Posts
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.”
Tweet
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.”
Thanks for following Brain Flushings. Please take time to check out the sponsors on this page--it's one way to support my work and you don't need to purchase anything to do so. Of course, you can Buy Me A Coffee at any amount if you want to support me directly. And finally, don't be afraid to subscribe if you enjoy the blog--it's free, and worth the cost.
