THE STOPP REPORT

Behold the Lord Jesus Christ, who tries so hard to get our attention.

In this issue:

• PP to Seek Federal Injunction Against Partial Birth Abortion Ban
• PP Announces DC Pro-Abort March for April 2004
• GOA Releases Study Detailing 2001 Federal Funding of PP
• Bill Gates Discusses PP On PBS
• Home For Unwed Mothers Opens Next to PP in Ohio
• Planned Parenthood defunded in Texas
• Lawsuit Forces PP Out of Waco Public Library
• Planned Parenthood Closes Daly City, Calif. Abortion Mill -

PP to Seek Federal Injunction Against Partial Birth Abortion Ban

In a June 4, 2003 press release, Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) announced that it will seek a federal injunction to block the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act that passed in the House that day. PPFA president Gloria Feldt said, "The passage of the so-called Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 is the culmination of a deceptive campaign to endanger women's health and lives and mislead the public for political gain."

As is well known by now, the gruesome procedure of partial-birth abortion is never medically necessary. It is just common sense that the mother would be safer if the birth was allowed to continue to completion - a time span of just a few seconds - rather than undergo a procedure that stabs her baby in the back of the head and then sucks the brains out of the poor child. Anybody who has witnessed the birth of a child has to know that holding just part of a slippery squirming baby in the womb while stabbing the child in the back of the head with a sharp instrument has to be more of a danger to the mother than simply letting the baby slip out completely and live.

That Planned Parenthood could defend such a hideous procedure shows just how utterly depraved Planned Parenthood is. Lawmakers should look carefully at this latest and most gruesome display of Planned Parenthood's bloodlust and should immediately take steps to defund this heinous organization at the local, state, and federal level.

See PPFA press release.

PP Announces DC Pro-Abort March for April 2004

Planned Parenthood has announced that it will be joining forces with the nation's other leading pro-abort groups to organize a march on Washington on April 25, 2004. Obviously, a main purpose of the march is to promote a woman's right to choose to kill her baby. Other organizers besides Planned Parenthood Federation of America are the Feminist Majority, the National Organization for Women (NOW), and NARAL Pro-Choice America. Efforts to mobilize supporters of abortion and contraception are already underway.

In a June 10, 2003 press release, Gloria Feldt, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said, "We refuse to be the generation that both won and lost the rights to birth control and abortion. We stand for the principle that women - in consultation with their families and their physicians - should make their own reproductive and health decisions. Not politicians and not the government. The Bush administration, the U.S. Congress, and the nation need to see hundreds of thousands of Americans showing their vocal support for reproductive freedom."

In the June 2003 Planned Parenthood Federal Action Report, Feldt said, "On April 25, 2004, I will be joining 999,999 other reproductive rights activists in Washington, DC, for a March for Freedom of Choice. Online activism is great, but on-site activism is better." Thus, PP is shooting for a million participants.

This March for Freedom of Choice is planned to send a message for the 2004 election. We suggest that pro-lifers begin now to take the following actions:

1. Pray that it is poorly attended

2. Use this as an opportunity to publicly decry any organization in your area that supports this march. Groups like the YWCA, League of Women Voters, Girl Scouts, Rotary Club, etc. need to know that if they choose to support this march they will be forever branded as PRO-ABORTION.

3. It is obvious that when the pro-aborts march in April of 2004, the news media will make comparisons between the turn out for their march and the numbers for the March for Life in January 2004. All pro lifers should begin now planning for the largest attendance ever at the annual March for Life. Every church in every community should send at least one bus. Every pro-life group everywhere in America should have at least one bus. It is our opportunity to show that pro-lifers are a political force to be reckoned with as well. Let's not let PP and the other pro-abort groups leave the impression with the president and Congress that they have more support than we do. Plan now to attend the March for Life in 2004 and urge your relatives, friends, and members of your church to do so as well. For more information visit the March for Life web page.

GAO Releases Study Detailing 2001 Federal Funding of PP

On May 16, 2003 the United States General Accounting Office (GAO) released a study detailing fiscal year 2001 federally funded expenditures of Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), the Population Council, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI), Advocates for Youth, and the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS). The release is addressed to Congressman Christopher H. Smith and Congressman Joseph R. Pitts who requested the information. Here's a breakdown of the federally funded expenditures Planned Parenthood organizations had for the fiscal year 2001.

