Texas Planned Parenthood’s Fraud Was $4.3 Million, Three Times More Than Announced

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced on July 24 that his office had obtained a $1.4 million settlement against Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast for Medicaid fraud, with the settlement to be split between the state of Texas, the federal government, and the whistleblower (former PPGC employee Karen Reynolds).

It turns out the AG was apparently only announcing his state’s cut. The total settlement is actually $4.3 million – almost $3 million more than previously known. From the Houston Chronicle today:

Planned Parenthood’s Houston-based affiliate clarified Tuesday that it settled for $4.3 million, three times the $1.4 million that Abbott reported a week ago.

His spokesman tried to explain the discrepancy, indicating Abbott intended to announce the smaller amount, which represents the “state’s designation.” But it’s unclear why Abbott wouldn’t have announced the whole amount.

The attorney general also jumped the gun with his press release, announcing the settlement before it had been finalized. (It has since been signed by all parties.)

When I called the AG’s press office to help me understand the discrepancy I was greeted by a surprisingly rude man who wouldn’t even give me his name. His response before hanging up, “It means the investigation is not over.” Ok. Still don’t understand, but there you go.

Despite the confusion this would all seem to be good news, although the original charge was that PPGC “submitted more than $30 million in fraudulent bills between 2003 and 2009,” according to the Houston Chronicle, July 30.

“If the original claim that PP defrauded the taxpayer of $30 million is near accurate, it means that PP settled for 15 cents on the dollar,” wrote American Life League’s Jim Sedlak to me in an email. “No incentive there to stop committing Medicaid fraud.”

Abby Johnson’s lawsuit against the same Planned Parenthood affiliate is still not settled. Abby alleges PPGC committed “over $5.7 million in fraud,” according to her legal representation, Alliance Defending Freedom.

LifeNews.com Note: Jill Stanek fought to stop “live birth abortions” after witnessing one as an RN at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois. That led to the Born Alive Infants Protection Act legislation, signed by President Bush, that would ensure that proper medical care be given to unborn children who survive botched abortion attempts.

'Obamacare' mandate delay will cost $12 billion, affect 1 million workers

President Barack Obama’s decision to delay implementation of part of his healthcare reform law will cost $12 billion and leave a million fewer Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance in 2014, congressional researchers said Tuesday.

The report by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office is the first authoritative estimate of the human and fiscal cost from the administration’s unexpected one-year delay announced July 2 of the employer mandate – a requirement for larger businesses to provide health coverage for their workers or pay a penalty.

The analysts said the delay will add to the cost of “Obamacare’s” insurance-coverage provisions over the next 10 years. Penalties paid by employers would be lower and more individuals who otherwise might have had employer coverage will need federal insurance subsidies.

“Of those who would otherwise have obtained employment-based coverage, roughly half will be uninsured (in 2014),” CBO said in a July 30 letter to Representative Paul Ryan, Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Budget Committee.

Under Obama’s healthcare reform law, employers with 50 or more full-time workers were supposed to provide healthcare coverage or incur penalties beginning January 1. But the requirement will now begin in 2015.

The delay intensified doubts about the administration’s ability to implement Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement and stirred Republican calls for a similar delay in another Obamacare mandate that requires most individuals to have health insurance in 2014.

The Republican-controlled House followed up the administration’s decision by voting on July 17 for its own measures to delay the employer and individual mandates. Neither piece of legislation is expected to succeed in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

State and federal officials are racing to set up new online health insurance exchanges, where lower-to-moderate income families that lack health insurance will be able to sign up for federally subsidized coverage beginning on October 1. The poor will also be able to sign up for Medicaid coverage in 23 states that have opted to expand the program.

Most large employers already offer health insurance and CBO said few are expected to drop coverage because of the delay.

But the change will still result in a $10 billion reduction in penalty payments that some employers would have made in 2015 for failing to provide coverage next year, CBO said.

The change also means another $3 billion in added costs for exchange subsidies. That is because about half of the 1 million workers who would have gained employer-sponsored coverage next year will now obtain insurance through the exchanges or via public programs including Medicaid, CBO said.

Other changes, including an increase in taxable compensation resulting from fewer people enrolling in employment-based coverage, will offset those factors by about $1 billion.

