In this issue:
- New Planned Parenthood report: 213,026 abortions in 2001
- New congressman blasts PP “Choice on Earth” Christmas cards
- Planned Parenthood study ignores emergency contraception deaths
- Planned Parenthood to open killing center in Alaska
- Bush administration must live up to its Bangkok statements
- Planned Parenthood slams Lott, but ignores its own past
- Bishop Blair’s statement against Planned Parenthood
- Bells for babies
- Pro-life posters for Planned Parenthood contest
- Resource for pro-life billboards, signs and bumber stickers
- Ending Planned Parenthood teen recruiter schemes
- Christmas greetings from STOPP
New Planned Parenthood report: 213,026 abortions in 2001
“According to its recently released 2001-2002 Annual Report, Planned Parenthood Federation of America has set a record in the number of abortions it performs and the amount of taxpayer money it receives,” said Jim Sedlak, executive director of STOPP International (a project of American Life League).
“The 213,026 abortions Planned Parenthood committed in 2001, brings the number of lives ended at Planned Parenthood since it first began doing abortions on July 2, 1970 to 3,073,533,” Sedlak said. “This new annual record means that Planned Parenthood kills 4,096 innocent human beings every week at its facilities across the United States. That is more each week than the total killed by terrorists on September 11, 2001.”
Ed Szymkowiak, STOPP’s national director, noted “the $240.9 Million in taxpayer money Planned Parenthood received in the last year is the highest it has ever received. Taxpayers now account for 35% of Planned Parenthood’s annual funding.”
STOPP International is spearheading American Life League’s campaign to stop Planned Parenthood. Both Sedlak and Szymkowiak are traveling the country educating people on the facts about Planned Parenthood and encouraging them to fight against the Planned Parenthood influence in towns and cities all across America.
A more detailed analysis of the latest Planned Parenthood annual report will be forthcoming in a future issue of the Ryan Report.
New congressman blasts PP “Choice on Earth” Christmas cards
In the last two issues of the Ryan Report we told you about STOPP’s efforts to expose Planned Parenthood’s “Choice on Earth” Christmas card and t-shirt campaign. Well, the National Catholic Register’s lead article for the December 15 –21 issue focused on this very matter and quoted STOPP’s national director, Ed Szymkowiak. Also included in the article were comments from newly elected Congressman Bob Beauprez, R-Colo., who cannot wait to take office and begin looking into the funding of Planned Parenthood.
Beauprez expressed his disgust at the “Choice on Earth” products. “It blasphemes the Christ Child – the very essence of what Christians hold as life eternal,” he said. “Christ is the source of peace on earth, and their definition of ‘choice’ is anything but peace.” Beauprez, a Catholic, survived an intense smear campaign against his pro-life views and won the election by less than 200 votes. “I believe I won because of their attacks on my pro-life views. They thought it would benefit them, and I think it backfired. I think their ‘Choice on Earth’ holiday message will backfire as well. The American public now understands what abortion is really about, and Planned Parenthood no longer can enjoy making it look like a harmless matter of ‘choice.’ I think it is changing because of the sonogram and other technology. There is simply no question in anyone’s mind in this day and age that an unborn child is really human life and nothing else.”
Planned Parenthood study ignores emergency contraception deaths
"It is absolutely scandalous that Planned Parenthood alleges that abortion is reduced by a product that kills babies in the womb," said Ed Szymkowiak, national director of STOPP International (a project of American Life League). "What's worse," he said, "is that people believe them." A study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a special affiliate of Planned Parenthood, claims emergency contraception has helped cut the number of abortions in the United States.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, emergency contraceptive pills "act by delaying or inhibiting ovulation, and/or altering tubal transport of sperm and/or ova (thereby inhibiting fertilization), and/or altering the endometrium (thereby inhibiting implantation)" (Fed. Reg. February 25, 1997, p. 8611).
