Executive education with UW-Madison and former president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America

September 2nd, 2010

For $2,495, you could hear Faye Wattleton, former President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, speak at a University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business “Executive Education” summit on October 1. View the entire schedule here (Wattleton’s presentation is second-to-last, at the bottom of the page).

The mission of the University of Wisconsin’s School of Business Executive Education program is to, “Help companies improve their business performance through practical education and applied knowledge.”

The UW School of Business Executive Education program consistently receives high marks from the London-based Financial Times, which ranks business school program all over the world. The UW School of Business is ranked at #67 in the world by the Financial Times.

University of Wisconsin School of Business graduates do well in the world – in 2005, UW joined Harvard as the most common university attended by S&P 500 CEOs. More than 1,050 UW-Madison alumni serve as CEO of a company and nearly 16,000 hold an executive management position, according to the UW School of Business website.

With all of this hard-earned prestige, is throwing Planned Parenthood of America into the mix a good idea?

None of these 1,050 alumni CEOs were available?

As Wattleton’s autobiography on her website indicates, she did not attend nor receive a degree from UW-Madison.

While Wattleton’s resumé may be impressive, why is it more impressive than any of the 16,000 UW graduates in executive management positions?

UW-Madison’s entanglement and fascination with the abortion industry is well-documented. You can read more here and here and here.

It is unfortunate that potential alumni speakers were passed over in favor of an affiliation with Planned Parenthood, an organization that has killed so many future Badgers.

Why is NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin outraged with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel?

September 1st, 2010

Lisa Subeck, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin, is “outraged” with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, according to a NARAL email sent this morning. View the entire email here.

But why, exactly, did NARAL state the organization is enraged with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a mere week after the newspaper’s editorial board wished Planned Parenthood a public “Happy 75th Birthday”? Why is NARAL asking its members to demand higher journalism standards?

On Sunday, August 22, the Wisconsin State Journal printed a high-profile article about the Women’s Fund, an organization that exists solely to pay for poor women to have abortions. You can read that article here.

What prompted NARAL’s rage?

On August 24, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published an opinion column about the Women’s Fund by columnist Patrick McIlheran. In the column, McIlheran refers to Anne Gaylor, founder of the Women’s Fund, as “Sweet little old Granny Blood-Money.”

It took NARAL more than a week – from the publishing of McIlheran’s column on August 24 to today, September 1 – to collect their thoughts and get a handle on their rage. Or did it take a week for NARAL to realize the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wouldn’t budge?

NARAL’s attempts to manhandle the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel failed, as the email indicates the newspaper refused to issue a retraction for an opinion column. NARAL didn’t protest the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s birthday wish to Planned Parenthood, so is it only pro-life opinion columns that fill Lisa Subeck full of rage?

Subeck’s demands for higher standards in the abortion debate are laughable, considering NARAL awarded a “George Tiller Memorial Award” at its recent Milwaukee and Madison “Wine and Choice” fundraiser events. An award in the name of Tiller’s trust in women is a disrespect to the thousands of baby girls Tiller killed via grisly late-term abortions. Subeck’s editorial on the George Tiller Memorial Award can be found here.

UW-Madison, the “birthplace” of embryonic stem cell research, has big money riding on recent court decision

September 1st, 2010

A little background: On August 23 a District of Columbia federal district court judge blocked rules promulgated by the Obama administration that expand embryo-destructive research. President Obama’s March 2009 executive order permitted federal funding of new embryonic stem cell lines derived from the destruction of new human embryos “donated” from in vitro fertilization clinics.

In his August 23 decision, Judge Royce Lamberth [which the Obama administration appealed yesterday] concluded that the new National Institutes of Health (NIH) guidelines clearly violate a 1995 federal law (known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment) that prohibits federal funding of scientific research in which human embryos “are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death.” Because embryonic stem cell research necessarily depends upon the destruction of the human embryo, Judge Lamberth ruled that the NIH guidelines violate the “plain language of the statute.” The New York Times has an article that clearly articulates the nuances of this issue. Read it here.

Pro-Life Wisconsin legislative director Matt Sande debated the issue on Wisconsin Public Radio’s (WPR) Joy Cardin show last week. To hear the show on WPR Audio Archives, click here. Then scroll down to Wednesday, August 25, 7 a.m.

How does this all relate back to UW-Madison?

UW is making money from embryonic stem cell research in two ways.

First, by way of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation [WARF], the designated patent management organization of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. WARF has at least 35 licensing agreements whereby WARF is paid for the worldwide distribution of embryonic stem cells. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is the largest licensee named publicly to date.

