Gitmo Cartoon

Planned Parenthood doctor appears to admit to partial-birth abortions

A Planned Parenthood doctor laughs as she says she continues to “strive” to deliver an aborted baby with an intact skull and appears to admit participating in partial-birth abortions in the latest undercover video released Tuesday targeting Planned Parenthood.
A woman identified as Dr. Amna Dermish of Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas is the focus of the Center for Medical Progress’ 11th video, which is purported to have been filmed during a medical conference in October 2014.
“My aim is usually to get the specimens out pretty intact,” Dermish says at one point.

“Well this will give me something to strive for!”
- Dr. Amna Dermish, when asked if she's delivered a fetus with an intact skull

Dermish says in the video that she does not use the chemical digoxin, used to kill fetuses in the womb, before 20 weeks. She doesn’t say if she uses another chemical during the more than eight-minute, edited clip, and CMP asserts that means babies are delivered alive and killed outside of the womb. Dermish says she has used “ultrasound guidance” to manipulate fetuses for feet-first abortions in the video, a practice CMP describes as a “hallmark” of the illegal partial-birth abortion procedure.
A partial-birth abortion is defined as “deliberately and intentionally vaginally” delivering a living fetus where “any part of the fetal trunk past the navel is outside the body of the mother, for the purpose of” killing the fetus. The practice was outlawed by President George W. Bush in 2003.

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“Usually what I do, if it’s a [feet-first] presentation, I’ll remove the extremities first, the lower extremities, and then go for the spine and then sort of bring it down that way,” Dermish says.
Asked about harvesting intact fetal brains, Dermish says she has not been able to do that yet.
“Well this will give me something to strive for!” she says, laughing.
When discussing a colleague that is able to identify nine-week fetal hearts in the remains of aborted babies, a woman identified as being from Whole Women’s Health, another abortion clinic, interjects, “Well it’s cute. It is cute.”
Dermish adds: “It’s amazing. It’s sort of – I have so much respect for development. It’s just incredible. So she’s always at 10, 11, 12 weeks, she’s like trying to find the kidneys and any of the organs of that gestation.”
Previous CMP videos have appeared to show Planned Parenthood officials admitting the organization alters abortion procedures to procure fetal tissue, delivers intact fetuses and sells fetal tissue for profit. Each of those practices is against federal law.
Planned Parenthood has denied breaking any laws and has said payments discussed in the videos relate to reimbursement costs for procuring the tissue – which is legal. Earlier this month, Planned Parenthood announced it would stop taking money from researchers for aborted baby parts.
“These extremists show a total lack of compassion and dignity for women’s most personal medical decisions,” an Aug. 4 statement from Planned Parenthood said.
The videos have spurred investigations of Planned Parenthood's policies on aborted fetuses by several Republican-led congressional committees and numerous states. Investigators in Florida cited four Planned Parenthood clinics for violations in August. Outgoing House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, announced in September that Republicans would be leading a select committee to investigate Planned Parenthood.

House Republicans introduce measure to impeach IRS Commissioner Koskinen

House Republicans on Tuesday introduced a resolution to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, accusing him of making "false statements" under oath and failing to comply with a subpoena for evidence.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and 18 other committee members introduced the resolution to begin impeachment proceedings. In doing so, they followed through on a threat first made over the summer, when Republicans accused the IRS leader of making inaccurate statements to Congress regarding the Tea Party targeting scandal and its aftermath.
"Commissioner Koskinen violated the public trust," Chaffetz said in a statement Tuesday. "He failed to comply with a congressionally issued subpoena, documents were destroyed on his watch, and the public was consistently misled.
"Impeachment is the appropriate tool to restore public confidence in the IRS and to protect the institutional interests of Congress."
The IRS issued a statement later Thursday saying, "The IRS vigorously disputes the allegations in the resolution. We have fully cooperated with all of the investigations."
The announcement of the impeachment resolution comes on the same day Koskinen testified before the Senate Finance Committee, and after the Justice Department on Friday decided to close its investigation of the targeting scandal without pursuing criminal charges.