CBO now puts the net cost of Obamacare’s insurance coverage provisions at around $1.38 trillion over the next 10 years, vs. its May baseline projection of $1.36 trillion.

Elected Officials Breaking the Law Encourages Rampant Lawlessness

PHILADELPHIA – Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network (PPN, www.papastors.net) is urging pastors across Pennsylvania to speak out against the increasing tendency among executive and judicial branches of government, both state and federal, to ignore Constitutionally enacted laws, instead imposing their own will upon the people who elected them. It has already happened twice in Pennsylvania in the last two weeks.

The Montgomery County register of wills, D. Bruce Hanes, is following state Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s actions, who has refused to defend the state law against a federal lawsuit, and the Obama administration, which declined to defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Hanes has decided to violate the Pennsylvania law that bans same-sex marriages across the Commonwealth.

According to Philly.com, Hanes’ decision could have statewide implications, bringing gay and lesbian Pennsylvanians to Norristown for licenses that could then be used for weddings anywhere in the state.
The legality of those licenses would remain in question, however. Under Pennsylvania law, the recognition of marriage is restricted to one man and one woman.

Sam Rohrer, President of the Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network says, “I am greatly concerned for the very pillars of law underpinning our Republic. I see a dangerously developing trend when in just the past four years, most notably when the California State Executive Branch , the U.S. Supreme Court, Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Kane, and now, Montgomery County Register of Wills, D. Bruce Hanes, arbitrarily decide to simply ignore or override the will of the people in regard to their Constitutional obligations. It is likely not coincidental that this move into lawlessness is tied directly, in these examples, to a direct attack on the family and religious freedom in America. A defiance of Constitutionally-passed civil law starts with a defiance of God’s Moral Laws.”

According to Rohrer, Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Kathleen Kane acted unconstitutionally when she openly refused to uphold her oath of office to defend Pennsylvania state law. Just recently, Kane, who is an open supporter of homosexual rights activists, stated that she could not and would not defend Pennsylvania’s Defense of marriage Act, which was enacted by large margins in the state legislature in 1996.

Rohrer adds, “When elected officials, whether state or federal, are no longer held accountable to the respective Constitutions to which they are sworn, and under which their very offices are created, then political anarchy and lawlessness are assured. We are encouraging pastors everywhere to earnestly preach the Absolute Truth of God’s Word and to teach that civil freedom can only survive when people do as William Penn made clear right here in Pennsylvania – self govern their own actions according to the Commands of God. Obedience to the law with accountability to the people and to God is essential for limited government to survive. The answers to our problems are not political. They are in every way spiritual and that starts with recognizing the Absolute Truth of God’s Word. When the law and oaths of office are cavalierly discarded for passing considerations, all of our guaranteed rights are threatened.”

In her statement, Kane claimed ethical reasons for refusing to uphold her sworn duties. Hanes also expressed his personal ethics and his conflict with not issuing same-sex marriage licenses to those who now request them.

Rohrer points out, “If one cannot ethically defend the Biblical and historical definition of Natural Marriage as being between one man and one woman, then it is legitimate to question the source these ‘ethics.’ Kane’s definition of ethics stands in clear and direct contrast to a Biblical standard of right and wrong. Kane’s view reflects that of popular culture, which states that there is no absolute truth, that right and wrong are relative, that there is no moral compass and therefore no God to whom we will give an account. What is right today is wrong tomorrow, and vice versa. It is this Post-Modern view that is in conflict with, and is undermining, the Rule of law, our Constitution, self-government and our very freedoms. It is this view that empowered Bruce Hanes to act out of order.”

Rohrer concludes, “I believe that unless this distinction is acknowledged and there is a return to the concept of ethics and morality as defined by God in His Word, which provides an absolute, universal standard by which to judge right and wrong, we will lose the freedoms we have so long enjoyed and which are reflected in our Declaration of Independence and our PA and US Constitutions.”

The Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network is a group of biblically faithful clergy and church liaisons whose objective is to build a permanent infrastructure of like-minded clergy who affirm the authority of Scripture, take seriously Jesus’ command to be the “salt and light” to the culture, encourage informed Christian thinking about contemporary social issues; examine public policy issues without politicizing their pulpits and engage their congregations in taking part in our political process on a non-partisan basis.

The Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network website continues to offer a wealth of resources to pastors to help them equip their congregations to live a Christian life, from sermon notes to corporate prayers for our nation, to resources for laypeople, covering everything from preparation to finances.

The Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network is a state chapter affiliate of the American Pastors’ Network. The American Pastors’ Network is a Ministry Program Affiliate of Capstone Legacy Foundation (a 501 C3 non-profit). To contact them visit. www.papastors.net or call 610-584.1225.

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To schedule interviews with Sam Rohrer, President of the PA Pastors’ Network, contact Deborah Hamilton at dhamilton@hamiltonstrategies.com, 215-815-7716 or 610-584-1096.

The Trayvon Martin Controversy: Where Do We Go From Here?

Whatever one’s views on the Trayvon Martin controversy and jury verdict, two things are crystal clear. First, the racial divide in America, despite undisputed progress over the last decades, remains deep, wide, and extremely sensitive. Clearly, Americans of different ethnicities often view events through very different prisms.

Second, the controversy exposes the limitations of the legal system in healing American’s racial wounds. While the law can, and should, do many things, it cannot do what matters most: changing hearts and minds.

All Americans of good will should be asking themselves this question: “Where do we go from here and how do we make it better?”

At its most basic level, racism is, and always has been, a spiritual problem. Ultimately, only a spiritual solution can heal the racial wounds that continue to afflict our nation.

The prophet Jeremiah summed it up well many centuries ago when he declared, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9).

The fact that racism is at its foundation a spiritual issue and will be vanquished ultimately only by spiritual means, does not mean that legislative and judicial remedies must not be applied to racial discrimination and bigotry. The restraint and punishment of “those that doeth evil” was one major reason God ordained the civil magistrate (Rom. 13:2).

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Racial discrimination furnishes an excellent example of this principle. Legislative and judicial remedies radically altered the status of de jure segregation and legally institutionalized racial discrimination in our society. Our history furnished many painful examples and memories of the grievous situation prior to such legislative and judicial restraint. But what about de facto segregation and discrimination? There you are dealing with attitudes, not actions. When you enter the realm of the mind and the heart you are moving beyond the power of legal restraint. If elimination, not restraint, of racial prejudice and bigotry is the goal – and for Christians it must be – then you must move beyond legislative and judicial answers to spiritual ones. We must always remember that the salt of the law can change actions, behaviors, and habits. Only the light of the Gospel can change attitudes, beliefs, and hearts.

The Apostle Peter was taught by the Holy Spirit “that God is no respecter of persons” (Act. 10:34), and Peter was delivered form his ethnic prejudices against Gentiles.

Jesus said, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” It is noteworthy that He said this in response to the question, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus related the parable of “The Good Samaritan” (Luke 10:25-37). Jesus uses the Samaritan, the most despised ethnic group in His society, as the “hero” of the story to underscore that everyone is our neighbor, regardless of racial, national, economic, political, or sexual differences.

Our heavenly Father has called all Christians not only to love our neighbors as ourselves, but to be ambassadors of spiritual reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-21).

If America is going to be healed of its racial traumas, the church must lead the way. Christians of all ethnicities must reach out and establish dialogue, relationship, and friendship where we know each other as people and friends who have been transformed by the power of the Gospel.

Everyone is victimized by racism, perpetrator and victim alike. Lillian Smith, in her 1949 book, Killers of the Dream, wrote evocatively of the spiritual corrosiveness of the rigid segregation of her rural Georgia childhood and adolescence. She wrote of how whites and blacks “learned the dance that cripples the human spirit.” In despair, she described the deformation of the human spirit, perpetrated by racism:

Something was wrong with a world that tells you that love is good and people are important and then forces you to deny love and to humiliate people. . . . in trying to shut the Negro race from us, we have shut ourselves away from so many good, creative, honest, deeply human things in life. . . . the warped, distorted form we have put around every Negro child from birth is around every white child also. Each is on a different side of the frame, but each is pinioned there. . . . what cruelly shapes and cripples the personality of one is as cruelly shaping and crippling the personality of the other.

