Tag: Planned Parenthood

U.S. Sen. Blackburn Introduces First Bill as Senator to Protect The Unborn

Jason M. Reynolds

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced her first bill Thursday in the U.S. Senate. Her bill – S. 105, the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act – strips all abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, of federal funding under Title X of the Public Health Service Act. “Tennesseans and the American people do not want their tax dollars funding abortions,” Blackburn said in a statement on Twitter. “They have made this position clear time and again. Hardworking taxpayers do not want to subsidize the business of abortion providers and entities such as Planned Parenthood.” Today, I introduced my first bill in the United States Senate, S. 105, the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act, which strips all abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, of federal funding. pic.twitter.com/UwtbwGt1wd — Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) January 10, 2019 U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO-04) on Wednesday introduced the House version of the bill, Life News reported. Blackburn has a long history of standing up for the rights of the pre-born. Last August, Blackburn, then a Senate candidate, announced she had assembled a pro-life coalition of more than 500 advocates from across Tennessee, The Tennessee Star reported. Blackburn said in August, “The first of our rights is…

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Supreme Court Could Take up Case in Indiana’s Ban on Disease-Based Abortions

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by Kevin Daley   The Supreme Court may soon take up its first significant abortion controversy under the newly solidified conservative majority. The case at issue is a challenge to an Indiana law forbidding abortions on the basis of an unborn baby’s sex, race or disability and requires doctors to inform their patients of the same. The law also obliges medical professionals to cremate or bury fetal remains. Vice President Mike Pence signed the legislation during his tenure as governor of Indiana. Pro-life advocates say the law is needed to protect the dignity of post-abortive unborn babies and prevent eugenic abortions. But pro-choice groups warn that the statute undermines the legal foundations of abortion by advancing the cause of fetal personhood and permitting government scrutiny of a woman’s reasons for terminating a pregnancy. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky challenged the law in court. A federal judge in Indianapolis permanently barred enforcement of the law in 2017. A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that decision. The panel unanimously agreed that the anti-selective termination provisions were unconstitutional because they effectively amounted to an “absolute prohibition” on abortions. However, the panel split two to one as…

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Planned Parenthood Accused of Mistreating Pregnant Employees

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by Grace Carr   A number of former and current Planned Parenthood employees claim the organization mistreats and discriminates against pregnant employees and new mothers. Former Planned Parenthood employee Ta’Lisa Hairston alleged the abortion organization didn’t allow her to take breaks during her pregnancy, which a nurse recommended because of her high blood pressure, The New York Times reported Thursday. Hairston says she sent a number of requests to human resources and included notes from her nurse at Full Circle Women’s Health, according to TheNYT. Hairston became sick after working a long shift in March and went to the hospital a few days later, where doctors performed an emergency C-section, she said. Hairston says she joined the organization because of its mission. “Planned Parenthood helped me give women a voice to do what they wanted with their bodies,” she said. She resigned in June following Planned Parenthood’s alleged mistreatment. “I didn’t get into the medical field to be treated like this.” Planned Parenthood’s regional chief executive Vincent Russell denies Hairston’s accusations. The former director of Planned Parenthood’s clinical services in White Plains, Tracy Webber, sued the organization in 2009 for discrimination, TheNYT reported. She was fired four weeks after giving birth. A Planned Parenthood employee at a clinic…

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Kavanaugh Joins Liberals to Protect Pro-Planned Parenthood Ruling

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by Kevin Daley   The Supreme Court declined to review three cases relating to Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood at the state level Monday, over a vigorous dissent from Justice Clarence Thomas. The dissent was significant because it indicates that Justice Brett Kavanaugh sided with the high court’s liberal wing to deny review of a lower court decision that favored the nation’s largest abortion provider. “So what explains the Court’s refusal to do its job here?,” Thomas wrote. “I suspect it has something to do with the fact that some respondents in these cases are named ‘Planned Parenthood.’” “Some tenuous connection to a politically fraught issue does not justify abdicating our judicial duty,” Thomas added. “If anything, neutrally applying the law is all the more important when political issues are in the background.” [Read Justice Thomas’ dissent] Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch joined the Thomas dissent, meaning there were three votes in favor of taking the case. Since four votes are needed for the Supreme Court to take up a case, the opinion indicates that Chief Justice John Roberts and Kavanaugh joined with the four liberals to deny review. This move could indicate that Roberts and Kavanaugh are…

