Abortion Safe & Legal - Today, Tomorrow, Forever

Owens Strips Planned Parenthood of Funds

In 1999 Governor Bill Owens used his “light bulb theory” to re-define the intent of Colorado voters, forcing Planned Parenthood (PP) to split their contraceptive and abortion services into two separate corporations, despite state audit after state audit that found them in complete compliance with the voter mandate that says no taxpayer money can be used to pay directly or indirectly for the performance of an abortion.

Colorado voters’ intended there be no funneling of taxpayer money from Planned Parenthood’s family planning clinics into their abortion clinics, which all previous state audits have concluded, and last year’s “independent” audit concluded – has never and isn’t now occurring. In 1999, Jane Norton, State Health Dept. Director, explained Owens’ “light bulb theory” to me. It goes like this: if state family planning funds – spent only for family planning – and this recent audit agrees it clearly is – frees up private funds donated to PP that gives the

Services Corp. (the abortion corporation) a benefit – that benefit being a lease payment under market value consistent with established practices that follow the law – (a consistency confirmed by this recent audit) and I might add, a benefit that all other non-profits PP leases to receives – then the performance of an abortion has indirectly been paid for. In a December 7, 2001 letter to the editor in the Colorado Statesman Newspaper, a weekly political newspaper, Representative Dave Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, put it this way, “According to standard accounting practice, rent below the market rate constitutes a subsidy. Since PP’s abortion-providing arm is receiving this subsidy from an organization that receives state funds, this constitutes an indirect subsidy of abortion.” This anti-abortion extremist “light bulb” theory insults our intelligence. It’s extremism at its most dangerous because it deliberately subverts the will of the people as a means to a political end.

 On December 14 Governor Owens stripped PP of their family planning funds after using his “light bulb theory” to interpret a conclusion made by the accounting firm of Anderson and Whitney of Greeley. Anderson and Whitney were paid over $7,000 of taxpayer money because, according to Cynthia Honssinger, director of legal affairs for state health, they just couldn’t wait for the state auditor to do it. Alan Holmberg of Anderson and Whitney said “paying less than fair market value doesn’t demonstrate the independence of the affiliates and could be viewed as providing an indirect benefit to Services Corp.” It’s curious that Holmberg would use the word “indirect.” Demonstration of the independence of the affiliates that voters demanded has to do with whether the benefit the Services Corp. gets, flows from the funneling of taxpayer money. It doesn’t. Holmberg’s statement and his firm’s audit prove that. Holmberg’s use of the word indirect is meant to insinuate that its meaning in his statement is synonymous with the meaning Colorado voters intended and that’s false. But why? Perhaps, because without some allegedly incriminating statement from this so-called “independent” accounting firm, a statement Owens couldn’t be sure he’d get from the state auditor’s office, Owens knew hi didn’t dare accuse Planned Parenthood of non-compliance and he desperately needed political cover in the 2002 elections for de-funding Planned Parenthood.

All three major Colorado newspapers, noted Schultheis, in a January 25, 2002 letter to the editor in the Colorado Statesman Newspaper, agreed with him and Governor Owens that PP was in violation of the Colorado Constitution. But it’s clear those newspapers got it wrong.

The Denver Post said “The auditors concluded PP was renting facilities to abortion providers at below market rates, clearly violating the ban on indirect subsidies.” But voters didn’t ban indirect subsidies resulting from the use of private funds PP raises, in this case, rent payments at below market value. It’s important to note that a 1999 poll said 84% of Colorado voters, 72% of self-identified “pro-life” voters, supported PP’s receiving tax dollars for family planning services.

LLW has pointed out that taxpayer dollars indirectly paying for the performance of an abortion occurs only if taxpayer dollars allocated for family planning are funneled into the abortion corporation. Schultheis didn’t refute that the independence of the affiliates that voters demanded is about the funneling of taxpayer dollars, nor does he take issue with Anderson and Whitney’s findings that such funneling of taxpayer money isn’t occurring. So in truth, the standard accounting practice Schultheis claims proves PP isn’t in compliance, in fact demonstrates a lawful indirect subsidy/benefit flowing from private PP funds, thereby establishing PP’s compliance with the voter’s mandate, also fact Schultheis can’t refute.

 However, the Cortez Journal wasn’t fooled saying, about Owens’ light bulb theory, 12/27/01, “…the argument that any funding provided for other aspects of the agency’s mission frees up money for abortion is over-simplified and misguided.”

Moreover, what will happen to all the thousands of women PP served is still unclear. In a January 22 AP story Governor Bill Owens’ spokesman said the State Health Department had filled the void left by Planned Parenthood (PP), but that wasn’t true. Montezuma County decided on Jan. 14th to reject an offer of $20,000 from the state to provide low-cost family-planning services, saying the county wasn’t equipped to offer those services. Remember, PP warned about this consequence. It results from a shortage of health care providers in rural Colorado; something Owens himself acknowledges is problematic in an AP story on Jan. 13th and reluctance by providers to accept the per-patient reimbursement amount. Schultheis called our concern hysteria, and said we’re over-reacting. I don’t believe Rep. Mark Larson, R-Cortez and the low-income women in his district would agree with that.

