendment, especially in cases involving the ACLU. Like Christian Casey Davis, who was ordered by Governor Steve Beshear (D) to start issuing same-sex marriage licenses -- or else -- Kim Davis is also being hauled into court for her beliefs. The ACLU is trying to make examples of county officials who rightly believe their freedom extends to the workplace too. During questioning this week, Davis told a federal judge that she cannot authorize a license, because it implies she agrees with same-sex marriage. "And I can't," she explained. Other clerks under her supervision also have moral objections to the licenses, she said. "I can't ask them to do something I wouldn't do myself." While the judge said he cannot fire Davis, he made it clear that he can punish her for not doing her job with fines or jail time. "I'll deal with that when the time comes," she said. "If I resign, it solves nothing and helps nobody," Kim told the court," especially if "there is a solution out there where everyone can be happy and no one is compromised in anyway." Outside, more than 100 people gathered to support Kim, holding signs at an impromptu rally protesting the lawsuit. Kent Ostrander, head of the Family Foundation of Kentucky, was quick to come to Davis's aid. If the courts and governor force clerks to issue licenses, "All Judeo-Christian believers, maybe even Muslim believers, would not be able to hold that office, and that office would then be banned from them. And that's not constitutional," he argued. Graham Measures up at This Year's VVS! No one knows what will have happened with the Iran deal by September -- but one thing we do know: Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) will have plenty to say about it. The outspoken defense hawk will be able to share those thoughts and more at the Values Voter Summit, now that he's a confirmed speaker! A solid conservative in every right, Senator Graham joins fellow presidential candidates Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Rick Santorum, Governors Scott Walker (R-Wisc.), Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal (R-La.), Rick Perry (R-Texas), Dr. Ben Carson, and more at the September 25-27 event in downtown D.C. Don't miss your chance to hear from these and other great leaders at the biggest pro-family event of the fall! For more information or to register, visit ValuesVoterSummit.org. Tickets are just $119 for adults and $50 for students (scholarships are available)! ** For more on the ACLU's about-face, check out Travis Weber's new post, "ACLU Again Betrays Its Support of Individual Freedom" on the FRCBlog. Tony Perkins' Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.