PPFA: $161,986,202
IPPF: $23,413,217
AGI: $1,170,314

Total: $186,569,733

The report also lists the amounts for fiscal year 2000 as:

PPFA: $137,337,724
IPPF: $20,977,586
AGI: $1,118,712

Total: $159,434,022

That's an outrageous 17% increase in federal funding of Planned Parenthood in just one year! Now let's be clear about one thing: the amount reported above for PPFA is not the total amount of government money PPFA got in fiscal year 2001. It is just the amount PPFA expended from the federal government. Additional money flowed into PPFA coffers from state and local governments as well. In its own 2001-2002 Annual Report, PPFA states that it got $240.9 million from government grants and contracts during the one-year period from July 1, 2001 to June 30, 2002. While the GAO report does not make it clear exactly what it means by "fiscal year 2001," it does indicate that it collected its data from the organizations themselves and it notes that the organizations' 12-month fiscal period varied. Thus, it seems quite possible that we can compare the $161,986,202 of federal money for fiscal year 2001 with the total amount of government money PPFA said it got in its 2001-2002 fiscal year ($240.9 million) to conclude that PPFA got about 67 percent of its government funding in fiscal year 2001 from the federal government.

The GAO report also tells us which federal programs provided the domestic Planned Parenthood funding in fiscal year 2001. PPFA expended $58,711,763 in family planning grants from Title X of the Public Health Service Act and AGI expended $315,320 of grants from Title X. PPFA expended $60,878,913 in Medicaid funds from the federal government (states pay a portion of Medicaid as well). PPFA expended $19,009,295 in Social Service Block Grants and $5,994,185 in Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grants. AGI expended $56,800 in research project grants. PPFA spent $17,392,046 from other, unspecified federal programs.

A note indicates that PPFA did not specify the specific sources of funds for this last amount. This brings up an interesting question. Why does the GAO have to use PPFA's own data to figure out how much money PPFA expended from the federal government? Doesn't the federal government keep track of its own expenditures? Instead of asking PPFA how much federal funds it expended, the GAO really should be asking the federal agencies how much money they gave PPFA. In any case, $17,392,046 is an awful lot of money to lump into an unspecified category. Perhaps PPFA is reluctant to specify the source of this money because PPFA is afraid that pro-lifers will then target these sources with attempts to get such programs to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood.

The GAO report also gives a breakdown of the international funding for Planned Parenthood via USAID for fiscal year 2001. Of the total amount AGI expended (above), $798,194 was for international purposes. The total for IPPF (above) is broken down as follows. $3,374,689 was for contraceptive shipments, $18,663,788 was for direct agreements through USAID, and $1,374,740 was for sub agreements through U.S.-based agencies.

Attached to the GAO report is some commentary about the report from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS points out that the GAO did not really fulfill the congressional request since it reported expenditures of federal funds rather than total federal funds provided. HHS also notes that for past GAO reports on this matter the GAO relied on the information from both the organizations themselves and the funding agencies. For the current report, HHS lodged the following criticism. "This year, with the exception of the National Institutes of Health, GAO has not requested information from department agencies and has chosen to rely exclusively on information provided by the six organizations under review."

The entire GAO report, which includes the GAO response to the HHS complaints, can be obtained online.

Whatever potential flaws it may have, the report does show that enormous amounts of federal tax dollars are flowing to Planned Parenthood. STOPP urges readers to make use of the results by contacting their federal representatives to complain about federal funding of Planned Parenthood. Please urge your federal representatives to take action to eliminate this funding immediately.

Bill Gates Discusses PP On PBS

On May 9, 2003, Bill Moyers had an in-depth discussion with Bill Gates on PBS. During the course of the show Gates, who is an avid supporter of Planned Parenthood and other population controllers, had the following comments related to Planned Parenthood.

MOYERS: But did you come to reproductive issues as an intellectual, philosophical pursuit? Or was there something that happened? Did come upon… was there a revelation?

