Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48:
At that time, John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.” Jesus replied, “Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us. Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward. “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'”
Blog:
I wasn’t too sure about what a millstone was, so I certainly didn’t know how much one weighed. For those who, like me, don’t know what a millstone is, it’s the big, round piece of solid, hewn rock that looks quite often like a wheel. A millstone is typically used in gristmills for grinding wheat or other grains. The actual weight of the runner stone can weigh as much as 3,300 pounds. Its weight combined with the cutting action from the porous stone and the patterning that cause the milling process. So, when Jesus claims in the Gospel, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea”, He was being crystal clear with all of us. If we “hurt” the weakest amongst us (children, babies), we would be better off drowning than the potential hell that we could have waiting for us after God’s final judgement.
I have to say that over the past 20+ years, I’ve been an avid “pro-life” supporter; or, so, I thought I was. It turns out, I, like many, was sleep walking through the “pro-life” movement. What I mean by that is that I had no idea how wide this evil had spread all in the name of healthcare. And, I certainly had no idea that it had evolved into the food and banking industries, as well as into the governments (which are using tax dollars to fund abortion), academia, and the universities.
It is estimated that since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion via the Roe vs. Wade court case in 1973, there have been over 60 million abortions in the U.S. and over 1.7 billion abortions world-wide. To give us some scale on this genocide, that’s more than the roughly 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis between 1941 and 1945 or the estimated 60 million Jews that were murdered under Stalin, Lenin, and the like by communists in Russia and Eastern Europe. It’s also more than the Rwandan genocide is estimated at around 500,000 to 800,000 Tutsi deaths and total death toll (including Hutu and Twa victims) as high as 1,100,000. It’s also more than many indigenous people; including the Mayans, Incans, and Aztecs who all sacrificed children and babies for their gods (archaeologists are still digging-up mass graves in Latin and South America of children and babies). To make a final point on the scale, these abortion estimates are based on reported abortions and don’t even include the ones that were “unofficially” performed. Planned Parenthood executes roughly 10,000 babies every Saturday in the U.S. While this is all done under the guise of women’s healthcare, this is big, big business.
According to the Daily Signal (which used data from a U.S. House Select Investigative Panel), fetal brains go for about $3,300 each, fetal tissue samples go for about $600 each, fetal limbs with hands and feet go for about $890, baby skulls got for about $600. One purchase order from a customer (who was in research) paid almost $43,000 for fetal body parts; including 38 brains, 12 hearts, 3 upper and lower limbs, 5 livers, and 12 pancreases. You can actually go to biomedical company websites if you’re looking for fetal cells; which includes one such site even listing the prices for various fetal liver products – ranging from $488 for a vial of half-a-million “cryopreserved” cells up to $24,250 for a vial of 5 million cells.
Planned Parenthood is only one of many abortion providers. If you just look at their numbers, you’re just scratching the surface of this pandemic. According to LifeNews.com in 2015, ‘Planned Parenthood, according to its own reported data, commits 327,653 abortions each year, which it brags is “40 percent of the market in the whole country.” According to Planned Parenthood’s Director of Medical Research, abortionist Deborah Nucatola, the going rate for babies’ body parts is “anywhere from $30 to $100.” And according to the president of Planned Parenthood’s Medical Directors’ Council, abortionist Mary Gatter, “maybe 60% to 70%, but a large percent of patients we approached would say yes” to having their aborted babies’ body parts harvested. Conservatively, Planned Parenthood could be taking in between $5,897,754 and $22,935,710 annually from selling aborted babies’ body parts.’