Finally, in February, Rep. Larson placed a crucial question before the State Health Department during a JBC (Joint Budget Committee) meeting in which they were reporting to the committee how they planned to cover the women they’d left out in the cold, and that question? How could the State Health Department demand Planned Parenthood sign a contract agreeing to charge the abortion corporation “fair market value” rent when that action would have implications for their C-3 status, as even this so-called “independent” audit did note saying, “It may be that paying fair market value could have implications for property tax exemption and unrelated business income taxes.” I’ve spoken to Representative Larson. He’s so very concerned about this unfair and unethical if not illegal act by Governor Owens’ State Health Department that he has told LLW that he has every intention of getting an answer, and for the LLW thanks him on behalf of all the women this decision will adversely affect. (When Rep. Larson’s question is answered we’ll post it on our web page WHAT’S NEW)

 Governor Bill Owens has made a decision that, is ethically challenged if not legally and a decision that will increase, in his state, the number of abortions and deaths from cervical and breast cancer. Owens is up for re-election, facing a huge political debt to the Christian Coalition and his extreme anti-abortion right wing base, a slowing economy, shrinking revenues. He’s a politician, who’s betting that by next November voters will have forgotten how he hijacked, not upheld their mandate, with his “light bulb theory” and forgotten his abandonment of thousands of low-income Colorado women.

(See our web site: “They Said…We Say…” click on Colorado Statesman to read the discussion LLW engaged in with the Christian Coalition and Rep. Schulthesis.)

Governor Bill Owens’ upper-class income combined with his ability to access medical insurance, assures that his wife and daughter can access necessary and life saving medical treatment at will, including access to cancer screening pap smears, mammograms and birth control services, something that now thousands of low-income rural Colorado women will not have thanks to the political debt Owens paid to the Christian Coalition and his anti-abortion extremist base and thanks to his selfish political ambitions. WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? THINK ABOUT IT!!!

 What Say You Governor Owens?

Last but not least in the fiasco of de-funding Planned Parenthood, is a case of what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Touting this decision to de-fund PP as one that exemplifies an adherence to the spirit and letter of the law, Governor Owens’ own State Health Department hasn’t lived up to that standard themselves. On February 25, 2002, Life and Liberty for Women wrote a letter to the Governor requesting timely action on our allegation that his State Health Department, specifically, director of the department’s Office of Legal and Regulatory Affairs, Cynthia Honssinger, violated the spirit and letter of Colorado law.

Dear Governor Owens,

On December 19, 2001, I faxed a Colorado Open Records Act request to Ms. Honssinger, requesting a copy of the follow-up document that came to the State Health Department from Anderson and Whitney that allegedly clarified the legal basis to deny Planned Parenthood state family planning funds. In response, Ms. Honssinger faxed me a copy of her letter to Anderson and Whitney dated October 23, 2001 in which she makes that request of Anderson and Whitney. Ms. Honssinger also sent me page one of the “Property & Services Agreement between Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, Incl. and Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains Services Corporation,” dated September 1, 1999.

On February 1, 2002 I faxed a Colorado Open Records Act request to Ms. Jane Norton, telling her I had received page one of Planned Parenthood’s lease agreement between their corporations and now I would like to view the remainder of the contract. On February 7, 2002 I received a letter from Ms. Honssinger by fax. In response to my request, Ms. Honssinger said “Pursuant to 24-103-401(2), C.R.S., of the state’s Procurement Rules, ‘Information furnished by a bidder or offeror pursuant to this section shall not be disclosed outside of the Department of Personnel or the purchasing agency without prior written consent by the bidder or offeror.’ Anderson and Whitney, P.C., referred to the Property and Services Agreement as part of its independent agreed-upon procedures review; however, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains had to grant its explicit permission before Anderson and Whitney representatives could see the document. Therefore the department cannot release the Property and Services Agreement.”

Upon reading this startling letter, I phoned Ms. Honssinger. I told her I had page one and asked exactly why it was I couldn’t have the remaining pages. She said that in hindsight she probably shouldn’t have given me page one and in hindsight wouldn’t do it again.

I asked her if this violation of Colorado law was problematic for her department and your administration since both had made Planned Parenthood’s alleged non-compliance with the Constitution about the spirit and letter of the law? She said, most nonchalantly, “Oh no, I can justify it.” She said she could justify it because it was a part of what Anderson and Whitney had sent her in response to her October 23 letter.

However, sending me a copy of even one page of Planned Parenthood’s lease agreement between their two corporations without getting Planned Parenthood’s “explicit permission,” was a blatant and willful violation of Colorado law. The fact is, if Ms. Honssinger is allowed to “justify” the release of one page of that agreement, she can “justify” the release of the entire agreement, leaving Life and Liberty for Women to wonder whom else she’s illegally released page one or the entire document to.

Governor Owens, there is no justification or excuse for this violation of the spirit and letter of Colorado law. You sir may not claim to apply this standard to Planned Parenthood but not to your own administration or your own state Health Department.

