Administration overreaches again with mandate to force state funding of Planned Parenthood

A commentary by Michael J. New in National Review Online, Obama Administration Circumvents N.H. Executive Council, notes:

In response to the New Hampshire Executive Council’s decision to cut of taxpayer funds for Planned Parenthood, the Obama administration announced last week  that they would oversee the awarding of family planning contracts in New Hampshire. This means that that there is a good chance that New Hampshire Planned Parenthood affiliates will recover the $1.8 million in taxpayer funds that they previously lost.

New Hampshire followed the lead of the U.S. House of Representatives, which voted 240-185 to cut off federal subsidies to Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is a billion-dollar "nonprofit" enterprise that in one year alone performed 332,278 abortions and received $363.2 million in taxpayer funding, according to its 2009 annual report.

An in-depth scan of this behemoth abortion business reveals a conglomerate more fit for federal investigation than federal subsidy. Every week or so it seems that a new scandal documented with statistical and videotaped evidence exposes Planned Parenthood as corrupt.

As Ohio Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt notes, "For the sake of abortion, Planned Parenthood holds itself above the law, ignoring mandatory reporting requirements, skirting parental consent, and aiding and abetting child sex trafficking."

Sen. Kelly Ayotte

I meet on a monthly basis with New Hampshire's pro-life senator, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who as the state's Attorney General argued a case before the Supreme Court against Planned Parenthood regarding parental notification on abortion. (Click here to watch a YouTube video of Sen. Ayotte discussing that case and other Planned Parenthood issues with my friend Marjorie Dannenfelser.) Of the current federal intrusion into New Hampshire's decision to defund Planned Parenthood, Sen. Ayotte rightly notes that "the administration should respect the state's right to make this decision."

Unfortunately, the reach of the federal bureaucracy into medicine has mushroomed to the point where states are losing their historical and Constitutional ability to guide the health care of their own citizens. Battles over states de-funding Planned Parenthood … states opposing the individual insurance mandate in "Obamacare" … and faith-based organizations fighting the conscience-nullifying HHS mandate to fund potentially abortifacient contraceptives--are also in a sense battles for your own freedoms as a healthcare professional. Turning back the overreach of the federal government into medicine will ultimately help restore more control to healthcare professionals to follow their own conscientiously held standards and professional judgment.

What can you do?

1. To urge the administration to rescind its recent mandate to fund potentially abortifacient contraceptives, submit your comment before the September 30 deadline to the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services.
2. Urge your U.S. Representative to co-sponsor the (click here:) Respect for Rights of Conscience Act.
3. Urge your U.S. Senators to co-sponsor the (click here:) Respect for Rights of Conscience Act.

 Thanks for speaking out for your values!