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Koskinen took over in late 2013, after the scandal broke over IRS agents subjecting conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status to additional scrutiny.
But he faced questions over statements he made in the course of various investigations. The resolution containing articles of impeachment accused him of "high crimes and misdemeanors" over the following allegations:

• That he failed to preserve IRS records in accordance with a congressional subpoena; the resolution notes the IRS erased hundreds of backup tapes containing potentially thousands of emails from Lois Lerner, the former official at the heart of the controversy.
• That he made "false and misleading statements" to Congress, including claiming "nothing" had been "lost" or "destroyed."
• That he did not notify Congress of missing emails until June 2014, despite allegedly being aware earlier.

Pursuing impeachment against an agency leader is exceedingly rare, and a step beyond contempt charges, which is the tool House Republicans tried to use against both Lerner and former Attorney General Eric Holder in past disputes.
While impeachment is often thought of as a congressional weapon reserved for presidents, it can apply to "all civil officers of the United States," on the grounds of treason, bribery or other "high crimes and misdemeanors."
There was one case, more than a century ago, when articles of impeachment were brought against War Secretary William Belknap -- in 1876.
He resigned amid the proceedings.

Senators blast order barring female guards from transporting Gitmo inmates

Female soldiers serving at Guantanamo Bay are not being allowed to transport inmates following a court order issued in response to prisoners who complained on religious grounds, according to Republican senators who recently returned from a visit to the prison camp. 
Inmates apparently complained the female soldiers' actions were an insult to their Islamic faith, but the senators blasted the court decision as an "insult to women." Top U.S. military leaders agreed the directive is "outrageous," while suggesting they're currently bound by the order.
Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., first revealed the decision at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday morning. She told Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford that on a visit Friday to the detention center, she was told female soldiers were not being allowed to transport the “9/11 five” – five inmates suspected of masterminding the 2001 terror attack -- after the court order.
“We have a situation down there where we met with women guards who are being prevented from fully performing their mission because the five 9/11 attackers who are charged with killing 3,000 Americans will not allow them to perform their duties because they're women,” Ayotte said.
“It’s outrageous,” Dunford agreed. “That’s being worked by lawyers, it’s an injunction. I’m not using that as an excuse, but that’s where it is right now.”
“I think it is counter to the way we treat service members, including female service members, and outrageous is a very good word for it,” Defense Secretary Ash Carter added.
A military judge issued the order in January prohibiting female guards from transporting the defendants, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, to and from legal proceedings after they refused to meet with defense lawyers and complained that any physical contact with unrelated women violated their Muslim beliefs.
The ruling by Army Col. James Pohl was meant to deal with their complaints, which posed a threat to legal proceedings.
At a press conference following Tuesday's Senate hearing, Sens. Ayotte; Tim Scott, R-S.C.; and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. -- who accompanied Ayotte on the visit to the facility -- expanded on the issue.
Capito said the country is letting the "9/11 five dictate" the procedures in the U.S. military, adding that it is “amazing” a military judge would rule in such a way.
"Terrorists should not dictate to us what our men and women in uniform are permitted to do," Ayotte said. “This is not an insult to Islam, it's an insult to women.”

Groups call for censorship of popular social media app on college campuses

A new call for the federal government to crack down on a social media app popular with college students, but sometimes used to spread hate, is a study in how to violate the First Amendment, according to one legal expert.
A coalition of advocacy groups penned a letter Oct. 20 to the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights demanding more monitoring and regulation of the popular free app, Yik Yak, by college administrators -- claiming the app is being used for sexual and race-based online harassment and intimidation that is prohibited on college campuses by Title IX.
Yik Yak, which launched in 2013 and is popular on about 1,600 college campuses, allows smartphone users to anonymously create and view "Yaks" within a 1.5-mile radius. The intimacy of the network allows for students in close proximity to comment on shared experiences, like a particular college course or sporting event, and write messages of support or jokes or anything related to the topic under discussion.