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MyPillow’s Mike Lindell Helping Fund Conservative Movies in Hollywood

Anthony Gockowski

Minnesota businessman and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is trying his hand at Hollywood after investing $1 million in a new movie that offers a critical look at Planned Parenthood. The movie, titled Unplanned, had to be filmed in secret due to the sensitive nature of its subject, The Hollywood Reporter reveals, but that hasn’t stopped Lindell from speaking about his role in the film. “I don’t get into things for the money; I get into them if the message is right,” Lindell told The Hollywood Reporter, which notes that Lindell previously backed a Christian movie called Church People. Lindell’s investment in Unplanned amounts to one-sixth of the film’s whole production budget, and was made by the creators of such films as God’s Not Dead and I Can Only Imagine, which both grossed more than $60 million at the box office. The film is based on a book of the same title, and tells the true story of Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic director and spokesperson who went on to become one of the nation’s most outspoken critics of abortion. “I’m pro-life and I’m happy to do it,” said Lindell, who makes a cameo in the movie set to…

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ACLU Criticized For Suggesting Title IX Proposal Inappropriately Favors The Accused

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by Neetu Chandak   The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is receiving push back after suggesting a U.S. Department of Education proposal for Title IX reform “inappropriately” favored the accused, on Twitter Friday. The DOE released a proposal Friday with sweeping changes to Title IX, a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs receiving government financial assistance. Changes ranged from narrowing the definition of “sexual harassment” to stronger protections for the accused. It promotes an unfair process, inappropriately favoring the accused and letting schools ignore their responsibility under Title IX to respond promptly and fairly to complaints of sexual violence. — ACLU (@ACLU) November 16, 2018 “It promotes an unfair process, inappropriately favoring the accused and letting schools ignore their responsibility under Title IX to respond promptly and fairly to complaints of sexual violence,” the ACLU tweeted Friday. Title IX is a federal statute passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972. “Far too many students have been forced to go to court to ensure their rights are protected because the Department has not set out legally binding rules that hold schools accountable for responding to allegations of sexual harassment in a supportive, fair manner,” Secretary of…

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This Clinic Has Performed More Than 500 Abortions – Over 300 of Which Were Second and Third Trimester Cases – Since October 2017

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by Grace Carr   Abortion doctor LeRoy Carhart has aborted over 500 second and third trimester babies since opening an abortion clinic in October 2017. Carhart opened an abortion clinic in Bethesda, Maryland in mid-October 2017, and has performed over 500 abortions to date, according to communications director Chelsea Souder, HuffPo reported Wednesday. Approximately 75 percent of those abortions have been second and third trimester abortions, HuffPo reported. Many of the women who’ve come to the clinic for abortions are from Mexico, Canada, Europe, South America and Central America, according to Souder. HuffPo calls Carhart “one of the country’s most public and polarizing abortion providers … offering pregnancy termination through roughly 28 weeks’ gestation and sometimes beyond.” The clinic offers “advanced gestation abortion,” per its website description. The clinic lists its abortion services, which include medication abortions, first trimester surgical abortions, second trimester multi-day abortions, induction abortions, maternal/fetal indication abortions, and self-induced abortions. Carhart previously performed late-term abortions at a clinic in Nebraska but left the state after it passed a law banning abortions after 20 weeks in 2010. Maryland’s abortion laws are more relaxed than most states, allowing Carhart to perform abortions up until viability, a flexible definition permitting him to perform abortions through the third…

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This Clinic Has Performed More Than 500 Abortions – Over 300 of Which Were Second and Third Trimester Cases – Since October 2017

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by Grace Carr   Abortion doctor LeRoy Carhart has aborted over 500 second and third trimester babies since opening an abortion clinic in October 2017. Carhart opened an abortion clinic in Bethesda, Maryland in mid-October 2017, and has performed over 500 abortions to date, according to communications director Chelsea Souder, HuffPo reported Wednesday. Approximately 75 percent of those abortions have been second and third trimester abortions, HuffPo reported. Many of the women who’ve come to the clinic for abortions are from Mexico, Canada, Europe, South America and Central America, according to Souder. HuffPo calls Carhart “one of the country’s most public and polarizing abortion providers … offering pregnancy termination through roughly 28 weeks’ gestation and sometimes beyond.” The clinic offers “advanced gestation abortion,” per its website description. The clinic lists its abortion services, which include medication abortions, first trimester surgical abortions, second trimester multi-day abortions, induction abortions, maternal/fetal indication abortions, and self-induced abortions. Carhart previously performed late-term abortions at a clinic in Nebraska but left the state after it passed a law banning abortions after 20 weeks in 2010. Maryland’s abortion laws are more relaxed than most states, allowing Carhart to perform abortions up until viability, a flexible definition permitting him to perform abortions through the third…

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Planned Parenthood Says it Puts Women First, But This Missouri Clinic Proves Otherwise.

