{"id":501,"date":"2018-01-17T19:37:17","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T00:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/conservativeproletariat.com\/?p=501"},"modified":"2018-01-17T19:37:17","modified_gmt":"2018-01-18T00:37:17","slug":"if-sen-bob-casey-d-pa-had-a-spine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/conservativeproletariat.com\/?p=501","title":{"rendered":"If Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) Had a Spine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

by Reid Fitzsimons<\/p>\n

Robert Casey, Jr is the senior senator from Pennsylvania. He has a name you might know in that his late father was a former governor of PA and one of the last truly Pro-Life Democrats, a belief and position which is now incompatible with being a Democrat. His son the senator, whose qualifications are pretty much limited to the fact he is the son of a revered figure, lamely claims he is Pro-Life but this is fully contradicted by his actions. Why he feels the need for this pretension is not entirely clear. Certainly he\u2019s aware there is an ethnic\/Catholic voter demographic that wants to believe his utterances (Casey is one of those Catholics that rejects much of the church doctrine but enjoys the wafer and wine part), but I wonder if some deeper psychology is involved. Perhaps some Daddy issue- \u201cI'd like to be a good boy, but if I do what is right the celebrities and hip media won\u2019t let me be in their cub\u201d kind of thing.<\/p>\n

Hypocrisy is an inevitable frustration we encounter in life; it is especially annoying when it originates with our elected elites and when it is effective in terms of re-election, etc. In Sen. Casey\u2019s case, his undying support of Planned Parenthood combined with his faux Pro-Life position makes one almost appreciate Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cdrain the swamp\u201d sloganeering. Below is a letter sent to Casey\u2019s senate e-mail address with three possible outcomes: no response (likely), a meaningless form letter response (likely), or a thoughtful reasoned argument (awaiting the cow to jump over the moon).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Greetings to the Volunteer Intern or Low-level Staffer Who Screens E-mails:<\/strong><\/p>\n

On several occasions over the past several years I have contacted Sen. Casey\u2019s office regarding his unwavering support for Planned Parenthood despite his lifelong claim to \u201cPro-Life,\u201d ostensibly an inexplicable oxymoron (not unlike a person who claims to be a vegan but routinely eats Whoppers with bacon). The several communications I\u2019ve had have been at times entertaining but always disappointing, generally along the lines that, while Sen. Casey is Pro-Life, the inconvenient fact that Planned Parenthood is the single largest provider of abortions is overshadowed by the wonderful work it does in \u201cwomen\u2019s health,\u201d hence perpetual Federal funding is warranted.<\/p>\n

I must admit that I have little confidence in Sen. Casey\u2019s integrity but I wonder if he (or his spokespeople) has any clue as to what women\u2019s health care actually entails. In the many years I spent as a primary care PA largely responsible for the gynecological care of my female patients, I can enlighten those who don\u2019t know: a typical gyn visit is characterized by a speculum exam, a cervical scraping for pap, a bimanual palpation, a clinical breast exam, and often a referral for a mammogram and perhaps a script for contraceptives. These are pretty much the essentials of preventative women\u2019s health care and are very important and effective. Sen. Casey might note that abortion is in no way inexorably paired with \u201cwomen\u2019s health care.\u201d The idea that he doesn\u2019t grasp this suggests he either lacks intellectual wherewithal or his stated Pro-Life leaning is a disingenuous sham. Either way the choice is unenviable: stupid versus dishonest.<\/p>\n

There was a great Eddie Murphy movie in the early 90s (The Distinguished Gentleman) in which his typical con man character happened to share the name of an incumbent congressmen, Jeff Johnson, who died during a re-election campaign. Needless to say, Eddie Murphy\/Jeff Johnson stepped in, running on a slogan of \u201cA Name You Know,\u201d and won. This movie is almost preternaturally applicable to Sen. Casey who, with the exception of his name, has few real world attributes (privileged upbringing, college to law school to politics are more of the ethereal world). His father, Gov. Casey, was an honorable and principled person; it appears when Junior\u2019s apple fell from that upright tree it landed far, far away.<\/p>\n

As a Pennsylvania resident it\u2019s frustrating that our senior senator is either mendacious or moronically feckless. I suppose he is politically astute enough to realize that in cynically pretending to be Pro-Life he garners votes from people who want to believe he\u2019s sincere like his father. His progressive base, however, fully realizes he is unfazed by the routine and exceptional atrocities of Planned Parenthood and supports federally subsidizing the cruelty ad infinitum.<\/p>\n

