Some of the wealthiest and most well-connected Republican donors are opposing the Pence Amendment and other similar efforts to defund Planned Parenthood being undertaken by House Republicans. Mark McKinnon, for instance, has penned an editorial in the Daily Beast condemning efforts to end federal funding to Planned Parenthood. McKinnon is a political strategist and advisor who has worked on the George W. Bush and John McCain presidential campaigns, and Bush affectionately called him �M-Kat� (Bush has developed pet-names for other prominent pro-choice Republicans, such as �Sweet Suzy� for Sen. Susan Collins and �the Big O� for Sen. Olympia Snowe). After Obama won the presidency, McKinnon became a founding member of the centrist group No Labels, advocating for pragmatism, as opposed to principles. His editorial reads in part:
Instead of leading the way on serious entitlement reforms and cutting the military budget, the Mike Pences of the party are taking giant steps backward by suggesting we cut funds to Planned Parenthood. Preying on effective and important programs just to score ideological points is unfortunate and politically ill-advised. This is shortsighted political posturing. It’s overreaching, and it’s why Republicans get a bad name with many independent voters and women.
In addition, prominent Pittsburgh industrialist Dick Scaife also expressed his opposition to the Pence Amendment. Scaife is pro-choice (the common euphemism for those who advocate no restrictions against abortion), and is a contributor to the WISH List, a PAC which donates money to pro-choice Republican women running for local, state, and federal elected office. His wife donated $2,000 to the campaign of John Kerry in 2004, as Scaife was a close friend of Kerry�s wife�s ex-husband, the late Sen. H. John Heinz, who was one of the GOP�s most liberal senators in the 1980s. In a Pittsburgh Tribune Review op-ed, Scaife explains his pro-choice views:
I met Margaret Sanger several times before her death in 1966 and was impressed by her intellect and her commitment to many issues, not the least of which was enabling every woman to be “the absolute mistress of her own body,” as she put it. So I am aggravated by the continuing attacks on Sanger and her primary legacy, the Planned Parenthood network that still serves so many today.
Now the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives � urged on by conservatives opposed to abortion � has voted to defund Planned Parenthood. On this issue, Republicans are dead wrong. If not for Margaret Sanger’s vision and bravery, many poor Americans would have no place to turn for birth-control measures and counseling or for other health-care services. To take that away makes no sense.
Such a position is expected from an individual who is described by the leftist Slate Magazine as a �crypto-liberal� and who the Washington Post says �has long favored abortion rights. In the first years of his philanthropy he stuck to a pattern set by his mother and sister and gave millions to Planned Parenthood and other population control groups.� Scaife also funds the Center for Strategic and International Studies, an elitist, bipartisan, CFR (Council on Foreign Relations)-style group led by former Democratic Senator Sam Nunn, as well as Henry Kissinger, William Cohen, and Zbigniew Brzezinski � a motley array of leftist Democrats and center-left Republicans.
Scaife is a man of great influence and prestige, and like pro-choice Republicans Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), Prescott Bush (grandfather of former President George H.W. Bush), Judy Biggert (R-Ill.), and Charlie Bass (R-N.H.), is a privileged minion within the elitist cabal described by Professor Carroll Quigley as the �Anglo-American Establishment�: socially liberal, wealthy, and typically northeastern. These individuals are characterized by their “moderate” policies (i.e., near the center of a political spectrum that shifts constantly leftward) and patronage of liberal causes such as public television, the Federal Reserve, and foundations which finance a host of socialist and environmentalist causes, and are known for their ideological and personal connections with figures such as the internationalist Rockefellers.
Other influential establishment Republicans supporting the pro-choice agenda � (serving in leadership capacities within the group Republican Majority for Choice, which is incidentally based in the affluent town of Greenwich, Connecticut, the hedge-fund capital of America, and is considered the leading interest group for socially liberal Republicans who are pro-abortion rights) � include:
Former Ambassador and David Rockefeller-associate John C. Whitehead (former Chairman of the Board of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, Mellon Foundation, United Nations Association, and Brookings Institution, where he advocated for the erosion of U.S. sovereignty through increased U.N. multilateralism, which led Catholic Seton Hall University officials to name their Diplomacy School in honor of him).
Former Massachusetts Governor, CFR member, and North American Union proponent William Weld, who advocates for a borderless, EU-style North American confederation, as well as legalized drugs and gay marriage, and has appointed a former leader of the communist-backed African National Congress to the Massachusetts Supreme Court.
Merryl Tisch, New York City philanthropist and socialite, who is also chairwoman of the New York State Board of Regents, and is wed to CFR member, PBS Board chairman, General Electric board member, and New York Federal Reserve Board member James Tisch, CEO of the Loews Corporation.
Leonore Annenberg, chairman and president of the Annenberg Foundation, which promotes a host of liberal causes such as funding PBS, and programs dealing with �environmental stewardship, social justice, and animal welfare,� according to its website.
Former Senator Bob Packwood of Oregon, who was given an award by Planned Parenthood in the 1980s for his opposition to conservative judges Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas, both of whom were known for advocating a strict construction of the Constitution. Packwood was one of the most liberal Republicans, having earned average approval ratings of up to 80 percent from Americans for Democratic Action. Most tragically ironic is the fact that Packwood was accused of sexual harassment by numerous female staffers, while being honored by the supposedly �pro-women� Planned Parenthood.
Manhattan grand dame Gail Hilson, a philanthropist, who was the nominee of the Republican and Liberal parties for a New York State Assembly seat representing the Upper East Side (one of the nation�s richest neighborhoods) in 2002. The New York Times says that �like most Manhattan Republican politicians, Ms. Hilson describes herself as a pro-choice, pro-gun-control moderate,� and notes that she hardly disagreed with her Democratic opponent.
Theodore Roosevelt IV, great-grandson of the progressive Republican President Teddy Roosevelt (a favorite of neoconservatives such as John McCain), and a managing partner of Barclay Capital, as well as prominent environmentalist and internationalist (he sits on the Council on Foreign Relations, the Economic Club of New York, the Foreign Policy Association, and the Pew Center on Climate Change board). He is also a close associate of U.N. global-warming czar Maurice Strong, through their work with the China�U.S. Center for Sustainable Development, and is a self-described �liberal Republican.�
Former N.J. Governor and George W. Bush-nominated EPA Chief Christine Todd Whitman (pictured above), who has long represented the liberal wing of the GOP, and whose father was the architect who designed Rockefeller Center. Whitman worked on Nelson Rockefeller�s presidential campaign in 1964, and her maternal grandfather was a member of the Wolf�s Head Society at Yale, and a former vice president of Chase Bank and president of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce. Whitman established the moderate Republican Leadership Council, and is a prominent environmentalist.
Unfortunately for constitutionalists, the liberal donor base of the Republican Party remains strong, as they support a big-government paradigm which, in the words of former John Birch Society head Larry McDonald, is �centuries-old in planning, international in scope, and incredibly evil in intent,� as evident in their support for radical environmentalism and unrestrained abortion.
Related articles: Planned Parenthood Republicans: A Decades-Long History