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by Monica Burke and Genevieve McNalis   Planned Parenthood claims to put women first, yet the atrocious health code violations found at a Missouri clinic earlier this month suggest otherwise. The abortion giant was campaigning against newly proposed regulations on Missouri abortion clinics when state inspectors discovered a clinic in Columbia, Missouri, was already in violation of existing state regulations. The clinic’s license was due to expire in October, so in anticipation, the state health department made its routine inspection of the facility in August. In that inspection, the department discovered disgusting and dangerous health violations such as moldy equipment and bodily fluid on recently used equipment. The state informed Planned Parenthood of these health violations and expected the organization to correct them immediately. Not only did the clinic fail to do so, it continued operating for over a month without correcting the violations. When the state visited the clinic again on Sept. 26, 2018, they discovered additional violations. They found bloody single-use plastic tubing attached to the machine’s glass suction canister that was never disposed of after the last abortion procedure on Sept. 21, along with machines covered in mold and bodily fluid. The department also found rusty machines…

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Bredesen Says on Video He is ‘Fine’ With Planned Parenthood Receiving Federal Funds, Has ‘No Problem’ With Abortions

Jason M. Reynolds

Phil Bredesen said he had no interest in halting federal funds for Planned Parenthood in a video captured by the Tennessee Republican Party, Politico says. The publication says the topic could become a campaign factor. Watch the video: The Democratic former governor, who is running for the U.S. Senate, told a GOP tracker that he’s “fine” with federal funds going to Planned Parenthood for non-abortion services. A tracker works for a party or other entity to capture candidates’ gaffes on video. About abortion services, Bredesen said: “I don’t have a problem with them doing it.” He called himself “‘pro-choice,’ but emphasized again that federal funds aren’t used for that purpose. “I’m not the least bit interested in defunding Planned Parenthood,” Bredesen said. When Bredesen was governor, Planned Parenthood received state funds that were prohibited from being used for abortion services, Politico said. In a press release, the Tennessee Republican Party pointed out a majority of Tennesseans hold pro-life views. The Daily Caller has called out Bredesen’s waffling on abortion, saying he has “some skeletons in his closet concerning ties to Planned Parenthood and advocating for the public to fund Down syndrome abortions.” The Daily Caller quotes Bredesen as telling The…

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TennCare Releases Abortion Statistics

Chris Butler

Over the past five years TennCare has paid for, on average, three abortions per year. TennCare spokeswoman Sarah Tanksley told The Tennessee Star that TennCare only covers abortions in “extremely limited circumstances” required by federal law — rape, incest, or when the mother’s life is endangered. These were among some of the statistics the Tennessee Department of Health released this week at The Star’s request. According to TennCare statistics, in 2017 TennCare covered six abortions, all falling within federal requirements. The state spent $2,026.54. The year before, TennCare covered three abortions, and the state dollar spend for that was $765.55. Meanwhile, in 2015 TennCare covered one abortion with the state spending $519.27. The Star also requested stats on how much money the state gave Planned Parenthood during the past three fiscal years. The organization received $14,787.92 in 2015. That amount more than doubled to $31,855.97 the following year. In 2017 the amount decreased slightly to $27,679. “Please note that these (Planned Parenthood) expenditures were for family planning services,” Tanksley said in an emailed statement regarding the organization. Planned Parenthood offers family planning services as well as abortions. “No Medicaid dollars were used to pay for abortions performed at Planned Parenthood…

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Carol Swain Commentary: Abortion and the Progressive Campaign for Black Self-Annihilation