Governor Owens, you are responsible for the actions of those who serve in your administration, namely Ms. Cynthia Honssinger and Ms. Jane Norton, who are in turn responsible for the State Health Department’s adherence to the letter and sprit of the law that governs that department; therefore Governor Owens, Life and Liberty for Women and our constituency would like to know what you will do about this willful violation of both the spirit and letter of Colorado law? Life and Liberty for Women would appreciate a timely response.

Sincerely,

Peggy Loonan, Executive Director, Life and Liberty for Women

Governor Owens’ Response?

We will never know what, if anything, will be done about Ms. Honssinger’s violating Colorado Statutes. The Governor has classified that as a personnel issue and citizens of Colorado aren’t privy to that information. Additionally, the Governor’s office has no further comment to make about this allegation.

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Protests

Look for Life and Liberty for Women’s educational booth at:
Denver’s People’s Fair
Saturday and Sunday, June 1st and 2nd
in Denver’s Civic Center across from the Capitol Building

Loveland’s Fourth of July Festival
Thursday July 4th
at North Lake Park (29th & Taft Ave.)
Fort Collins New West Fest
Saturday and Sunday, August 17th and 18th

 Deceptive Crisis Pregnancy Center Takes Message to Public Schools
How one parent exposed them and the school district stopped their deception

There are approximately 45 anti-abortion so-called crisis pregnancy centers in Colorado and according to the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) in April of 2000; there were more than 3,200 of these centers nationwide. According to the anti-abortion organization Family Research Council they outnumber abortion providers by a 4 to 3 margin. We know these so-called crisis pregnancy centers are fundamentally Christian based, don’t believe in abortion and their primary goal is to stop as many women as possible from having an abortion, which of course means they have to get women into their centers who are considering an abortion but don’t know they are anti-abortion and anti-birth control. These centers won’t refer a woman, even if asked, to not only an abortion provider in the community but to a doctor for birth control. It’s only been in the last few years that they’ve been required to advertise in the phone book under the title “Abortion Alternatives,” because of their deceptive advertising practices that mislead women, including calling their center by names that don’t sound like an anti-abortion organization like, Woman’s Resource Center “because it has a much higher appeal among abortion rights women…” says the anti-abortion organization Family Research Council. You can view a list of so-called crisis pregnancy centers in your state by going to the web site, www.pregnancycenters.org.

In Fort Collins, Colorado this so-called crisis pregnancy center is called Alpha Center for Women. They have offices in Fort Collins and one on the Colorado State University Campus in Fort Collins. Their name would never indicate that they are anti-abortion. I’ve known about them since I came to Fort Collins but it wasn’t until the fall of 2000 that I discovered they’d been bringing their inaccurate false information and deception into our public school system.

In October 2000 they were invited into my oldest daughter’s ninth grade health class to do a three-day abstinence education presentation. I let the teacher know I would be observing their entire presentation (I was the only parent there) and I was concerned about many things including their abstinence till marriage message. The teacher told the Alpha Center they needed to speak to our children in terms of abstinence until they were in a committed adult relationship.

The Alpha Center presenters placed their name and number on the board and told our children they were a 24-hour crisis pregnancy center, with free pregnancy testing and support groups for teens and could provide help if they kept their baby, but they never disclosed they were a Christian anti-abortion organization. Their presentation troubled me because I wasn’t sure of all the facts they were presenting to our children. On day two, a nurse affiliated with the Alpha Center claimed she was quoting the CDC in one instance when discussing STDS and I’ve since found out she lied.

A recent letter to the editor of the Fort Collins Coloradoan said, “Does {Loonan} think the Alpha Center makes up these statistics and facts?” I replied in a letter of response, “Yes, I do.” Bruce Mirken, Colorado Springs Independent Newspaper, August 16, 2001 discussing abstinence-only education programs said, “Sometimes the information is flat wrong…the curriculum, Choosing the Best, warns kids about syphilis, stating that over 100,000 new cases {are} reported each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) when in fact according to the CDC’s STD Surveillance, only 6,657 cases of primary and secondary syphilis were reported in 1999.” Alpha Center’s 2000 presentation to my daughter’s ninth grade class, quoted the CDC saying, “there are 101,000 cases annually of syphilis.” I wish now that I had taken my concerns to the principal, the district, and my school board representative before they got the opportunity to speak in another one of my daughter’s classes but I didn’t.
In October 2001 the Alpha Center was asked to make a one-day presentation in my daughter’s tenth grade health class. I also was the only parent sitting in on that presentation. This time their presentation was a little different. A volunteer gave the entire presentation and quoted no statistics or studies about anything she laid out there as fact. She also placed her name and Alpha Center’s number on the board letting our children know that they were a resource for them if they ever faced an unintended pregnancy. I was again extremely troubled by that because never in that presentation did they disclose to our children they were Christian based, anti-abortion and anti-birth control.

But that wasn’t all that troubled me. The presenter said, “Condoms aren’t meant to protect you from HIV, just from pregnancy.” I was outraged. She also said, without any proof, that 50% of students in one of our junior highs were having oral sex. If you engage in premarital sex you WILL have difficulties in bonding in the future, and you WILL have a higher chance of experiencing adultery and divorce.