Given the global COVID crisis of 2020, the perceived urgent need for mRNA therapeutical shots (like the ones from Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson), sparked even more attention on leveraging fetal cell lines in the name of science. All four therapies are linked to using aborted fetal cell lines in one form or another (either during the product and/or development processes). But, that shouldn’t surprise everyone, because, apparently, we’ve been using aborted fetus cell lines to develop all kinds of medication over the past decades; including potentially (and just to name a few) the MMR II (Merck), ProQuad (MMR + varicella – Merck), Varivax (Varicella – Merck), Pentacel (DTaP Polio + Hib + – Sanofi Pasteur), Vaqta (Hepatitis-A – Merck), Havrix (Hepatitis-A – Glaxo SmithKline), Twinrix (Hepatitis-A and B combo – Glaxo), Zostavax (Shingles – Merck), Imovax (Rabia – Sanofi Pasteur), Pulmozyme (cystic fibrosis – Genetech), and Enbrel (rheumatoid arthritis – Amgen). When you ask about it, many are told that these aren’t fetal cell lines, but cloned cells from fetal cell lines from the 1970’s. But the process is the same; a baby gets aborted, their body parts and cells are harvested, grown in cultures, and sold commercially to researchers who then use the cells to create a clone of the aborted child. So, they argue that they’re only killing a clone to get the stem cells and it’s different from abortion. Again, it all starts with a woman electing to abort her baby and then the demonic vultures come a calling.
While this has been going on for decades, in recent times, it seems to be getting even more medically-acceptable and financially-lucrative. According to a report in the National Catholic Register, in July of 2020, Scientific Reports published their findings on racial differences in fetal exposure to flame retardants (which used 249 second-trimester abortions and was funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institute of Environmental Health Services). In that same month of July, Yale University’s Department of Immunology reported in the journal Science on the development of immunities in newborns (which used 15 second trimester, aborted babies from the University of Washington and was funded, again, by the NIH, a fellowship at Yale, and Pew Charitable Trusts). And, in September of 2020, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh published their work on humanized mice and rats with human skin (which used samples from 18 to 20 weeks old fetuses and was funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)).
While medical, healthcare, and biomedical research seem more obvious to many in the “pro-life” movement, what might come as a shock is how abortion is being used to further profit the global food industry. Senomyx, a San Diego-based company has been using human embryonic kidneys (HEK 293) to test chemicals as possible flavor enhancers. Senomyx has been reported in the past to have contracts with giants like PepsiCo, Kraft, and Nestle to test flavor enhancers for their products. The company was eventually acquired in 2018 by Firmenich, the world’s largest privately-owned company in the fragrance and flavor business. Ironically enough, in October of 2020, Firmenich announced that it had created a flavor by means of artificial intelligence where it teamed with Bill Gates and Microsoft create a grilled beef taste into plant-based meat alternatives. Firmenich is now working with United Nations (UN) as a Global Compact LEAD company (part of the Great Reset). Per this relationship, Firmenich has actively embedded the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in its growth strategy and they join an elite circle of 36 LEAD companies, as the only player in its industry.
So, it became clearer and clearer to me that there was big money behind the abortion industry; both in the United States and internationally. But who is behind it? And how do they seem to be penetrating society and corporate America at all levels? It’s not too hard to find out as Planned Parenthood has public records available to all of us. Planned Parenthood (PP) is the largest provider of abortions in the United States with their reports indicating over 300,000 abortions per year or 30.6% of the nation’s abortions. That is 1 of every 8 patients seen by PP gets an abortion and they do 160 abortions for every 1 adoption referral. These are based on the numbers reported by the 68 affiliates and over 700 health centers operating with a budget of $1.3 billion; $553.7 million from tax dollars! In the numbers reported in 2015, the group spent $39.3 million on “public policy,” another $16.7 million to “engage communities,” and $4.6 million to “refresh our brand.” However, it’s not only the government that fills Planned Parenthood’s coffers. According to 2nd Vote, a website and app that tracks the flow of money from consumers to political causes, more than 25% of Planned Parenthood’s $1.3-billion annual revenue comes from private donations, which includes corporate contributions.
