March, 2000
Clinton publicly asks for money for programs
supporting PP
In his radio address on January 8, 2000, Bill Clinton made
public what we told you about in last month’s report—he wants
to give PP a lot of money before he leaves office.
Clinton specifically said: “Today I am glad to announce we
will be increasing funds for family planning and reproductive
health care by $35 million next year. My budget for 2001 will
include $274 million in grants for clinics and community-based
health services that reach more than 5 million women and
families.”
What he is speaking of is Title X funds.
In addition, Clinton said: “My budget for 2001 will
increase funding for international family planning by almost
$170 million. I am asking Congress to support these funds, and
to provide them without restrictions that hamper the work of
family planning organizations, and even bar them from
discussing or debating reproductive health policies.”
STOPP supporters should gear up now to fight Title X and
international family planning expenditures. There are a number
of resources you can use to learn about this fight and to
communicate with your elected officials. See the enclosed
flyer; order the Title X packet, and make a difference.
More money from Clinton to PP
Another program being pushed by Bill Clinton is the
Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
While most of the public thinks this program is aimed at
providing basic health insurance for young children, it
already can cover “children” to age 18 and Clinton wants to
extend the benefits even further.
The Family Research Council has examined this program and
Clinton’s plans. Its director, Charles Donovan, issued the
following statement:
President Clinton is proposing another $2.7
billion for the program. He wants to ... allow young people
age 19 and 20 to enroll. Worse, his plan would allow schools
and other sites (boys and girls clubs, for example) to
immediately enroll children they think are eligible.
Of particular concern to STOPP supporters, and pro-lifers
everywhere, is Donovan’s revelation that “quietly, however,
the program is becoming a major conduit for distribution of
contraceptives, including Norplant® and Depo-Provera®, to
children without parental involvement.”
CHIP allows, but does not require, states to spend program
funds on family planning services for adolescents. Thus, it
could quickly become another lucrative source of government
money for Planned Parenthood.
Donovan reports that an analysis done by the Family
Research Council found that only one state, Pennsylvania, does
not appear to be using CHIP to provide family planning funds.
STOPP supporters know that PP will try to get government funds
from as many sources as possible. In addition, Clinton will be
trying this year to provide them with as much money as he
possibly can.
We must insist that our elected officials look at every
proposal in the health care area and make sure the programs
are not being used to funnel our tax dollars to PP.
This next year is critical. We must act to stop the flow of
money. Remember, we are not just electing a president this
year. Every member of the House and one-third of the Senate
are up for election. We must make PP funding an issue in every
campaign this year.
Planned Parenthood of New York City announces
formation of Othmer Institute
In 1998, Planned Parenthood of New York City (PPNYC)
received a bequest of $75 million from the estate of Mildred
and Donald Othmer. Recently, PPNYC formed the Othmer Institute.
PPNYC says the institute might be called “the first ‘think
tank’ promoting the advancement of reproductive freedom and
healthy sexuality through innovative programs and ideas.”
According to a PPNYC news release, the institute:
...exists to foster a new dialogue with the
American people and to rise above the polarized rhetoric and
stereotyping which has surrounded reproductive health issues
since the days of Margaret Sanger. Through the institute, we
believe we can bring new ideas and issues into the public
discourse and create a forum which allows us to listen and
react to the voices of Americans who are critically
effected—but emotionally distanced—by the ‘culture wars’ of
the last two decades.
We know that Americans—young and old, men and women,
insured or uninsured—are touched by many of the health care
issues we face today. But they lack information. Our
objective, through the Othmer Institute, is to act as a
broker of ideas between those unengaged or alienated from
politics and those creating public and private sector
policy. We hope to create a mechanism to bring political
power brokers together with those seeking reform—community
leaders alienated from politics and those outside the
process, principally young people, new immigrants and
minorities.
The Othmer Institute will be located in New York City
rather than Washington, D.C., not only to avoid the national
center of partisan politics, but to benefit from the
proximity to one of the most diverse, polyglot and populous
cities in our nation.