At the end of the presentation, I asked the question that the Alpha Center never wanted to answer. I asked them to confirm they were a Christian based organization that wouldn’t refer a woman to an abortion provider or a doctor for birth control even if asked. They stammered, couldn’t deny it but were very reluctant to admit to it.

After the presentation I went straight to the principal of my daughter’s high school and expressed my concerns. He listened intently, understood and seemed as troubled by the inaccuracies and the failure to disclose the kind of organization they were as I was. I went home and contacted my school board representative who was outraged as well and began to call the proper district officials. Within a few weeks, the district had begun to investigate this organization and sit in on their presentations. They were troubled by what they heard too and they were troubled by the lack of disclosure. The district hadn’t taken a look at and updated their health and sexuality curriculum in a very long time including the approved list of appropriate outside organizations that can be asked to speak in our classrooms. Many teachers and district personnel had no idea exactly who the Alpha Center was, they were that good at not disclosing even to teachers exactly who they were.

In the long term, Poudre School District officials have now begun the process of updating their curriculum that will be ready for next school year. In the short term they’ve set some guidelines if the alpha Center is to present in our classrooms. Alpha Center must present an outline of their presentation that can be given to parents. The Alpha Center expressed reluctance to do that saying they’re afraid some parents may then opt their children out of the presentation. It would seem that the parental rights sword has a double edge.
The district also said they must disclose what kind of organization they are to our children. The Alpha Center is also reluctant to do that. In fact in a letter to the editor in the local newspaper the executive director defending the center’s strategy not to disclose the truth about their organization to our children said, “{That} isn’t what abstinence programs are about.” But that is deliberately being deceptive because she knows perfectly well that her center presents themselves as a place our children can go if faced with an unintended pregnancy. That demands they disclose tour children they’re Christian based, opposed to abortion and wouldn’t refer a woman to an abortion provider or to a doctor to obtain birth control. So what is up with the Alpha Center’s reluctance to disclose exactly who they are?
It’s about getting unsuspecting abortion-minded women (a term used by a resource magazine for crisis pregnancy centers) into their center, including teens who come without parental knowledge or consent, so they can preach Christianity and guilt them into not having an abortion. The Alpha Center, as all other so-called crisis pregnancy centers, exists first and foremost to prevent as many women as possible from having an abortion. Alpha Center knows abortion-minded women aware of their opposition to abortion wouldn’t

likely contact them, so Alpha Center resorts to deception. Abstinence-only education gets them into the classroom where the deliberately choose not to disclose to our children the truth about their organization.

The so-called crisis pregnancy center Alpha Center will no longer be able to operate within the Poudre School District, in Fort Collins, Colorado under the radar, setting their deceptive sights upon our children. They will have to come clean about who they are and about the facts. It took only one courageous determined parent to bring to a halt their deceptive practices within our school district, their preying upon our children, their placing at risk our children’s lives. It also took a school board and school district willing to do the right and moral thing for the sake of our children. We are lucky in this district. I am aware that others across the country aren’t so lucky.

If you don’t know whether the local so-called crisis pregnancy center in your area is making deceptive presentations in your school district – find out, for the sake of all our children. Listen to their presentations at different grade levels, noting exactly what they say and whether they make full disclosure about what kind of organization they are and then take your documented concerns to your principal and school board representative. If they aren’t responsive to you – write letters to the editor and contact Life and Liberty for Women. We will help you.

Peggy Loonan, parent

(To view the letters to the editor on this and our responses go to our web site: www.lifeandlibertyforwomen.org and click on “THEY SAID…WE SAY…” then click on Fort Collins Coloradoan or So-called Crisis Pregnancy Centers and click on “Abstinence Information Needed – They Said…”)

Life and Liberty for Women Protests
October 2001 “Halloween Hell House Protest”

In October 2001 Life and Liberty for Women led a protest at what has been commonly called in Colorado “The Halloween Hell House.” It is a “haunted house” of sorts that graphically depicts the “sin” of being gay and the “sin” of abortion among others. Life and Liberty for Women were at the “Abundant Life Christian Center” at 7100 Wadsworth Blvd. in Arvada Colorado, a western suburb of Denver for 13 days and what an experience it was!! Board member Julie Maslowski and founder and executive director, Peggy Loonan was out on the first night, Friday October 12, with a young local high school student. They were immediately approached by two older male teens from the church. These male teens proceeded to hold a couple of Peggy and Julie’s signs and pictures for them while they “preached” at Peggy and Julie and tried to engage them.

This was a SILENT PROTEST and after exchanging a few niceties, Peggy and Julie declined to engage them. At one point they stood in front of Peggy and Julie’s signs but stopped when they were asked to. While Peggy and the young teen woman chatted, one of the teen boys stood as close as one can without being intimate and held one of his graphic brochures in front of Peggy and the young teen girl.

