Monday Minute : The Difference between Privacy and Secrecy

Thoughts from our director.

The first two months of 2011 have been challenging for Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion business. They claim to be “America’s most trusted provider of reproductive health care”, but the nature and volume of the attention they are getting could threaten the trust they want to have with the American public—and rightly so.

In Kansas, a case against Planned Parenthood continues in which 107 charges have been filed for making false information, failing to maintain records, and conducting illegal late-term abortions. In Virginia, New Jersey, and New York, Planned Parenthood employees were caught telling underage girls how to get around abortion laws, hiding the age of statutory rapists, and telling pimps how to get abortions for the victims of their child-trafficking.

Legislative Update

By Rebecca Faust

With the legislature's policy committee deadline passed, here's an update on where several bills are at.

In general, bills that weren't reported out of policy committee by Monday, February 21st, can't be passed this session. Fiscal committees have through today to report bills out of committee. These deadlines are only for bills in their chamber of origin (e.g. a House bill would need to be reported out of a House committee, but if it passes the House it can still be considered by a Senate policy committee at a later date). Budget bills are exempt from the committee deadlines.

Redefining Marriage

By Rebecca Faust


Legislators introduced two bills last week aimed at redefining marriage in Washington to include same-sex couples. Senator Ed Murray sponsored SB 5793, which was introduced on Monday, February 14th. Representative Jim Moeller sponsored HB 1963, which was introduced on Tuesday, February 15th. Both bills also had a number of co-sponsors.

Public Hearing on HB 1267 Scheduled for Tuesday

By Rebecca Faust

Substitute House Bill 1267, overhauling Washington's parentage laws, has been scheduled for a public hearing in the House General Government Appropriations and Oversight Committee next Tuesday.

You can find detailed information about HB 1267 on the legislature's website, but here are a couple of highlights that may interest you:

• HB 1267 would allow women to enter into a paid surrogacy contract, become pregnant through assisted reproduction, and give up their child for financial profit. Surrogacy contracts are binding in the sense that once a woman enters a contract, she can't decide to keep her child as her own. However, she would not need the consent of the intended parents to seek an abortion for any reason during the pregnancy.