According to its website, in 2007-08 WARF, “Gave $83 million to  UW-Madison to support research, signed 68 new license and option agreements, took equity in 2 new UW-Madison spin-off companies…” It should be noted WARF’s patent income is not derived solely from embryonic stem cell distribution.

Second, UW brings in $5 million annually in federal tax payer dollars to fund embryonic stem cell research at the university. That amounts to 75 scientists who work solely on embryonic stem cell research, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

From an August 25 Wall Street Journal article: The University of Wisconsin has 34 approved projects involving human embryonic cells, of which 21 are paid for by the federal government, supporting the work of 18 scientists from cardiologists to chemists. Total federal funding for human-embryo research at the university is about $5 million annually.

Dr. Kamp, for example, is a cardiologist trying to understand heart function by studying the electrical properties in heart cells. Since it can be hard to obtain human cardiac cells, he is deriving heart cells from embryos, a project funded by the NIH.

So it’s not a surprise when UW welcomes Obama’s effort to restore embryonic stem cell research funding.

Timeline of embryonic stem cell research at UW, via the Wall Street Journal:

  • Mid-1990s James Thomson, a University of Wisconsin biologist, begins trying to grow human embryonic stem cells.
  • Nov. 1998 Dr. Thomson announces that he has successfully grown the cells.
  • Jan. 1999 Tommy Thompson, then-governor of Wisconsin, praises Dr. Thomson’s work in his state-of-the-state address, prompting outrage among pro-life groups.
  • Oct. 1999 The university-related Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation creates a private subsidiary, the WiCell Research Institute, to handle stem-cell distribution and oversee the lab. Dr. Thomson is the scientific director.
  • Feb. 2000 Some Wisconsin Republicans launch the first of several attempts to block the research.
  • Aug. 2001 President Bush decides to allow federal funding for research on existing human stem-cell lines. WARF officials expect researchers working with those lines will no longer have to work from private labs.
  • March 2009 President Obama signed an executive order federally funding embryonic stem cell research. The order removed President Bush’s August 2001 federal funding restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research.
  • August 2010 A federal judge blocks the expansion of funding embryonic stem cell research.
  • On politics, politicians with exceptions and a higher standard

    August 31st, 2010

    Totally banning abortion makes some people uncomfortable. We’ve been told time and again there are unique situations for which abortion is the best option. If a lie is repeated often enough, people begin to accept it as truth. Such is the case with the erroneous notion that abortion must be permitted in cases of rape, incest, fetal deformity, or a perceived threat to the mother’s life. Read more about our stance on the “exceptions” cases here.

    Pro-Life Wisconsin was formed 18 years ago to provide a voice for thousands of pro-lifers across Wisconsin – pro-lifers who believed in a higher standard, pro-lifers who wanted to see contraception’s link to abortion addressed, pro-lifers who weren’t afraid to take a stand.

    As our Victory Fund Political Action Committee prepared to release the list of endorsed candidates for the 2010 fall election, we were humbled to realize our endorsement list totaled 96 – the highest number ever! Click here to view the list of endorsed candidates.

    But do these candidates defend their 100% pro-life convictions?

    A recent Wisconsin Public Radio clip focused on Republicans’ effort to unseat Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker in the Wausau area.  The Republican candidates are unabashedly 100% pro-life during this interview, even when pushed by the reporter. To listen to the WPR clip, click here (the story is titled, “GOP state senate candidates target long-time incumbent” and is dated 8/30/10).

    We are proud to support candidates who stand up for all the babies and who are not afraid to articulate their pro-life convictions. We are proud to create a political culture where people do not hide their pro-life views or simply talk about regulating the practice of abortion but when under pressure, do not bend in defending EVERY baby’s right to live.

    Wisconsin’s 2010 general election primary is Tuesday, September 14. Vote pro-life!

    Two UW-Madison professors on the board of the abortion-financing Women’s Fund

    August 24th, 2010

    An article in Sunday’s Wisconsin State Journal focused on the Madison-based Women’s Fund. The sole purpose of the Women’s Fund is to pay for poor women to have abortions. The fund has paid for 18,986 abortions at the time the article was written.

    The Women’s Fund 2008 tax forms (click here to view the PDF) reveal there are two UW-Madison professors on the board of the Women’s Fund – Prof. Robert West and Prof. Robert Kimbrough.

    UW-Madison’s entanglement with the abortion industry should come as a surprise to no one.