We intend to take full advantage of New York’s huge
reservoir of intellectual talent, its premier medical and
health care institutions, its national media outlets and
ready access to public policymakers, and its diverse
population of rich and poor. Our goal is to create an
environment outside of our nation’s capital where leaders of
issue groups, independent thinkers and ordinary citizens can
exchange ideas with public officials and the media in a
civilized environment.
You will see the first initiative of the Othmer Institute
through a monthly placement of “op-ads” in the national
edition of the New York Times. The first ad will appear on
January 18, 2000.
Another focus of the institute’s activities will be
mini-conferences and symposiums designed to bring people
together. And from the intellectual ferment generated we
plan to publish and disseminate books, papers, videos and
interactive web events that, in turn, can reach a larger
national audience.
The Othmer Institute is a significant investment by PPNYC
in America’s future. We will generate thinking of substance
and value to as many people who want to participate in this
venture. And we can begin to counteract the misinformation
and violence that has pervaded the issue of choice in recent
years.
As always, our ultimate goal will be the advancement of
reproductive freedom and healthy sexuality for all
Americans, regardless of class, race, religion, gender, age
or sexuality. But our current resolve is to build a national
center of civic dialogue that transcends the partisan
politics of the moment—a place where morally complex and
ambiguous issues can be debated freely.
PP endorses “Cider House Rules”
Planned Parenthood is using its website to encourage all
its people to see The Cider House Rules, a new film from
Miramax/Disney. STOPP supporters should know that this film is
a celebration of abortion. In it a character learns how to
perform abortions and then has an opportunity to actually do
one.
The attitude of the film is that abortion is a wonderful
thing and something to be treasured. Parents should keep their
children away from this film. It is not the kind of
“entertainment” that is suitable for persons of any age.
Feldt speaks out on partial-birth abortion
ban
The United States Supreme Court has agreed to decide a case
involving the banning of partial-birth abortions. Planned
Parenthood wants desperately to protect this gruesome killing
method. Here is the press release issued by PP concerning the
Supreme Court’s involvement in this case:
Statement by Gloria Feldt, President, Planned
Parenthood Federation of America
Washington, DC - Today the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to
hear the appeal of Carhart v. Stenberg, regarding a Nebraska
law banning abortion procedures. On September 24, 1999, the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed the
federal district court opinion by striking down the law as
unconstitutional. Planned Parenthood fully supports that
decision and urges the Supreme Court to do the same.
The Eighth Circuit held that the pivotal term in the
proposed law, so-called “partial-birth” abortion, “though
widely used by lawmakers and the popular press, has no fixed
medical or legal content” (Carhart at 1144), has the effect
of criminalizing the safest and most common medical
procedures for terminating pregnancies. Furthermore, the law
lacks an exception for the woman’s health, a condition
Supreme Court jurisprudence has consistently held to be a
paramount interest to be protected in the context of any
abortion restriction.
More than any other event in our nation’s history, Roe v.
Wade, the 1973 landmark decision legalizing abortion, gave
women control over their reproductive choices. It had a
profound and revolutionary impact, enabling women to
participate fully in the political, social, and economic
life of the nation. With Carhart v. Stenberg, the Supreme
Court could dismantle the very foundations of the right to
choose abortion—the privacy of women’s health, the role of
doctors in making medical decisions, and the limited reasons
available to justify state interference.
For 27 years, the anti-choice movement has done
everything in its power to overturn Roe. Americans should
not be fooled—this law is not about a medical procedure. It
is part of a shrewd, on-going legal strategy to undercut a
woman’s freedom to decide when or whether to have a child.
Anti-choice organizations oppose abortion for any reason,
by any method, at any point in pregnancy. They also oppose
contraception, medically accurate sex education, safer sex
information, and they want women to become subordinate to
the will of the men in their lives. Planned Parenthood
stands for the right of individuals to make their own
responsible sexual and reproductive health care decisions
without interference from the government. We call on the
Supreme Court to decide this case on the side of the health,
the lives, and the freedom of American women and their
families.