Lillian Smith is right that everyone is victimized when bigotry and racism occur. Sadly, Lillian Smith despaired of the victims’ ever overcoming such formative experiences. Even when they summon the strength and knowledge to escape the frame, she viewed them, and herself, as “stunted and warped and in our lifetime cannot grow straight again.” Joyously, the Gospel of Jesus Christ tells us that Lillian Smith is wrong and that with His help we can be healed and liberated from our past (Col. 2:13-15; 1 John 1:9). Victimizer and victim alike can experience liberation from their victimization in Jesus Christ.

Change can happen. Change must happen. Change will happen.

As Dr. King wrote in his “Letter from the Birmingham Jail,” the early Church “was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principals of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.” The church must once again become the thermostat that sets the spiritual temperature rather than merely a thermometer that reflects the spiritual temperature of our society.

My life was changed as a 16-year-old boy when I heard Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” on August 28, 1963. Those eloquent words still challenge us today: a dream of a color-blind society where all Americans will be “not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

As Dr. King said, “This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning, ‘My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims’ pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.'”

I refuse to abandon the dream. I urge my fellow Christians to join with me in pledging to reach out as His ambassadors of reconciliation and model before our fellow countrymen what true reconciliation looks like and how the resulting racial and ethnic mosaic will behave.

North Carolina Governor to Sign Pro-Life Bill Stopping Abortions

Late Thursday night, the North Carolina state Senate passed a pro-life omnibus bill that would stop abortions by helping pregnant women and stopping taxpayer financed abortions.

Today, Governor Pat McCrory has signed the bill into law.

The State Senate concurred by a vote of 32-13 with the State House, on SB 353, Health and Safety Law Changes. The State House worked with the Governor and his Department of Health and Human Services to reach an agreement for a compromise bill that accomplished pro-life goals in a way the governor would sign into law.

SB 353 addresses concerns about the administration of abortion inducing drugs and rules for abortion facilities, North Carolina Right to Life informs LifeNews. The pro-life provisions that were left intact after the compromise are: the opt out for abortion in the federal exchange and the city and county employee health plans, as well as the sex selection and web cam abortion bans.

“Thousands of unborn children’s lives will be protected from abortion,” stated Barbara Holt, President of North Carolina Right to Life, “by preventing the expansion of tax payer funded abortion through the federal exchange. By passing this legislation, our state has also demonstrated that it will not tolerate unborn babies being aborted just because they are the wrong sex or doctors being miles away from the patient when they administer drugs that kill the unborn baby and can harm the child’s mother.”

Governor Pat McCrory stated in a press conference prior to the State House passing SB 353 that he would sign the bill when it comes to his desk.

“North Carolina and the citizens of this state are pleased that Governor McCrory has said he will sign the bill into law; we look forward to the new law protecting unborn babies and their mothers,” said Holt.

The measure would prohibit sex selection abortions which 76% of North Carolinians support (Civitas March 2013 poll) and 85% of Americans support (Polling Company April 2013 poll). Some six states have already banned sex-selection abortions.

The bill includes an opt-out of abortion in the federal exchange and the city and county employee health plan except for the life of the mother and in cases of rape and incest. An April 2011 CNN poll found 61% oppose public funding for abortion, consistent with other poll done by other groups and 22 other states have stopped abortion funding under the Obamacare exchange.

The measure would require abortionists to be physically present to prevent web cam abortions and the misuse of abortion inducing drugs.

North Carolina joins Virginia, South Carolina, and Tennessee, as well as 19 other states, by opting out of abortion in the federal exchange; 14 states , by banning “web cam” abortions; and 6 states, by prohibiting sex selection abortions.

An abortion clinic in the state was shut down this month for posing problems for women’s health. Last month, North Carolina officials allowed a southeast Charlotte abortion clinic to reopen, but vow they will closely monitor operations at A Preferred Woman’s Health Center. The abortion clinic was shut down in early May, the second time the clinic has lost its license.

The first occasion was in February 2007, when, as the Charlotte Observer reported, “state investigators found as many as 16 safety and regulatory issues at the clinic, according to a letter DHHS sent the clinic.”

More recently, investigators found that staffers were administering methotrexate (an abortifacient) in liquid form. The regimen requires that methotrexate be injected or taken in pill form.

