THE RYAN REPORT

Planned Parenthood Complains, American Flags Removed

In a disturbing attempt to silence pro-life free speech, Planned Parenthood has pressured the city of Bryan, Texas into banning the American flag from flying in the public right-of-way. The controversy stems from a complaint Planned Parenthood made against members of the Brazos Valley Coalition who stationed a flagpole in the public right of way in front of a Planned Parenthood facility. One of the pro-lifers in attendance, a veteran, was flying the flag at half-staff because the facility performs abortions.

According to city attorney Michael Cosentino, the city ordinance that says signs cannot be placed in the right-of-way also applies to flags. So when Planned Parenthood complained, officers from the Bryan police department were sent to demand that the American flag be removed. Amber Matchen, a witness to the July 9 event, wrote a letter dated July 18, 2003 to The Bryan-College Station Eagle in which she said, "I watched in amazement as the American flag, which represents hope and freedom in our world, was ripped from the ground. Today the city says we cannot place the flag in the public right-of-way. Where will it be banned next?"

Pro-lifers complained the law was being selectively applied to them and that other flags were in the right-of-way. In an action alert, the Brazos Valley Coalition noted that shortly thereafter "the city ordered the removal of several other American flags from the public right-of way." The coalition filed a lawsuit against the city arguing that the city's ordinance is unconstitutional. The Bryan city council reacted by voting to strengthen the existing ordinance so that no flags or signs - political or otherwise - may be placed in the public right-of-way.

Even the Boy Scouts became worried that their activities may be curtailed. On national holidays they plant hundreds of American flags in Bryan yards and collect donations for doing so. Arrowmoon Boy Scout district executive Art LeTourneau said, "There are lots of ways that the law can be used to restrict activity, but I don't think it's good right now to restrict our nation's symbol" (The Bryan - College Station Eagle, 8/9/03).

Apparently Planned Parenthood has no problem with restricting pro-lifers' use of the American flag as a gesture of respect and sadness for the children killed in its facilities. In an effort to stifle free speech on behalf of the unborn, Planned Parenthood has shown once again why it is extremely controversial. Let's pray that the coalition will soon succeed in getting this troublemaker thrown out of Bryan for good!

See "City ordinance barring flags could affect Boy Scout fund raising" and "Bryan revises sign ordinance."

U. of Florida Gives Voices for PP Money for "Sex on the Lawn" Condoms

Florida taxpayers should be outraged that the student government at the publicly supported University of Florida has approved Voices for Planned Parenthood's request for funds to purchase 3,000 condoms to be distributed at an event this Fall called "Sex on the Lawn," a sexual rights and awareness fair. Voices for Planned Parenthood is a student organization also known as Vox. Vox is a national program that targets youth on college campuses. Vox's national website is at: www.plannedparenthood.org/vox/.

STOPP called the University of Florida to verify that it is taxpayer supported. It is; however, STOPP was told that Gov. Jeb Bush made severe cuts very recently and that the state plans is to eventually phase out such support. In light of this information, Florida taxpayers should contact Gov. Bush's office immediately to request that none of their tax dollars be used to support such activities.

See "SG passes bill, allocates funds to buy 3,000 condoms."

Planned Parenthood Pushes California Sex Ed Bill

Planned Parenthood of Los Angles is actively promoting a California bill entitled, "California Comprehensive Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Prevention Education Act," also known as Senate Bill 71. This bill will change the current California education regulations to make it easier to get Planned Parenthood-type comprehensive sex education into the schools. It will make it easier to attack children with the "free sex" philosophies that have led the state and nation into a quagmire of sexually transmitted diseases, cervical cancer and other related problems. The proposed new regulations packaged as SB 71 expose children to the predatory tactics of those with an agenda.

The violations of SB 71 are too numerous to list in detail, but let's look at just a few examples:

Current California Education Code (section 51550) requires that, "If classes are offered in public elementary and secondary schools in which human reproductive organs and their functions and processes are described," then the parent or guardian of each pupil must be notified before their children can be given any such instruction. Further, any teacher or administrator who willfully neglects their duty to notify parents, or forces the children to attend when a parent has asked that their child not attend, may have their personal certification document "revoked or suspended." While SB 71 still requires parental notice, it no contains no such penalties if notice is not given.

Current California Education Code (section 51553 (6)) says that all sex education courses that discuss intercourse, "shall teach honor and respect for monogamous heterosexual marriage." SB 71 (article 2, section 51933 (7)) says that comprehensive sex education, "shall teach respect for marriage and committed relationships." This will require schools that teach comprehensive sex education to treat committed homosexual relationships the same way they treat marriage.

It is important to point out that while SB 71 says schools "shall" provide HIV/AIDS prevention education, it only says school districts "may" provide comprehensive sex education. Even under SB 71 there is no state mandate to provide comprehensive sex education. However, if a district does elect to provide comprehensive sex education it must do so in the way SB 71 dictates.