PP abortion facility moves close to
school
Planned Parenthood runs the only facility in South Dakota
that openly admits to doing abortions. Until recently, the
facility was located on Louise Avenue near the Empire Mall.
But recently, PP secretly rented and renovated a new facility
and, without any warning, moved into the new facility on West
41st Street. The new facility will kill babies just south of
Roosevelt High School.
STOPP supporters are aware that PP frequently picks
locations near schools to be able to get the business of the
children. In typical PP fashion, it maintained “the building
was chosen based on the availability and accessibility of the
space. The proximity to the high school is a coincidence.”
Local pro-lifers, including the Most Rev. Robert Carlson,
bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls, were upset by
the move and complained to the city council about its secrecy
and the fact that there was no public input. The city council
stated that PP had followed all the rules and there was
nothing it could do.
After hearing of the move, high school officials expressed
concern about possible disruption in the area because of
pro-life protests. They did not say anything about the
location of a facility killing babies being located near the
school.
Pro-lifers have protested at the former Planned Parenthood
site in the past and reportedly will continue their activities
at the new site.
This move by Planned Parenthood reveals its true goal of
trying to get to our children and kill as many babies as
possible. We must continue to expose the truth about PP.
New birth control methods
On January 13, 2000, the Chicago Tribune did a story titled
“The Next Generation of Birth Control.” In it, the newspaper
discussed various types of birth control that could be on the
market in the United States within the next couple of years.
Because all the methods they discussed are abortifacient,
and since Planned Parenthood will most likely be quick to
start dispensing the methods, we felt you should know about
them now.
The methods on the contraception horizon were described to
the Tribune by Dr. Anita Nelson, spokeswoman for the American
College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. These methods include
vaginal rings, a patch technique, once-monthly injections,
“the best IUD ever” and a onetime implant system that is
likely farthest from federal government approval. Here’s what
the
Tribune had to say about each:
- Vaginal ring: This method involves a woman inserting a
flexible, lightweight ring in the vagina. The two- to
three-inch-wide ring releases estrogen and progestin (the
primary ingredients of the pill) into surrounding tissues to
stave off pregnancy. The rings are used for three weeks—and
can be reused for one to 12 cycles depending on the
manufacturer—then removed for one week in a pattern similar
to birth control pills.
One plus of the method is the estrogen and progestin
offered in the rings is about one-third less than the oral
dose. The medication is also released gradually rather than
a larger dose entering the body all at once. This reduces
the occurrence of side effects that have been associated
with the Pill, though some women report nausea during the
first 24 hours after insertion of a new ring.
- The patch: This technique, similar to the rings in that
it has been proven effective and tolerable for hormonal
replacement therapy, appears to be another convenient
birth-control option with high probability for success. It
can be worn anywhere on the body, typically the arm or
chest, and can be removed during menstruation. Each patch
lasts several days before reapplication is needed.
- Monthly injections: A new injectable system called
Lunelle® is in the FDA pipeline to challenge Depo-Provera®,
which is the approved form of birth control shots now on the
market. Lunelle is administered monthly; Depo-Provera users
only need four shots per year. But Lunelle offers both
estrogen and progestin (Depo-Provera is progestin only) and
the progestin dose is lower over time.
- A new IUD: a new intrauterine device will be a viable
option for women who normally experience heavy menstrual
bleeding or fibroids and as a result cannot wear today’s
plastic T-framed IUDs (two are approved by the FDA; one uses
copper and the other releases progesterone to prevent
implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus). The new
IUD, designed by a Belgian firm, involves implanting copper
bands into the muscular wall of the uterus (known as the
myometrium) with biodegradable sutures, reducing bleeding
and pain problems associated with removal of typical IUDs.
