NJ Board of Medical Examiners Votes to Adopt Abortion Rules Which Will Place Women's Lives in Danger

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Contact: Marie Tasy, Executive Director

732 562 0562

PRESS RELEASE

September 10, 2020--

New Jersey Right to Life, the state’s largest pro-life advocacy organization, issued the following Press Release after learning that the NJ Board of Medical Examiners (NJBME) voted unanimously yesterday to change the rules governing abortion. 

As stated in the NJBME;’s  Press release, proposed regulatory changes include:

• repealing the Termination of Pregnancy rule that singles out abortion care for targeted regulation by, among other things, requiring that all terminations of pregnancy be performed only by a physician, and barring office-based terminations beyond 14 weeks gestation;

• clearing the path for Advanced Practice Nurses, Physician Assistants, and Certified Nurse Midwives and Certified Midwives to perform early aspiration terminations of pregnancy (in addition to medication-based termination of pregnancy, which is already permitted); and

• updating the regulations to integrate reproductive care within the generally applicable rules designed to ensure the safety of patients who undergo surgery or special procedures in an office setting.

These proposed rules will be posted on-line in the New Jersey Register in the coming months and the public will have a chance to comment on this proposal. 

“This was obviously a stealth, backdoor plan which commenced with the election of Governor Murphy to adopt an extreme NY-style abortion law to accede to the demands of his abortion supporters.  Contrary to the NJ Board of Medical Examiners' false assertions, abortion is not a safe procedure and these proposed rules are sure to place women's lives and health in danger.  Through their actions, the NJ Board of Medical Examiners' has clearly forfeited their credibility as an independent agency whose paramount responsibility is to protect the public’s health, safety, and welfare.  The rules certainly don't protect women, but instead protect those who shamefully seek to make a profit off of the bodies of women and the death of innocent children,” said NJRTL Executive Director Marie Tasy.   

Has the NJFPC lost its moral authority?

The New Jersey Family Policy Council (NJFPC) is a not-for-profit corporation organized under Section 501(c)(3) of the IRS Code.  The group is supposed to be educational, not political.  According to its public filings with the IRS, the NJFPC has been around since 1996.  It’s mission is to support traditional conservative religious values such as the right-to-life.

The NJFPC is run by Len Deo, who as President of the NJFPC received a salary of $103,225.00 in 2016.  William Horsey is the Chairman and Ray Velez is the Vice Chairman/Treasurer.  They, along with 8 trustees, are responsible for the actions of the NJFPC.  The NJFPC also operates a lobby organization called NJ Family First, but this organization does not appear to be genuinely independent, relying totally on the operations of its parent for its existence. 

According to the public records filed with the IRS, the NJFPC was recently operating in the red.  Salaries account for most of the NJFPC’s outflow.   Since 2014, financial contributions to the NJFPC have steeply declined. 

So where did they come up with the money to trash a pro-life, conservative candidate in a Republican Primary?

Just before the June 5th Republican primary, NJ Family First – a subsidiary of the New Jersey Family Policy Council – did something it has never done before.  It instructed Republican primary voters on how to vote, explicitly telling them to vote for one candidate and against another.

They had never done so against a Democrat.  Even the most liberal, far-left, anti-traditional values, pro-abortion Democrats have been spared this kind of treatment.  They saved this kind of trashing for a Republican.

And guess which Republican they attacked?

Yes, the NJFPC attacked the most consistently Pro-Life/Pro-Traditional Values Republican in New Jersey.  The conservative Republican who led the fight and who put the money together to defeat the 2007 ballot question to use taxpayer money to fund embryonic stem-cell research in New Jersey.  The conservative Republican who led the fight and who put the money together to defeat Garden State Equality’s same-sex marriage legislative push in 2009-10.  The conservative Republican who led the fight and who put the money together to stop the nomination of left-wing sexologist Janet Rosenzweig as the State’s Commissioner of the Department of Children and Families. 

The NJFPC chose to attack Steve Lonegan, a conservative Republican who was ENDORSED by the New Jersey Right to Life PAC, the National Right to Life PAC, United States Senator Ted Cruz, United States Senator Rand Paul, State Senator Mike Doherty, State Senator Gerry Cardinale, State Senator Joe Pennacchio, State Senator Steve Oroho, and every other Pro-Life Legislator in the State.

Why?  And from where did they get the money to pay for the attack?