"Because it is a biological fact that human life begins at fertilization, any action that inhibits the implantation of that life in the endometrium - the lining of the womb -actually kills that life," Szymkowiak said. "To say that increased use of emergency contraception is the answer to reducing abortion is like claiming that we can reduce teen suicide by terminating the lives of at-risk adolescents. Children die either way. With emergency contraception they just die at an earlier age."
Szymkowiak said Planned Parenthood will no doubt use its own research to convince Congress to pass more legislation that funds abortion, "including legislation such as the $10 million-a-year 'Emergency Contraceptive Education Act' and the so-called 'Compassionate Care for Female Sexual Assault Survivors Act.' The latter would force all hospitals, including Catholic hospitals, to offer sometimes-abortifacient emergency contraceptives to rape victims. This is an outrage. Citizens should contact their representatives immediately and demand that they oppose such legislation."
Planned Parenthood to open killing center in Alaska
In February, Planned Parenthood of Alaska plans to open a facility in Fairbanks, Alaska that will offer abortions. For more details see the December 14, 2002 article in the Fairbanks Daily News – Miner.
Bush administration must live up to its Bangkok statements
In December 2002, the Bush administration sent a delegation to the United Nations Asian and Pacific Population Conference in Bangkok. This delegation made some fantastic pro-life statements in its effort to rid the final document of the conference of language promoting the Culture of Death. Unfortunately, that effort failed, but the delegation was able to include an addendum to the document that expressed the United States’ position.
On Dec.18, The New York Times reported that the addendum included the statement, "Because the United States supports innocent life from conception to natural death, the United States does not support, promote or endorse abortions, abortion-related services or the use of abortifacients." Wow!
That’s great stuff and certainly President Bush needs to be commended for the heroic stand his delegation made in Bangkok. However, one must ask how come such statements are not made here in the United States? On Dec. 20, The New York Times wrote that in Bangkok Assistant Secretary of State Gene Dewey said the United States “supports the sanctity of life from conception to natural death.” The Times speculated that the administration “would not dare” make the same statement “with the cameras rolling at home.” Why not?
In fact, President Bush himself signed appropriations bills on January 10, 2002 which provided over $711 million for reproductive health programs aimed at population control either here (Title X) or abroad (USAID) and which include sometimes abortifacient contraception. If Bush is truly serious about promoting a Culture of Life, he could start by vetoing any upcoming appropriations bill if it contains money for any program that includes sometimes- abortifacient contraceptives. If he does not, he will turn the United States’ addendum to the Bangkok conference document into a lie.
Planned Parenthood slams Lott, but ignores its own past
In her Dec. 20 statement, Planned Parenthood’s president, Gloria Feldt, took aim at Trent Lott, but she conveniently forgot to mention her own organization’s Negro Project concocted in Dec. 1939. Planned Parenthood’s founder, Margaret Sanger, started the Negro Project with the aim of cutting down the number of black babies being born.
In her statement, Feldt talked about the “racial politics of the 1940s.” STOPP challenges her to take a good long look at the role Sanger’s Negro Project had in creating such politics. In a letter to Clarence Gamble (12/10/39), Sanger wrote, “We do not want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the minister is the man who can straighten that idea out if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”
Before jumping on others for their remarks perhaps Ms. Feldt should formally apologize for Planned Parenthood’s own despicable and bigoted past. Feldt’s statement is posted online.
Bishop Blair’s statement against Planned Parenthood
Most Reverend Leonard Blair, Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit, Michigan recently gave STOPP permission to add his statement against Planned Parenthood to STOPP’s web site. Thank you Bishop Blair! To read statements other bishops have made against Planned Parenthood visit: Bishops' statements.
Bells for babies
Over the last few years, a custom has been spreading across the United States—to ring bells on January 22 in commemoration of the children who have died as the result of surgical abortion. At noon on January 22, those who wish to remember the unborn are encouraged to participate in the ringing of the bells to commemorate the 40 million babies murdered since 1973 by surgical abortion. Your church/town can join this year.