- Implants: While researchers consider the Norplant®
implant a good and safe option for birth control, its highly
publicized troubles with women stemmed from incorrect
implant techniques and difficult removals. The new onetime
implant system is designed for easier insertion of a
single-rod device (compared to six with the Norplant
method), and in early studies removal is reported to be less
difficult too.
The current picture of contraception
The most popular contraceptive is tubal sterilization (27.7
percent), followed closely by the birth control pill (26.9
percent). Women in their 20s are most likely to use the Pill.
Tubal sterilization is chosen by 50 percent of women between
40 and 44 who previously used other forms of contraception.
Male condoms (used by 20.4 percent of couples overall and
37 percent among teenagers), vasectomy (10.9 percent) and
withdrawal (three percent) round out the top five methods,
according to the National Center for Health Statistics and the
Alan Guttmacher Institute (the research arm of Planned
Parenthood).
Injections, implants and intrauterine devices (IUDs)
account for about five percent, while diaphragms represent
about two percent and female condoms less than one percent.
Of course, all these products become unnecessary if we live
a chaste life and trust that God knows what He is doing.
PP upset in Amarillo
Planned Parenthood of Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle is
livid. It can’t understand why a local health care agency
doesn’t want to kill babies in the womb.
It was reported in the Globe-News on December 29 that
Planned Parenthood is urging the Northwest Texas Healthcare
System to change its policy of not providing an abortion to a
woman “whose sonogram shows the fetus stands no chance of life
outside the mother’s womb.”
Claudia Stravato, chief executive officer at Planned
Parenthood, told local media, “We regret that there are no
local resources to provide medically appropriate care for
women who are carrying a fetus that cannot live outside the
uterus.” Stravato said, “We view the issue of terminating a
nonviable fetus to be strictly a medical decision, and not a
political one.
“We believe this decision should be determined by a
physician using the latest technology. A physician on the
staff of a hospital should then be able to provide what he or
she determines to be appropriate care for their patient.”
Contrast this with the position expressed by Candy Gibbs,
site director of the First Heartbeat Crisis Pregnancy Center
of Amarillo. She said, “under no circumstances would the
center ever back an abortion,” even for a nonviable fetus.
“We believe that God is the creator of all life, and He
should be the decider when a life should end,” Gibbs said.
“If the baby is alive in the mother, it should have a
chance to survive in the real world.”
PP “pledge-a-picket” in Marquette,
Michigan
Planned Parenthood is trying an old tactic as a publicity
tool in Michigan. The Planned Parenthood facility in Marquette
moved into a new building. In an effort to get more press
coverage for itself, PP announced that it would begin a
Pledge-a-Picket campaign in Marquette. PP already has the same
type of program in two other Michigan towns—Petoskey and
Traverse City.
The concept behind the Pledge-a-Picket campaign is to
discourage pro-life picketers by claiming that the more
picketers who show up, the more money Planned Parenthood
makes. In Marquette, PP added a new twist when talking to
reporters.
The lead paragraph of the story about Planned Parenthood
contained the following sentence, “Marquette’s Planned
Parenthood is preparing to open the doors to their new complex
on Monday and they have found a way to pay for abortions for
low-income women.”
In an effort to further discourage picketers, PP is
claiming that the money raised from the Pledge-a-Picket
campaign will be used to pay for abortions.
“The whole idea behind a ‘Pledge-a-Picket’ is to have
people adopt a picketer and pledge a level of support for that
picketer. Then those contributions come rolling in every time
these people are out on the street and visit. It’s a good
revenue for us,” Jim Parks of Planned Parenthood, said. “The
money raised will be used to support women who are on Medicaid
and seeking an abortion, which the state legislature cut
access for years ago.”
STOPP supporters should know that the Pledge-a-Picket
campaign has been tried by PP facilities all over the country
and STOPP knows of no instance where it ever discouraged
picketers or raised a lot of money for PP.