The answer to that question might lay with who the NJFPC’s attack mailer asked voters to support:  Pro-abortion candidate John McCann.  Yes, the same John McCann who challenged Scott Garrett and Gerry Cardinale for the 5th District Congressional seat in 2002 on the grounds that they were “Pro-Life” and “too conservative.”

Just days before the NJFPC’s attack mailer hit, McCann was quoted in the Bergen Record (June 1, 2018):

“Lonegan is staunchly pro-life, and recently told an audience at the Knights of Columbus in Fair Lawn that he'd support every anti-abortion bill that came before him. He's tried to tag McCann as being pro-choice, but McCann says the label doesn't fit.  

‘I believe that life begins at conception,’ McCann said.

But when asked whether he would support any future bill to further limit abortion, McCann indicated he would not.

‘The law is what is,’ he said.”

John McCann has made so many contradictory  statements regarding traditional values, conservatives, abortion – even with regards to his own spouse (an OB-GYN physician).  McCann is clearly uncomfortable with the people who support groups like the NJFPC.  Year in and year out, the New Jersey Family Policy Council pleads for money from good traditional values conservatives.  Is this how NJFPC uses its good name?

How is the New Jersey Family Policy Council ever going to get its good name back?  Having seen its endorsement so obviously compromised – some would say “bought” – how can the NJFPC hold its head up to take a principled stand?  How can it ever be taken seriously again?

Republican Lawmakers Caught in Planned Parenthood Trap Face Rebellion from NJ Voters

PRESS RELEASE

Contact:  Marie Tasy, Executive Director                                                                                      732 562 0562

Republican Lawmakers Caught in Planned Parenthood Trap Face Rebellion from NJ Voters

July 13, 2017--

The Star Ledger has reported that 4 Republican lawmakers have committed to change their No votes and now intend to vote to force the taxpayers of NJ to fund the Planned Parenthood abortion business, despite the organization's terrible record in NJ of engaging in waste, fraud and abuse and despite the evidence which shows that NJ women's health care services are being met, provided and funded through the FQHCs. 

 "Republican Lawmakers who vote to fund Planned Parenthood will undoubtedly face a backlash by voters in their districts in November," said Marie Tasy, Executive Director of New Jersey Right to Life.

Record of Waste, Fraud and Abuse

The U.S. Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services performed an audit during the period when our state funded Planned Parenthood and uncovered a consistent problem with New Jersey-based family planning clinics run by the NJ Planned Parenthood abortion business.  The government audit found that they were improperly billing Medicaid for services that did not qualify as family planning.

An initial audit revealed New Jersey improperly received federal reimbursement at the enhanced 90 percent rate for 160,955 prescription drug claims that were billed as family planning, but did not qualify as family planning services. A letter from the Inspector General to New Jersey officials recommended that New Jersey repay $2,219,746 to the federal government.

See p. 5 of the audit:

https://oig.hhs.gov/oas/reports/region2/20601010.pdf

In 2011, an employee at Planned Parenthood of Central New Jersey in Perth Amboy, NJ  was caught on video willing to aid and abet undercover investigators posing as sex traffickers of minors.

Central Jersey Planned Parenthood fires worker after release of undercover video

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/02/planned_parenthood_employee_is.html

In addition, a 2011 inspection performed by the surveyors from the Dept of Health found 39 deficiencies for Planned Parenthood of Mercer Areafor, among other things,  improper use of syringes and compounds, improper training and qualifications of staff on pain management and health care counseling (including abortion services), failure to have an infection control program in place, failure to have hot running water in facility, failure to require physical exam for staff and failure to test staff for rubella, and TB tests, improper use of and sterilization of medical instruments and devices, including a vaginal ultrasound and several other sanitary and safety violations involving patient care and many other administrative deficiencies.  This facility also provides “family planning services.”   (Obtained by NJRTL through OPRA. )

"It is unconscionable that these lawmakers want to force the hard working citizens of NJ to fund an organization that is so unworthy of our tax dollars.  This is an organization that proves time and again that they don't care about women, only their bottom line, and we should not be funding them with our tax dollars. Planned Parenthood is a private, non-profit organization that has the ability to raise their own funds. Any lawmaker who wants to support them is free to do so through their own bank account, but shouldn't be forcing the hard working citizens of NJ to fund them.  We plan to monitor this issue and keep NJ voters informed about this important matter that affects all NJ taxpayers, "said Tasy.

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Marie Tasy is the Executive Director of New Jersey Right to Life.