Current California Education Code (section 51553 (9)) says that all sex education courses that that discuss intercourse, "shall advise pupils that it is unlawful for males or females of any age to have sexual intercourse with males or females under the age of 18 years to whom they are not married, pursuant to Section 261.5 of the Penal Code." No such requirement is contained in SB 71.

STOPP encourages all California parents to call their members of the state legislature to tell them to reject SB 71. Candidates for governor in the upcoming election should be urged to make public opposition to SB 71 a part of their platform. Parents in other states should take note of what is happening in California and should redouble their efforts to see to it that their own school system is free from perverting sex education and that their state is free from any sex education mandates. For more information on how to fight sex education in your school district see Jim Sedlak's Parent Power. Another excellent resource for parents is The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality - Guidelines for Education within the Family, by the Pontifical Council for the Family.

See also:
SB 71
PP of LA's SB 71 website
California Educational Code

PP Gets Preliminary Injunction to Block Defunding in Texas

In the June 2003 issue of the Ryan Report we told you about how Texas recently passed an amendment to its budget denying funding to any family-planning organization that provides abortions. The amendment would deprive Planned Parenthood affiliates in Texas of about $13 million. Well, Planned Parenthood took the matter to court and announced on August 5, 2003 that the federal district court in Austin granted a favorable preliminary injunction to six Planned Parenthood affiliates in Texas seeking to reverse the budget amendment's effects. See Planned Parenthood's news release.

David Bereit, the executive director of the Bryan, Texas based Coalition for Life had an interesting take on Planned Parenthood's efforts to overturn the will of the people of Texas. Here's an excerpt from a July 1, 2003 letter of his that appeared in the The Bryan - College Station Eagle concerning the irony of Planned Parenthood suing the state of Texas over this matter:

For years Planned Parenthood has used "choice" as its rallying cry, telling people of faith and conscience to stay silent and not "impose their morality" about abortion on others. They said we should just "agree to disagree." It's time for Planned Parenthood to practice what it preaches.

Our state made a choice: 69 percent of Texans agreed that tax funds should not be given to organizations that terminate human life. We elected courageous legislators like state Sen. Steve Ogden who offered Planned Parenthood a simple choice: Stop providing abortions or lose state funds. Planned Parenthood doesn't like the choice? Sorry. I guess we should just agree to disagree.

Besides, Planned Parenthood shouldn't try to impose its morality on taxpayers by forcing them to underwrite its harmful business practices. Planned Parenthood for years has told our community that abortion is just a small percentage of its services (even though its financial documents show that abortion makes up more than 23 percent of its local revenues).

If Planned Parenthood really does care about helping poor Texas women, and it needs our tax dollars to provide their health care, then its choice should be quite easy: Choose women over abortion.

Planned Parenthood won the first round, but hopefully Texas will fight back to uphold the right of its elected officials to decide not to give taxpayer money to baby killers.

PP Convenes Conference on New Reproductive Technologies

On July 23-25, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics convened a conference of bioethicists, scientists and clergy to explore public policy implications of emerging reproductive health technologies. Entitled, "Beyond Abortion: Critical Bioethical Issues in Reproductive Health for the 21st Century," the conference shows that PPFA is working toward becoming an "authoritative voice on the bioethical standards of reproductive health and sexuality," a primary objective of its long-range organizational plan, the Planned Parenthood Vision for 2025.

A Planned Parenthood press release indicated that among the questions to be explored at the meeting were:

• Are we on a path that will lead to fundamental changes in what it means to be human?
• What are the implications for the meaning of "family" and for family structure?
• What new developments in genomics and related technologies will create new challenges for society and bioethics in the coming decades?
• How can bioethical principles, such as justice, autonomy and beneficence, assist in developing or improving reproductive health-related public policy?
• What are the means and methods needed to engage the public on issues related to reproductive health technologies?

See Planned Parenthood's web site for more details.

STOPP's analysis of Planned Parenthood's Vision for 2025, notes that if Planned Parenthood is allowed to be the "authoritative voice," then bioethical standards will result in more deaths and total disregard for the sanctity of human life.

Furthermore, remember that Planned Parenthood was founded by a woman who was a leading proponent of eugenics (see "Who was Margaret Sanger" below). Emerging reproductive technologies are highly susceptible to manipulation by eugenicists. Fr. Joseph Howard, the director of American Life League's American Bioethics Advisory Committee, makes it very clear that this is already being done in the case of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis which is often used during the in vitro fertilization process. Is Planned Parenthood's current attempt be a leader in the area of new reproductive technologies a means for Planned Parenthood to realize the eugenic goals of its founder?

Who was Margaret Sanger?

