"Planned Parenthood Videos Explain Abortion Process."

1. Because the opening paragraph is expository writing at its finest.

2. Because the Confidentials as a family support Planned Parenthood, which is of far more importance as a whole than any separate part.

3. Because it's fine by me if Teen Vogue becomes the voice of the Resistance even as Democrats can't seem to locate a guiding principle.

Planned Parenthood Videos Explain Abortion Process, by Brittney McNamara (Teen Vogue)

Planned Parenthood explains in two videos.

With more and more restrictions on legal abortion being made law, it's important that we know all the facts. That way, instead of talking about abortion in hypotheticals or scenarios, we can talk factually, about what's really going on. To do that, we not only have to know what you can and can't do regarding abortion, we also have to know what actually happens when you get an abortion. Abortion is a safe, common and legal medical procedure. Planned Parenthood made it even easier to get educated on what abortion actually is with two recent videos, outlining the two different kinds of abortions you can get.

Gather the plastic bags, mama -- Ron Grooms is doing that pro-life thang.

Ron Grooms is so busy speaking out on pro-life legislation that he hasn't bothered reading a newspaper.

2 Abortion Foes Behind Planned Parenthood Videos Are Indicted, by Manny Fernandez (NYT)

Abortion opponents claimed that the videos, which were released starting in July, revealed that Planned Parenthood was engaged in the illegal sale of body parts — a charge that the organization has denied and that has not been supported in numerous congressional and state investigations triggered by the release of the videos.

Can't he just go back to suppressing local environmental initiatives and seeing to it that One Southern Indiana's oligarchs get their full complement of subsidies, tax breaks and brothel gift cards?

Ron Grooms is speaking out on pro-life legislation.

Like millions of Americans, I was appalled last year to watch videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing how the organs of aborted children were preserved and sold to medical researchers.

More recently, a medical waste facility in Indianapolis was fined $11,250 for receiving aborted fetuses from a Missouri Planned Parenthood clinic.

This session, legislation is being considered to address this issue. It would put a stop to the trafficking of aborted baby remains in Indiana, ensuring that such remains are treated with dignity and respect.

House Bill 1337 would make it a Level 5 felony for an individual to acquire, receive, sell or transfer fetal tissue. It would also prohibit abortions based solely on race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex or a non-lethal disability. An abortion performed solely on the basis of these factors suggests that certain lives have less value than others, or that life is not worth living for certain categories of people. This is not consistent with Hoosier values.

HB 1337 was approved in a Senate committee on Wednesday and is expected to be considered by the full Senate next week.

Social media crickets chirp, pins drop as Planned Parenthood scores some justice.

Now, about that Hillary Clinton endorsement ...

A Little Justice for Planned Parenthood, by Charles P. Pierce (Esquire)

A remarkable thing happened late Monday afternoon in a courthouse in Houston. It was a victory of sorts for ACORN, and for Shirley Sherrod, and for Mary Landrieu, and for the Kerry for President campaign, for that matter. Criminal ratfcking was treated as, well, a crime.

Prosecutors in Harris County said one of the leaders of the Center for Medical Progress—an anti-abortion group that made secretly recorded videos purporting to show Planned Parenthood officials trying to illegally profit from the sale of fetal tissue—had been indicted on a charge of tampering with a governmental record, a felony, and on a misdemeanor charge related to purchasing human organs. That leader, David R. Daleiden, 27, the director of the center, had posed as a biotechnology representative to infiltrate Planned Parenthood affiliates and surreptitiously record his efforts to procure tissue for research. Another center employee, Sandra S. Merritt, 62, was indicted on a felony charge of tampering with a governmental record. The record-tampering charges accused Mr. Daleiden and Ms. Merritt of making and presenting fake California driver's licenses, with the intent to defraud, for their April meeting at Planned Parenthood in Houston.

This is an altogether remarkable event, even more so because of where it occurred. A Texas grand jury did this.

Planned Parenthood, primary endorsements, Ayatollah Coffey, and Feeling the Bern.

Before Christmas, as some new variety of Neanderthal right-wing offensive against Planned Parenthood seemed to be mounting (I tend to lose track of them), a friend announced that she'd match donations to PP up to a maximum amount.

We had skipped a year or two, and so I tithed ... freely and happily.