According to 2nd Vote’s 2013 research, these 39 corporations and organizations directly contribute to Planned Parenthood: Adobe, American Cancer Society, American Express, AT&T, Avon, Bank of America, Bath & Body Works, Ben & Jerry’s, Clorox, Converse, Deutsche Bank, Dockers, Energizer, Expedia, ExxonMobil, Fannie Mae, Groupon, Intuit, Johnson & Johnson, La Senza, Levi Strauss, Liberty Mutual, Macy’s, March of Dimes, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Nike, Oracle, Pepsi-Co, Pfizer, Progressive, Starbucks, Susan G. Komen, Tostitos, Unilever, United Way, Verizon, and Wells Fargo. When I first saw their top corporate donors, I was a bit surprised to see places like the American Cancer Society, March of Dimes, Susan G. Komen, and the United Way. But, that made more sense to me now that I was armed with the knowledge of all of the research that is going on via aborted babies, fetal cell tissue and lines, etc. It became pretty clear around their motivations – appalling as they might be to me and others.
If you were to look at Planned Parenthood’s private donations from 2010 – 2013, they would include an all-star list of “who’s who” in big business and Warren Buffett, the multi-billionaire is by far the top private contributor ($231M). HP is another big donor through the William and Flora Hewlett ($23M) and the David and Lucile Packard Foundations ($14.7M). George Soros (through the Open Society Institute) donated $18.4M to PP. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave $14.5M to PP over this span. Abortion’s biggest funder (Warren Buffett) is also a Gates Foundation trustee, and helps “shape and develop strategies” for the Foundation. Buffett is also a large contributor to the Gates Foundation. The liberal Ford Foundation has one of the most direct and strong connections to PP ($13.5M). The Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, a donor-driven fund, donated $10M anonymously via its core of donors.
All together, these top seven funders gave Planned Parenthood a total of $324.8 million between 2010 and 2013. Funding organizations that gave more than $1 million in 2010-2013 include the Huber Foundation: $6,200,000; Educational Foundation of America: $3,478,800; JPB Foundation: $3,323,993; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation: $2,900,000; Dyson Foundation: $2,463,000; George D. Smith Fund, Inc.: $2,200,000; Houston Endowment Inc.: $2,200,000; Grove Foundation: $2,164,500; Holland Foundation: $2,055,000; James and Rebecca Morgan Family Foundation: $1,985,000; Tulsa Community Foundation: $1,951,296; Peierls Foundation: $1,848,600; Perot Foundation: $1,780,000; Boston Foundation, Inc.: $1,779,300; California Wellness Foundation: $1,550,000; Minneapolis Foundation: $1,509,142; New York Community Trust: $1,456,450; Offield Family Foundation: $1,350,000; F. M. Kirby Foundation, Inc.: $1,325,000; Erik E. and Edith H. Bergstrom Foundation: $1,316,676; Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation: $1,200,000; Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, Inc.: $1,140,000; Weingart Foundation: $1,132,600; Greater Kansas City Community Foundation: $1,066,129. That’s a lot of zero’s in those number!?
