CHICAGO — Autocam Corporation and its CEO John Kennedy have demanded that the Planned Parenthood Action Fund retract the patently false charge that Autocam has not paid property taxes since 1997, as well as other baseless claims circulated by the taxpayer-funded abortion giant. Planned Parenthood leveled the accusations against the Kennedy family as part of a campaign called “The Bosses Who Want to Deny Your Birth Control Coverage.”
In a letter sent Monday, attorneys for Kennedy show that the campaign is fraught with factual inaccuracies that even the most cursory investigation would have revealed. Public records indicate that Autocam has paid almost $10 million in real property and personal property taxes in the State of Michigan since 1997, including $961,386.74 in the year 2012 alone.
“Autocam not only provides well-paying jobs and award winning benefits for hundreds of Michigan families, they also pay their fair share of property taxes,” said Brian Burch, Executive Director of CatholicVote.org Legal Action Fund, which represents Kennedy in his federal lawsuit. But Planned Parenthood has misrepresented the facts in a malicious effort to disparage the Kennedys.”
“The truth of the matter is very different. Planned Parenthood evidently considers Autocam and the Kennedys fair game for political smearing because they wish to provide health care benefits to their employees consistent with their deeply held moral and religious beliefs and therefore do not cover abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations, and other medical services. Autocam already provides first class benefits, including a $1,500 match contribution to each employee’s health savings account. But compliance with the mandate would require Autocam and the Kennedys to pay millions of dollars in fines, which would destroy their company.
“Rather than addressing the important issues raised by Kennedy’s lawsuit, Planned Parenthood has resorted to a smear campaign designed to discredit the Kennedy family and their company. Their campaign is a shameless effort that cannot go unanswered,” said Burch.
The letter sent Monday demands that Planned Parenthood immediately eliminate all references to the baseless charges, including the implication that the plaintiffs in Autocam’s suit are all male, and publish a retraction of the false and defamatory statements.
The CatholicVote.org Legal Action Fund is representing Autocam and John Kennedy in Autocam v. Sebelius in the U.S. Federal District Court for the Western District of Michigan along with the Thomas More Society, a national public interest law firm headquartered in Chicago.