Then, as so often occurs, New Albany's city council offered black comic relief. With funding for Blessings in a Backback in the fanny pack, and her legislative "legacy" complete, departing at-large council person Shirley Baird seemed ready to insert a benign resolution into the agenda in support of PP.

Dan Coffey, at the time still clinging to a Vietnamese-rice-paper-thin allegiance to the Democratic Party, readied to unleash the legions of the pious.

The Ayatollah Coffey sharpens his knives for a Thursday evening orgy of ward-heeling religious ecstasy.

Courageous to the last inning, Baird promptly pulled the offensive resolution, perhaps having been told by Adam Disney that keeping Coffey happy would ensure many bountiful returns during the next cemetery registration drive.

Planned Parenthood resolution pulled from Thursday council agenda, so I guess the Coffey spontaneous combustion is off, too.

But there is no rest for progressives in this squalid town. No sooner than we had made our donation to PP, the organization goes and does this.

online-backlash-after-planned-parenthood-endorses-hillary-clinton/">Massive Online Backlash After Planned Parenthood Endorses Hillary Clinton

In a historic move yesterday, Planned Parenthood endorsed Hillary Clinton for President – its first endorsement in a presidential primary in the nonprofit’s 100-year existence.

(Slaps head) ... if we'd wanted to donate to Hillary, it would have been money handed directly to her campaign. This may or may not yet occur, depending on the autumn threat posed by the fascists, with the point being that PP offers this endorsement in the primary, not the general election.

Let there be no misunderstandings about Planned Parenthood. We support it, but the next donation of equal or greater amount is going to Bernie Sanders. As one compelled to suffer through the clownish cerebral decline of the local Democratic Party, I have no desire to finance the ethos of "Let's Out-Republican the GOP."

Fuck a bunch of Dickeyism. Rather, "Feel the Bern."

Meanwhile ... PP reminds us that in One Party Indiana, the spirit of Generalissimo Franco and the Inquisition live on. ‬

Just one week in to Indiana’s legislative session, anti-woman politicians have proposed five bills opposing access to safe, legal abortion – with more likely to follow. It’s time to speak out against extreme restrictions and gross misinformation.

• SB 144 (Sen. Banks)/HB 1122 (Rep. Nisly) would restrict a woman's access to safe, legal abortion on pregnancies as early as 6 weeks - long before most women even know they are pregnant. If enacted, these bills would result in an effective ban on abortion in Indiana.

• SB 374 (Sen. Waltz) more than doubles the waiting period between the time a woman receives counseling and the abortion procedure to 48 hours. It also increases penalties on abortion providers. If enacted, this bill could strain the resources of women who access abortion – many of whom already face significant barriers to high-quality health care.

• SB 313 (Sen. Holdman) distorts the lived experiences of women facing unexpected and difficult decisions during their pregnancy. If enacted, it would force doctors to speculate on a woman’s motives at a time when the urgent need is non-judgmental care and support.

• SB 314 (Sen. Brown) continues the dangerous rhetoric of anti-abortion extremists. In doing so, it contributes to a hostile climate for health care providers and patients.

These bills make clear that some of our legislators have no respect for Hoosier women and their families or privacy for health care decision-making.

Pledge to take action now to stop these dangerous measures in their tracks.

In solidarity,

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Indiana and Kentucky

Planned Parenthood resolution pulled from Thursday council agenda, so I guess the Coffey spontaneous combustion is off, too.

It just isn't fair. I had a meme ready, and shit.

If it helps, NA Confidential resolves to support Planned Parenthood. So do I. In fact, my household just made a donation a couple weeks back.

The Ayatollah Coffey sharpens his knives for a Thursday evening orgy of ward-heeling religious ecstasy.

The Ayatollah Coffey sharpens his knives for a Thursday evening orgy of ward-heeling religious ecstasy.

There is a special city council meeting tonight for the sole purpose of deciding how much to tithe to the Floyd County Solid Waste District.

The newspaper explains it here.

INTRODUCTION OF ORDINANCES:                   READING

A-15-09 Ordinance for Appropriation of EDIT        Coffey 3
Money for Floyd County Solid Waste

Speaking of wastes, the final council conclave of the year takes place on Thursday night. There are several agenda items worthy of examination, including City Hall's proposal to shift 168K from a lighting project Duke Energy will fund instead, to a downtown Wi-Fi project no one knew existed.

