Want to make more for doing less? Ask Planned Parenthood how. The abortion giant is sitting on piles of cash according to their latest annual report — and not because they earned it! It was a record year for abortions and profits, but not much else. And in the middle of the biggest fight over their funding in a decade, Planned Parenthood’s 35-page document may have just made conservatives’ case for them.

Services for women are down across the board — except for one area: abortion. While the “vital medical care” plunged, the group’s primary moneymaker raked in more than ever. It was one of the bloodiest years in the organization’s history, making the Memorial Day release of the report an eerie irony. Somehow, Cecile Richards still manages to keep a straight face when she says abortion is a tiny fraction of Planned Parenthood’s business, but, as National Review points out, “this tired, bogus statistic has been debunked numerous times — including by left-leaning outlets like Slate and Washington Post. Despite repeating the three percent statistic, the new report lists 328,348 abortions in the U.S. during the 2015-16 fiscal year, up nearly 5,000” over the previous year.

In one of the biggest shocks of the report, abortions now outnumber basic breast exams for the first time in Planned Parenthood’s history. That’s not difficult to believe since overall health screenings have dropped by half since 2011. Cancer exams, the go-to talking point for Planned Parenthood’s defenders, are down a whopping 16,974 at Richards’s clinics. Of course, the number of mammograms performed at Planned Parenthood stayed the same: zero. Even contraception counseling, the group’s bread-and-butter, fell by 136,244. They even saw 100,000 fewer patients than the year before!

But even though business slumped, government aid certainly didn’t. Once again, taxpayers chipped in the lion’s share of Richards’s budget, forcing Americans into a reluctant partnership to keep the killing machine afloat. For the fourth time in as many years, Richards’s “nonprofit” is celebrating more than a billion dollars in total revenue — and almost half of it came courtesy of U.S. taxpayers. For all of Planned Parenthood’s scandals (including the latest), it still managed to squeeze $554.6 million out of federal, state, and local governments. Instead of putting the financial hurt on the group for its possible criminal activities, politicians rewarded it. And judging by its $77 million profit, the organization hardly needed the money!

Although the group’s overall services dramatically dropped, there is one area that never slows down for Planned Parenthood: political activism. Thanks to taxpayers’ reluctant contributions, Richards was able to free up millions to influence public policy. In the last three election cycles, Planned Parenthood’s political arms sank $38 million into electing candidates who will multiply their financial investment and send it back once they’re elected. Although the money comes from different accounts, it’s the same abortion cartel. Meanwhile, talk about a great investment! Richards only has to funnel $13 million a year into liberal campaigns for a $550 million return in taxpayer funds!

If there is a silver lining, it’s that the timing of the report couldn’t be worse for Richards. Like us, she knows the 35-page document will only fuel the GOP’s determination to pull the plug on Planned Parenthood. “This sham organization’s focus is increasingly on higher abortion numbers and higher profits,” FRC’s Arina Grossu argued. “Why are we continuing to hand over half a billion dollars in taxpayer money to an organization that kills America’s unborn children at record rates while lining their pockets with more than $77 million in profit? The time to defund Planned Parenthood is now. It’s time to redirect the funds to community health centers that provide comprehensive and holistic care to women and children.”

That’s exactly what Republicans are trying to do in the latest version of the American Health Care Act. Under the House plan, Richards’s group would stand to lose a huge slice of its Medicaid funding (80 percent) — which happens to be one of the bill’s biggest selling points. In polling just released by Kaiser Family Foundation, the provision gutting Planned Parenthood’s annual haul from taxpayers is the third most popular piece of the legislation among Republicans. Forty-five percent of GOP voters would be more likely to support the plan if it put Planned Parenthood on the financial chopping block. And that was before the Center for Medical Progress released its latest video exposing just how little the organization is actually doing for women. No doubt the push will be even more popular now that Americans are getting an honest look at the group's real services.

Originally published here.

All Hands on Tech for Privacy Debate

Texas is a long way from Silicon Valley — and even farther away on values. Unfortunately, Apple CEO Tim Cook is trying to close that gap with a team of tech giants whose sole purpose is to get the conservative state to cave on privacy. When the state’s legislative session ended, an important piece of business was still looming: a bill protecting gender-specific bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers. No thanks to House Speaker Joe Strauss, the measure was bottled up for weeks in committee, where it ultimately stalled and died.

But even as leaders head back to their home districts, hope is not lost. Governor Greg Abbott ® still has a few tricks up his sleeve — including the ability to call a special legislative session to force members to decide the issue. That’s a very real possibility now, our friends in Texas tell us. So real, in fact, that this group of tech companies is racing to oppose the idea. In a letter to Texas lawmakers, they warn the state against passing the popular Privacy Act. Of course, this isn’t the first rodeo for CEOs from Salesforce, Apple, IBM, Microsoft, Facebook, Hewlett-Packard, Dell Cisco, Amazon, Google, and others. Led by Cook, a mighty ally for the LGBT community, most of these same names tried to elbow their way into Indiana’s religious liberty debate.