Poll: Americans Support Late-term Abortion Ban 2-1, Just 27% Opposed

A new Washington Post poll shows Americans support a late-term abortion ban prohibiting abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy by a margin of 56 to 27 percent. Just 27 percent of those polled by the newspaper say they oppose banning late-term abortions — a position taken by President Barack Obama and Planned Parenthood.

The number of people who support banning late-term abortions is actually higher if those who want all abortions banned are included in the figures. As the Post reports:

Another 10 percent surveyed in the poll volunteered they would prefer to outlaw abortion in the United States altogether or limit it earlier than 20 weeks after fertilization.

Such measures have cheered abortion opponents such as Nita Wallace, who lives in the Fort Worth area and has her own business. Wallace, who said she opposes the procedure because “God is the maker of life,” said religious Americans such as herself made a mistake in the past because “they didn’t get involved in politics so much, and now they’re realizing they lost ground by doing that.”

“What’s ground zero for making decisions? It used to be the Ten Commandments,” Wallace said, adding media accounts have mislead the public into thinking abortion enjoys broad support. “I believe a lot of the American public, especially women, they have this idea that the majority of people embrace abortion.”

The poll was conducted July 18 to 21 among a random national sample of 1,002 adults. Results from the full poll have an error margin of 3.5 percentage points.

The Washington Post poll results mirror the results of a Huffington Post poll this month.

The new poll conducted for the liberal Huffington Post find Americans support the ban on late-term abortions starting at 20-weeks of pregnancy by almost a 2-1 margin.

“By a margin of 59 percent to 30 percent, respondents to the new poll said they would favor a federal law banning abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy,” HuffPo reported about its poll.

A recent national poll by The Polling Company found that, after being informed that there is scientific evidence that unborn children are capable of feeling pain at least by 20 weeks, 64% would support a law banning abortion after 20 weeks, unless the mother’s life was in danger. Only 30% said they would oppose such a law.

A National Journal poll also found more Americans supporting the 20-week abortion ban than opposing it.

Enough is Enough: Pro-Life Group Starts March on the Media Over Abortion Bias

Lila Rose of Live Action has had enough and her pro-life group has started a new campaign, March on the Media, to combat the epidemic of pro-abortion bias when it comes to reporting on abortion issues.

The campaign comes after a new report showed the big television networks gave Texas abortion advocate three times more coverage than they gave to the trial of abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell, who killed babies born alive after abortions.

“Like it or not, the major news networks have huge influence in our country,” said Lila Rose, president of Live Action, in a statement today.

“Millions of Americans get a sense of the world through national filters like ABC, CBS, and NBC. So it’s inexcusable when these networks, in whom so much public trust is invested, refuse to report the facts on one of the most pressing human rights issues of our time,” she said.

Rose added: “The media has flinched from the reality of abortion for decades, but the degree to which they mischaracterize and whitewash this issue has become egregious lately. How can you go on about a senator’s sneakers and completely ignore the reason you’re talking about those shoes in the first place: because she’s championing a procedure that literally tears helpless children to pieces and puts women’s lives and health in extreme danger?”

She condemned the “rampant bias, censorship, and suppression in how America’s major news networks cover abortion.”

Live Action unveiled a new March on the Media web site that urges pro-life advocates to take an active role in responding to media bias.

The web site contains a petition that reads:

I call on the United States’ major distributors of news and information to do their jobs.

A press that censors what abortion actually does to babies – dismemberment, poison shots through the skull, asphyxiation – and that censors and suppresses scientific information on fetal development (pain capability, heartbeat, biological humanity), is not objectively reporting the facts of abortion.

A press that lionizes abortion advocates and recites their slogans, while ignoring Kermit Gosnell’s severing of born children’s spines, is not objectively reporting the facts of abortion.

A press that buries the rampant abuses and dangers to women inherent in our nation’s vast and unregulated abortion industry, while claiming to report on women’s health, is not objectively reporting the facts of abortion.

To ABC, NBC, and CBS: Stop the abortion censorship. Stop flinching from the facts of the abortion debate. Stop the information suppression. Every day, America’s abortion industry kills thousands and wounds thousands more. It’s time to tell the truth.

“The media has flinched from the reality of abortion for decades,” Rose said, “but the degree to which they mischaracterize and whitewash this issue has become egregious lately. How can you go on about a senator’s sneakers and completely ignore the reason you’re talking about those shoes in the first place: because she’s championing a procedure that literally tears helpless children to pieces and puts women’s lives and health in extreme danger?”

