September, 2011

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin releases 2010 annual report, performed 612 less abortions in 2010 than 2009

  • September 30, 2011
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Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin recently released its 2010 annual report, available here [PDF].

Items of note:
- PPWI claims $14 million in assets;
- 50% of PPWI’s funding comes from Medicaid, and another 25% from government grants [which confirms the state of Wisconsin's estimation that state and federal taxpayer funds account for $18 million of PPWI's $24 million in income].
- PPWI’s share of abortions in Wisconsin dropped (thank God!). PPWI reports 4,827 abortions performed in the state in 2010; PPWI performed 5,439 abortions in Wisconsin in 2009. This is 612  less abortions in 2010 than 2009!
- Also of note, still all on the PPWI board are two professors at Marquette University, Dan Maguire and Jackie Boynton.

A huge shout-out to our sidewalk counselors and the great crisis pregnancy centers throughout the state, working to bring true help and support to men, women and their babies.

The state of  Wisconsin is due to release its annual report on induced abortions in Wisconsin, so we will know shortly whether abortions in Wisconsin rose in 2010 (as abortions rose in 2009) or whether the number of abortions dropped. A drop in the number of abortions in the state would be in line with the drop in PPWI’s numbers.

A number of private hospitals in Wisconsin (Froedtert in Milwaukee, Gunderson Lutheran in La Crosse, Bellin in Green Bay, etc) perform abortions, mostly the “exceptions” cases, but PPWI does the bulk of the killing.

Other than PPWI’s abortion facilities, Affiliated Medical Services in Milwaukee also performs abortions as a business. Affiliated is the only late-term abortion facility in the state, other than the hospitals which may or may not perform abortions.

Stay tuned!

Pro-Life Wisconsin speaks at Reach Out Wisconsin event

  • September 26, 2011
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Note: Our apologies for trouble accessing the original post.

On Tuesday September 20, Pro-Life Wisconsin’s Steve Karlen spoke to members of Reach Out Wisconsin, a Madison-based bipartisan forum designed to foster constructive dialogue on contentious issues. While a representative from Planned Parenthood was a last-minute scratch, Steve made the case against abortion.

In particular, he explained how the “debate” over when life begins isn’t a debate at all—that scientists across the ideological spectrum universally agree life begins at conception. He also deconstructed the false dichotomy that pits the best interests of mothers against their babies by explaining how physical, emotional and mental health outcomes are worse across the board for women who have had abortions. Participants appeared surprised to learn that more than 800,000 abortions take place each year in the US, that African American families in Wisconsin are disproportionately harmed by abortion, and that evidence demonstrates increased use of contraception raises the rate of unintended pregnancy and abortion.

Pro-Life Wisconsin thanks Reach Out Wisconsin for the opportunity to speak on the critical civil rights issue of our time.

Hi, Mommy

  • September 26, 2011
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Spotted this going around Facebook. We come across all sorts of stories about abortion every day, but this one brought it all home.

Hi, Mommy.

I’m your baby. You don’t know me yet, I’m only a few weeks old. You’re going to find out about me soon, though, I promise. Let me tell you some things about me. My name is John, and I’ve got beautiful brown eyes and black hair. Well, I don’t have it yet, but I will when I’m born. I’m going to be your only child, and you’ll call me your one and only. I’m going to grow up without a daddy mostly, but we have each other. We’ll help each other, and love each other. I want to be a doctor when I grow up.

You found out about me today, Mommy! You were so excited, you couldn’t wait to tell everyone. All you could do all day was smile, and life was perfect. You have a beautiful smile, Mommy. It will be the first face I will see in my life, and it will be the best thing I see in my life. I know it already. … Today was the day you told Daddy. You were so excited to tell him about me! …He wasn’t happy, Mommy. He kind of got angry. I don’t think that you noticed, but he did. He started to talk about something called wedlock, and money, and bills, and stuff I don’t think I understand yet. You were still happy, though, so it was okay. Then he did something scary, Mommy. He hit you. I could feel you fall backward, and your hands flying up to protect me. I was okay… but I was very sad for you. You were crying then, Mommy. That’s a sound I don’t like. It doesn’t make me feel good. It made me cry, too. He said sorry after, and he hugged you again. You forgave him, Mommy, but I’m not sure if I do. It wasn’t right. You say he loves you… why would he hurt you? I don’t like it, Mommy.