Anyway, the reason I am writing, other than to express my disregard for Sen. Casey, is to ask for an explanation as to why he is unable to discern the difference between women\u2019s health care and abortion. In order to assist him I\u2019ve pasted in an excellent article below that discusses the confabulation of statistics Planned Parenthood uses in an attempt to mask their role, from a public relations standpoint, as largest provider of abortions in the US. Back when the selling of fetal tissues and organs for profit scandal erupted I called Sen. Casey\u2019s office with the same basic question. The initial contact was with a young and na\u00efve intern who sounded like she was reading talking points provided by Planned Parenthood. I wasn\u2019t terribly surprised when, upon asking her the source of information being disseminated by Sen. Casey\u2019s office to his constituents she replied, \u201cPlanned Parenthood.\u201d Sadly, that implies a significant amount of disrespect for his constituents and calls into question his integrity when considering such an important human rights matter. I\u2019m neither a Christian in general nor a Catholic in particular, but it would be a wonderful thing if Sen. Casey discovered the personal courage to repent, so to speak, and to do what is right. I\u2019ll look forward to your reply!<\/p>\n

What Planned Parenthood\u2019s Annual Report Proves<\/strong><\/p>\n

by Alexandra DeSanctis<\/p>\n

January 4, 2018 4:25 PM<\/p>\n

It earns most of its money from abortions, it\u2019s flush with cash, and it provides very few actual health-care services.<\/p>\n

The results are in: Planned Parenthood remains America\u2019s biggest abortion provider. And it\u2019s not even close. The organization \u2014 which recently celebrated its centennial anniversary \u2014 has just released its annual report for the 2016\u201317 fiscal year. The numbers confirm what rational observers have long known: Planned Parenthood exists to provide abortions, and not much else.<\/p>\n

Amid the gloom, there is one glimmer of positive news. Last year, the group provided fewer abortions than it had the year before, though the number is still staggering: 321,384 abortion procedures in one year alone. In 2015\u201316, Planned Parenthood reported 328,348 abortions.<\/p>\n

A decrease in abortions, of course, isn\u2019t Planned Parenthood\u2019s victory to celebrate \u2014 not that the group is trying to take credit for the drop, or celebrating it at all. The U.S. abortion rate has dropped steadily since 1980, so the decline in Planned Parenthood\u2013administered abortions is much more the result of a greater number of women deciding to carry pregnancies to term than it is an indication of the group\u2019s efforts to de-emphasize abortion.<\/p>\n

And yet Planned Parenthood continues to portray itself as a solicitous women\u2019s health organization that just so happens to occasionally perform an abortion or two, when it\u2019s absolutely necessary. This report is no exception, and the astonishing figure of 321,384 is treated as nothing more than a footnote.<\/p>\n

Aided by Hollywood, complicit media, and Democratic politicians and activists, Planned Parenthood cloaks the truth beneath empty rhetoric about resisting the hostile Trump administration. But key facts in this report unveil the brutal reality: Planned Parenthood is a corporation that exists primarily to profit from abortion.<\/p>\n

Aided by Hollywood, complicit media, and Democratic politicians and activists, Planned Parenthood cloaks the truth beneath empty rhetoric about resisting the hostile Trump administration. Here are the top myths Planned Parenthood peddles that are debunked by information from its own annual report.<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0 Abortion is just 3 percent of Planned Parenthood\u2019s business.<\/p>\n

This statistic has been rated false by left-leaning outlets, including Slate and the Washington Post. The claim rests on a deceptive tactic: calculating abortion procedures as a fraction of its \u201cservices\u201d \u2014 defined by the group as \u201cdiscrete clinical interactions\u201d \u2014 rather than as a fraction of its clients.<\/p>\n

Take an example. A woman walks into a Planned Parenthood clinic. She takes a pregnancy test, meets with a counselor, and chooses to have an abortion procedure. While she\u2019s there, she also receives an STI test and a breast exam and is handed birth control on her way out the door. Planned Parenthood would count each of these \u201cdiscrete interactions\u201d \u2014 six in total \u2014 as a service, so abortion would be only 16 percent of that woman\u2019s visit.<\/p>\n

Applying this method to an entire year of \u201cservices,\u201d Planned Parenthood inflates its numbers to make abortion look like a vanishingly small part of what it does. The actual numbers in the report tell a drastically different story.<\/p>\n

Look, for instance, at how the 321,384 abortion procedures dwarf adoption referrals (3,889) and prenatal services (7,762). Planned Parenthood performed 83 abortions for every one adoption referral last year. And its prenatal services have dropped steadily every year since 2009, from over 40,000 that year to just under 8,000 last year. Hardly \u201ccomprehensive women\u2019s health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Planned Parenthood performed 83 abortions for every one adoption referral last year. What\u2019s more, Planned Parenthood performs about one-third of annual U.S. abortions, making it the single largest abortion provider in the country, by far. As the most expensive procedure provided, abortion underwrites a huge portion of the group\u2019s bottom line. Surely this is why the national organization routinely imposes abortion quotas on its regional affiliates and rewards clinics that exceed their abortion targets.<\/p>\n