On Friday, October 19, many other volunteers joined Peggy and Julie and this night those two teenage boys returned along with some others from the church. These teenage boys were allowed and or sent by parents and the church leadership to harass and attempt to engage in conversation Life and Liberty for Women’s volunteers. These teens stepped in front of one sign until they were standing in a lane of traffic on Wadsworth Blvd., a six-lane highway. When police arrived they said they couldn’t tell us or the teens where to stand and if the teens were injured that was their choice. UNBELIEVABLE!! Peggy wrote a letter to the editor to the local Arvada Sentinel

Newspaper (see Web page: “They Said…We Say…) criticizing parents and the church for allowing minors out there unsupervised. The danger they placed themselves in and Life and Liberty for Women’s volunteers was inexcusable from those who champion “parental rights” and parental consent for abortion, don’t you think? They believe that every conceived child must be born and then they send them out alone to harass abortion rights supporters, GO FIGURE!!
On Friday October 26, a drunk 60’s biker who proceeded to walk over our signs that were lying on the ground approached Peggy and several volunteers this evening. He was vulgar and threatening. Life and Liberty for Women’s volunteers began to videotape the man while Peggy called police but the man retreated into the church before police arrived. When the police arrived so did some individuals from the local press. That brought out individuals from the church, several dressed as the devil – they were the tour guides for the “haunted house.” They changed and got in front of Life and Liberty for Women’s video camera until police asked them to disperse.

An hour or so later, this 200lb biker returned with a 300lb friend and once again began harassing and threatening Life and Liberty for Women volunteers. Though called again, police never responded a second time. Instead, Peggy stepped between this man and her volunteers, while his buddy looked on and Peggy and the volunteers tried to calm him down. Eventually they were able to calm this somewhat drunk intruder down and he left. The protest was a great success and many Life and Liberty for Women volunteers turned out! Other organizations also joined Life and Liberty for Women, including CSU NARAL and Freethought of Colorado.

Life and Liberty for Women wishes to say THANKS to all the volunteers who participated!

 Life and Liberty for Women Staff

Board of Directors
Annmarie Izuel Evans
Julie Maslowski

Volunteer Staff
Peggy Loonan
– Founder and Executive Director

“PEGGY GO HOME”
Those works were on a sign that was displayed on Tuesday April 23 outside the Lory Student Center on the Colorado State University Campus by a local anti-abortion group very familiar with me and Life and Liberty for Women. The week of April 22 saw the anti-abortion extremist group “Justice for All: Students for Bio-Ethical Equality” from Wichita Kansas, set up their 18 feet high steel colored graphic pictures of alleged aborted fetuses on the Lory Student Center Plaza.

Life and Liberty for Women found out the previous Thursday when Jessie Danielson at Colorado NARAL called and informed us they had received an anonymous tip about their arrival. We, as was NARAL, were unaware they were coming. Life and Liberty for Women worked hard over the weekend to put together our display in response. While we don’t have the hundreds of thousands of dollars they do, we constructed a much smaller but as it turned out, equally as powerful graphic display about the sights of illegal abortion. We had an extraordinary amount of facts displayed on our boards about the truth about the safety of legal abortion, the alleged link between breast cancer and abortion, the deceptive nature of their pictures, God the Bible and abortion, (see our web site first ISSUE article) second and third trimester abortions, adoption as a viable option but one not without potentially harmful consequences, and how considering quality of life issues for the potential life they carry are not “frivolous” reasons for women to terminate pre-viable human life.

Scores of people thanked us everyday and expressed their gratefulness that we were there with our graphic presentation and information in response and most importantly, while the anti-abortion presentation was considered sensationalism at its worst presented only for the shock value, our presentation, though graphic, was considered educational by all who observed it. While I would have liked our presentation to have been a little bigger and certainly on material that wouldn’t blow down in the wind, it was apparent from the amount of information we

had on our boards and available for people to take, our purpose was not about shock value or sensationalism but rather it was about education.
Anti-abortion persons visiting from Focus on the Family and a Christian school in Denver and even those working for Justice for All, came over to view our presentation. Most telling? These individuals came back several times during the day to read, re-read and even write down what was on our display boards. They were taken aback by the information about illegal abortion and the graphic pictures of illegal abortion which few, if any, had ever seen. They were livid about some of the information they were reading particularly about God Bible and abortion and the stories and statistics about illegal abortion. They debated me and became even more frustrated.

Life and Liberty for Women has long thought that standing up for abortion rights in this manner not only stuns anti-abortion extremists and gives them something to think about, but it is welcomed by abortion rights supporters hungry for a braver more aggressive response and defense of a woman’s right to make a decision about abortion based on her own set of religious and moral values.

While our resources were limited there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that our week on the CSU campus going toe to toe with anti-abortion extremists and their propaganda was most successful. There’s no doubt it was frustrating and irritating to anti-abortion extremists who had not anticipated such a riveting bold challenge to their presentation using their own successful tactics. There’s no doubt that our response was educational, reassuring, exhilarating, and motivating for our supporters! Their comments about that were unequivocal! Hundreds of young post-Roe individuals saw for the first time exactly what it is they don’t want to go back to and for the first time they could immediately compare and contrast that information with the displays of alleged aborted fetuses and anti-abortion propaganda. IT WAS POWERFUL!