Rose says she wants to point the media in a new direction. “A change is long overdue for our big news distributors,” she said. “It’s time for these networks to end their blackout of the truth on abortion – how it irreparably harms women, babies, and society.

“The abortion-friendly reporters and executives in New York and Washington will not come to terms with this fact unless we bring it to their door,” Rose said. “So that’s what we’re doing.”

Texas Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz Must Repay $1.4 Million After Medicaid Fraud

The Planned Parenthood abortion business must repay $1.4 million dollars in Texas after it was found to have participated in a massive Medicaid fraud scheme.

Last year, a former employee of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast has filed a whistleblower’s complaint with the Attorney General of Texas and the U.S. Department of Justice. The PPGC employee alleges that the abortion business engaged in an elaborate Medicaid fraud scheme.

Karen Reynolds, who worked as a “health care assistant” from 1999 to 2009 at the Lufkin, Texas, branch of the affiliate formerly known as Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas, submitted company memos and emails to support her charge that PPGC has engaged in a systemwide scheme to bilk Medicaid, Title XX, and the Women’s Health Program of tens of millions of dollars over the course of at least a decade.

Reynolds alleges bosses trained employees to bill government agencies for medical and family planning services not rendered, for services no reasonable medical personnel would provide, and – the biggest bombshell – for abortion-related services fudged to appear as if they were not.

Today, the Texas Attorney General’s Office concluded the State’s Medicaid fraud investigation into Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Inc. Under today’s agreement, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast must pay $1.4 million for fraudulently overbilling the taxpayer-funded Medicaid program Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced.

From Abbott’s office:

After a whistleblower lawsuit was filed alleging improper billing practices by Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, an investigation was opened by the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s Office of Inspector General. The State’s investigation revealed that Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast improperly billed the Texas Medicaid program for products and services that were never actually rendered, not medically necessary, and were not covered by the Medicaid program – and were therefore not eligible for reimbursement. For example, state investigators determined that Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast falsified material information in patients’ medical records in order to support fraudulent reimbursement claims to the Medicaid program.

Under the agreement announced today, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast must pay $1.4 million to resolve the Medicaid fraud enforcement action. Because Medicaid is jointly funded by the State and the federal government, the federal government is entitled to a portion of the Texas recovery. Under the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act, the relator-whistleblower that uncovered the defendant’s fraudulent conduct will also receive a share of the State’s recovery.

The complaint alleges Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast had a policy of providing abortions and medical services based on the ability of customers to pay — similar to the sliding scale policies of most Planned Parenthood abortion businesses. The complaint says patients were paying out of pocket, then only “services based on medical necessity” were provided. However, if patients were relying on Medicaid or another government program to pay the Planned Parenthood bill, then planned Parenthood would run up the costs “often provid[ing] services on an ‘across the board’ basis even when such services were not medically necessary.”

Reynolds, in her complaint, also noted that Planned Parenthood officials would frequently give women on Medicaid requesting birth control a bag of condoms and vaginal film, even if they had not requested them, to run up the tab the federal government would pay with taxpayer funds.

The fraud was allegedly not limited to birth control and contraception, the former employee said in her complaint. Reynolds alleges that Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast would falsify medical charts for patients having or who had had abortions to make it appear as if their visit was primarily for some other reason so Planned Parenthood would receive federal reimbursement.

Planned Parenthood has been found to have engaged in fraudulent billing or faces accusations of such improper billing in multiple states:

California – A 2004 audit found that Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties overcharged the government $5,213,645.92 for oral contraceptives. The problem was that Planned Parenthood was supposed to charge the government the cost of the pills. Instead, it charged a much higher price.

New York – A 2008 federal audit of state family planning claims resulted in a finding that the state of New York had overbilled the federal government $17,151,156 by claiming procedures as “family planning” services when they were not. The federal audit report noted that, “Officials at Planned Parenthood providers stated that they believed that nearly all the services they provide are related to family planning. However, the medical review determined that the providers improperly claimed, for example, services to pregnant women, treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, and counseling visits unrelated to family planning services.”