Now, sensing the urgency from Texas conservatives, they’re back at it — demanding a policy their own offices won’t embrace. As usual, these 14 firms are calling on the state to do something they refuse to: fling open their doors to a genderless world that’s victimized people from Oregon to Massachusetts. But as usual, the Left never lets a double standard get in the way of their moral high horse. “As large employers in the state, we are gravely concerned that any such legislation would deeply tarnish Texas’s reputation as open and friendly to businesses and families. Our ability to attract, recruit, and retain top talent, encourage new business relocations, expansions, and investment, and maintain our economic competitiveness would all be negatively affected.”

Our view, they go on, “is grounded in values and our long-held commitment to diversity and inclusion.” That’s interesting, since it’s difficult to name a single company that has these same policies in their own headquarters. Instead, they want the government to do what they don’t have the nerve to. After all, no one wants to end up like Target — which is almost belly-up after the 1.5 million-person boycott sparked by their transgender restrooms and changing rooms. If Apple wants to put its employees at risk, that’s their business – just like it’s Governor Abbott’s to protect his state. Help him do just that by calling his office at 512-463-2000 and encouraging him to call a special session!

Originally published here.

Standing for Christ in Hungary

This past week, as Watchmen on the Wall was taking place in Washington, D.C., two of the FRC team headed over to Europe to encourage the church and participate in an event focused on one of our core pillars — the family. At this year’s World Congress of Families, held in Budapest, Hungary, our own Peter Sprigg and Travis Weber shared FRC’s vision and work with other attendees and networked with a number of Hungarian Christians. This year’s location was partially chosen because of the pro-family policies of the country’s current Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose government helped organize the World Congress in conjunction with an umbrella event titled the Budapest Family Summit. Mr. Orban himself spoke at a part of the Summit titled the Budapest Demographic Forum, at which he warned Europe about its declining birth and fertility rates which pose a major threat to its future.

While in Hungary, Peter and Travis had the great opportunity to connect with and speak to Faith Church, a large Pentecostal congregation headquartered in Budapest with satellite locations around Hungary and in surrounding countries. The church began in 1979 as founding Pastor Sandor Nemeth met with several fellow believers in a home. Persecuted by the Communist government throughout the 1980s, the church received assistance and encouragement from those outside the Iron Curtain, including pastors and Christians from the United States. Since the fall of Communism, the church has grown to more than 10,000 attendees at its weekly services in Budapest, and reaches over 60,000 throughout its network of churches and media. In addition, the Faith Church operates a TV station and radio programs, schools (including an accredited college named St. Paul Academy), social welfare programs, and publishes a weekly magazine. Faith Church strongly supports Israel (the church has hosted Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and Soviet Jewish dissident Natan Sharansky), and is engaged in ongoing efforts to combat anti-Semitism. Currently, the church has a replica of a boxcar that was used to deport Jews to concentration camps during the Holocaust, and it is taking the car around Hungary in an education and advocacy campaign against anti-Semitism. It was due to Pastor Sandor’s presence in Washington several years ago for an event supporting Israel that we at FRC originally connected with him. We are very thankful we did.

We are particularly encouraged that Faith Church remains strongly engaged in Hungarian society on the same social issues we at FRC work on here in the United States, including human sexuality, pornography, and religious freedom. One evening, Travis and Peter had a chance to address hundreds of students from the church’s St. Paul Academy on these topics, and after briefing the audience on their areas of work at FRC, they fielded questions for almost three hours! Afterwards they met with key church leaders and the school’s administrators. The next night, Pastor Sandor invited Travis and Peter back to address the church’s whole congregation, which filled the 10,000-person capacity former brick factory taken over by the church. Travis and Peter again spoke on FRC’s work, and encouraged and prayed for the church to be a blessing to Hungary. In addition to this service, which was recorded and broadcast, Travis and Peter recorded several radio interviews with the church’s radio station, and Travis was also able to have lunch with Pastor Sandor. We should all be encouraged to know that we have fellow laborers in Central Europe who are also working to transform their societies for Christ.

Faith Church has become a “spiritual hub” of Hungary and Central Europe. We need to strengthen and encourage these and other Hungarian believers, who can be a blessing not only to their own nation but to those surrounding it as well. Many of them appreciate their government’s pro-family direction, but they need strength to continue to witness Christ to their government and fellow countrymen and women for the good of their nation and of Europe. Like us, in addition to working against secular cultural forces, they have to contend with those like George Soros—who is of Hungarian ancestry and continues to push his destructive notions of sexuality through Gender Studies degrees at his Central European University in Budapest.

Thankfully, those at Faith Church see and understand the threats. They weren’t intimidated by Communism, and they won’t be intimidated by today’s aggressive liberal progressivism. In that way, we (who have not faced Communism but now face the same aggressive liberalism here in the United States) can learn from their strong stand. Nevertheless, they still need our prayers as they “stand in the gap” for Hungary and for Europe.

Originally published here.

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