 “Oh yes, say it is so!!!”
California orders HMOs to cover ‘morning-after’ pill

Sacramento, CALIFORNIA (CNN) – California Gov. Gray Davis on Wednesday ordered California health maintenance organizations to cover emergency “morning-after” contraception for women, saying it strengthens women’s family planning rights. “A woman’s right to choose must never be held up by red tape,” Davis said in announcing the move.

Davis said he was instructing the state’s HMO regulator, the Department of Managed Health Care, to inform all HMOs in the state about the new directive. The order requires HMOs to cover the costs for emergency contraception through participating pharmacists that don’t have a contract with the woman’s HMO. In 1999, Davis signed a law requiring HMOs to cover FDA-approved contraceptive measures. Last year, he signed a law allowing pharmacists to provide emergency contraception. A statement from Davis’ office said many California HMOs are already providing reimbursement for emergency contraception.

Morning-after contraception is not the same as RU-486, the French-developed “abortion pill,” which offers women a medical abortion without the need for surgery. Emergency contraception prevents a fertilized egg from implanting itself into the uterine wall in the first place, and will not interrupt or harm an already established pregnancy.

There are two types of emergency contraception pills, both of which must be taken within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse to be effective. The pills are more effective the earlier they are taken within that period, according to health experts.

The first type, Preven, is packaged especially for emergency-contraceptive use. It contains both estrogen and progestin and reduces the chance of pregnancy by 75 percent. The second type, called Plan B, is progestin-only and has been on the market since July of 1999. It is more effective than Preven and has fewer side effects associated with it.

Davis' announcement comes as the November governor's race has started to heat up. Davis, a Democrat, is battling Republican businessman Bill Simon, who opposes abortion.

Simon spokesman Jeff Flint said the governor's decision was an "issue dealing with contraception, not abortion." But he added that Simon's health care plan, which is to be unveiled next week, would "transcend issues of whether the government needs to be mandating particular" health benefits.

"The governor is trying to provide and enhance benefits to people, but we believe it's a piecemeal approach," Flint said.

 He added, "It's another example of the governor desperately trying to show he has done something, because on the issues of energy, the budget, the economy and education he's done nothing."

Abortion rights groups hailed the new law as a step forward in women's health. "Women are getting their health needs met," said Beth Cope, executive director of the Georgia chapter of the National Abortion Rights Action League, which is working to get emergency room access to emergency contraception for rape victims in Georgia.

But Troy Newman, a spokesman for the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, called the move a "crass attempt to garner the pro-abortion vote in the upcoming election."

On a wider level, Newman said the order shows the nation is "moving ever forward to a forced abortion policy." He said HMOs would gladly go along with the order because "it's always cheaper to kill the baby than it is to bring it to full term."

President Bush is doing his part to set the stage for THE legal battle to overturn Roe vs. Wade with his decision to allow states to extend health coverage under the Children’s Health Insurance Program to “unborn children” by broadening the definition of a “child” eligible for coverage to include a zygote, embryo and pre-viable fetus. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson denies this is about the politics of abortion saying, “how anybody can turn this into a pro-choice or pro-life argument, I can’t understand.” But Julie Bosman writing in the New Republic said, “Thompson didn’t make a very convincing idiot. It’s pretty obvious that the whole point…was to start an argument about abortion and to score some points with the political right.”

Thompson says this rule change is “about helping poor mothers be able to take care of their unborn children,” But acknowledges that states can already cover pregnant women under their CHIIP programs by getting a waiver from the federal government to existing rules, New Jersey and Rhode Island having already done so. Thompson has even shortened the time it takes his department to approve state applications. Bosman says, “If Bush were simply interested in giving more low-income women prenatal care, he could’ve expanded the program’s eligibility to pregnant women without ever mentioning the rights of a fetus.” Clearly, this move wasn’t needed to ensure the health of poor women and their fetuses.

Some, Bosman included, while acknowledging the obvious motivations of Bush and the dishonest disingenuous words of Thompson, nevertheless call it a minor change and no threat to legal abortion. But Life and Liberty for Women isn’t convinced. Anti-abortion extremists elected George W. Bush to make abortion illegal, its horrific consequences of no concern to them. While the success of a battle to overturn Roe is uncertain with many factors yet to be determined, THE battle before the Supreme Court itself is finally imminent because now, unlike never before, this president intends to pay his debt to the extremists who elected him. This president gave them John Ashcroft and Tommy Thompson, both anti-abortion extremists. Ashcroft would make abortion illegal even in the case of the life of the woman AND he would make all forms of birth control considered by anti-abortion extremists as causing an abortion, including the birth control pill, illegal. George W. Bush is giving anti-abortion extremists control of the means to make it possible, more than any other time in recent history, to overturn Roe vs. Wade, as this case clearly shows.