GATES: When I was growing up, my parents were almost involved in various volunteer things. My dad was head of Planned Parenthood. And it was very controversial to be involved with that. And so it's fascinating. At the dinner table my parents are very good at sharing the things that they were doing. And almost treating us like adults, talking about that.

My mom was on the United Way group that decides how to allocate the money and looks at all the different charities and makes the very hard decisions about where that pool of funds is going to go. So I always knew there was something about really educating people and giving them choices in terms of family size.

The entire interview is online. To get a sense of just how much money Gates has funneled to Planned Parenthood, STOPP simply typed in the phrase "Planned Parenthood" (in quotes) in the search engine on the Gates Foundation site. Here is what came up:

The above amounts total $31,567,108. (It is not clear whether the amounts above to PP of Canada are in U.S. or Canadian dollars). It appears as if those dinner table talks with his pro-PP parents that Gates spoke about have really paid off for Planned Parenthood. For more information, visit the website American Life League has established to educate Bill Gates.

Home For Unwed Mothers Opens Next to PP in Ohio

When Bonnie Oleska, a pro-life leader in Richland County, Ohio, contacted STOPP in September 2002, one of the things STOPP did was give her contact information for Rev. Norman Weslin. Longtime Ryan Report readers will be familiar with Fr. Weslin's activities. (See 9/02, 6/02, 2/02, 12/01 issues of the Ryan Report).

Well, one thing lead to another and in March of 2003 the Mansfield, Ohio News Journal announced that a new Mary Weslin Home for Pregnant Unwed Mothers would be opening its doors right next to a Planned Parenthood facility slated to open soon in Mansfield. The home will actually share the same driveway with Planned Parenthood. It will provide pro-lifers with a great opportunity to save the lives of babies that this particular Planned Parenthood would have otherwise referred for abortion.

Fr. Weslin is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who was active in the pro-life movement with his wife Mary before her sudden death from a car accident in 1980. Afterward, he turned their home into the first Mary Weslin Home for Pregnant Unwed Mothers and became a Catholic priest. Now he is well known for his heroic leadership in the pro-life movement and his strong opposition to Planned Parenthood.

In his book, "The Gathering of the Lambs" (available by calling 877-299-9459), Fr. Weslin says, "Planned Parenthood, the head of the snake, is leading the Culture of Death down a slippery slope at an accelerating, dizzying speed" (p. 111).

See "Anti-abortion activists move beside Planned Parenthood."

Planned Parenthood defunded in Texas

The great state of Texas handed Planned Parenthood a huge defeat in early June when it passed a state budget that included "Rider 11," an amendment to the appropriations bill (HB 1). Rider 11 was sponsored by Sen. Steve Ogden (R-Bryan), and Tommy Williams (R-The Woodlands). Rider 11 will deny funding to any family-planning organization that provides abortions. Of course, the main target of Rider 11 is Planned Parenthood, which stands to lose about $13 million. Apparently, only those PP affiliates that have abortion facilities will be affected.

STOPP received an email from our friends at Houston Coalition for Life urging readers to send a note of thanks to senators Ogden and Williams for introducing this item to the budget. Please consider contacting them at the email or regular mail address below.

The Honorable Steve Ogden
7607 Eastmark Drive, Suite 241
College Station, TX 77840
979-694-2609

The Honorable Tommy Williams
P. O. Box 5819
Beaumont, TX 77726-5819
409-896-2350

The Houston Coalition for Life is an expansion of the very successful Coalition for Life that was founded in 1998 by the community in response to the first abortion facility to ever open in the Brazos Valley (Bryan/College Station, Texas). One of the sponsors of Rider 11, Sen. Steve Ogden, represents this very region. No doubt the phenomenal efforts of the Coalition for Life to educate the people of the region about the evils of Planned Parenthood helped to lead Sen. Ogden to take action to defund PP at the state level.

Back in 2001, several members of the Coalition for Life spent a day at STOPP's offices in Virginia learning effective tactics to use against Planned Parenthood. STOPP's executive director, Jim Sedlak, also spoke in the Bryan region several times. If you would like STOPP to help educate people in your region, please contact us. Perhaps such education may motivate your state to defund PP as Texas just did.