The agenda does not make clear what any of this means, and as usual, we're reduced to gauging the spectrum of Kool-Aid colored smoke plumes emanating from somewhere behind the circled wagons.

HOWEVER ...

Even Team Gahan's belated discovery of contemporary communications technology (tin cans and string?)  pales by comparison with Shirley Baird's final legislative proposal on Thursday night.

It's a perfectly reasonable resolution in support of Planned Parenthood.

There's nothing radical in it, but there's something bloviating ON the council, and I suspect he's not going to like this one.

Briefly peruse these three recent "shares" on Dan Coffey's page at Facebook ...

... and understand how entertaining his tantrum on Thursday night stands to be.

I can't miss this one. It should be a filibuster for the ages. If Coffey packed the room for his various prayer bludgeonings, surely he'll fill it on Thursday.

We need to film this one, guys.

Then we can take the film to the Wunderkind, and ask: "Adam, can you explain again how Coffey is a Democrat?"

The Stutzmans, Zoellers and Pences bleat and wail.

And that's good enough for me.

Indiana Planned Parenthood declares victory after Supreme Court declines to hear funding case, by Jill Disis (Indy Star)

The U.S. Supreme Court will not disturb a lower court ruling that blocks Indiana’s effort to strip Medicaid funds from Planned Parenthood because the organization performs abortions among its medical services ...

... The law would have also defunded family planning programs throughout the state.

“We are happy that the Supreme Court’s action lets stand the Appeals Court ruling that the state does not have plenary authority to exclude a class of providers for any reason,” said Jane Henegar, executive director of the ACLU of Indiana, in a statement issued Tuesday. “Federal law protects the right of Medicaid patients to choose a health care provider free of interference from the state.”

The Undertow Art Show "Against the Current," in support of Planned Parenthood, is this Saturday.

Two NABC employees have taken the lead in organizing this art show on Saturday, July 30, and given the stated aim of helping support a worthy, besieged cause, I could not be more proud of them. Will Parson Clere attend and give the benediction? Doubtful, but a dissident can dream. For complete details, visit the show's Facebook site.

Undertow also is a LEO staff pick, as follows:

Saturday, July 30

The Undertow Art Show

The Art Store
205 E. Market St., New Albany, IN
812-948-2088

Free; 2-11 p.m.

The intent of this, the latest in a thankfully never-ending stream of art/bands/beer events, is to support Planned Parenthood of Indiana. If this doesn’t speak to your interests, move on, it’s a free country. The organizers state, “The goal of this group exhibit is to showcase artists with a message.” Such artists have been invited to participate by expressing their take on pressing issues of the day (just like the hippies did!), such as the economy, the wars and other “natural” disasters. “From the creation of art, we can open conversation and reach new depths of communication,” they pledge. And did I mention the beer? New Albanian Brewing Company will be selling their drinkable art, and bands like Shawn Sleeps Naked and Bunny Day and the Mercy Buckets will provide the aural art. — Peter Berkowitz

The Clere Channel spins out. Again.

In his most recent News and Tribune column, State Representative Ed Clere attempts to provide himself political cover for supporting House Enrolled Act 1210, the plan to defund Planned Parenthood via a change to state Medicaid restrictions. As is often the case, Clere admonishes that "we should stay focused on facts" but then only includes a small, cherry-picked sample of them in an attempt to obfuscate rather than educate.

Clere points out that Planned Parenthood in Floyd County receives only $673 a month in Medicaid funding while other clinics providing Medicaid services here receive a comparatively much larger monthly average of $17,130. Via this incomplete logic, we're supposed to believe that defunding Planned Parenthood is of little consequence to Floyd County or the state.

What he conveniently fails to mention, though, is that HEA 1210 puts Indiana at odds with federal Medicaid funding law. As explained in a letter from Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Donald Berwick to state officials, as a condition of receiving federal Medicaid funding, "Medicaid programs may not exclude qualified health care providers from providing services that are funded under the program because of the provider's scope of practice...Therefore, we cannot determine that the proposed amendment complies with section 1902(a)(23) of the [Social Security] Act." In other words, non-compliance with federal law could put the entirety of Indiana's federal Medicaid funding at risk.