If a live pre-viable or post-viable human being in the womb is ever defined or even nearly defined, in any context, as legally a “person” who would then have all the same rights in law as a born woman, anti-abortion extremists will seize upon that cracked or open door. They will file suit in a lower court and move it up the ladder to the U.S. Supreme Court and then Roe vs. Wade will hinge upon the votes in that moment of the highest court in the nation. I also wouldn’t be surprised if at the same time anti-abortion majorities in Congress, emboldened by the crack in the door, began an all out legislative effort to widen the crack in the door or permanently keep it from closing again. And if they have a majority in the House and Senate, the law would pass and it too would beat a path to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Finally, it must be noted that bearing some responsibility and blame for this latest and most blatant threat posturing to overturn Roe, are current abortion rights organizations and supporters. Complacency and the benign seemingly non-confrontational language of “choice” vs. RIGHTS have led us here. Embracing the term “choice” while anti-abortion extremists marginalized and killed abortion providers, while they displayed
pictures of alleged aborted fetuses on every street corner in America, pictures that deliberately and strategically leaves the woman out, and which has been left unchallenged by the horrific sights and sounds of illegal abortion, has created shame about abortion where none is called for. It left post-Roe generations without an understanding or appreciation of exactly what it is they don’t want to go back to.

Abortion Rights supporters must be honest and precise with their terminology about what abortion is and not shy away from the A-word, something very difficult to do when abortion is defined in a passive term like “choice” instead of a powerful term like RIGHTS. Destruction of pre-viable human life isn’t wrong or immoral precisely because while a zygote, embryo, and pre-viable fetus is a human being and is alive in the womb; they’ve absolutely no right to life over a born woman. Period. And God agrees. (see our web site – ISSUES – first Article) Restriction of post-viable abortion, except when a born woman’s health or life is at risk, is rightly recognized by Roe vs. Wade. Think of where we wouldn’t be now, if this had been about RIGHTS all along.

Moral Statement on Abortion Rights

Women have a right to life and liberty. Roe vs. Wade correctly and morally balances the right to life and liberty of the woman and fetus. Potential life is entitled to quality of life.

Abortion is the right and moral option for a woman who determines that she cannot provide for or parent her child, or that she cannot give her child up for adoption.

Life and Liberty for Women Will Perform
our Reader’s Theatre Drama “Abortion’s Silenced Legacy”

Our drama portrays illegal abortion… We will perform our drama anytime, anyplace! “Abortion’s Silenced Legacy” shows post-Roe generations the graphic sights and sounds of illegal abortion. When you see this drama you will know exactly what it is you don’t want to go back to!! This emotional performance will inspire you!!

For more information call (970) 217-7577 or email: peggy@lifeandlibertyforwomen.org

 Mark Your Calendar
Life and Liberty for Women Invites you to join us for:

2002 to 2003 Halloween Hell House Protests
at The Abundant Life Christian Center
7100 Wadsworth Boulevard, Arvada, CO
6:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Tentative Dates (we will email postcards confirming exact dates)
Saturday, October 19, 2002
Saturday, October 26, 2002

Anti-abortion Roe vs. Wade Anniversary Event 2003
Location: Denver (exact location TBA)
Time: TBA (likely early afternoon)
Date: Likely to be Saturday, January 18, 2003 but will confirm closer to the date
To sign up to be part of our protests
go to our website: www.lifeandlibertyforwomen.org - click protests
or email us at peggy@lifeandlibertyforwomen.org
or call us at (970) 217-7577

Wow! Check out the Updates on our Web Page
Illegal Abortion Drama

See pictures from our October 2001 performance at the Mercury Café in Denver and read script excerpts.

Also… new “Letters to the Editor” have been added as we continue our in-your-face challenge to anti-abortion extremists.

Life and Liberty for Women is Teaming with Walter S. Rosenberry, III

A long time Colorado resident, supporter of women’s rights and abortion rights and now a newly found friend and avid supporter of Life and Liberty for Women to raise the thousands of dollars needed for our next very ambitious project: TV ADS!!

Walter Rosenberry has agreed to match every dollar we raise – up to a total of $5,000.00!!

Imagine the ad and pictures below appearing on local Denver, Fort Collins, and Loveland Cable TV in the fall just in time for the critical November elections! Imagine this ad playing on local cable during FOX’s Bill O’Reilly show, Lifetime, and MTV!

“On January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court legalized abortion in this country. Most women died before Roe vs. Wade died from self-induced abortion. Desperate determined women tried one method after another, maiming and killing themselves in an effort not to have a child they weren’t prepared to parent or give away for adoption.

Illegal abortion killed his wife, killed their mother – and did not save a baby.

There’s a better way

Safe and legal abortion services for women who make that decision. Abstinence based age appropriate comprehensive sex education, more birth control research, more men correctly and consistently using condoms and better birth control availability, including insurance coverage of contraceptives and better availability of low-income women – something Colorado Governor Bill Owens denied thousands of rural low-income women when he stripped Planned Parenthood of their state family planning funds last December to fulfill a campaign promise to the Christian Coalition. Now the Governor and his state health department’s legal authority to de-fund Planned Parenthood has been disputed by Colorado’s state auditor.