The reaction of pro-life picketers in Marquette is typical
of pro-life reaction across the country. One of the pro-life
picketers, Paul Korzenko, told the press, “That’s not going to
stop us. We’ll be here until we’re thrown in prison for some
trumped up reason, until we’re dead or Planned Parenthood is
out of business in this town.”
Congratulations to the faithful fighters against Planned
Parenthood in Marquette. Your persistence and forthright
statements show us the right answer to these scare tactics of
Planned Parenthood. May God bless your activities.
PP can’t believe we’re still around
As STOPP supporters protested outside the PP facility in
Washington, D.C. (see story on next page), PP’s reaction was
one of disbelief.
Jatrice Martel Gaiter, president and chief executive
officer of Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington,
D.C., Inc., told reporters, “It’s the same as always. I’m
appalled that 27 years after Roe v. Wade we are still having
the same sidewalk debate.’’
Get used to it Jatrice. We’re not going away.
Stopp off and running in 2000
As a new year dawned (the 16th in our struggle against
Planned Parenthood), STOPP was actively involved in the fight
against PP.
Bucks County, Pennsylvania
We began the year by traveling to Bucks County,
Pennsylvania, where Planned Parenthood is trying to open a new
abortion facility in Warminster. Jim was invited to speak to a
meeting of the Bucks County Christian Coalition. Here is Jim’s
account of the day:
After a four-hour drive, I met with Gail Pedrick
at her home in New Hope, Pa. Gail provided me background on
the local situation along with a tremendous dinner. Then it
was off to the talk. The talk was held in a meeting room at
the local Boy Scout building. The room had about 50 chairs
and organizers were hoping that most of them would be
filled. They needn’t have worried because the room filled to
overflowing as many people gathered to learn about Planned
Parenthood.
During the talk, I discussed the background and
philosophies of Planned Parenthood and showed the audience
how Margaret Sanger’s three basic philosophies of free sex,
birth control and eugenics are still alive and well in the
organization today.
I got into specific detail about PP’s abortion business
and the fact that its current president, Gloria Feldt, is
pushing to have surgical abortion performed at more and more
of the organization’s facilities. I reminded the audience
that Warminster was just one of several towns in
Pennsylvania where PP was trying to open an abortion
facility.
We got into some detail on how dedicated pro-lifers in
Lancaster had been able to stall the PP drive for a new
killing center.
The Bucks County people took lots of notes, asked great
questions, and vowed to fight against PP opening a death
house in their county.
STOPP on Radio
In the days before the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, STOPP
was contacted by a number of radio stations, including the USA
Radio Network and the Salem Radio Network, to do commentary on
abortion and Planned Parenthood. We were able to get out the
truth about Planned Parenthood to a wide audience across the
United States. All the stations expressed appreciation that we
were there with the latest facts for them.
PP — Washington, D.C.
One of the great things about operating as a division of
American Life League is that it is now possible for STOPP to
literally be in two places at the same time. Thus, while Jim
was traveling to Cleveland, Ohio (see next item), for a talk,
the youth from Why Life?/Rock for Life were bringing the truth
to Planned Parenthood on the streets of Washington, D.C. Bryan
Kemper reported that “our weekend started off Saturday morning
with prayer in front of Planned Parenthood. A lot of the kids
who came to join us actually got to town on Saturday morning
and showed up at Planned Parenthood with their luggage and
sleeping bags. We had between 75 and 100 people brave the
bitter cold weather to join us for prayer and picketing
between 8:00 and 10:00am.”
Bryan observed that “for the past few years, I’ve seen the
number of people outside the clinics dwindling. This year, as
we got to Planned Parenthood, I saw the same familiar faces
that are there every year, praying and holding picket signs.
But, as the morning moved on, I saw more and more young people
showing up. Before long, the sidewalk was packed with our
generation’s legalized abortion survivors. I was choked up to
see so many young, radical kids in front of the mill, praying
and speaking out for their generation.
“Many of these kids had just spent the entire night on
buses and trains or driving to participate in the activities.