It is no surprise to legislators like Clere that this is the case. In an April, 2011, Fiscal Impact Statement (PDF), Indiana's Legislative Services Agency informed the legislature that "The Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) reports that federal law requires state Medicaid plans provide any eligible individual medical assistance and that they can obtain such assistance from any institution, agency, community pharmacy, or person, qualified to perform the service(s) required. This also includes an organization which provides such services, or arranges for their availability, on a prepayment basis. Federal law permits states to define a qualified provider, but requires that this definition is related to a provider’s ability to perform a service and not what services are provided." Further, the LSA predicted the bill would have no fiscal impact on Indiana precisely because federal law would prohibit its implementation.

In 2010, Indiana's federal Medicaid funding amounted to approximately $4.3 billion, roughly two-thirds of the state's $5.9 billion Medicaid budget. The fact is, an overwhelming majority of the state's Medicaid funding has been jeopardized by Clere and other legislators well aware of the risk, not just six or seven hundred dollars a month for Floyd County's Planned Parenthood clinic as Clere's column suggests. If their obstinacy persists, the result could be a drastic cut to service access in Floyd and other counties as federal Medicaid funding would disappear. To use Clere's example, Floyd County's approximate $18,000 per month average, cut by two-thirds, would be reduced to about $6,000 total, a situation replicated all over the state in larger, more populous counties.

So, indeed, let's "stay focused on facts", but all of them.

Nash cuts through the populist idiocy of News and Tribune web site advertising to refute Parson Clere on PP defunding.

Of course, it bears noting that in spite of the coincidental appearance of the ad adjacent to Matt's column today, the newspaper's editorial opinion runs concurrent with the columnist's viewpoint: OUR OPINION: Daniels’ Planned Parenthood call does us wrong.

Here's the link to Matt's piece: NASH: Cutting off funding is not the answer

We know all too well that snarky ideologues have reputations, too.

According to whom, Ed?

Your fellow ideologues?

The same dude who predicted the rapture yesterday?

What does any of this have to do with jobs, anyway?

By the way, did you catch that great editorial the other day: News and Tribune editorial opinion: "Daniels’ Planned Parenthood call does us wrong."

Defunding Planned Parenthood: What it could mean for abortions and Medicaid patients, by Jerod Clapp (OSIN)

“I wouldn’t say that just because the New Albany location doesn’t provide abortions doesn’t mean it’s still not in the abortion business,” Clere said. “Even though there’s no question Planned Parenthood provides women’s health services, it’s primarily known as a provider of abortion.”

News and Tribune editorial opinion: "Daniels’ Planned Parenthood call does us wrong."

The opinion is not signed, so I'm assuming it is the product of the News and Tribune editorial board. All I can say is this:

Bravo.

OUR OPINION: Daniels’ Planned Parenthood call does us wrong

So much for calling a truce. Instead, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels decided last week instead to approve an assault on social issues by drawing his sword and thrusting it into the gut of every Hoosier who values any shred of personal freedom they have.

Have Rep. Ed Clere and Sen. Ron Grooms, whose propaganda machines typically cloak all legislative business under the all-purpose mantra of "jobs," even tried to offer a public rationale for their votes on this and other reactionary, theocratic measures?

Shouldn't the newspaper ask them to do so?

Explain this one, Rep. Clere.

It's not about jobs, and not about budgets. It's not about education, and not about property taxes.

Tell us, Rep. Clere: What's up with the Planned Parenthood smackdown?

You may use your truncated newspaper agitprop space if you wish. We know how much you dislike questions like these.

Thanks.

The 'Ville Voice:

Making you kinda proud to be a Kentuckian: Indiana is set to defund Planned Parenthood. [HuffPo]

A Candidate’s Progress (12): Clere, Grooms, Benedetti and "fighting for" House Bill 1210.

At last week's city council meeting, 5th district Diane Benedetti desperately was looking for a way of defusing John Gonder's typically earnest effort to instill a bare sliver of social consciousness into the antebellum mood typically defining the group's self-serving, comic book deliberations.

The topic was legislation removing restrictions on local gun control, presumably because Republicans now seek greater personal safety by packing pieces to ward off the anarchy ensuing from their efforts to destabilize civil society in the interest of increased fundamentalism and wealth retention.