Illegal Abortion – There’s a Better Way – Think About It

For more information about the history of illegal abortion and how you can help to keep abortion safe and legal, contact Life and Liberty for Women at (970) 217-7577 or visit their web site at www.lifeandlibertyforwomen.org. Life and Liberty for Women is a 501C3 non-profit organization.”

You Can Make This Ad a Reality!!

Over the last year, we at Life and Liberty for Women have become very familiar with Walter and his great commitment to safe and legal abortion – a commitment we applaud and thank him for!

Now Walter and Life and Liberty for Women wants to challenge you to display the same great commitment to maintaining safe and legal abortion services for every woman in this country.

Please

Make your most generous to-date tax-deductible contribution to Life and Liberty for Women and not only can you reap the benefit of deducting it as a charitable contribution – but you have the satisfaction of knowing it was worth twice its value to the efforts of Life and Liberty for Women to aggressively defend Roe vs. Wade.

By putting the graphic reality of illegal abortion before post-Roe generations, we can convince them there’s a better way.
We can begin to reverse the shame women have been made to feel around abortion by anti-abortion propaganda, extremist baby-killing rhetoric, and pictures of alleged aborted fetuses. We can begin to reverse the shame women have been made to feel about their right to life and liberty and we can educate them about the truth about Roe vs. Wade, in particular how Roe correctly and morally balanced their right to life and liberty with that of the fetus. We can reverse their shame around their right to make a decision about abortion based on their own set of religious and moral values.

Please Help Us Do This by Participating in Walter Rosenberry’s Challenge Grant

Help us get the word out to post-Roe generations, many of whom have no idea what the sights of illegal abortion look like – and have no idea exactly what it is they don’t want to go back to. And wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall when anti-abortion extremists are confronted in their own homes by the sights of illegal abortion! Our recent experience with confronting them with this reality has proven to be worth the price of admission!

P.S. – If we raise $5,000 Walter matches with $5,000! So send your check today or get on our web site and donate by credit card from our secure site!! www.lifeandlibertyforwomen.org and click on Contact/Support.

P.P.S. – Pictures Courtesy of Sunshine Dempsey – CSU Student and Artist
Peggy Loonan, founder and executive director – Life and Liberty for Women

 Abortion Safe and Legal Today, Tomorrow, Forever

Life and Liberty for Women
Peggy Loonan
Former Colorado NARAL Board member
peggy@lifeandlibertyforwomen.org

PMB 213
1015-M S. Taft Hill Rd.
Fort Collins, CO 80521
(970) 217-7577
www.lifeandlibertyforwomen.org
“Oh No, Say It Ain’t So!!!”

Abortion foes fight procedure with breast cancer fears
By Stephanie Simon, Los Angeles Times

St. Louis – Billboards here warn, under the silhouette of a pregnant woman, that “abortion increases your risk for breast cancer.” Radio spots and newspaper ads push similar messages elsewhere in the country. A TV commercial even features a high school coach telling her girls’ volleyball team that she wished she had known all the risks before ending a pregnancy years ago.
This is the ferocious new front line in the abortion wars.

Anti-abortion activists from coast to coast are buying advertising, lobbying for legislation, even filing lawsuits in an all-out effort to publicize several hotly disputed studies that suggest having an abortion can raise some women’s risk of developing breast cancer by 50 percent or more.
The National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society said there is no conclusive evidence linking abortion and breast cancer. Their experts contend that the studies suggesting such a link are flawed.

“This issue has been resolved scientifically,” said Dr. Michael Thun, director of epidemiology research for the Cancer Society. “This is essentially a political debate.”

But anti-abortion forces refuse to concede on the science. Instead, they speak of a “conspiracy of silence” in the media and the medical community to hush any research that would raise doubts about the safety of abortion. They acknowledge that some studies have found no link between abortion and breast cancer. But they said the fact that two dozen studies worldwide – many of them published in respected, peer-reviewed journals – found at least a tenuous association is reason enough to inform women.

And now they are attempting to use the courts to go after abortion providers who try to reassure their patients that there’s nothing to the alleged breast cancer link.

“They are trying to chip away at abortion rights in any way they can,” said Janet Crepps, an attorney at the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy in New York.

The first trial on this issue is set to begin today in Fargo, N.D. Activists there are suing the Red River Women’s Clinic – the only abortion provider in North Dakota – over a brochure declaring that “none” of the claims about an abortion-cancer link “are supported by medical research.”
Under North Dakota law, any citizen can bring a “public interest” lawsuit to try to block false advertising.
The plaintiffs aren’t seeking monetary damages. Instead, they are demanding that the court require the clinic to warn its patients about the potential cancer risk.

Activists in San Diego filed a similar suit against a Planned Parenthood Clinic there, but a Superior Court judge last Tuesday dismissed the case. Judge Ronald Prager ruled the link between abortion and breast cancer hasn’t been proved. Requiring Planned Parenthood to provide the information, Prager said, “would, in effect, result in judicial intervention in the doctor/patient relationship.”
Taken from the Coloradoan, Monday, March 25, 2002

*Information provided here taken in part from The Center for Reproductive Law and Policy Newsletter, Sept. issue.
Copyright © 2002 Life and Liberty for Women All rights reserved.