Who needs horror movies when the Center for Medical Progress is producing such frightening footage from Planned Parenthood? One after another, the videos of the group’s organ harvesting scheme sound like something out of a Halloween script.

If only it were. Instead, the gory trade — often joked about by the workers involved — is putting an exclamation point on taxpayers’ insistence that Congress defund the organization responsible. [Tuesday], those voices were even more adamant after the release of the 11th sickening conversation with a Planned Parenthood employee caught on tape. Like the 10 before it, this one had its share of stomach-turning moments, including one staffer’s description of the tiny heart that this barbaric practice stops: cute. “One of our [point of care] persons is really into organ development,” the woman explains. “She’ll pull out, like, kidneys and heart. The heart we frequently see at nine weeks. She always looks for it.” “Just like for fun?” the buyer asks. “Well,” the worker went on, “it’s cute.” By some miracle, David Daleiden’s “buyer” maintained his composure at the answer, which should drop the jaws of any sane American.

There’s nothing “cute” about death — let alone the vicious and violent end of these innocent babies, who are being picked apart for their organs by taxpayer-funded vultures. Undeterred, another Texas clinician chimes in that she trained under Planned Parenthood’s Senior Medical Director, the same woman who discussed the dismemberment of baby corpses over salad and wine. Like her mentor, this young woman talks about the importance of manipulating the abortion to produce the more marketable parts. “My aim is usually to get the specimens out pretty intact,” she describes of her technique. Often, she goes on, the workers will use ultrasound images to turn a baby into a “feet-first breech presentation,” which means the child isn’t put out of its misery with a lethal injection to the heart first. Instead, the baby is subjected to an excruciating death that most people wouldn’t dream of subjecting an animal to — let alone a defenseless human being. “Especially the 20-weekers are a lot harder versus the 18-weekers, so at that point I’ll switch to breech…” At that point, the abortion doctor admits that the group banks around $50 for prime organs — a potentially serious violation of federal law which prohibits profiting from the sale of unborn baby body parts.

Asked if she has ever harvested a fetal brain, the woman says, “I haven’t been able to do that yet,” but laughs, “This will give me something to strive for!” It’s an appalling response for anyone, let alone a physician whose purpose is to alleviate pain, not cause it. To cure, not to kill. Unfortunately, this is the dark world of Planned Parenthood — a world that more than a half-billion taxpayer dollars a year help make possible. No wonder Governor Greg Abbott is pulling the plug on Planned Parenthood funding. Just four miles down the road from the Austin Capitol, these clinics may be participating in dangerous abortions that are not only against the law — but jeopardize women’s lives. Just last week, state officials raided three state clinics on allegations of fraud and other crimes.

Still, President Obama stands firmly by Cecile Richards’s group, even going so far as to stake the entire government’s budget on it. “Everything is subordinated to the abortion agenda,” fumed Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.). But hopefully, not for long. Thanks to outgoing House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and incoming successor Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), conservatives are leading the charge to put a bill stripping the group’s money on the president’s desk. Through budget reconciliation, the two chambers will be able to push the issue the farthest it’s been since Republicans took control of the House five years ago. Right now, the legislation is in the Senate’s court, where you can help pressure your leaders to send it to the president and put the burden of this abhorrent partnership squarely on his shoulders.

Contact your senators and ask them to support the Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act — and help restore America’s moral conscience along with it.

Division at Home Can Subtract from Math at School

Money can buy a lot of things, but a good education may not be one of them. [Tuesday], the National Assessment of Educational Progress released its two-year report, and it’s not exactly a glowing one. The bottom line is that education spending may be higher — but students’ tests scores aren’t. Despite burning through more dollars in five years than George W. Bush did in eight, kids in elementary and middle school are performing at their worst math levels in 25 years. That news came as a shock to the academic system, as experts scrambled [Wednesday] morning to explain the plunge. “This isn’t a pattern that we saw coming,” said the acting commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics. “It was an unexpected downturn.”

Based on the most recent “report card,” only a third of 8th graders enrolled in public schools can read and do math at their grade level. And fourth graders aren’t faring much better. Just 40% were at or above the proficient level in math this year. Even less (36%) could read at the prescribed standards, putting them at the lowest level possible: “below basic.”

While educators blame a variety of factors, Common Core seems to be an obvious culprit. William Bushaw, who helps set the policy for these tests, called it “curricular uncertainty,” which is just code for the negative impact this controversial (and unpopular) policy is having on the districts implementing it. In a media call to discuss the results, Education Secretary Arne Duncan admitted that it was “obviously not great news” but urged states not to throw in the towel on Common Core.

For most parents, who already object to Washington’s classroom takeover, it’s too late. Seven out of 10 U.S. 8th graders can’t read and do math at their grade level — and liberals want to give the government more control over education? They can’t even defend the system they have! While kids are learning plenty about sexuality, secularism, and government dependence, the real subjects are getting the shaft. Meanwhile, that same anti-family agenda is exactly what’s helping to drive students’ scores down. Just ask FRC’s Dr. Pat Fagan. MARRI (Marriage and Religion Research Institute) has shown a clear correlation between family life and educational outcomes. In study after study, children who come from intact married families score a lot higher on math and verbal tests than their peers. In some cases, it can mean up to a 23-point difference!

The same holds true for kids that worship regularly. They perform almost 10% better than the ones who never go to church at all. And it isn’t just math and other scores that suffer from broken homes. It’s the students’ grades, graduation rates, behavior, and even college acceptance. If Congress wants to improve test scores, then it should start by recognizing the unique role families play in that success. Otherwise, the leaders spending our money won’t be the only ones who can’t do math!

Washington Comes to FRC…

The fourth-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash), came to FRC [Wednesday] to discuss “The Role of Congress in Protecting American Values and Life.” And that’s just what she did, defending life and religious liberty eloquently and thoughtfully. “Children in the womb feel pain and deserve protection,” she said, and denounced what she called “the unspeakable act of abortion.” The congresswoman, who leads the House Republican Conference, noted that the task of government is “to preserve blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”

Commenting on Congress’s priorities, she mentioned that Congress passed and the president signed measures to protect vulnerable young people from human trafficking. “The crime of trafficking is an assault on human dignity and must be stopped,” she said. She made the case that the basis of human dignity is found in the Declaration of Independence, that “all men are created equal,” and that “our Founders believed every person was made in the image of God.” That’s why she raised the tragedy of violent persecution in the Middle East, citing “our brothers and sisters in Christ” and other religious and ethnic minorities are suffering for their faith. Much of Rep. McMorris-Rodgers’s remarks were focused on one of the central issues of our time: religious liberty. She said that Congress had passed legislation to prevent the District of Columbia from compelling faith-based employers to hire pro-abortion activists. “Government can be coercive with respect to religious liberty,” she said, and “itself shouldn’t be a discriminator. Americans should never feel they can only express their views in their homes. The public square is open to everyone” to express their views, she argued.

Finally, the congresswoman responded to a question about the brave and embattled Bremerton, Washington football coach, Joe Kennedy, whose silent act of praying on the field after football games has led to demands by radical secularists that he stop. “The words etched on the Jefferson Memorial” speak directly to his situation, she said. Those words are, “all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion.” Amen, both to Mr. Jefferson and Mrs. McMorris Rodgers. We are thankful for her leadership and appreciate her commitment to what we at FRC call “a culture in which human life is valued, families flourish and religious liberty thrives.”

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.