Planned Parenthood, an organization with racist and eugenic origins, has become infamous as our nation’s largest perpetrator and advocate of abortion (not to mention its hedonistic view of human sexuality). That appalling distinction has been particularly on display in Nebraska in recent days.
In the span of just a few days, Planned Parenthood announced publicly that it intends to open a new abortion center in Omaha and has filed a lawsuit to challenge one of the pro-life laws (LB 594, the Women’s Health Protection Act) enacted by our Legislature this year.
Planned Parenthood (PP) has operated an abortion center in Lincoln for nearly 15 years and in that time span has killed close to 10,000 unborn babies by abortion. Nationally, PP operates 304 centers that do either surgical or medical (RU 486) abortions and, in 2009 alone, PP killed more than 300,000 unborn babies at these abortion "mills."
Apparently, PP of the Heartland (Iowa and Nebraska) doesn’t think it has a big enough piece of the abortion pie in Nebraska, given its intention to open a new abortion center in Omaha. This effort will be vigorously opposed by pro-life groups, public officials, area business owners and a large portion of the neighborhood (and broader Omaha) community.
Planned Parenthood’s distinction as America’s largest abortion perpetrator is matched by its abortion advocacy. Not only is PP the most significant opponent of anti-abortion legislation, but it is often the lead organization filing suit to prevent such laws from going into effect.
On Monday, June 28, PP announced that it filed a lawsuit asking a federal court to prevent LB 594, the Women’s Health Protection Act, from going into effect. The measure, introduced by Sen. Cap Dierks and enacted by a vote of 40 to 9 in our Legislature, is scheduled to go into effect July 15.
The law better protects women from undergoing coerced abortions and clarifies in statute the duty of abortionists to screen women for risk factors that are known to place them at increased risk for psychological or physical complications from an abortion and to inform her of the results of this screening. Such screening is standard practice in every area of medicine and LB 594 simply ensures that women seeking abortions are afforded the same standard of care.
In its lawsuit, PP claims the new law is "an attack on our patients… on providers… and on the ethics and integrity of the medical profession." In fact, just the opposite is true. This law protects women from abortionists who often compromise the standard of care for counseling and screening of patients in order to reduce costs and maximize profits.
According to David Reardon, director of the Elliott Institute, in hundreds of cases each day, known risk factors for physical and psychological complications are not being detected because of negligent pre-abortion screening. As a result, women are suffering from avoidable complications that may have been prevented or minimized if the proper pre-abortion screening standards had been met.
Furthermore, it is PP’s abortion practice—not this law—that attacks the "ethics and integrity of the medical profession." Planned Parenthood’s abortion centers (and others like them) are really abortion "mills" that typically do 20 to 30 or more abortions in one day. In these mills, the doctor-patient relationship is transformed into a technician-customer relationship.
A hearing to consider PP’s lawsuit against LB 594 has been scheduled in federal court July 13. Please join me in praying that this commonsense law will be upheld. And join me in praying that PP’s effort to open another abortion mill will be thwarted.
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