"The speech to which this letter objects includes a great deal of speech protected under the First Amendment."
- Eugene Volokh, law professor

"Share your thoughts and keep your privacy on Yik Yak," the app, named after the '50s song, "Yakety Yak," promises on its website.
But the anonymity of Yik Yak has also created a forum for hateful, sexist and racist comments. In some instances, the speech has crossed the line to actual threats -- like those reported within the past year at the University of Mary Washington, where female students were threatened with rape and murder via the social media app. The groups' letter cites hate-filled comments, such as, "Jesus I hate black people," as well as sexually explicit speech.
In its effort to censor Yik Yak on college campuses, the coalition -- which includes the Feminist Majority Foundation and the National Organization for Women as well as the Human Rights Campaign and the National LGBTQ Task Force -- cites a 1969 Supreme Court case applicable to kindergarten through 12th grade students. In Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, the high court ruled that certain speech in schools could be restricted if deemed disruptive -- though that Supreme Court ruling does not apply at colleges and universities.
Eugene Volokh, a professor at UCLA School of Law, roundly criticized the letter Tuesday, saying any crackdown on Yik Yak -- now the ninth-most popular social media app -- is blatantly unconstitutional.
"The speech to which this letter objects includes a great deal of speech protected under the First Amendment," Volokh told FoxNews.com.
"The Supreme Court has repeatedly said that at the college and university level, this kind of speech is constitutionally protected," he said. "The breadth of the restriction just shows how little concern this coalition has for free speech rights."
Even racist and sexist comments are typically protected under the Constitution, said Volokh, who called the movement to chill free speech on campus "the great firewall of American higher education" in a Washington Post op-ed.
The coalition claims its purpose is to call for federal guidelines on how schools can deal with the harassment and discriminatory comments they say are pervasive on Yik Yak -- and not to bar the app. But Volokh said the letter makes suggestions that, if approved, would effectively ban the use of it on college campuses.
"As the perpetrators of harassment and intimidation on applications like Yik Yak are anonymous, OCR should also clarify the steps an academic institution can take to satisfy its civil rights obligations," the letter states. "OCR should reiterate that 'if harassment has occurred, doing nothing is always the wrong response,' and also provide concrete examples of what kinds of actions might be appropriate."
The letter goes on to state that examples of such actions could include "initiating campus disciplinary proceedings against individuals engaging in online harassment" or "barring the use of campus wi-fi to view or post to these applications."
The Oct. 20 letter by the coalition of advocacy groups is not the first time serious concerns have been raised about Yik Yak. The app has a "geo-fence" feature that disables its use around high schools and middle schools in response to bullying. In May, the student senate at College of Idaho voted to ban Yik Yak from campus after seven students reported feeling personally threatened by posts on the app.
"If someone puts a racist epithet on a Latino's door, or a black person's door, there's at least a potential evidence thread that can be investigated," college president Marv Henberg told the Idaho Statesman last May. "Not with Yik Yak."
On Sunday, a threat made via Yik Yak put administrators on high alert at the Des Moines Area Community College's Ankeny Campus. A person on the app asked for places in the area to go deer hunting, when another user suggested looking at the Ankeny DMACC Campus, a school official told the Des Moines Register. An e-mail was sent out Monday notifying students about the threat, which was investigated by the local police and the Department of Homeland Security.
Volokh said legitimate threats made over Yik Yak are another matter -- and must be investigated like any other.
"True threats of violence are not constitutionally protected and they should be punished," he said. "If there are these threats, you actually want them to be out there visible."
But, Volokh said, the threats and hateful speech made by some does not give the government or schools license to shut down the speech of all.
"Universities are places where people go in order to be exposed to a wide range of ideas and university students are expected to deal with speech that is offensive," added Volokh. "To say you can't access these materials [Yik Yak] from the university is to pretend there isn’t this big world outside the university where people will be able to post and read the same things."