Did Planned Parenthood’s threat to sue lead to hospital transfer agreement paving way for abortions?
I have been blogging on the community outrage that the city of El Centro, California has allowed a Hospital transfer agreement to go through which will allow Planned Parenthood to begin providing abortions. El Centro is the seat of Imperial County, which borders Mexico.
Now it has been revealed by Alliance Defending Freedom, that Planned Parenthood reportedly threatened to sue El Centro Regional Medical Center trustees in their personal capacity and falsely claimed the city-run hospital could lose public funding if it refused to sign an agreement that paves the way for Planned Parenthood to begin performing abortions in the city.
The threat apparently led the hospital’s board of trustees to break several provisions of California’s open meetings law in a rush to make a decision on the agreement, according to a letter Alliance Defending Freedom sent Monday to the medical center on behalf of Imperial Valley Coalition for Life. The letter asks the board of trustees to take action to rectify their violations of state law.
Over 2,000 abortion opponents showed up at a El Centro City Council meeting to protest a transfer agreement to Planned Parenthood.
As I blogged the other day, one of Planned Parenthood’s supporters was kicked out of the meeting, and as he left he could be heard yelling, “Hail Satan.”
Read that account here.
The ADF letter sent Monday outlines numerous other problems with how the board conducted its vote and closed-door meeting, including that state law does not allow the board to conduct or debate such a vote in private (regardless of whether the vote was final), that the board did not properly announce the closed-door meeting, and that the board allowed unauthorized persons into the meeting.
A March 2 letter from ADF and the coalition requested related documents, which must be disclosed according to California’s open records law. A March 12 letter from the city clerk, which ADF received Tuesday, denied the records request and refused to provide any information other than a copy of the signed transfer agreement.
“The chief duty of public officials is to the public, not Planned Parenthood,” said ADF Legal Counsel Natalie Decker. “We regret that Planned Parenthood placed the board into a position it should never have been placed into, but the board has a public duty to abide by state law, and it still has the opportunity to rectify that.”
Chris Nunn, a leader of the Imperial Valley Coalition for Life, is scheduled to speak at a public El Centro City Council meeting Tuesday regarding the matter. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. PDT at El Centro City Hall.
In retaliation to the removal of the Planned Parenthood man who yelled, “Hail Satan”, Imperial Valley Coalition for Choice which supports abortion and Planned Parenthood has posted these instructions to their members about the meeting, “If you come tomorrow night please make sure you have a camera or your cell phone ready to record, if you are approached by lifers record them…. they will use you threatened them first call ELPD and try to have you removed… be aware that these people want us removed so there is no one for Choice there.”
Interestingly, Mr. “Hail Satan” himself, Marcus Shapiro, tweeted a link to the pro-choice group, and said, “Join our coalition for choice… they are trying to stop a Planned Parenthood from being built down here.”
On their Facebook page, Imperial Valley Coalition for Life posted this message, “The pro “choice” community are gearing up to try to trap us while we are standing together before the City Council. They are hoping to provoke a camera-worthy response that they can use to undermine our righteous cause. They have proven by their postings on this page that they have no qualms with being vulgar, obscene, malicious, threatening, obnoxious, or slanderous. Do not engage them in debate. Remember, we are gathering for a PRAYER vigil! This is the time for prayer and fasting. Let’s stand united and silent even in the face of their offenses.
Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”
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