Planned Parenthood president, Cecile Richards, has inadvertently underscored the group\u2019s repeated attempts to downplay its commitment to abortion. Richards met with Ivanka Trump last year to discuss the group\u2019s future, and Trump suggested that Planned Parenthood split into two financially distinct groups, one of which offered no abortion, allowing it to receive government money without compromising taxpayers\u2019 consciences. Richards refused, calling it na\u00efve and saying that Trump failed to understand how central abortion is to Planned Parenthood\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n

2) Millions of women wouldn\u2019t have health care if Planned Parenthood didn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

The report indicates that Planned Parenthood saw 2.4 million clients in the last fiscal year. But, as has been shown by the group\u2019s own figures, it doesn\u2019t provide those clients with very many actual health-care services. According to the report, the only significant services offered, besides abortion, are STI and HIV tests, contraception, and pregnancy tests.<\/p>\n

Last year, it provided only 235,000 well-woman exams and 32,000 \u201cfamily practice services,\u201d despite executives\u2019 repeated claims that the group is an average health-care provider offering a vast selection of regular health-care services.<\/p>\n

The report also hints, but doesn\u2019t outright acknowledge, that Planned Parenthood closed dozens of clinics over the last year. Its 2015\u201316 report cited \u201cnearly 650 health centers,\u201d while this year\u2019s report highlights \u201cmore than 600.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to American Life League\u2019s annual survey, Planned Parenthood closed 32 clinics last year, leaving the group with just 597 facilities. This means that several states have only a handful of Planned Parenthood centers, and some have as few as one or two. And yet we are supposed to believe that these paltry clinics provide essential care to women who would otherwise have nowhere to go.<\/p>\n

In reality, there exist over 13,000 federally qualified health-care centers across the country that offer a wide array of actual health-care procedures, not just a tiny selection of reproductive services. These centers outnumber Planned Parenthood facilities 20 to one. It is beyond absurd to suggest that American women would have nowhere to turn for health care if not to Planned Parenthood.<\/p>\n

3) Planned Parenthood both needs and deserves government funding.<\/p>\n

A plurality of Planned Parenthood\u2019s revenue last year came from government reimbursements and grants, totaling more than half a billion dollars. The group is, understandably, fixated on retaining and expanding that funding \u2014 surely in large part for the PR cover it provides. Planned Parenthood\u2019s political-action wing spends millions each year lobbying to increase its federal funding, essentially taking government coin and using it to push for even more.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s executives have recently taken to crusading against the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funding from paying for abortion procedures. (The fungibility of money, of course, means that any federal money given to Planned Parenthood aids the group in providing abortions.)<\/p>\n

But the group could very easily continue to exist without federal money. For one thing, the Trump administration has been great for business. The group\u2019s private donations went up by nearly $100 million last year, bringing the tally to more than half a billion dollars from wealthy benefactors. If Planned Parenthood were ever actually defunded, you can bet that number would skyrocket even higher.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s no question that Planned Parenthood is rolling in excess cash. Its net assets at the end of last fiscal year totaled more than $1.6 billion, up from $1.5 billion the year before. The group directs more than $174 million annually to management salaries, an ever-increasing number.<\/p>\n

Planned Parenthood\u2019s PAC is among the most powerful lobbying groups in American politics, shelling out $40 million last year for \u201cpublic policy\u201d and investing upwards of $175 million in such nebulous categories as \u201cmovement building,\u201d \u201cstrengthening and securing Planned Parenthood,\u201d and \u201cengaging communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the group can manage to scrounge up enough cash for these activities \u2014 and continue to sit comfortably on assets in excess of $1 billion \u2014 surely it can bear its own operating costs. Given its commitment to abortion, and its lack of commitment to much else in the way of actual health care, it should be required to do just that.<\/p>\n

The public square is rife with misinformation and outright lies about what Planned Parenthood does. Its own annual report should end any debate. It is, first and foremost, a corporation that profits from the routine and casual slaughter of unborn children. For the sake of political prudence, it must be defunded. For the sake of justice, it must be shut down.<\/p>\n

Read more at: http:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/article\/455145\/planned-parenthoods-annual-report-disproves-its-own-lies<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 by Reid Fitzsimons Robert Casey, Jr is the senior senator from Pennsylvania. He has a name you might know in that his late father was a former governor of PA and one of the last truly Pro-Life Democrats, a belief and position which is now incompatible with being a Democrat. His son the ...continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[3,5,2],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ynMC-85","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/conservativeproletariat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/conservativeproletariat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/conservativeproletariat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conservativeproletariat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conservativeproletariat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=501"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/conservativeproletariat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":504,"href":"https:\/\/conservativeproletariat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions\/504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/conservativeproletariat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conservativeproletariat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conservativeproletariat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}