Tag: Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood Wants to Keep Options Open on Lawsuit Over AR Pro-Life Law

Earlier this month we wrote that Planned Parenthood was dropping its legal challenge in the federal Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals over the Abortion-Inducing Drugs Safety Act.

This 2015 law requires abortionists who perform chemical abortions to follow FDA protocols, and it requires abortion facilities that offer abortion drugs like RU-486 to contract with a doctor who has hospital admitting privileges to handle any complications arising from the abortion.

Requiring abortionists to follow FDA protocols may not sound like much, but it prevents abortion doctors from giving women abortion drugs later in pregnancy than the FDA recommends, which saves the lives of those unborn children.

After three years of wrangling in court, Planned Parenthood announced a few weeks ago that it would comply with the law even though it still thinks the law is unconstitutional.

Today the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that Planned Parenthood has filed a request with U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker to put its lawsuit on hold for at least six months, but let Planned Parenthood renew its lawsuit against the state in the future if it so desires, writing,

Planned Parenthood asked Monday that a federal judge put a six-month hold on its lawsuit challenging a state law affecting medication abortions or let the case be dismissed under a provision allowing it to be refiled if necessary. . . .

In a filing Monday, Planned Parenthood attorneys said they want to submit a status report at the end of a six-month period, so Baker “can determine whether to extend the stay or dismiss the case without prejudice,” which would allow the case to be refiled.

In other words, it sounds like Planned Parenthood is going to comply with the law for now, but they want to keep their options open.

This is still a pro-life victory. The Abortion-Inducing Drugs Safety Act is going to be enforced as intended, and even if Planned Parenthood were to re-file its lawsuit against the state in the future, I believe Arkansas would win the case.

Photo Credit: By jordanuhl7 [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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State Board of Health Rules Arkansas Abortion Clinics Violated State Law

Yesterday Arkansas’ State Board of Health determined Planned Parenthood clinics in Little Rock and Fayetteville and a surgical abortion clinic in Little Rock all violated a state informed-consent law earlier this year.

In 2015 the Arkansas Legislature passed Act 1086 by Rep. Robin Lundstrum (R — Elm Springs).

At the time, Act 1086 arguably was the best informed-consent law in the nation. It made sure women inquiring about abortion received all the facts — including information about abortion’s consequences, risks, and alternatives.

Act 1086 also required abortion clinics to give women at least 48 hours to consider their options before having an abortion, and it prohibited abortionists from charging women for the abortion and any related procedures before the end of that 48-hour period.

This law was strengthened in 2017 by Act 383.

These laws ensure women seeking an abortion have the right to change their minds during the 48-hour reflection period and that abortion facilities cannot make a woman feel financially obligated to go through with an abortion by charging her for everything upfront.

Most importantly, the state’s informed-consent law is saving lives.

Since 2015, more than 700 unborn children have been saved from abortion by this state law.

Giving women all the facts about abortion and its alternatives and providing them with enough time to consider their options empowers women to choose something besides abortion. Today more than 700 toddlers are alive in Arkansas because of Act 1086 and Act 383.

However, inspectors from the Arkansas Department of Health determined earlier this year that three abortion facilities violated provisions of Arkansas’ informed-consent law.

According to documents we obtained, on March 13, 2018, Planned Parenthood and Little Rock Family Planning Services received official statements from the Arkansas Department of Health citing the clinics for charging women for some of the procedures related to abortion — like the woman’s initial appointment at the abortion facility — before the end of the 48-hour reflection period.

Planned Parenthood’s clinics in Little Rock and Fayetteville perform chemical abortions while Little Rock Family Planning Services performs both chemical and surgical abortions.

The abortion facilities challenged the Health Department’s authority to cite the clinics. In their complaints filed with the State Board of Health, Planned Parenthood and Little Rock Family Planning Services argued that it is unconstitutional and unlawful to prohibit them from charging women before the end of the 48-hour reflection period. However, similar laws are on the books in Missouri.

After several months of procedural work, the State Board of Health declared this week that the Health Department was correct in issuing the Statement of Deficiencies against the abortion clinics, and that the clinics violated state law.

Aside from the fact that three abortion facilities were caught violating a very clear state law, all of this is significant in part because it could lead Arkansas to another big, pro-life victory in court. Planned Parenthood and Little Rock Family Planning Services have lost their fight with the State Board of Health. If they want to challenge the law now, they’ll have to take their case to court. Courts have generally upheld informed-consent laws like Arkansas’. If the abortion facilities decide to file a lawsuit to have part of Arkansas’ informed-consent law struck down, we could get yet another good, pro-life ruling.

Of course, if the abortion clinics decide not to challenge the law in court, that’s a victory as well, because that means the law will stay on the books and they will have to follow it.

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Congressional Panel: Planned Parenthood Should Lose Federal Funds

A congressional panel has released findings saying Planned Parenthood should be stripped of its federal funding, based on evidence that Planned Parenthood sold organs and tissue harvested from aborted babies.

John Stonestreet at the Colson Center for Christian Worldview writes,

As a result of the revelations, the Panel, chaired by Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, held hearings and put the nation’s largest abortion provider under a long-overdue microscope. What they found wasn’t pretty, to say the least.

The least troubling was a pattern of over-billing Medicaid and other healthcare funding programs to the tune of $132 million dollars.

More serious and far more troubling is Planned Parenthood’s disregard for the National Organ Transplant Act. The Act provides that “[i]t shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly acquire, receive, or otherwise transfer any human organ for valuable consideration for use in human transplantation if the transfer affects interstate commerce.”

You can read Stonestreet’s full commentary here or listen to it below.

[audio:http://www.breakpoint.org/images/content/breakpoint/audio/2017/011017_BP.mp3|titles=No Federal Funding for Planned Parenthood]

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