Margaret Sanger was a prominent leader in the eugenics and birth control movements of the 20th Century. Her efforts eventually led to the decriminalization of intrinsically evil contraception and abortion. Both in the U.S. and abroad, she worked relentlessly over a span of some fifty years to spread a distorted view of human sexuality that denies its very truth and meaning. As a chief architect of the modern "Culture of Death," Sanger's birth control legacy now includes the deaths of over 40 million aborted innocent children in the United States alone.

Personal life

Margaret Louise Higgins in Corning, New York, on September 14, 1879. She was the sixth of eleven children. Her father was a vocal advocate of socialist ideas and a critic of the Catholic Church. By her own admission, her father had a great impact on her education.1 Her mother was a Catholic and Margaret was apparently baptized into the Church, though she obviously abandoned it later in life.

In 1900, she began training to be a nurse but discontinued it soon after her marriage to William Sanger, an architect, in 1902. They had two boys and a girl. Prior to her divorce in 1921, Margaret had at least three extramarital affairs.2 She married the elderly J. Noah Slee in 1922. His Three-in-One Oil fortune gave Margaret Sanger financial independence to pursue her birth control and eugenic goals.

Founder of Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood Federation of America traces its own beginning to Margaret Sanger's opening of America's first birth control clinic in 1916 in the Brownsville community of Brooklyn, N.Y. Sanger was arrested and indicted under New York's 1873 "Comstock Law," which forbid the dissemination of birth control information. Two years earlier she was indicted under a federal Comstock statute for sending birth control information through the U.S. mail in her publication, The Woman Rebel.

Today, Sanger's PPFA is the largest abortion provider in the United States, having reported performing 3,019,559 abortions from 1977 through 2001. In 2002, PPFA claimed to be operating 875 clinics in all but two states (North Dakota and Mississippi). From 1987 to 2002, PPFA reported a total income of over $7.5 billion, with nearly $2.5 billion coming from government grants and contracts.3 PPFA still honors its founder, even going as far a bestowing their annual "Maggie" awards in her name.

Human thoroughbreds vs. human weeds

Margaret Sanger's periodical, the Birth Control Review, was know for its espousal of eugenics, the belief that the human race could be improved if certain people did not reproduce. Typical of this philosophy was Sanger's own words in the April 1924 issue where she likens eugenics to what a gardener or a farmer does with plants and animals and says:

"How are we to breed a race of human thoroughbreds unless we follow the same plan? We must make this country into a garden for children instead of a disorderly back lot overrun with human weeds."4

Eugenics and birth control

In her book, Woman and the New Race, (Eugenics Publishing Company, 1923) Sanger summed up the relationship between eugenics and birth control saying:

"Birth control itself, often denounced as a violation of natural law, is nothing more or less than the facilitation of the process of weeding out the unfit, of preventing the birth of defectives or of those who will become defectives." (p. 229)

Sterilizations and segregation

In her 1932 Plan for Peace, Sanger wanted "to apply a stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is already tainted, or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring." She also wanted to take an inventory of "illiterates, paupers, unemployables, criminals, prostitutes, dope-fiends" and "segregate them on farms and open spaces as long as necessary for the strengthening and development of moral conduct."5 Such ideas sound horrifyingly similar to the type of eugenic thinking and actions that took place in Nazis Germany.

Sanger's talk to the Ku Klux Klan

In her 1938 autobiography, Margaret Sanger describes in detail her experience after accepting an invitation to talk to the women's branch of the Ku Klux Klan at Silver Lake, New Jersey. She summed up how well she got along with this KKK group by writing:

"In the end, through simple illustrations I believed I had accomplished my purpose. A dozen invitations to speak to similar groups were proffered. The conversation went on and on, and when we were finally through it was too late to return to New York."6

The Negro Project

The Negro Project was designed by Dr. Clarence Gamble and Margaret Sanger to use contraception to cut down on the number of black babies being born. In a December 10, 1939 letter, Margaret Sanger wrote to Gamble about the Negro Project, saying:

"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."7

Sanger, scientific racism, Nazism

The Margaret Sanger Papers Project of the Department of History at New York University was formed by Dr. Esther Katz in 1985 to locate, arrange, edit, research, and publish Sanger's papers. Generally pro-Sanger, it certainly cannot be dismissed as being some pro-life endeavor. Here's an excerpt from an article entitled, "The Sanger-Hitler Equation" that appeared in the Winter 2002/3 Margaret Sanger Papers Project Newsletter:

"Sanger did write to and share organizational memberships and conference programs with any number of eugenicists, including such champions of scientific racism as Charles Davenport and Harry Laughlin, who ran the genetics laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor, New York; and Leon Whitney, secretary of the American Eugenics Society. All of them conflated physical and mental deficiencies with racial ones. While Sanger publicly criticized these most notable eugenicists for their opposition or indifference to birth control, she never publicly condemned their racial views. Her silence is damning in retrospect, but it does not make her a Nazi."

