Planned Parenthood refuses to comply with a Missouri subpoena

Taxpayer-funded Planned Parenthood has proven again that it believes itself to be above the law by refusing to comply with a subpoena from Missouri lawmakers.

Republican state lawmakers launched an investigation into Planned Parenthood after The Center for Medical Progress exposed Planned Parenthood’s practice of illegally selling the body parts of aborted babies. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch…

A Missouri Planned Parenthood branch will not to comply with a subpoena to give abortion-related records to Republican state lawmakers, the women’s health group said Friday.

In a letter provided to the Associated Press and sent to Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard, who issued the subpoena, an attorney for Planned Parenthood questioned the Senate’s authority to subpoena private organizations and raised patient privacy and other concerns.

Republican Sen. Kurt Schaefer, who is running for Missouri attorney general in 2016, said he pushed for the subpoena to provide information to a committee he’s leading that is reviewing abortion practices in the state. He said Planned Parenthood is in contempt.

… Planned Parenthood’s letter to Richard said answering a request for documents of any incidents where an ambulance was called would violate a federal patient privacy law. It went on to say that there’s an “increased concern over the sensitivity of abortion-related records,” particularly after a November fatal shooting at a Colorado Planned Parenthood.

It’s interesting that Planned Parenthood would use patient privacy as an excuse, when The Dispatch goes on to say that Schaefer explicitly stated that the committee wasn’t asking for patient records, and any personally identifiable information could be blocked out from documents that were handed over to the Senate. Maybe the real issue is that Planned Parenthood doesn’t want to hand the records over to lawmakers because they’re afraid of what will be discovered – which is what Schaefer suspects.

Aside from the argument over the legality of handing over abortion-related records, there’s another interesting facet to this issue.

Planned Parenthood receives $1.5 million a day in taxpayer funding. They fight very, very hard to keep that funding, even though a majority of Americans support defunding Planned Parenthood and redirecting the money to real health care clinics. But they apparently believe that they deserve taxpayer funding without having to be held accountable to taxpayers or to the lawmakers taxpayers elect to represent them. How is it that Planned Parenthood can expect to take money from taxpayers, yet be exempt from any questioning whatsoever? Newsflash: that’s not how it works.

This is the organization that we’re dealing with. America, it is far beyond time to wake up and realize it. Planned Parenthood is an evil organization, and they believe that you owe them your hard-earned money just because they say so… and you’re not allowed to ask them any questions about it, either. Isn’t it time that Planned Parenthood is finally defunded?