Finally, you can see me! Your stomach is a little bit bigger, and you’re so proud of me! You went out with your mommy to buy new clothes, and you were so so so happy. You sing to me, too. You have the most beautiful voice in the whole wide world. When you sing is when I’m happiest. And you talk to me, and I feel safe. So safe. You just wait and see, Mommy. When I am born I will be perfect just for you. I will make you proud, and I will love you with all of my heart.
… … …
I can move my hands and feet now, Mommy. I do it because you put your hands on your belly to feel me, and I giggle. You giggle, too. I love you, Mommy.

Daddy came to see you today, Mommy. I got really scared. He was acting funny and he wasn’t talking right. He said he didn’t want you. I don’t know why, but that’s what he said. And he hit you again. I got angry, Mommy. When I grow up I promise I won’t let you get hurt! I promise to protect you. Daddy is bad. I don’t care if you think that he is a good person, I think he’s bad. But he hit you, and he said he didn’t want us. He doesn’t like me. Why doesn’t he like me, Mommy?

You didn’t talk to me tonight, Mommy. Is everything okay?

It’s been three days since you saw Daddy. You haven’t talked to me or touched me or anything since that. Don’t you still love me, Mommy? I still love you. I think you feel sad. The only time I feel you is when you sleep. You sleep funny, kind of curled up on your side. And you hug me with your arms, and I feel safe and warm again. Why don’t you do that when you’re awake, any more?

I’m 21 weeks old today, Mommy. Aren’t you proud of me? We’re going somewhere today, and it’s somewhere new. I’m excited. It looks like a hospital, too. I want to be a doctor when I grow up, Mommy. Did I tell you that? I hope you’re as excited as I am. I can’t wait.

Mommy, I’m getting scared. Your heart is still beating, but I don’t know what you are thinking. The doctor is talking to you. I think something’s going to happen soon. I’m really, really, really scared, Mommy. Please tell me you love me. Then I will feel safe again. I love you!

Mommy, what are they doing to me!? It hurts! Please make them stop! It feels bad! Please, Mommy, please please help me! Make them stop!

Don’t worry Mommy, I’m safe. I’m in heaven with the angels now. They told me what you did, and they said it’s called an abortion.

Why, Mommy? Why did you do it? Don’t you love me any more? Why did you get rid of me? I’m really, really, really sorry if I did something wrong, Mommy. I love you, Mommy! I love you with all of my heart. Why don’t you love me? What did I do to deserve what they did to me? I want to live, Mommy! Please! It really, really hurts to see you not care about me, and not talk to me. Didn’t I love you enough? Please say you’ll keep me, Mommy! I want to live smile and watch the clouds and see your face and grow up and be a doctor. I don’t want to be here, I want you to love me again! I’m really really really sorry if I did something wrong. I love you!

I love you, Mommy.

Every abortion is just…

One more heart that was stopped.

Two more eyes that will never see.

Two more hands that will never touch.

Two more legs that will never run.

One more mouth that will never speak.

If you’re against abortion, repost.

Former Planned Parenthood lobbyist appointed to Assembly Health Committee

  • September 26, 2011
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Chris Taylor, currently a state Representative and a former lobbyist for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, has been appointed by Democrat Minority Leader Peter Barca to three legislative committees for the 2011-12 legislative session.

From her press release:
Representative Taylor is now a member of the Assembly Committees on Health; Labor and Workforce Development; and Ways and Means.

When she was elected, Taylor promised to further Planned Parenthood’s agenda. And now it appears she is on the perfect committee (health) to do so.

40 Days for Life begins next week!

  • September 19, 2011
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The fall 40 Days for Life campaign officially begins Wednesday, September 28. PLW and our affiliates will once again be organizing and participating in 40 Days for Life, which will be observed this fall in Appleton, Green Bay, La Crosse, Madison, Milwaukee, Racine, Wausau and across the border in Rockford, Ill.

There have now been eight coordinated 40 Days for Life campaigns since 2007, mobilizing people of faith and conscience in 337 cities across all 50 of the United States plus communities in Canada, Australia, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Spain, Denmark, Georgia, Armenia and Belize.