Lawsuit Forces PP Out of Waco Public Library

In the November, 2002 issue of the Ryan Report, we told you how Planned Parenthood became part of Waco, Texas public library system. Well, on May 13, 2002, Planned Parenthood announced it would sever this arrangement; a decision the director of Planned Parenthood of Central Texas has said was forced by a lawsuit.

Three Waco women, Donna Jernigan, Gloria Orozco and Camille Hinojosa, sued Planned Parenthood in federal court alleging that in October 2002, PP violated their constitutional rights by denying them access to the PP library that had become part of the city library system a few months earlier. The suit seeks unspecified damages, a judicial declaration that the women's rights were violated, and an injunction to stop PP from blocking pro-lifers from the library.

Kelly Shackelford, chief counsel for Liberty Legal Institute, the organization that represents the Waco women, said that it was likely that the women would drop the lawsuit if PP admits that its partnership with the city library system was unconstitutional and agrees not to engage in such an arrangement again.

Rusty Thomas, the leader of Elijah Ministries, filed a similar lawsuit against PP and Waco in March with the help of the California-based United States Justice Foundation. Thomas indicated he would consult his attorney before deciding whether to drop his case. He said, "We're just rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ for this great victory." STOPP rejoices as well and gives thanks to Jesus. Congratulations are in order for all those pro-lifers who prayed and took action when PP extended its evil tentacles into the public library in Waco.

See "Suit splits Planned Parenthood, city endeavor" in the 5/14/03 issue of the Waco Tribune-Herald.

Planned Parenthood Closes Daly City, Calif. Abortion Mill
Faithful Priest Led Rosary at site for 20 years

At the end of May 2003, Planned Parenthood Golden Gate (PPGG) closed its Daly City abortion mill near San Francisco. PPGG President Dian Harrison indicated that the closure is due to economic hardship brought on by a huge drop in donations from individuals and foundations.

"This is a very difficult situation," said Harrison. "We've had a presence in Daly City for almost 20 years." One employee predicted that Planned Parenthood would likely lose about 70 percent of the clients, based upon what happened when a Pacifica clinic closed in 1997. See San Mateo County Times.

News of the impending closing was carried in the San Mateo County Times on May 6, 2003, but the paper simply gave a pro-PP spin to it and never mentioned the persistent and prayerful presence of pro-lifers at the site. But a letter to the editor in the May 30, 2003 issue of Catholic San Francisco from Father Edward Cleary set the record straight. Entitled "Prayer victory," here is what it said:

The Planned Parenthood office at 219 Southgate, Daly City, announced that it will close up at the end of May. They started their business there 20 years ago. Many women had abortions at this location.

I began a protest against Planned Parenthood with Pro-Life advocates at this location 20 years ago. The Prayer Group formed a Rosary Crusade and recited the Rosary in honor of Mary, Queen of all mothers. This devotion was held every other Friday for 20 years. Our prayers bore fruit because this affiliate is closing. Mary heard us and answered our prayer about saving the lives of innocent babies.

Our location for our prayer vigil was always in Daly City. I collected people from Holy Angels, Daly City; St. James Church, San Francisco; Our Lady of Mercy, Daly City; and then Saint Veronica's in South San Francisco.

I wish to thank all who joined in our successful crusade. We saved innocent babies through intercessory prayer to Our Blessed Mother. Thanks be to God.

What great news! Congratulations to all those who were involved! STOPP called Fr. Cleary, who is a retired priest in residence at St. Veronica's, to thank him for his faithful efforts throughout all those years. He noted that Rev. Mark Taheny of St. Veronica's also joined the effort. Fr. Cleary said that 20 years ago, when the protest first started, about thirty people showed up for the Rosary. In more recent years, the numbers were usually about 5 to 10. They brought along a banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the leader would use a hand held loudspeaker so everyone could hear the prayers being said. Fr. Cleary's 47th ordination anniversary is on June 16, 2003. Please join STOPP in congratulating and thanking this wonderful priest. Write to him at St. Veronica's Catholic Church, 434 Alida Way, South San Francisco, CA 94080-4302.

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