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New Jersey – In 2008, the federal government conducted an audit of New Jersey and published a report, Review of Outpatient Medicaid Claims Billed as Family Planning by New Jersey, which showed the state had overcharged the federal government $597,496.00. In a section entitled “Causes of Overpayment,” the report states: “During our visits to family planning clinics throughout the State, many providers (especially Planned Parenthood providers) stated that they billed all claims to Medicaid as “family planning.” Officials at these clinics stated that they believed that all of the services they provided were related to family planning. Therefore, officials at these clinics often populated the family planning indicator field on Medicaid claims even though the service provided did not meet the criteria for 90-percent Federal funding. By populating this field, the MMIS designated the claim as eligible for 90-percent Federal funding.”

Washington – A 2009 audit found Planned Parenthood of the Inland Northwest overcharged the government $629,142.88. The audit found Planned Parenthood was charging excessive amounts for contraceptives and distributed and charged for prescription medication without having a valid prescription.

New York City – A 2009 Medicaid audit determined that Planned Parenthood’s Margaret Sanger Center in New York City was found to have overcharged Medicaid $1,254,603.00 which included double billing—billing Medicaid for services provided to patients who were enrolled in the provider’s HMO network.

NARAL Dings Liberal Reporter for Calling 20-Week Abortion Ban 'Reasonable'

NARAL Pro-Choice America, formerly known as the National Abortion Rights Action League, appears concerned it may be losing the battle to depict a 20-week abortion ban as “extreme.” The group expressed outrage that a host on NBC, a network usually sympathetic to abortion rights advocates, implied the 20-week ban is “reasonable.”

“Is it not reasonable to put late-term restrictions on abortion … ?” David Gregory of “Meet the Press” asked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on July 14.

Gregory pressed Reid twice more, repeatedly using the word “reasonable,” after Reid continued to dodge the question. Reid promised to “look at” the legislation, but also called it a “fringe issue.”

NARAL is now asking its supporters to email NBC to express their disappointment in Gregory’s use of the phrase “reasonable” to describe the 20-week abortion ban.

“Your depiction of 20-week abortion bans as ‘reasonable’ is misleading – and is exactly how anti-choice groups want these bans to be characterized,” NARAL wrote.

Most Americans believe a ban on abortions after the fetus is 20-weeks old is reasonable. A majority would even ban all second and third trimester abortions, which begin at 16 weeks.

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A recent HuffPost / YouGov poll showed 59 percent of Americans support the 20-week abortion ban. Only 30 percent were opposed. A Gallup poll conducted last year showed 64 percent of Americans support banning abortions in the second trimester and 80 percent support banning them in the third trimester. A 2011 Gallup poll showed that even a majority of those who describe themselves as “pro-choice,” those who NARAL ostensibly represents, believe that abortion should be illegal in the second trimester.

Restricting the abortion of fetuses even younger than 20-weeks is considered reasonable around the globe, even when looking at Western Europe, one of the most liberal areas on the planet.

According to worldabortionlaws.com, a Center for Reproductive Rights website: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain and Sweden have a 14-week ban; Italy has a 90-day ban; Portugal has a 10-week ban; Netherlands does not allow abortions after the age at which fetuses are viable outside the womb, which it calculated to be 21 weeks, but will allow abortions up to 24 weeks for medical emergencies; And Ireland has a near total ban, only allowing abortions to save the life of the mother.

NARAL seemed to suggest that what makes the 20-week ban “unreasonable” is that it would make it more difficult to abort fetuses with abnormalities, such as Down syndrome.

“Most states already have laws that address post-viability abortion,” NARAL wrote. “If you were to ask a woman who received a heart-breaking diagnosis dramatically affecting her pregnancy at 20 weeks forcing her to make an extremely difficult decision, surely she would disagree that such a ban is ‘reasonable.'”

Sam Rohrer, President, PA Pastors’ Network: Pennsylvania Must Stand Firm to Uphold the Law and Protect Marriage

PHILADELPHIA – Sam Rohrer, president of the Pennsylvania Pastor’s Network (PPN, www.papastors.net), is urging Bible-believing pastors and lay people who honor natural marriage in the state of Pennsylvania to stand firm for marriage, family, and freedom. Rohrer and members of the PPN Leadership Council, accompanied by State Representatives Gordon Denlinger (R-Lancaster) and Tim Krieger (R-Westmoreland), held a press conference last week at the State Capitol to denounce Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Kathleen Kane and her recent announcement to refuse to defend the Pennsylvania law that protects marriage between one man and one woman.