Planned Parenthood’s donors have also been cross-pollenating the corporate world and various foundations with their own murderous staff. Warren Buffett has always been tight-lipped about his abortion support and channels most of the money through the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named after Buffett’s late wife, who was a strong supporter of abortion. Tracy Weitz, the Director of Domestic Programs at the Foundation, served as the manager of a San Francisco based Planned Parenthood for six years. Many of Buffet’s investments/companies are on the top corporate donor list. HP has its own Global Development and Population Program (to expand women’s choices about whether to have children) and was one of the core organizing groups for the 2015 International Conference on Family Planning (which promotes population control through abortion and contraception). Planned Parenthood, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and The David and Lucile Packard Foundation have also been part of each conference’s International Steering Committee since 2009. In mid-2014, HP hired Christine Clark, a previous Planned Parenthood employee, as a Program Officer in the Global Development and Population Program. Planned Parenthood’s “Population and Reproductive Health” Program is near and dear to the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Of the $14.7 million they gave between 2010 and 2013, nearly all went to that single program. Previous Planned Parenthood employees now working at the Packard Foundation include Lisa Dacey, Program Operations Manager for the Population and Reproductive Health program; and Felicia Madsen, Communications Director. George Soros, as the third largest donor to PP, has given grants to PP specifically to build centers in the “south and southeast regions” of the U.S. There are staff connections between his Open Society Foundation and PP; including David Berry, the Senior Communications Officer at Open Society, and Magda Ali, an Advisory Board Member who were both previously employed by Planned Parenthood. Eric Ferrero, the current Vice President of Communications at Planned Parenthood, was previously employed as the Deputy Director of U.S. Programs at Open Society Foundations. The list of companies that George Soros has an ownership across $402B+ in investments is staggering and shocking frankly. His list makes Warren Buffett’s list look like a pebble next to a mountain. Again, many of Soros’ companies are in the top corporate sponsor category. The Gates Foundation has also hired previous Planned Parenthood employees. A non-exhaustive list includes Clarissa Brundage, Associate Program Officer for Family Planning; Emily Lockwood, Program Officer; Mariah Richardson, Associate Program Officer for Global Policy & Advocacy; and Meg DeRonghe, Senior Program Officer for Global Policy & Advocacy. Laura Tolosa-Leiva, Program Assistant, is so on the Board of Advocates for Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s own president, Cecile Richards, is on the Ford Foundation’s Board of Trustees. Similar to the other organizations who fund Planned Parenthood, the Ford Foundation has its own Gender, Sexuality, and Reproductive Justice program which promotes the idea that “sexuality and the right to reproductive health are fundamental to the human experience.”
At this point, you might be feeling a bit overwhelmed, but we must remember Who is in charge and “who” is allowed to run amok in this world. Satan has been lying, deceiving, distorting, etc. for more than a millennium. We shouldn’t be too shocked that he’s secretly been working with those who may have sold their Souls for the love of money – the root of all evil. For those of us on the Faith front, money is a part of this world, but it’s not more important than our Eternal Salvation. While the bad guys may seem like they’re winning this battle, Jesus will ultimately win the war no matter what how bad things get here. That’s the Ultimate Hope, but there are other rays of Hope in a very dark, dark world.
So, no matter what odds face us in what, at times, can seem like an uphill battle, we are to be Faithful to God as He is Faithful to us. Whether or not we’ve been part of the abortion process and/or industry, there is Forgiveness, Healing, Grace, Mercy, and Love in the Arms of our Savior. Jesus often tells Sinners, “Go and sin no more.” In a Spirit of Love and with the humility of servants, let us do our best to repent of all of our sins, but especially today for the sin of abortion (for ourselves and others). While many of us have never been a part of this industry directly, all of us can probably say that we had no idea that it had gotten this bad and most of us can say that we’re not very active at all in the global pro-life movement. And, if we find ourselves starting to sleep-walk again around this topic, let’s go to the closest grain mill and try to pick-up a millstone!
P.S.: In September of 2021, the State of Texas passed a heartbeat law that was deemed legal by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Law prohibits abortions in Texas after the detection of the child’s heartbeat, which is currently 6 weeks gestation, although it can be detected as early as 5 weeks gestation. The bill and ensuing law were led by many people; including Abby Johnson, the CEO of Then There Were None. Michelle and I watched the movie “Unplanned” recently and, while it is a well-done movie, the subject of the movie is horrific and disturbing and it was very hard (but, essential) to watch. It shows Abby, a Planned Parenthood employee (and Director), who leaves PP after eight years with them. If you think that you know what an abortion is (or is not), we would encourage you to see this for yourself. Most people don’t know about the baby organ and cell harvesting or how many babies their associated, mutilated body parts you can get in the oil-drums typically found in the biomedical waste staging area outside abortion centers. Most people haven’t seen the gory, awful pictures and/or videos of what an abortion actually looks like and how the babies are extracted alive (and how the babies react to the attacks). If more people would “look” at these atrocities and share them with others, this pandemic would start to recede – and, we’d start to win the battle in front of us.
Maccabeus LLC 