Planned Parenthood Asks Judge to Pause Lawsuit Against Pro-Life Policy

Abortion, , ,

Last week Planned Parenthood asked a federal judge in Little Rock to temporarily pause the group’s lawsuit over the state’s decision to quit giving Medicaid money to the abortion provider.

In 2015 Governor Hutchinson ordered the state to stop providing Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood clinics after a series of undercover videos showed Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of organs and tissue harvested from aborted babies.

Planned Parenthood sued the state, and U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker in Little Rock ruled Arkansas had to give Medicaid money to the abortion provider.

However, a federal panel of judges at the Eighth Circuit disagreed, and overturned Judge Baker’s bad ruling last  year. Arkansas officially quit giving Medicaid money to Planned Parenthood in November of 2017.

In January we learned that Planned Parenthood was making a second run at the lawsuit, asking Judge Baker once again to require the state to give the group Medicaid money. Now it seems they want to put that lawsuit on hold.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette writes that last week attorneys for Planned Parenthood asked U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker to halt the lawsuit temporarily while similar lawsuits play out in Kansas and Louisiana.

The Fifth Circuit and Tenth Circuit — which preside over Louisiana and Kansas respectively — have generally ruled that states cannot cut Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood. Those decisions are being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Planned Parenthood is asking Judge Baker to halt the lawsuit in Arkansas temporarily while the Louisiana and Kansas cases play out in federal court.

It sounds like Planned Parenthood is afraid of losing in court in Arkansas. They already lost once at the Eighth Circuit, and they know there’s a good possibility they will lose a second time.

If the federal Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals rules Arkansas can stop giving Medicaid money to abortionists, that may increase the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court will take the case and rule against Planned Parenthood as well.

Arkansas is winning the fight to protect the unborn. Our abortion numbers are at historic lows, and our legislature has passed dozens of good, pro-life laws. The fact that Planned Parenthood wants to put its own lawsuit temporarily on hold seems to signal that they’ve been knocked on their heels in Arkansas.

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

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“Gosnell” Performs Well at Box Office Despite Media Blackout

Abortion, , , ,

The movie Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer broke into the Top 10 list on its opening weekend despite its limited release and being virtually ignored by film critics and many major media outlets.

Life News Reports:

Despite a media blackout and virtually no coverage outside conservative media circles, the new movie “Gosnell” made the list of top 10 movies across the United States over the weekend. Coming in at the #10 spot, Gosnell came in ahead of other movies with much wider releases — as the film is appearing in just 673 theaters nationwide. . . .

But those who are watching the movie are giving in tremendously high ratings. It has a 67% rating at Rotten Tomatoes and 99% of those viewing it said they liked it.

The movie follows the 2013 arrest, trial, and conviction of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, an abortionist who murdered babies born alive following botched abortions at his Philadelphia clinic.

Dr. Gosnell’s facility has been described as nothing short of a house of horrors. At The Weekly Standard, Mark Hemingway writes,

Aside from being convicted of killing babies born alive—he may have killed thousands of babies this way—Gosnell was convicted of the involuntary manslaughter of a patient. There are good reasons to believe that many more of his patients may have suffered serious complications or even died from his negligence. (Among other things, Gosnell’s penchant for reusing medical instruments without proper sterilization passed sexually transmitted diseases to his patients.) The titular description of him as “America’s Biggest Serial Killer” doesn’t seem like hyperbole.

The movie is rated PG-13 for mature content. However, the film itself is not graphic.

Ultimately, the media’s decision to ignore the movie Gosnell mirrors its handling of the Gosnell murder investigation and trial. In 2013, major news outlets looked the other way as the Gosnell case unfolded, and in the end many practically had to be shamed into covering it at all. Five years later, it seems nothing has changed; many would rather ignore the Gosnell story altogether.

Nevertheless, Gosnell is outperforming many other movies at the box office, and I believe that says something about the American people.

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