Good and moral people can make a difference

When one thinks of abortion, Planned Parenthood usually comes to mind.

That’s because the organization has been integral to not only the beginnings of the abortion movement, but also a number of other things that pro-life and pro-family advocates have been battling for years – including widespread, licentious sexual education targeted at the young, aggressive birth control campaigns, sterilizations and more.

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, for example, is the U.S.’s largest operator of abortuaries. According to the anti-PP organization Stop Planned Parenthood (STOPP), the PPFA has committed over three million post-implantation abortions since beginning to do them in 1970 in New York. By 1993, it had almost 1,000 facilities of various sorts across the U.S. and announced a plan to establish 2,000 clinics by the year 2000.

(Thanks to the efforts of individuals and groups like STOPP, however, the PPFA was stymied in its bid for 2,000 clinics and instead saw the number actually drop to 875.)

STOPP says about 158 PPFA facilities commit 197,000 abortions a year, while the remainder dispense various birth control and abortifacient products such as the pill, intrauterine devices, Norplant, Depo-Provera and so-called emergency contraception. In addition, STOPP says PP’s sex education classes and its website for teens teach young people “a perverted philosophy” that denies the very truth and meaning of human sexuality.

“Planned Parenthood seeks to break down a child’s natural inhibitions and foster greater promiscuity,” observes STOPP. “This increases Planned Parenthood’s customer base both for contraception and abortion.”

One of the aspects that most irritates American pro-life advocates is the fact that the PPFA has built and sustained its empire in large part through public monies. The organization’s own annual reports indicate it received a stunning $2.2 billion in public funds between 1987 and 2001. Thirty per cent of its income in fiscal 2000-2001 alone came from government sources – helping feed a $454 million profit for the PPFA between 1987 and 2001.

One might think that a behemoth of such size would be undefeatable. Yet, apart from the stymieing of the PPFA’s national plan to establish 2,000 U.S. clinics, numerous communities in the U.S. have been successful in keeping PP out or in getting it to leave once it established itself. In other areas, sex education programs have been eliminated and government funding cut.

On the Canadian side, a group of concerned citizens in Hamilton, led by the Hamilton-Wentworth Family Action Council, was successful in hounding the local Planned Parenthood outlet to the point where municipal funding was severely cut, hours reduced and alternatives such as Birthright given more attention and funding. As well, a sexual health steering committee was established that includes the participation of more conservative people.

For those wishing more detailed, critical analyses of the large and complex Planned Parenthood phenomenon, a number of excellent resources have been produced. Among them are:

The book Grand Illusions: The Legacy of Planned Parenthood, by George Grant (Brentwood, Tenn.: Wolgemuth and Hyatt Publishers Inc., 1988)
The book Blessed Are the Barren: The Social Policy of Planned Parenthood, by Robert Marshall and Charles Donovan (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1991)
The book Margaret Sanger: Father of Modern Society, by Elasah Drogin (New Hope, Ky.: CUL Publications, 1980)
The book Deadly Deception: International Planned Parenthood’s Assault on Your Children, Your Family and Your Nation’s Sovereignty, by James W. Sedlak with Theresa Bell, Vernon Kirby and Magaly Llaguno. Part of this can be read on Human Life International’s website at www.hli.org/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/000/565fezdz.asp
The Stop Planned Parenthood (STOPP) website: www.all.org/stopp
The Life Decisions International website: www.fightpp.org