During these unified efforts, participants witnessed countless blessings from God:
 – 1,332 individual campaigns have taken place in 387 cities;
- More than 400,000 have joined together in an historic display of unity to pray and fast for an end to abortion;
- More than 13,000 church congregations have participated in the 40 Days for Life campaigns;
- Reports document 4,313 lives that have been spared from abortion — and those are just the ones we know about;
- 53 abortion workers have quit their jobs and walked away from the abortion industry;
- 14 abortion facilities completely shut down following local 40 Days for Life campaigns.

To get involved, call PLW toll-free at (877) 463-7945 or email info@prolifewisconsin.org.

Madison’s 40 Days for Life Kickoff will be held Tuesday, September 27 at St. Peter Church in Madison (5001 N. Sherman Avenue). We’ll gather between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m., and the program starts at 6 sharp. It will be a potluck dinner (main course will be provided).

Dr. Nancy Fredericks will be the guest speaker. Dr. Fredricks is the whistleblower who exposed the University of Wisconsin’s secret plans to perform late-term abortions at the Madison Surgery Center, leading to the massive, successful statewide pro-life uprising that led to the cancelation of those plans and the hasty departure of the abortionist behind them. Without her courageous stance, the MSC would likely be performing late-term abortions. Still, Dr. Fredericks has graciously thanked Vigil for Life, Pro-Life Wisconsin and the 40 Days for Life effort for their roles in stopping the treacherous plan. Come join us for her first ever public speaking engagement on the Madison Surgery Center saga.

Chancellor of UW-Madison defends use of aborted baby parts in research

  • September 15, 2011
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More follow-up on the issue of aborted fetal tissue used in research. Backstory here.

Rep. Andre Jacque has an excellent op-ed in today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Respect for human dignity is essential in the authorization and conduct of scientific research, a point underscored by numerous and horrific past failures to establish or follow such protocols. Yet as a University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate with substantial coursework in the biological sciences, I heard the declaration from more than one of my professors that the ethical questions surrounding pushing the boundaries of scientific inquiry should be “set aside and dealt with later” if there was “great potential” for medical breakthroughs.

Imagine what atrocities can be justified by such a philosophy! We can do better. I have introduced Assembly Bill 214 to establish reasonable standards for human tissue research and to prohibit the sale or use of aborted fetal body parts for experimentation or other purposes.

The whole op-ed is outstanding. Read the entirety here.

The chancellor of UW-Madison sent the this letter [PDF] attacking Rep. Jacque’s bill to all legislators. Spin, spin, spin. The letter is a testament to the degree of intellectual rationalization and modernism at UW-Madison. See the line, “Nothing we are doing is illegal.”………….. Which is the whole point of the legislation! Everything Hitler did was legal, too, remember that?

More on fetal tissue research from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

  • September 13, 2011
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A follow-up post from yesterday’s post on using aborted fetal tissue in research.

On Sunday, there was a column in the Milwaukee Journal opposing a ban on aborted fetal tissue research.

PLW’s communications director Virginia Zignego submitted a letter to the editor and it will be published tomorrow (or you can read it online today.)

And here is the Milwaukee Journal editorial board on the issue, stating moral concerns hold no sway in this brave new world we’re living in.

In a blog post on the issue, the Milwaukee Journal states they will be publishing commentary from Medical College of Wisconsin researchers this week (MCW performs research with aborted body parts, as does UW-Madison). You can also vote in a poll about whether you’re for/against fetal tissue research.

St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Parish dedicates memorial for babies lost to miscarriage

  • September 12, 2011
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This past Sunday, Sept 11, 2011, the St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Parish, in Greenville, WI dedicated their Miscarriage Memorial. The Memorial lists the names and dates of children who have died before birth, and provides families a place to remember and mourn. There are also plots available to bury the remains of infants who are lost later in pregnancy. By providing this burial location for children who die before birth, we acknowledge that they are not medical waste, but human beings deserving of dignity and respect. As Catholics we believe that all people are deserving of life from conception to natural death, and this Memorial affirms this belief.

The Scripture on Front reads:
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes beheld my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in the book
before one of them came to be.
Psalm 139: 13-16

Parent’s Prayer on back:
Lord God,
from whom human sadness is never hidden,
you know the burden of grief we feel at the loss of our child.
As we mourn, comfort us with the knowledge that our child is entrusted to your loving care.
O God, you are our final home.
We commend our child to you.
Trusting in your mercy and in your all-embracing love,
we pray that you give our child
happiness forever.
Amen.