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Carol Swain

by Dr. Carol M. Swain   Do black lives matter to “progressive” black women? A new billboard in Dallas, Texas, made headlines last week with a controversial message encouraging black women to have no qualms about aborting their unborn babies. Three attractive, young black women with bright smiles greet passing motorists with a deceptive message to entice black women to snuff out the lives of inconvenient and unwanted pre-born babies. The message proclaimed: “Black women take care of their families by taking care of themselves first. ABORTION IS SELF-CARE.” This enticement to take care of yourself first by aborting your unwanted unborn babies is not sponsored by a white supremacist group, although the funding for the sponsoring organization could easily have come from an anti-black organization seeking to use eugenics to cleanse the population of meddlesome blacks. The sponsoring organization is The Afiya Center, which purports to stand for reproductive rights and women’s health. ‘Reproductive rights’ is an euphemism for abortion. Afiya is no doubt tied into leftist progressive groups and black-loathing liberals willing to donate to such a cause. Afyia’s billboard lists the hashtag “TrustBlackWomen,” which insulates it from criticism an overtly white-run organization would deservingly get. An investigative reporter…

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Report: Tennessee to Get Tough with Planned Parenthood

Chris Butler
Planned Parenthood

Tennessee officials may soon have the power to stop Medicaid dollars from going to clinics in Tennessee that perform abortions. This is meant to curb the power and influence of Planned Parenthood in Tennessee, according to a new article in Bloomberg. “The move signals growing GOP interest in using administrative means to rein in providers that offer abortion and underscores state confidence in the Trump administration’s friendliness to the conservative policy priority,” the website reported. Nationwide, the group received $543.7 million in taxpayer money in fiscal year 2016. Medicaid funds generally can’t get used to cover most abortions under the Hyde Amendment, Bloomberg reported. The Tennessee Star has requested state officials give specific information about how much money abortion providers in Tennessee have received through Medicaid during the past three fiscal years. The Star expects to receive that information sometime next week. Tennessee officials are asking the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to block providers that performed more than 50 abortions in the past year from its Section 1115 Medicaid waiver, Bloomberg reported. The publication quoted an unidentified spokeswoman for the state’s Medicaid program TennCare. “Public comments on the request close Sept. 23,” Bloomberg reported. TennCare pays for health care…

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The ‘Most Damning’ Undercover Videos Revealing Planned Parenthood Sold Aborted Baby Parts Might Go Public

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Center for Medical Progress undercover video

by Grace Carr    – The Center for Medical Progress (CMP) and David Daleiden filed three motions in San Francisco federal court Wednesday.   – The National Abortion Federation (NAF) sued CMP in 2015 accusing CMP and David Daleiden of trespassing, fraud and illegal videotaping.  – CMP released videos, footage and transcripts in 2015 exposing Planned Parenthood’s alleged illegal sale of fetal tissue. A “damning” set of undercover videos allegedly revealing the illegal sale of aborted baby body parts might soon be released to the public if the court decides to lift its gag order barring the footage from publication. The Center for Medical Progress (CMP) and David Daleiden filed three motions in San Francisco federal court Wednesday evening, asking the court to dissolve the injunction barring CMP from releasing its remaining footage allegedly showing Planned Parenthood leaders selling aborted baby parts. CMP is also asking the court to dismiss the National Abortion Federation’s (NAF) 2015 lawsuit, “National Abortion Federation (NAF) v. Center for Medical Progress,” accusing CMP and David Daleiden of trespassing, fraud and illegal videotaping. Planned Parenthood also filed a lawsuit against CMP in 2016. CMP’s Wednesday motions claim the facts justifying Judge William Orrick’s 2016 gag order are no longer valid following a number of findings and…

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Tennessee Pastors Network Issues Pro-Life Pledge for Candidates to Show Commitment to Defund Planned Parenthood

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Dale Walker Pro-Life Pledge

The Tennessee Pastors Network issued a pro-life pledge on Thursday for candidates for all levels of offices in Tennessee designed to show their commitment to defund Planned Parenthood “Pastor Dale Walker, President of the Tennessee Pastors Network, is calling on Tennessee candidates for Governor, Congress, State House and State Senate to put their “pro-life” words into action. The Tennessee Pastors Network Pro-Life Pledge can be printed out by candidates from the Tennessee Pastors Network website and returned with their signatures and those of two witnesses. Tennessee Pastors Network will list those who have signed the Pro-Life Pledge on the website,” the Tennessee Pastors Network (TPN) said in a statement. “We’re in the midst of all this election season heading into the August 2 primaries on the Democrat and Republican sides. A lot of candidates, particularly on the Republican side, are talking about how pro life they are,” Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill said on Thursday’s edition of the Gill Report, broadcast live on WETR 92.3 FM in Knoxville. “Some of these folks who are talking about being so pro-life are the same ones that have voted to fund Planned Parenthood.It’s important to look at what they do, not what they…

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United Airlines Severs Ties with NRA, Continues to Contribute to Planned Parenthood: Watchdog

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United Airlines cut ties with the National Rifle Association after the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, but continues to donate to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. In a tweet on Saturday, the airline said it notified the NRA “that we will no longer be offering a discounted rate to their annual meeting” and asked to be removed from the gun-rights group’s website.