Not one of them, however, complained as they boldly stood in
silent witness to the children dying at Planned Parent-hood on
the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Some of them commented that
this was their first time in front of a clinic, but definitely
would not be their last.”
The Associated Press covered the protest at Planned
Parenthood and included in its story a comment from Anthony
Sheehan, a pro-life activist from Alexandria, Va., who told
the media, “When they stop killing children, we’ll stop
showing up.’’
The Planned Parenthood facility is less than five blocks
from the White House. Bryan reported, “when the PP protest
ended at about 10:00 am we packed everybody’s luggage in the
van then marched over to the White House to take the tour
wearing pro-life shirts.
"We had to stand in line for about an hour and a half to
take the tour. We were all wearing pro-life shirts that said
‘Abortion is Homicide’ or ‘Mr. Clinton, Stop Killing
Children.’
“It was a great sight to see a long line of pro-life
messages walking through the White House. We were the only
group of people taking the tour that had their own Secret
Service agents assigned to walk with them. After the tour we
gathered for a group shot in front of the White House” (you
can check it out on the picture page of our Rock for
Life web site).
Cleveland, Ohio
While the young STOPP supporters were in the streets of our
nation’s capital, Jim was flying to Cleveland, Ohio. He was
invited to address an annual pro-life gathering of the Greater
Cleveland Orthodox Christians for Life.
Jim attended a luncheon with local pro-life leaders on
Saturday. They discussed the situation in the Cleveland area
and the new PP facility in Rocky River—a Cleveland suburb.
Following the luncheon, Jim was taken on a tour of the
Cleveland area and met a local Orthodox priest and a deacon,
both of whom are very pro-life.
On Sunday, Jim gathered with a good group of about 60 area
pro-lifers for their annual prayer vigil and talk. In addition
to local pro-lifers, in attendance was Bishop Job of Chicago,
who is head of the Diocese of the Midwest of the Orthodox
Church in America. The prayer vigil took place in the local
Orthodox cemetery. Pro-lifers stood in the bitter cold and
asked God to bless their work and to shower His blessings on
all involved in the abortion tragedy.
Jim then gave a one-and-a-half hour presentation on the
background and philosophies of Planned Parenthood. The group
had previously received copies of Jim’s videos on Planned
Parenthood and many had viewed them. Jim was told that the
video on the Humanist Manifestos was particularly useful to
the group. (Jim’s videos are available by calling the STOPP
resource department at 540-659-4171.)
During the talk, Jim emphasized the need to spread the
message of God using the Gospel of St. Matthew, chapter 10, as
the guiding document. He emphasized the need for persistence
and the need to loudly proclaim Christ’s message. He told the
audience of the promise in Matthew 10 where Christ says,
“whoever proclaims Me before man, I will proclaim him before
My Father in heaven.”
The audience was very attentive and there were a large
number of questions. After the talk, one attendee came up to
Jim and told him that she had been reinvigorated by the
presentation and was going to renew her efforts to fight
abortion and Planned Parenthood.
Seaford, New York
Jim’s talk in Seaford, New York, was an event that had a
long history even before Jim took the stage. The talk had
originally been scheduled for September 1999.
The local people in Seaford (on Long Island) have been
actively fighting Planned Parenthood for a number of years.
They have been successful in getting Planned Parenthood
programs out of a local high school. But the PTA is paying
Planned Parenthood to come in after hours to teach a sex
education class to children who attend with the permission of
their parents. The local people rightly feel that if the
parents really understood what PP is all about, they would
keep their children home.
Seaford pro-lifers invited Jim to come and give a
presentation on PP in general but concentrating on the harm
done by its sex education programs.
On the day of the presentation in September, a hurricane
hit the east coast of the United States. Jim arrived at Reagan
Airport in D.C. only to find that all flights to New York had
been canceled. He then decided to drive the six hours to the
meeting. As Jim got to Baltimore, weather conditions worsened
and the road was becoming dangerous. He called the organizers
in New York and it was decided to postpone the event.