    Just how linked to the abortion industry is UW-Madison, the “flagship” of the UW System?
    - UW promotes Planned Parenthood (including abortion services);
    - Alta Charo, a professor of law and bioethics at the UW Law and Medical Schools, is on the Planned Parenthood Federation of America board and the Alan Guttmacher board;
    - Doug Laube, professor and former chair of the UW Ob/Gyn Medical School, is openly “working in collaboration with Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin;”
    - Faye Wattleton, former director of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, will be a guest panelist for a UW School of Business summit;
    - Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin is paying UW School of Medicine faculty to perform abortions. UW doctors Laurel Rice, Sabine Droste, Barbara O’Connell, Maria Sandgren and Doug Laube are also employed by Planned Parenthood. Caryn Dutton, another UW abortionist who has now fled to ply her trade at Harvard, previously performed abortions at PPWI as well.

    The Wisconsin State Journal article covered many horrific aspects of the  Women’s Fund – how women just want help; how abortions performed on teenagers are celebrated and used as a means of fundraising; and how parents coerce their teenage daughters into abortions.

    For those who like to connect the dots, many interesting aspects of the Women’s Fund were found in its 2008 tax forms.

    The tax forms show the Women’s Fund provides “loans” for women to obtain abortions. Women then have to repay the loan. From 2004-2008, a total of $12,925 was repaid by these women.

    The mission statement of the Women’s Fund is to, “Assist poor women in paying for abortions.” And apparently hound them for blood money afterwards. The Women’s Fund merely provides a funnel for rich donors to finance the abortions of poor women.

    Read below for excerpts from the Wisconsin State Journal or click here to read the article in its entirety.

    From the Wisconsin State Journal [emphasis added]:
    At all hours, strangers phone Anne Nicol Gaylor’s Madison home, always desperate.

    The caller one recent morning was a middle-aged woman with a 14-year-old pregnant daughter.

    After the call, Gaylor opened a checkbook for the Women’s Medical Fund, a Madison nonprofit that has helped pay for abortions for 34 years. Gaylor has written every check for every abortion.

    This was No. 18,986.

    The fund’s sole purpose is to pay for abortions. Last year, it paid out $162,202, about 75 percent of which came from individual donors, the rest from foundations.

    “Of the 632 women the fund has helped so far this year, 147 were teenagers,” Gaylor wrote to donors last Thanksgiving. “Of these, nine were only 13 years old, and one, not yet a teen, was just 12!”

    “It’s a stark example of misguided compassion that serves as discrimination of the worst kind,” said Peggy Hamill, state director of Pro-Life Wisconsin. “To finance extermination of pre-born children because those children would have been brought up poor is deplorable.”

    Ads urge parents to opt out of Planned Parenthood’s sex ed

    August 23rd, 2010

    Concerned Parents and Citizens [CPAC] Wisconsin placed ads in the Juneau County Star Times, Juneau County Reminder and the Messenger of Juneau County all last week, reminding parents to opt their children out of Planned Parenthood’s sex ed. We strongly applaud this move by CPAC. See ad, below, or click here for a larger version.

    Effective this school year, all Wisconsin public school districts are prohibited from adopting “abstinence-only” or “abstinence-centered” human growth and development programs (also known as sex ed). Under a new law signed by Gov. Doyle in 2010, if a school district chooses to adopt a human growth and development program, it would be forced to include in its curriculum instruction on the “health benefits, side effects, and proper use of contraceptives and barrier methods.” This law does not apply to private schools.

    Planned Parenthood lobbied heavily for this law to be passed.

    If a school district retains or initiates a program, we urge parents to opt their children out of the program and either teach chastity/abstinence themselves or find a private program that does. Our children’s lives depend on it, born and preborn.

    For a sample form to file with your school to opt your child(ren) out of sex ed, click here.

    Many school boards will be voting on whether or not to provide human growth and development (sex ed) programs in the next several weeks. It is important that school board members hear from you even if your children do not attend the class or school.

    It’s not all bad news out there!

    August 20th, 2010

    There is plenty of bad news one could focus on, especially in the pro-life, pro-family realm. We would like to point out many of the very positive things going on in our state.

    - Sidewalk counselors in Milwaukee had a save the first week of August! The mother’s name is Kieza and we ask that you keep her and sidewalk counselors in your prayers.

    - Four days after our July 18 Stations of the Cross prayer vigil at the Planned Parenthood abortuary in Madison, sidewalk counselors had a save at this location! More than 120 people attended the Stations of the Cross and stayed for a pro-life family picnic afterwards.  To view a picture of Father Rick Heilman leading the Stations of the Cross, click here.

    - On August 9, two more babies were saved at the Madison Planned Parenthood, due to the efforts of sidewalk counselors.  On August 18, another baby was saved!

    - In Rockford, Ill., two mothers turned away from the abortuary the first week of August, deciding to keep their babies.

    - As a result of the pro-life billboards we have had in locations around Milwaukee since December, more than 400 women have called for crisis pregnancy counseling and assistance.  View the billboard below.



