Telemed Abortions in DBQ Almost A Given With Merger Announcement
Planned Parenthood of East Central Iowa has announced Thursday that it will merge with Planned Parenthood of the Heartland. I can't say I was surprized by this news as I suspected it would be coming down the pike.
What makes me laugh is the way that PPH & PPECI are spinning the announcement to paint it as a totally rosy picture & ignoring a lot of facts that anyone who has kept their eyes open knows is true instead.
1st of all, over the past few years PP's national stategy has been bigger is better. In other words, smaller groups have been pushed into merging with larger groups in order to cut costs & raise profits. Despite claims to the contrary PPECI hasn't exactly been making a go of it. A little less than 3 years ago PPECI had only the 1 site in Cedar Rapids. In 2008 it openned 2 new locations. The 1st site was a part time office in Monticello. Then in August 2008 they openned their full time office in DBQ. Earlier this year they closed the Monticello site because of a lack of business. Their claim was that people were going to CR or DBQ instead. The truth is, they weren't exactly welcome in Monticello & couldn't build any local support.
Meanwhile, as any of us who have protested outside the DBQ PP can tell you, the DBQ site hasn't exactly taken off either. When they started they were open 1 evening a week & were open various hours the other 4. Now they are open 9-5 all 5 days. despite this they have tried to spin it as a success. In fact their latest loss leader, free Pap tests on 2 December was a miserable failure as well. Those Pap tests were 1 of the things they claimed DBQ women were in need of to justify their opening the DBQ site. The reality is everything PP offers in DBQ is available elsewhere, including for low income people. The only thing PP offers is abortion referals. In fact, I am willing to bet that those referals are what PPECI is talking about in their press release when they said “Every year we have done more and more collaborative work with Planned Parenthood of the Heartland."
The next bit of evidence that PPECI wasn't exactly doing so great was their 30th Anniversary celebration last May in CR that I put up several posts about our protests at the event. 1 of the posts was about how PPECI claimed 200 some people at the event. Yet, an insider told Jill Stanek there were only about 100. & later I found evidence on their Facebook page supporting the 100 people number as a outside maximum. (200 or Less Than 100? Planned Parenthood Caught in Another Lie)
Finally, there are the PPECI financial numbers in their 2009 Federal Form 990. According to DBQ Co. Right to Life executive director Steve Brody, a review done of the report showed that PPECI “was obviously mismanaging the funds it was receiving, allocating exorbitant salary and employee compensation increases even as its revenue was falling.”
“While revenue was declining (they ended the year in the hole at -$58,010), salaries increased from $657,840 to $1,060,100,” he noted. “This would indicate that Planned Parenthood is following its established pattern of phasing out affiliates that do not commit abortions and are therefore not profitable, in order to pour its resources into its lucrative abortion business.” (Sort of like some of the problems that made Planned Parenthood disaffiliate an affiliate in San Francisco.)
Interestingly, Joe Lock, president and CEO of PPECI, has already resigned even though the merger won't take place for several months. I suspect it wasn't voluntary & his fiscal mismanagement was part of the reason. & other staff cuts are in the works as well. No surprize, cut costs to raise profits. & that will also include adding "telemed abortions". (more later)
Vanessa Solesbee, board chairwoman of PPECI & Jill June, president and CEO of PPH deny any financial problems. They said the merger isn’t for financial reasons & that PPECI has performed well financially. “We are doing just fine,” Solesbee said. “We really want to work smarter, not harder.” $58 thousand + in the hole doesn't sound like PPECI is performing well to me. As I said, typical PP spin to cover up the truth.
So, like I said, this announcement doesn't come as any surprize.
What is disgusting to me is the fact tha PP is still playing the spin game about expanding "telemed abortions" to CR & DBQ. Last Spring in an interview connected with the 30th Anniversary celebration Barbara Chadwick, Director of Patient Services for PP let it slip that expansion plans were underway that icluded adding the "service" to the CR & DBQ sites. PPECI quickly went into spin mode to deny it. (You Spin Me Right Round)
They have admitted that abortions & offering RU486 telemed abortions are among services being evaluated. “There are no plans to offer those immediately,” June said. Yeah right! They were clearly evaluated months ago & merging the 2 affiliates was the logical way to go to offer them as PPECI would have to either hire a doctor or contract with PPH anyway, the merger was the cheapest way to go. & they will be added. Despite their downplaying the possibility. Notice they said immediately, not never. The PPH definition of immediately is the next few weeks. & since it does take some time to get & install the equipment, they can hide behind that as well when they say they won't do so immediately. At the latest they will begin to offer them shortly after the merger becomes final. & the same DM doctor will be in charge of the expanded "service".
Intead they try & paint this as another expansion of other needed services. As they said in the press release: "The expanded organization will offer new services including adoption, sexual assault exams, male services, age appropriate education programs and more." Yes, PP does technically offer an adoption service. But like so much else, it is a cover for their abortion business. Just check the number of adoptions they have actually done & compare it to the number of abortions & you will see what option they clearly push.
At this point, the only hope (& a slim one given the facts) that the expansion won't take place is if the Iowa Board of Medicine does the right thing & admits they are illegal under current law. This is something even the pro-abort DM Register has admitted is true. But will the IaBOM agree with the facts is up in the air. I have my doubts they will stop PP. I base that on what I have seen & posted on concerning the IaBOM & PP. If, as I suspect, the IaBOM doesn't follow the law to stop PP & lets PP keep on offering them instead, then it will be up to the Iowa Legislature to do something. & while the 2011 House would pass a law & Governor-elect Branstad would sign it, the Iowa Senate is still in the pro-aborts hands at this time & it might be difficult to get something through.
It is clear that the battle is heating up here in DBQ. & things will only get hotter. We cannot let up on the prayer. & we must redouble all our efforts to get the truth about PP out there.
(Note: This is only the latest of several mergers involving PPH. & I suspect it won't be the last. There is still 1 PP site in Iowa that is not a part of PPH, yet. Burlington-based Planned Parenthood of Southeast Iowa is still a seperate affiliate. But for how long?
Also, last Wed the DBQ PP closed at 1:30 pm. It may just be coincidence, but the financial problems & merger may very well be connected to that event.)
Sources:
Labels: DCRTL, Planned Parenthood, Telemed Abortions
posted by Al @ 12:13 AM
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