Pro-life posters for Planned Parenthood contest
In the November 2002 Ryan Report we told you about Planned Parenthood’s “Roe at 30 Artwork and Poster Contest” and we noted that Ellyn von Huben wrote to STOPP and suggested that pro-lifers deluge the contest with posters with pro-life messages. Well, some young pro-lifers have done just that, and the results are very good and very professionally done. Obviously, they won’t win the PP contest. To view several of these pro-life posters, follow this link.
Resource for pro-life billboards, signs and bumber stickers
If you are searching for pro-life materials, check out Victory One. They have a massive selection of billboards, bumper stickers, buttons and envelope stickers.
Ending Planned Parenthood teen recruiter schemes
In the last two issues of the Ryan Report we told you about a Planned Parenthood proposal to use tax money to pay teen recruiters to get other teens to become Planned Parenthood customers. Well, Russell Barnard, a school board member from the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. in Columbus, Indiana sent STOPP the following letter which said,
It was not a surprise to us because here in Columbus, Indiana, they tried the same thing about 5 months ago. As a member of the School Board, I immediately went to work to stop this project. PP sent in their regional director armed with fuzzy statistics and a big song and dance, but I forced the issue to stay on just what it is: sex education counseling by an outside organization. Here in our school district we have a rule in force, clearly enumerated in the student's handbook, saying that students are not permitted to share any print or visual material of a sexual nature with other students on school property, and this includes PP material on birth control and/or abortion. We also have a state law that requires students to have a work permit from their school if they work during the school year, and this permit must state who they work for, where the work is to be done, what hours, what pay rate, and must be approved by their parent or guardian, their principal or dean, and filed with the school board.
The "counselors" PP had lined up were 15 and 16 year old girls, who were all set to explain to 16 and 18 year old boys how to have sex "safely" and to the other girls what to do if they wind up pregnant.
We brought it to the front in the press, and in a public meeting, and demanded that the proper rules be enforced. And we won!! Planned Parenthood is specifically forbidden to place any representative in any school within our district; if they violate this rule, we'll expell the students that are involved and bring criminal action against the Planned Parenthood director (who lives in Bloomington, Ind, by the way, and is a product of our university there). I personally believe that this scheme is spread all over America and parents and school officials don't even know it happened.
Please continue to speak out.
Congratulations to Russell and Bartholomew County Right To Life! STOPP supporters faced with a similar situation in their schools are urged to follow the example above. Be sure to get your school district to adopt and enforce a sexual misconduct policy that specifically prohibits students from having or sharing material and/or information of a sexual nature. Actually, if the policy referred to both students and teachers it would be even better, for then it would effectively eliminate sex education classes as well. STOPP believes parents should teach their children about such delicate matters and recommends that all Ryan Report readers read The Truth And Meaning Of Human Sexuality by the Pontifical Council For The Family.
Christmas greetings from STOPP
At Christmas we celebrate Christ coming to our evil-plagued world as a little baby to save us. Certainly the year 2002 has had its share of evils promoted by Planned Parenthood. Topping this list is the continued killing of innocent life and the recent statement by Planned Parenthood that “that Jesus was not against women having a choice in continuing a pregnancy.” (See our news release for details). Certainly one can get discouraged, especially when one knows that American tax money is providing 35 percent of Planned Parenthood’s income.
But we must remember that the faithful people of God have cried out against the evils of Planned Parenthood and that God has blessed their work. Today there are many school children who no longer have to put up with PP's sex-ed, there are counties and cities that no longer give money to PP, and there are people alive today because pro-lifers counseled their mothers in front of a PP abortion mill.
So during this Christmas season give thanks to God for these blessings and the greatest blessing of all, the Incarnation of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in a humble stable in Bethlehem. As a Christmas gift to our Savior, STOPP supporters are encouraged to use the Feast of the Holy Innocents, December 28th, as a day to remember, not only the innocent children slain by Herod (Mt. 2:16-18), but also the millions of innocent babies slain by abortion. It's a perfect day to spend some time in front of your local Planned Parenthood office in prayer as a visible witness to the sanctity of all human life.
We here at STOPP wish all of you a Holy Christmas and we hope that the Holy Spirit will bring you and your families the peace and love the Lord has promised. May God bless you all!
