“How to Lose the Majority in One Easy Step.” That’s the book Republicans could write if they listen to their pro-abortion fringe over the millions of voters who put them in charge. As usual, the GOP is trying to balance the wishes of 52 senators with very different priorities on health care. But there’s one piece of the Obamacare repeal that has never been up for debate — and that’s the defunding of Planned Parenthood.

Americans handed the keys to the Republican Party in November with the understanding that they’d finish the job they started in 2015: ending the forced partnership between taxpayers and America’s biggest abortion business. Now, with more than a dozen undercover videos of the group’s activities (most of which aren’t only callous, but lawless), there’s never been more urgency to cancel the half-billion-dollar check to the organization.

In the annual report just released by Cecile Richards’s group, Americans found out that Planned Parenthood wasn’t even living up to its own soundbites on services. Scandals aside (and there are plenty), cancer screenings are at a historic low at Planned Parenthood (down 16,974 cases in 2015-16 alone). They’ve seen 100,000 fewer patients, and clinics handed out 136,244 fewer of their go-to justification for funding: contraception. Add that to the dark world of organ harvesting and sales, the probable violations of the partial-birth abortion ban and Born-Alive Infant Protection Act, and the real question shouldn’t be if we’re going to fund Planned Parenthood — but why we ever have!

But, despite the hours of tape and reams of evidence from the House’s Select Investigative Panel, there are still two “Republican” senators willing to torpedo the entire health care overhaul in support of a group caught laughing about the decapitation of unborn babies. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) flew to Planned Parenthood’s defense, telling reporters that defunding Richards’s business (which is rolling in $77.5 million in profits) shouldn’t “even be part of the discussion about health care.” She’s right. This should have never been part of the discussion. After all, abortion isn’t health care, and that’s the only thing Planned Parenthood seems to provide to women consistently. Three hundred twenty-eight thousand a year to be exact.

But in a disturbing new development, both Fox News and Politico are reporting that more Republicans may be willing to “give” on the pro-life provisions to pass the health care bill. I agree with my friend Todd Starnes: “That would be the end of the Republican Party. Period. Exclamation point.” The only reason the American Health Care Act squeaked out of the House was because a number of conservatives thought gutting Planned Parenthood’s funding and ending taxpayer funding of abortion was important enough to override their other concerns. If that firewall is removed, the repeal will go down in flames. The strong support from pro-lifers in the House (and groups on the Hill) would vanish. Then what? The GOP would have failed once again to make good on their decade-old pledge to end Obamacare. And the American people wouldn’t nearly be as forgiving this time, because they’ll have had every tool at their disposal: control of Congress, the White House, and the backing of voters.

The GOP has promised for years to defund Planned Parenthood. It’s in the Republican Platform. Then-candidate and now-President Donald Trump is on the record. The House of Representatives voiced its support last month when it passed the replacement bill. And now two senators want to turn tail and run? Let them. But follow at your peril. The GOP’s second-in-command in the Senate, John Cornyn (R-TX), tried to reassure voters that leadership isn’t blinking. “We have a strong pro-life majority in the Senate, and so it’s going to be in there.”

Let’s hope these “anonymous sources” are the usual suspects: RINOs who are hoping that conservatives might be willing to compromise and go along with them. I’m pretty confident, based on my personal conversations with Senate leaders, that they understand what’s at stake. They have no desire to chart a path to the minority, which the failure to substantially repeal Obamacare would do. But at the end of the day, this isn’t just about a political party, or even the agenda of millions of voters. This about saving lives. And no one — including two senators in the wrong party — should be allowed to stand in life’s way.

Originally published here.

Kellogg’s Says Cheerio to Business

There’s no sugar-coating the intolerance at Kellogg’s! Like a lot of corporate bullies, the cereal company bowled over shoppers with its decision to pull ads from Breitbart.com because the outlet is supposedly too conservative for Kellogg’s taste. Now, six months into their liberal experiment, the economic picture isn’t exactly rosy.

The attempt at political correctness has been a soggy one, Breitbart points out, forcing the company to make some tough decisions about staff. Although the company was already planning to downsize, new reports show the damage to Kellogg’s brand is much worse that executives are letting on. In addition to closing 39 distribution centers, the company has shifted from letting go of “several thousand employees” to as many as 11,000 and counting. Reporters for the Philadelphia Inquirer did a little digging and think the job loss is a lot more expansive than the cereal giant wants to admit. “He figures those losing their jobs include at least 1,500 sales reps, plus several support workers and merchandisers for each rep, plus Teamsters truck drivers, loaders, and warehouse support personnel.”

More than a half-million shoppers boycotted the company after its spokesman, Kris Charles, said the conservative Breitbart and its 45 million readers “aren’t aligned with” the cereal giant’s “values as a company.” From there, the #DumpKelloggs movement was born. You’d think more CEOs would connect the dots after the spectacular collapse of Target’s stock when they threw open bathrooms to both genders — or the fierce blowback to radical executives at GrubHub, Pepsi, ESPN, and Penzey’s Spices. It shouldn’t be too difficult for America’s top retailers to realize that declaring war on the values of half of America is not a secret recipe for success. On the contrary, it’s been a revenue-killing disaster for the companies who’ve joined the public rant against the White House and conservatives in general.

The message is simple: Stay out of the culture wars or you’ll pay for it. These CEOs should stick to selling products — not politics. If CEOs want to use their profits to push the liberal agenda voters rejected, then they shouldn’t be surprised when consumers reject their products and send their dollars elsewhere.

Originally published here.

Leave It to Beaver to Censor Prayer

At Beaver High School in Pennsylvania, students can invite anyone they want to graduation — except God. Moriah Bridges found that out when she wanted to thank Him during her speech. “Lord, surround us with grace and favor everywhere we go,” she told Fox News’s Todd Starnes she wanted to pray. “Soften our hearts to teach us love and compassion, to show mercy and grace to others the way that you showed mercy and grace to us, even to the ultimate sacrifice. Help us love our brothers and our sisters deeply. Lead us to bless them.”

Moriah may have offered that prayer in her mind, but district officials barred her from speaking it at the ceremony on June 2. Principal Steven Wellendorf informed the teenager that she could still address her class, but that she could not do it “in a style of a prayer and most certainly may not recite a prayer that excludes other religions [by invoking Jesus’s name].” It should have been the happiest day of her life, she said to Todd. Instead it was the beginning of a legal battle she should have never had to fight.

With help from First Liberty Institute, Moriah hopes to teach her school a little something about the Constitution. “The last lesson this school district taught its students is that they should hide their religious beliefs from public view,” said attorney Jeremy Dys. “School officials, in violation of the First Amendment, forced Moriah to [silence] her personal remarks during the closing exercise of her commencement ceremony, merely because of the religious viewpoint of her remarks.” There comes a time when Christians need to stand up. And for Moriah, that time is now. See, praying in public is legal. It’s censoring speech that’s not. Thank goodness for young people who stand for what’s right when the adults around them won’t. In my book, “No Fear: Real Stories of a Courageous Generation Standing for Truth,” I introduce you to several of them. Consider giving a copy to a teenager you know. It just might inspire them to live out their faith with a boldness that changes their life — and others’!

Originally published here.

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