Infamously, Benedetti mused: How could I, as a mere council occupant who refuses to read newspapers or have an e-mail address, even in the advanced year 2011, possibly have a relevant opinion on state legislation?

Specifically, shouldn't the council defer to Ed Clere and Ron Grooms for marching orders and direction? Shouldn’t we demand that Clere and Grooms tell the council how to think?

After all, announced Benedetti: "They're fighting for us in Indianapolis."

As another pathetic example of what Clere and Grooms have been "fighting for" during the most reactionary legislative session in living memory, consider this: Abortion bill could pass Indiana House Wednesday (C-J).

Has our representative, who fancies himself a legislative “reporter”, addressed this bill in his newspaper column? If not, perhaps management needs to restore a weekly propaganda slot.

When following the path of House Bill 1210, even a caveman can see that both Clere and Grooms have worn their ROCK jackboots in full polish from the beginning to the end of what amounts to an institutionalized deprivation of heath care for women, of whom Bendedetti is one.

What Benedetti is not is poor, and unsurprisingly, poor women will be the chief victims of House Bill 1210. Like a majority of Clere’s and Grooms’s votes this year, the Planned Parenthood gutting is 100% right-wing, theocratically, appeasingly ideological, something to remember when Ed and Ron again deny they’re ideologues.

At the IUS city council discussion last Friday, we were asked how a body like the city council might possibly impact policies toward the least advantaged members of society. Randy Smith, who’s running against Benedetti in next Tuesday’s primary, answered that while it’s a tough question, the answer surely must incorporate a strategy of not making the lives of the poor less safe by putting the least advantaged at greater danger, depriving them of whatever sources of stability exist -- like neighborhood schools and health care.

Had Benedetti attended the informative session at IUS, would her answer have been: As a Democrat, I don’t know, so I’ll copy off the paper of the Republican seated next to me, and get back to you with an answer?

At the very least, shouldn’t a Democrat be a Democrat, and not a Republican apologist?

Amy Huffman-Branham jeers the GOP on Planned Parenthood vote.

Kudos to this powerful statement of principle by the News and Tribune's Amy Huffman-Branham. She can rest assured that Ron "Tell me how to vote, St. Daniels" Grooms stopped reading after the word "Senate", and of course we all understand that depriving women of health services has everything to do with the Republican Party's ideological leanings toward theocratic fascism and nothing whatever to do with any real concern for the health of women.

JEERS

... to the Indiana Senate, which voted Monday to prohibit state contracts or grants with Planned Parenthood or other organizations that provide abortions.

It is disappointing that state legislators would make a decision that effectively takes away women’s access to health services — which extend far beyond providing abortions.

At a time when millions of Americans live without health insurance, it’s hard to understand how legislators think this is a justifiable move. Thousands of low-income women rely on Planned Parenthood and similar organizations for birth control, pelvic and breast exams and other health services.

The passage of the bill Monday comes on the heels of the passage of legislation last week that adds other restrictions to the state’s abortion laws, giving Indiana some of the tightest restrictions in the nation.

If the concern among legislators is to reduce the number of abortions, it hardly makes sense to pass a law that will make it harder for Hoosier women to get birth control. And it is appalling that lawmakers continue to encourage and support legislation that sacrifices women’s health and restricts their right to make decisions for themselves.

— Amy Huffman-Branham, assistant editor

Groomsian "freedoms" from a Republican Party intent on keeping women barefoot and pregnant.

During the course of my campaign, I've been asked why I seem to prefer denouncing Republicans rather than conducting a polite primary meet 'n' greet.

If the shoe fits ... then Democrats with a conscience need to wear it.

Item: Poor Indiana women might lose access to Planned Parenthood for non-abortion services

Item: Last evening, Vi Simpson tweeted this observation: "Awful day in Senate today. No citizen left unscathed by Repub majority - women, workers, teachers, voters, students. What about tomorrow?"

Item: Whether or not I win my race for city council, and whether or not there is anything specific a council person can do about Indiana's current fascist tilt, I guarantee that the coming year will be spent assisting the grassroots opposition. We can't get to Ron Grooms for a while, and that's too bad. But in 2012, there'll be another chance to retake a House seat. Just let me know how I can help.