PP told Dem AGs to shut down pro-life centers

Democrats Took Notes: Planned Parenthood Handed State Attorneys General a Post-Roe To-Do List

Apparently, overturning Roe v. Wade was not supposed to end the abortion industry’s relationship with government. It was merely supposed to move the relationship into the states, where Democrat attorneys general could continue doing what Washington had been doing for decades.

Just a month after the Supreme Court overturned Roe, Planned Parenthood circulated a 14-point memo giving state attorneys general a handy-dandy checklist for fighting back against the Dobbs decision. The document essentially amounted to an abortion-industry field manual, complete with instructions for targeting crisis pregnancy centers, pressuring federal regulators, enforcing state abortion laws and issuing abortion-friendly legal opinions.

And, according to documents obtained by the Daily Signal, several blue-state attorneys general appear to have read the memo and thought, “Excellent. Where do we sign?”

On July 25, 2022, Brittany Jenkins, policy director of the Progressive State Leaders Committee, forwarded the Planned Parenthood memo to attorneys general and their staffs. Jenkins informed them that Rachel Sussman, Planned Parenthood’s vice president of state policy, would brief them the following day “to continue our discussion of continued actions AGs can take in response to the Dobbs decision.”

The memo declared war on pro-life crisis pregnancy centers, organizations that provide expecting mothers with food, clothing, shelter, counseling and other assistance while encouraging them not to abort their children.

Planned Parenthood apparently considered all that assistance suspicious.

“Provide information to the public about CPCs and take steps to curb their misleading and deceptive practices. For example, CA issued a Consumer Alert,” the memo stated. It also urged attorneys general to ask the Federal Trade Commission to “target misinformation perpetuated by crisis pregnancy centers regarding medication abortion.”

In other words, if someone is offering a pregnant woman diapers instead of an abortion, the government may need to investigate.

Less than a month later, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison issued a “consumer alert” targeting crisis pregnancy centers because, apparently, “pregnant people” needed the government to explain which pregnancy-related organizations they were allowed to trust.

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin followed in December 2022 with his own consumer alert. He later subpoenaed First Choice, a crisis pregnancy center, demanding the names, phone numbers, addresses and places of employment of its individual donors.

Unfortunately for the subpoena, the First Amendment has an annoying habit of getting in the way.

In April of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that donors have a First Amendment right to contribute anonymously.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, whose state Planned Parenthood had already held up as an example, went even further, suing several crisis pregnancy centers. In October 2023, Bonta joined 15 other Democrat attorneys general in an open letter attacking the centers.

“We have watched with increasing concern in recent years as anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) have proliferated in our states, outnumbering abortion clinics by a three-to-one ratio,” the letter said.

Apparently, having three times as many places offering women an alternative to abortion is considered a crisis.

And the abortion industry was not merely making suggestions from the sidelines. According to documents obtained by the Daily Signal through a public records request to the office of Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, Planned Parenthood was coordinating with multiple state attorneys general.

That would be quite a coincidence, except that the memo helpfully provided the blueprint.

The Planned Parenthood memo urged states to use their own versions of the FACE Act, the federal law governing access to abortion clinics, pregnancy centers and houses of worship.

“States should utilize all state laws, including state FACE Acts, to protect health care facilities that provide abortion.”

Eight days later, Platkin announced a partnership with the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New Jersey and issued guidance to state prosecutors concerning enforcement of clinic-access laws.

But Planned Parenthood was not finished handing out assignments.

The memo also encouraged attorneys general to issue legal opinions resolving abortion-related questions, including “guidance explicitly asserting consent to abortion rights for minors.”

According to the Center for American Progress, attorneys general in Arizona, California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania subsequently issued guidance concerning abortion and medication abortion.

Planned Parenthood also urged states to coordinate legal representation for women seeking abortions, abortionists and abortion funds. Arizona, California, New Jersey and New York later established task forces for that purpose, according to the Center for American Progress.

At this point, calling the document a “memo” seems almost quaint. It looks more like a corporate franchise manual.

Step one: Target crisis pregnancy centers.

Step two: Pressure federal regulators.

Step three: Encourage state prosecutors to enforce abortion-friendly laws.

Step four: Issue legal opinions supporting abortion.

Step five: Establish task forces.

Step six: Hope nobody notices that the supposedly independent government officials are following the abortion industry's homework.

The revelations come after the Biden administration's Justice Department released an 882-page report detailing coordination between the administration and major abortion-industry groups, including Planned Parenthood, in efforts to use federal law enforcement against pro-life activists.

The documents now suggest that the strategy did not stop at the federal level.

Some attorneys general had already begun taking action before the Supreme Court handed down Dobbs. But Planned Parenthood's memo provided a remarkably specific roadmap that closely resembled policies subsequently adopted by several blue states.

Kaul’s office, which fulfilled its legal obligation to provide the records, did not respond to inquiries for this story.

A spokesperson for Planned Parenthood did not respond to phone and email inquiries.

Neither a spokesperson for the Progressive State Leaders Committee nor the Democratic Attorneys General Association responded to inquiries.

The Progressive State Leaders Committee is a 501(c)(4) advocacy group founded in 2005 that shares an address with the Democratic Attorneys General Association and, according to the Capital Research Center, lists no paid staff on its tax filing.

So there you have it.