Rohrer warns that Kane’s refusal to defend the PA marriage law she is sworn to uphold because she feels that law is ‘wholly unconstitutional,’ is a violation of her Constitutional oath and cannot be overlooked.

Rohrer states, “Upon the adoption of the US Constitution, Ben Franklin said, “…we’ve given you a republic – if you can keep it.” Freedom is often lost because the people grow lazy and give it up, or those in office forsake their oath and attempt to usurp civil liberty by placing themselves above the law. This current action by the AG while encouraged by some should be abhorred by all since it fits the definition of tyranny and threatens the liberty of all. If there is no change to this decision and other similar refusals by Executive Branch officials around the nation, our freedom and our very Republic are threatened.”

In 1996, the Pennsylvania legislature enacted, by large margins, the state’s own Defense of Marriage Act, which declares that marriage in Pennsylvania is the legally enacted union between one man and one woman. Rohrer went on to say, “In addition to violating her oath, AG Kane stated that she cannot ‘ethically’ defend the lawful and historical definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman. If one cannot ethically defend the biblical and historical definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman then it is legitimate to question the source of these ‘ethics.’ The definition of ethics means, ‘a system of moral principles.’ By definition, moral refers to ‘what is right and wrong … and has reference to the law of God as the standard.’ Therefore, one’s view of right and wrong determines how a person thinks, acts, and chooses. The common view in our culture is that there is no absolute truth, that right and wrong are relative, that there is no more moral compass and therefore no God to whom we will give an account. It is this view that is in conflict with and is undermining the Rule of Law, our Constitution, self-discipline and our very freedoms and threatens William Penn’s Holy Experiment. I believe that unless this distinction is acknowledged and there is a return to the concept of ethics and morality as defined by God in His Word, we will lose the freedoms we have so long enjoyed and which are reflected in our Declaration of Independence and our PA and US Constitutions.
Kane is an open supporter of gay marriage, and as the lawsuit filed by the ACLU on behalf of 23 people is brought before the state, Kane is clearly at odds with state law and would be posing a clear conflict of interest if she were to represent the state of PA.

Her announcement is just one more in a recent string of examples of public officials who are actively refuting their sworn responsibilities as public servants. Instead, they are seeing their political offices as platforms from which they can impose their personal beliefs on the public at large as they attempt to side-step due Constitutional process. That Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Kathleen Kane openly supports gay marriage is no surprise; what is troubling is that she has found the recent SCOTUS decision a convenient ally and scapegoat for her decision to abandon her constitutional duty to uphold and defend the laws of the Commonwealth state.

Rohrer adds to his concerns, “When elected officials, whether state or federal, are no longer held accountable to the respective Constitutions to which they are sworn, and under which their very offices are created, then political anarchy and lawlessness are guaranteed. The question which remains is, how long will it take before complete anarchy ensues? We are encouraging pastors everywhere to earnestly preach the Truth of God’s Word and that freedom can only survive – when people do as William Penn made clear right here in Pennsylvania – ‘Self govern their own actions according to the Commands of God.’ The answers to our problems are not political. They are in every way spiritual and that starts with recognizing the Absolute Truth of God’s Word.”

The Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network is a group of biblically faithful clergy and church liaisons whose objective is to build a permanent infrastructure of like-minded clergy who affirm the authority of Scripture, take seriously Jesus’ command to be the “salt and light” to the culture, encourage informed Christian thinking about contemporary social issues; examine public policy issues without politicizing their pulpits and engage their congregations in taking part in our political process on a non-partisan basis.

The Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network website continues to offer a wealth of resources to pastors to help them equip their congregations to live a Christian life, from sermon notes to corporate prayers for our nation, to resources for laypeople, covering everything from preparation to finances.

The Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network is an affiliate of the American Pastors’ Network. To contact them visit. www.papastors.net or call 610-584.1225.

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To schedule interviews with Sam Rohrer, President of the Pa. Pastors’ Network, contact Deborah Hamilton at dhamilton@hamiltonstrategies.com, 215-815-7716 or 610-584-1096.