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State Rep. Jimmy Matlock Files Bill To End Taxpayer Assistance of Abortion Clinics

Laura Baigert

NASHVILLE – In a press conference held the same day he filed a bill to put an end to Tennessee taxpayer dollars funding abortion clinics, State Rep. Jimmy Matlock (R-Lenoir City) appeared with Senate sponsor Mike Bell (R-Riceville), and debunked the narrative that Tennessee abortion providers are fully defunded. “The fact is,” Matlock said, accompanied by 20 legislators explained to members of the news media, “through the form of TennCare reimbursements, abortion providers still receive some state taxpayer money.” Through the required 90-10 federal-state match, over $1 million has been paid to these facilities over the past six years, according to Matlock. It’s “our money, [so] we should have a say where it goes,” he said. House Bill 2251 instructs the Commissioner of Finance & Administration “to seek a Medicaid waiver under the current TennCare II waiver to be able to exclude providers who perform elective abortions from receiving taxpayer dollars.” “We argue that these dollars do, in fact, support abortion clinics and, therefore, abortion.” As such, Matlock vowed, “We will see this bill through, and end taxpayer support of abortion facilities.” The House bill has 22 co-sponsors, including Speaker Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) who spoke of her long-standing pro-life position and support…

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Abortion, Not Birth Control, is Pushing U.S. Pregnancy Rates Down

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Legalized abortion is a bigger factor than broader access to birth control in the declining U.S. birthrate and steadily shrinking family sizes, according to new research by a Middlebury College professor. “The results suggest that policies governing access to the pill had little, if any effect, on the average probabilities of marrying and giving birth at a young age,”Middlebury College Professor Caitlin Knowles Myers wrote in The Journal of Political Economy in a that received little notice in the mainstream media.

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‘Abortion is Normal’ Event to Be Held at University of Tennessee-Knoxville

Wendy Wilson

The University of Tennessee-Knoxville will hold a pro-abortion event Monday called “Abortion is Normal.” The event was organized by the Women’s Coordinating Council, a feminist student organization, and is supported by the Department of Sociology and the Women, Gender and Sexuality Program. Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee is promoting the event. Amelia Bonow, a founder of the #ShoutYourAbortion movement, and Poppy Liu, who documented her abortion story in a short film, are the guest speakers. At Middle Tennessee State University on Thursday, the Planned Parenthood-affiliated student group Generation Action hosted a screening of Liu’s film and a discussion with the filmmaker. Bonow’s movement was launched two years ago in response to efforts to defund Planned Parenthood after news broke of a baby body part trafficking scandal. Bonow wrote a column for Salon.com in which she spoke of her own abortion experience. “My abortion made me happy,” she wrote. “It’s perfectly reasonable to feel happy that you were not forced to become a mother. Your life belongs to nobody but you; don’t ever let someone make you feel any other way.” Pro-lifers responded with messages with a  #ShoutYourAdoption hashtag and calls to Shout Your Baby. At Monday’s event, Liu, whose film is called…

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Abortion Is Weapon to Keep Blacks Under Control Says Commentator Kevin Jackson

Jason M. Reynolds

The battle over access to abortions is a battle of life and death. One black conservative activist also says it’s a battle against racism. Black Lives Matter, an activist group founded in 2012 and which says it protects black lives, lists a number of causes it stands for, from globalism to transgender affirming to black feminism. The website’s category for family advocacy lists “dismantling the patriarchal practice that requires mothers to work ‘double shifts’ that require them to mother in private even as they participate in justice work.” Nowhere does the lists of causes mention preventing the abortion of black babies. Political commentator Kevin Jackson, who is black, said he does not consider Black Lives Matter to be an actual group. Instead, it pretends at humanitarian efforts, said Jackson, who publishes TheBlackSphere.net blog. His site says he wants to “set the record straight on the destruction of the black community at the hand of the Democratic Party.” Jackson is a talk radio host on Salem Communications, author of such books as “Race Pimping: The Multi-Trillion Dollar Business of Liberalism” and a regular Fox News political commentator. The eugenics movement has always sought to “keep the population of blacks at what they call…

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