The Supreme Court overturned Roe, Planned Parenthood produced the homework, and Democrat attorneys general apparently showed up to class prepared.

The only thing missing from the memo was a note at the bottom saying, “Please remember to turn in your assignment by Friday.”

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Kamala Harris wants to take away workers' rights to not join unions

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., indicated on Saturday that if [G-d forbid] she became president, she would use the "bully pulpit" to fight "right-to-work" laws, describing them a** backwards as an attack on workers' rights.

"The barriers to organized labor being able to organize and strike are something that have grown over a period of time," the 2020 presidential hopeful said while speaking at the National Forum on Wages and Working People.

At the event, Harris emphasized the bully pulpit and executive authority to fight for workers' rights and specifically mentioned right-to-work laws.

"It has to be about, for example, banning right-to-work laws," she said.

The event, organized by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Center for American Progress, sought to "provide an opportunity for thought leaders to go beyond talking points and share concrete plans to rebalance our economy and democracy," according to its website.

The SEIU has historically supported Democratic candidates and spent $28 million in support of Barack Obama's campaign in 2008. In 2012, the organization reported spending almost $70 million for campaign donations, TV ads, and get-out-the-vote efforts and they're a major supporter of Obamacare and increased minimum wage laws.

The Center for American Progress (CAP) is very much like SEIU in its support of leftist policies. But this organization has a very questionable reputation.

For instance, in October 2016, Intercept reported that the United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba praised "a CAP report that advocates for continued cooperation with Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and the UAE."

And in January this year, two CAP staff members were terminated for leaking an email exchange that suggested the UAE has an improper influence over CAP. This may be true, based on CAP's use of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric. They were criticized by several Jewish organizations over this issue.

Bloggers associated with CAP published several posts using phrases such as "apartheid" and "Israel-firsters", causing NGP Monitor, the American Jewish Committee, and the Anti-Defamation League to label them anti-Israel and call on CAP to disassociate themselves from these statements. Officials at CAP said the “inappropriate” language came only in personal tweets—not on CAP's website or its ThinkProgress blog. The Tweets were deleted, and the authors apologized.

Others, however, criticized CAP for what they considered censorship of reasonable comments critical of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and other policies.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (Communist-VT) another 2020 presidential contender, first said in April that he would work to ban right-to-work laws, which exist in 26 states.

Trump has praised the Janus decision, describing it as a "Big loss for the coffers of the Democrats!"

Basically, the right to work allows people to not join a union if they so choose. This seems to be a person's right to not have to pay union dues just to be allowed to work a particular job. Of course, the argument goes that why should the worker who isn't paying union dues, be allowed to profit from the work of the union when he or she isn't paying for the benefits?

During his 2016 campaign, Trump supported right-to-work legislation.

"We've had great support from [union] workers, the people that work, the real workers, but I love the right to work," he said. "I like it better because it is lower. It is better for the people," he added somewhat confusingly. [Lower? What does that mean?]


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WikiLeaks emails show Clinton's allies unaware over 'insane' private server

It's good to know that some of Hillary Clinton's top advisers weren't aware that she was using a private [illegal] server as secretary of state. It gives one hope that if she becomes POTUS (heaven forfend) that one or two of her top aides may actually be concerned over national security, not that it will change the open borders that Clinton wants.

Some of her top advisers had no clue as to the depth and scope of her email system when the scandal broke in March 2015. Even her current campaign manager had no idea about the bathroom server according to the Thursday WikiLeaks release of emails.

A close ally ('You go girlfriend') of Hillary's, Neera Tanden, the head of the Center for American Progress, was still p'd off months after the scandal broke. She pressed John Podesta over who gave Hillary permission to use the private system.

"Do we actually know who told Hillary she could use a private email? And has that person been drawn and quartered?" Tanden wrote in July. "Like whole thing is f***ing insane."

But some of Clinton's closest aides, especially those who worked with her at the State Department (like Cheryl Mills and Huma Weiner Abedin) were very likely aware and on board with the illegal email setup, while others were in the dark.

On March 2nd, Podesta wrote to campaign manager Robby Mook asking if he had "any idea of the depth of this story?"

March 3rd, 1:32 a. m. Mook wrote back: "Nope. We brought up the existence of emails in research this summer but were told that everything was taken care of."

March 2nd, John Podesta also wrote to Tanden about his worries the day the email scandal broke. "Speaking of transparency, our friends [attorney David] Kendall, Cheryl and Phillipe [Reines] sure weren't forthcoming on the facts here."

Tanden's reply implied that keeping the [illegal] email setup a secret was probably Cheryl Mills' doing: "This is a Cheryl special," she wrote. "Know you love her, but this stuff is like her Achilles heel. Or kryptonite. She just can't say no to this s**t. Why didn't they get this stuff out like 18 months ago? So crazy. I guess I know the answer they wanted to get away with it."

Six months afterward, Tanden was still angry, and in a September 4th interview said Clinton still owed the American people an apology.

Actually, the American people are owed more than an apology. We are owed an FBI director who upholds the law and is apolitical. We are owed an Attorney General who wears the blindfold of fairness and justice. 

We are owed true transparency, not just words.

And we are owed a prison sentence for Hillary Clinton who clearly broke the law simply by having a private server and a real investigation into the Clinton Foundation with questionable practices.

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