    What does this mean?
    The pro-life battle is not only fought in the courts and in the legislatures, but through the power of prayer and action. It is through prayer and peaceful witness outside abortion mills, offering women the help they need, that hearts and minds will be changed.

    YOU can help us keep the good news coming! We strongly encourage everyone to get involved in this fall’s 40 Days for Life effort. 40 Days for Life will be observed in the Wisconsin area in Milwaukee, Madison, Appleton, Wausau, Green Bay and Rockford, Ill. 40 Days for Life begins September 22 and runs through October 31. Visit 40daysforlife.com for details.

    When did taxpayer-funded equal “free”?

    August 19th, 2010

    The headline of an August 18 Wall Street Journal article was slightly misleading. The title read, “Wisconsin Makes Push on Free Birth Control.”

    The article discussed the state of Wisconsin’s move to expand a federal/state program whereby birth control, the morning-after pill and vasectomies are provided to minors as young as 15, without their parents’ knowledge or consent.  Click here to read the Wall Street Journal article.

    In a move that will only pad Planned Parenthood’s bottom line, Wisconsin officials have applied to raise the income level of those eligible for the program to $32, 490. Currently, in order to be eligible for this program as a single person, income cannot be above $21,600, twice the federal poverty level. The low age starting point, combined with the income threshold, qualifies literally every teenager in the state. Apparently, birth control is free when the bill is footed by the mythical taxpayer and business owners.

    Pro-Life Wisconsin’s Matt Sande was interviewed about the program by Catholic News Agency/EWTN.

    In the interview, Sande discussed how parents’ rights are overruled by the philosophy that the state knows best: “Parents don’t know. I’ve had parents call me and just be shocked and saddened that their child was on the morning-after pill.” To read the CNA/EWTN article, click here.

    Kohl’s and Planned Parenthood: The smoking gun

    August 16th, 2010

    First, thanks to everyone who has called or emailed Kohl’s in the past couple days to express displeasure with Kohl’s support of Planned Parenthood.

    Many of you have received a canned email response from Kohl’s, stating:

    Thank you for contacting us directly with your concerns.

    After receiving your e-mail, I researched your concerns about any involvement we may have with Planned Parenthood. Our Community Relations department confirmed that Kohl’s does not have a corporate partnership with Planned Parenthood. I reviewed their annual report and verified that Kohl’s is not listed as a partner. Additionally, we have not sponsored any Associates in Action (formerly A-Team) events with Planned Parenthood within the last 24 months.

    We appreciate the time you took to contact us and look forward to serving you again.

    Sadly, Kohl’s statement that they’re not providing funding to Planned Parenthood is a far cry from stating that their policy is that “no support is to ever go to Planned Parenthood in the name of the company.”

    We have found a link between Planned Parenthood and Kohl’s, however. Kohl’s did, in fact, donate cash to and items to support the services of Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties [PPOSBC]. Click here to view on PPOSBC’s website.

    We urge you to continue contacting Kohl’s! Provide the above link as proof . In 2008-09, PPOSBC performed 4,611 abortions and provided 37,870 doses of “emergency contraception.” The message to be sent to Kohl’s is clear: We will take our money elsewhere rather than support an organization involved in the extermination of our future.

    Before sending your children back to school, opt them out of Planned Parenthood’s sex ed

    August 16th, 2010

    Effective this school year, all Wisconsin public school districts are prohibited from adopting “abstinence-only” or “abstinence-centered” human growth and development programs (also known as sex ed). Under a new law signed by Gov. Doyle in 2010, if a school district chooses to adopt a human growth and development program, it would be forced to include in its curriculum instruction on the “health benefits, side effects, and proper use of contraceptives and barrier methods.” This law does not apply to private schools.

    Planned Parenthood lobbied heavily for this law to be passed.

    If a school district retains or initiates a program, we urge parents to opt their children out of the program and either teach chastity/abstinence themselves or find a private program that does. Our children’s lives depend on it, born and preborn.

    For a sample form to file with your school to opt your child(ren) out of sex ed, click here.

    Government-funded birth control, whether provided directly or promoted educationally, encourages sexual promiscuity and with it a host of social pathologies including underage pregnancies, chemical and surgical abortions, and sexually transmitted diseases. Hormonal contraceptives are also dangerous in their own right, posing serious and sometimes fatal health risks to women and often causing pre-implantation chemical abortions.

    Pro-Life Wisconsin opposes the sexualization of our children! As parents and concerned citizens, we need to fight this assault on our youth. Chastity/abstinence is the only message that will protect their bodies and preserve their innocence. Pro-Life Wisconsin urges public school districts across Wisconsin to drop their human growth and development programs.