This past May, Bishop Morlino dedicated a Memorial to the Preborn at St. Mary Catholic Church in Pine Bluff, Wis.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist: “Ban on fetal tissue research would be a mistake”

  • September 12, 2011
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The below article was in the Sept. 10 edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Sept. 11 edition of the Wisconsin State Journal. Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, writes about Rep. Andre Jacque’s bill, currently in the Wisconsin legislature, that would ban the use of aborted fetal body parts in research projects in the state. Read the bill here. Despite Still’s lengthy list of medical research benefiting from aborted fetal tissue, one cannot escape the fact that the purported benefit derives from human beings that are killed and experimented upon without their consent.

The legislation bans persons from knowingly and for valuable consideration acquiring, receiving, or transferring a fetal body part. It also bans persons from knowingly providing, receiving, or using for experimentation a fetal body part. Fetal body part is defined to mean a cell, tissue, organ, or other part of an unborn child who is aborted by an induced abortion.

University of Wisconsin (UW) officials already attacked the bill, claiming that it will have a “chilling effect” on the biomedical research UW Madison is currently conducting using aborted fetal tissue. Click here for a Capital Times article detailing the UW’s opposition to AB 214 and Rep. Jacque’s and PLW’s response.

There is documented evidence of UW conducting research on human fetal brain and pancreatic tissue, most recently a 2000 fetal brain cell study conducted by Su-Chun Zhang of the UW-Madison Department of Medical Sciences used immature neural cells from fetal human brain tissue of 15-20 gestation weeks “after elective termination of intrauterine pregnancies” to study neurological disorders including multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. The study acknowledged Dr. Dennis Christenson, a late-term abortionist, for his “assistance in this project.”

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Ban on fetal tissue research would be a mistake

Tom Still

A report last week in PLoS Biology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, offers a ready example of why Wisconsin lawmakers should tread carefully around a proposal to ban research using fetal tissue.

Researchers at the University of California and Texas A&M discovered that a somewhat mysterious soft tissue found in the fetus during early development in the womb plays a vital role in the formation of mature beta cells, the sole source of the body’s insulin.

Scientists believe the discovery may lead to new ways of addressing Type I and Type II diabetes, conditions that have reached epidemic proportions in the United States and beyond.

It just the latest example of how researchers in Wisconsin and beyond use cells derived from human fetal tissue to pursue cures for chronic diseases, to develop and produce vaccines, and to conduct basic research on a wide range of human health issues.

A bill introduced in the Wisconsin Legislature would make it a crime for Wisconsin researchers to continue using those cells, even though they have done so legally, ethically and effectively for 50 years or more.

Lawmakers who believe they are merely standing firm against abortion should think twice about the far-reaching effects of this bill on medical research and the state’s innovation economy.

Assembly Bill 214 and Senate Bill 172 would prohibit “a person knowingly and for valuable consideration acquiring, receiving or otherwise transferring a fetal body part in this state.”

The identical bills define cells and tissues as fetal body parts, and they also ban “providing, receiving or using for experimentation a fetal body part” in Wisconsin – even if there was no “valuable consideration.”

If passed, the bill would effectively halt valuable work in scores of laboratories at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Medical College of Wisconsin and beyond, shut down long-standing research projects and essentially chase many researchers and emerging companies out of the state.

Click here to read the rest. To submit a letter to the editor, click here.

250 people participate in Eucharistic procession in Appleton to pray for lives lost to abortion

  • September 12, 2011
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Approximately 250 people participated in a Eucharistic procession this past Saturday in Appleton. The event began with 8 a.m. Mass at St Pius X, 500 W. Marquette St., Appleton. The Knights of Columbus color guard joined Fr. Tom Farrell, pastor of St. Pius X, as he carried the host in a monstrance to Planned Parenthood, located at 3800 N. Gillett St.

Along the way, the procession stopped at three temporary roadside altars for prayers. The altars are on private property.

Busses returned participants to St. Pius after the 2 mile procession. Students in the pro-life Xavier Rock4Life group served lunch after the procession at St. Pius X.

The event, which began in 2008 when Fr. Quinn Mann was the associate pastor at St. Pius X, has grown into an annual community remembrance of the lives lost to abortion. Participation has far surpassed organizers’ original hopes for 50 people to pray with them.

View more photos on Flickr here.

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