Just two days before the rescheduled event was to take
place in January, a blizzard hit the east coast. Many news
reporters were calling it the Blizzard of 2000. It dumped over
12 inches of snow on the Washington, D.C., area and about five
inches on Seaford. Fortunately, the weather cleared and Jim
was finally able to get to Seaford.
Jim’s talk was held in a Knights of Columbus hall.
Organizers setup a hundred chairs and hoped they could fill
most of them. Not to worry. By the time Jim took the stage for
his talk, the K of C staff had to set up additional chairs to
accommodate all the people. And they all enjoyed the talk.
Jim spent two hours educating the audience on PP and its
outrageous sex ed programs. He told them how PP, from the
beginning, targeted its sex education programs to “teach
children how to obtain sexual satisfaction before marriage.”
He referred them to a current book titled It’s Perfectly
Normal, by Robie Harris, as an example of how offensive PP sex
education really is.
A large number of questions were answered and a Catholic
priest approached Jim after the talk and said, “It was worth
the wait.”
Congratulations to Veronica Mullin and all the pro-lifers
in Seaford for your persistence in getting this event to
happen.
PP loses debate in New Hampshire
The following report was written by Andrew Daub, director
of American Life League’s youth divisions:
Most of the Youth Division of ALL went to New
Hampshire for the College/High School Convention 2000. The
event, designed to mirror political conferences, drew
thousands of politically active young people, from across
the U.S., for three days of debates, speeches, polling and
candidate promotion.
More than thirty organizations set up booths promoting
their message in an adjoining room, with the Why Life? /
Rock for Life booth ending up as the most identifiable and
heavily visited booth in the convention.
Most fittingly, Planned Parenthood’s booth was directly
down the aisle from ours. In addition to passing out
literature, Planned Parenthood saw fit to provide
conference-goers with free condoms, despite directions from
the conference planning committee not to do so.
The culmination of our involvement was a debate between
the New England Planned Parenthood’s legislative director,
Zero Population Growth’s Executive Director, Gianna Jessen
(a saline abortion survivor) and me.
In true form, Planned Parenthood and ZPG presented their
messages in a politically correct, watered down, seemingly
“understanding” format—addressing reproductive health rather
than abortion, promoting no message other than their
willingness to keep the murder of children “legal” and
“safe.”
The audience was quickly roused from their
propaganda-induced slumber by Gianna’s first sentence—“I was
aborted.” The environment of the debate was never the same.
I followed Gianna with a clarification of abortion, its
disastrous effects and a call to action for the young people
attending the conference.
The question and answer period proved most interesting,
and in our favor, as PP had no definitive answers to the
tough questions, did the proverbial tap-dance, and resorted
to throwing their hands in the air and calling us
“radicals.”
All in all, the conference proved extremely successful as
we debated and discussed abortion with numerous attendees,
passed out hundreds of educational brochures and hopefully,
by the grace of God, touched hearts and planted seeds of
truth.
Two Wisconsin PP clinics closed
Pro-lifers in Wisconsin have been targeting Planned
Parenthood ever since Jim Sedlak paid visits to the state.
Word now comes to STOPP headquarters that PP clinics in
Cedarburg and New London have been permanently closed by PP of
Wisconsin!
Congratulations to Pro-Life Wisconsin and Missionaries to
the Preborn for your outstanding efforts against PP.
This month’s action items
- Use the enclosed form to order your Title X material and
be ready for the debate on PP funding.
- As new birth control methods are announced, be ready to
tell the truth—they all cause the deaths of babies in the
womb.
- Begin to take action against PP in your community. If
you don’t, who will?
- Invite Jim Sedlak to speak in your town in 2000. Call
540-659-4171, and ask for Rozann.
- Send a tax-deductible donation today to help us keep
fighting Planned Parenthood.
- Pray that God will lead us in our work, and that we will
always have the courage to do His will.