IRS Demands that Pro-Life Group Swear it Will Not Oppose Planned Parenthood

Lifesitenews.com ^ | July 9, 2009 | Kathleen Gilbert

[Pope Pius XII]

- The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has told a non-profit coalition of pro-life groups in Iowa to promise that it would not organize protests at Planned Parenthood abortion facilities before it is granted tax exempt status.

Pro-life lawyers say the organization has steadily kept within the guidelines for non-profit religious, educational and charitable groups. However, several months after the group applied for tax-exempt status, an IRS agent contacted Coalition for Life Iowa president Sue Martinek to inquire as to whether the group engages in any "picketing" or protesting at Planned Parenthood, and questioned the group's prayer activity outside Planned Parenthood facilities.

Lawyers with the Thomas More Society say the agent asked Martinek "to have all Coalition Board members sign a statement that the Coalition will not 'picket' or 'protest' outside Planned Parenthood or similar organizations and will not 'organize' others to do so," and indicated that the IRS "would approve the Coalition's pending form 1023 application once such statement was submitted."

[Pope Pius XII]

The IRS should be done away with.

[frogjerk]

STUFF IT IRS! This seperation of Church and State myth has gone on too long.

[FreeSouthernAmerican]

I knew it. Taxes are a way to reward political allies and punish political enemies. I want the “flat-rate-no-other-tax” sales tax NOW!!!!!!!

[GeronL]

The government has become the enemy of freedom. How many leftwing non-profits hold rallies?? All of them?

[DManA]

Swallow hard and give up the deductible. If you don’t they can make you dance like a monkey on a string.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Separation of Church and State is a one-way street, don't you know?

[Castigar]

a”...the agent asked Martinek “to have all Coalition Board members sign a statement that the Coalition will not ‘picket’ or ‘protest’ outside Planned Parenthood...”

So have them sign it, get the tax exempt status then have them all resign and get new board members.

[Anima Mundi]

If it says will not protest OUTSIDE, sign it and protest INSIDE. In another place the word “at” is used. In that case they need to ask what the exact meaning of “at” is.

[a fool in paradise]

So the IRS is admitting that Planned Parenthood is a political group?

Advocacy enforcement ONLY extends to advocating FOR/AGAINST a political candidate, party, or pending piece of legislation.

Planned Parenthood is none of the above and the edict from the IRS shadow government agents is an unconstitutional abridgement of first amendment free speech rights.

Now when an organization opts for non-profit status, they agree to certain restrictions on their speech but only with regards to the above elements of advocacy. They are free to speak out on an issue of abortion and a business that sells abortions. They can even mount “get out the vote” campaigns.

[Jacquerie]

Why would the act of protesting, of exercising the Constitutional right to peaceably assemble, result in loss of tax exemption?

[wagglebee]

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[wagglebee]

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[Lurker]

Why would the act of protesting, of exercising the Constitutional right to peaceably assemble, result in loss of tax exemption?

How quaint. You think the Constitution is still operative.

[Antoninus]

Unjust laws like this are meant to be disobeyed.

[Safrguns]

The pro-life group should sue the IRS for violation of church and state separation clause.

If it does not, then the IRS will simply expand it’s intrusion into the behavior of all non-profit groups.

[bamahead]

The IRS is increasingly being used as a weapon to stifle free speech, and religious freedom.

And guess who warned us about just that



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[JSDude1]

Is this the Soviet Union or The Union of The United States?

[paulycy]

The IRS is increasingly being used as a weapon to stifle free speech, and religious freedom...And guess who warned us about just that

Where are the conservative lawyers???

[Still Thinking]

So have them sign it, get the tax exempt status then have them all resign and get new board members.

Or...since the members of the organization don't give up their personal right to have political positions, and since this particular organization is related to this issue, it would hardly be surprising if all its members showed up to protest at the same place, in their capacity as individual citizens. No involvement by the organization required.

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

IRS = Idiots, Retards and Shi*heads