No one has done a better job persuading people to defund Planned Parenthood than, well, Planned Parenthood. In video after undercover video, the organization has been its own worst enemy in the fight for taxpayer dollars. Out of its own mouth, it’s let Americans into a dark world where killing is currency and empires are built on the backs of innocent children. One after another, the tapes sound like something out of a horror movie. If only they were. Instead, the gory trade — often joked about by the employees involved — is putting an exclamation point on taxpayers’ insistence that Congress defund Cecile Richards’s group.

Yesterday, those voices were even more adamant after the release of the 13th sickening conversation with a Planned Parenthood staffer. With shocking nonchalance, the star of the Center for Medical Progress’s latest show sips wine and talks about how routinely her Arizona clinics break the law by performing abortions at 24 weeks. As casually as if she were talking about the weather, Dr. DeShawn Taylor explains how she often delivers intact babies — as late as six months — to harvest high-quality “hearts, lungs, livers, and brains.” Investigators for the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) pose as buyers, whose frank questions lead to stomach-turning answers from a group raking in $550 million tax dollars a year. In one particularly nauseating part, the Planned Parenthood doctor explains that abortion is such a workout that she had to get a gym membership. “My biceps appreciate when the dig[oxin] works,” to kill the fetus before the procedure. “I remember when I was a [Family Planning] Fellow and I was training, I was like, ‘Oh, I have to hit the gym for this,’” Taylor says, describing the force she feels in her biceps when she dismembers a baby.

When CMP presses her about “obtaining intact fetal organs,” she replies that “It’s not a matter of how I feel about it coming out intact, but I gotta worry about my staff and people’s feelings about it coming out looking like a baby… In Arizona, if the fetus comes out with any signs of life, we’re supposed to transport it to the hospital.” When CMP asks, “Is there any standard procedure for verifying signs of life?” Dr. Taylor replies, “Well, the thing is, I mean the key is, you need to pay attention to who’s in the room, right?” Then she laughs, telling David Daleiden’s group, “It’s a mess. It’s a mess.” In a desperate attempt to put some emotional distance between herself and the procedure that kills 887 unborn children a day, she explains that when the paperwork comes in for the fetal death certificates, she’s disturbed to hear them called “babies.” “Baby this, baby that, baby so-and-so, and I’m like, that’s creepy!”

No, what’s creepy is that an organization whose cash cow is the destruction of innocent life continues to enjoy broad support from almost every Democrat in Congress. As CMP’s David Daleiden points out, “The only difference between Planned Parenthood’s barbaric abortion business and that of the notorious Dr. Kermit Gosnell is that Gosnell was not so careful as to ‘pay attention to who’s in the room.’ Elected officials must stop forcing taxpayers to subsidize Planned Parenthood’s criminal abortion business, and the Department of Justice must immediately open a full investigation and prosecute Planned Parenthood to the fullest extent of the law.” This is no longer about being pro-life or pro-choice. It’s about being pro-dignity. And surely there are 535 votes in Congress for that.

Meanwhile, Richards’s group is doing its best to prove that the real villain is Daleiden, which is ironic since all he did was reveal something she now claims to be “proud” of. In California, where the doctor was filmed, Attorney General Xavier Becerra has leveled 15 criminal charges against CMP for recording conversations “that were considered private.” Like the Texas charges, these are almost certainly politically motivated. As FRC’s Travis Weber points out, “Under Section 633.5 of the state’s law, recording a confidential conversation is permitted to gain evidence of ‘extortion, kidnapping, bribery, any felony involving violence against the person, including, but not limited to, human trafficking.’” So not only should the charges be dismissed, but there could even be a case for malicious prosecution here.

One thing’s for sure: David Daleiden isn’t intimidated. “The last time @PPact colluded with political cronies to persecute citizen journalists,” he tweeted, “both charges AND corrupt DA thrown out! BRING IT ON!!” And while you’re at it, pro-lifers say, bring on the defunding of the group responsible! Despite the flop of the American Health Care Act last Friday, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) is far from done with the repeal process — including the provision that ends the forced partnership between taxpayers and Planned Parenthood. “We think reconciliation is the tool,” Ryan told reporters, “because that gets it in law.” Do your part. Contact your leaders and ask them to take every possible step to stop the flow of taxpayer dollars to a group that exalts cash over care — and “choice” over child.

Originally published here.

Double Trouble: USAF Investigates the Same Colonel … Twice!

You can’t be tried for the same crime twice — except, apparently, in the U.S. Air Force. There, a colonel with a sterling record is being hauled back into the spotlight for a controversy that was resolved more than two years ago. The case, which dates all the way back to 2013 when Colonel Michael Madrid was mentoring a troubled airman, was investigated and resolved. That is, until a new commander arrived on the scene. For reasons that defy logic, Major General John McCoy dusted off the old file and — without any new evidence — issued a Letter of Admonishment.

Although Madrid was never outspoken about his Christianity, he is clearly being targeted for it — first by the young airman, who identifies as gay, and now by his commander. During a court-martialing for multiple offenses, the airman under Madrid’s care accused his mentor of making offensive comments about homosexuality. “Colonel Madrid submitted to an extensive military investigation, and the Air Force cleared him,” said Mike Berry of First Liberty Institute, which is representing the colonel. “Major General McCoy has no right to ignore the rule of law and arbitrarily decide more than two years later … that he can punish Colonel Madrid.” Obviously, Berry and his staff are concerned that the general “judged and punished Madrid — a decorated Air Force officer — because he became aware of Colonel Madrid’s traditional religious views. If so,” Berry points out, “that not only harms the military, but it’s illegal.”

As anyone who’s served in the military knows, this isn’t just a letter that sits in a file. It could literally mean the death of a service member’s career or — at the very least — the end of his advancement. “I feel like I’ve been singled out because of my faith,” Madrid told Breitbart. “Now I’m afraid if I say anything about even being a Christian, I’ll step on a landmine that could blow up my career.”

Unfortunately, this isn’t a crisis that Madrid faces alone. The entire fighting force of the United States is in the crosshairs of the radical Left until the White House finds the courage to issue an executive order protecting the religious liberty of Madrid and thousands of others like him. And while the order would extend well beyond the military, it should be the commander in chief’s first priority to defend the men and women who put their lives on the line to protect the First Amendment rights they’re being denied! One of the best things you can do to support people like Colonel Madrid is educate yourself on what’s at stake. In a brand new publication, FRC explains exactly that. Read up on the debate by clicking over to “Religious Liberty: An Introduction to Our Freedom to Believe” and then share with your friends!

Originally published here.

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