Sanger on large families

In her book, Woman and the New Race, Sanger wrote the following:

"Many, perhaps, will think it idle to go farther in demonstrating the immorality of large families, but since there is still an abundance of proof at hand, it may be offered for the sake of those who find difficulty in adjusting old-fashioned ideas to the facts. The most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it." (pp. 62-63).

Growing up Sanger had several younger siblings in her own large family of eleven. One wonders which of those siblings she would have thought it merciful to kill.

Sanger and the birth control pill

As Sanger's efforts to promote contraception gained acceptance during the 1940s, she turned her attention to creating a birth control pill. Sanger encouraged steroid biologist Gregory Pincus to help her realize her goal. Planned Parenthood gave Pincus grants totaling $21,000 between 1949 and 1952. In 1952, Sanger also met with the wealthy Katherine Dexter McCormick who promised significant funding and later left $1 million to the pill project in her will. In April 1956, testing began, using poor women in Puerto Rico as test subjects, and by 1960 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had approved its use.8 This helped set the stage for the sexual revolution of 1960s.

Sanger's death

Sanger died in Tuscon, Arizona on September 6, 1966 and is buried in the Slee family plot as Margaret Sanger Slee in the Fishkill Rural Cemetery in Dutchess County, N.Y. She lived to see the Supreme Court endorse her life's crusade in the case Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965 by declaring the law against contraception to be unconstitutional, which found a right to privacy in the Constitution. This case forms the basis for the infamous Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion as well as the 2003 Supreme Court decision in Lawrence et al v. Texas that stuck down the Texas law against sodomy.

Notes:

1. Katz, Ester, The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger, Vol. 1 (University of Illinois Press, 2003), pp. xxiii-xxiv.
2. Ibid., pp. 14, 18, 272, 313.
3. Planned Parenthood Federation of America Service Reports 1987, 1994, Annual Reports 1987 - 2001/02.
4. Sanger, Margaret, "The Meaning of Radio Birth Control," text of a broadcast by Sanger on WFAB radio in Syracuse, N.Y., on February 29, 1924. Published in Birth Control Review, April 1924, pp 110-111.
5. Sanger, Margaret, "A Plan for Peace," Birth Control Review, April 1932, pp 107-108.
6. Sanger, Margaret, Margaret Sanger An Autobiography, 1971 reprint by Dover Publications, Inc. of the 1938 original published by W.W. Norton & Company, pp 366-367.
7. Donovan, Charles and Marshall, Robert, Blessed Are The Barren The Social Policy of Planned Parenthood, (Ignatius Press, 1991), pages 17-18.
8. Ibid., pp. 211-214.

Bishop Barbarito Endorses July 4 Ad Against PP abortions

Most Rev. Gerald M. Barbarito, bishop of the Catholic diocese of Ogdensburg, N.Y., was the first listed endorser included in a full-page advertisement condemning the death brought by Planned Parenthood. The ad was published on page B-10 of the July 4, 2003 issue of the Press-Republican, a newspaper serving the Northeastern New York region. STOPP thanks Wanda and Bart Gaffney for bringing this ad to our attention and for their leadership in the battle against Planned Parenthood in that region. Wanda notes that 77 of the 102 diocesan priests joined the bishop in having their names printed on the ad. Five additional priests from outside the diocese participated as well as 13 deacons, 55 sisters, and five Protestant pastors. STOPP's founder, Jim Sedlak, also endorsed the ad along with several church-related groups and Knights of Columbus councils. The total number of names appearing in the ad was about 740.

Here are some excerpts from the ad:

God Bless America On This Independence Day, Let Us Remember LIFE is our First Inalienable Right, from Conception to Natural Death.

In The Spirit of 1776 Pro-Life means to offer help both to the unborn child and to the distressed mother.

We condemn the death brought by Planned Parenthood and all abortion clinics and ask our government to stop funding these organizations and ask the citizens of our nation to stop patronizing its programs and to pray for all their workers and volunteers.

Planned Parenthood claims to have performed 197,070 surgical abortions in 2000.

Lord, we pray that you would show mercy and open our eyes to see the evil being done. We pray that you would bring about a change of heart and instill deep love on our nation for the most defenseless of your creations - children in the womb. Pray To Stop Abortion.

Readers are urged to replicate this type of ad in their own regional newspapers. Find out how much the ad would cost and then ask the endorsers to donate to help defray the cost. Try to get your local bishop to endorse it and that will surely help you get a lot of others to do so as well. To send Bishop Barbarito a thank you for endorsing this ad, please write to him at: P.O. Box 369, Ogdensburg, NY 13669. Email addresses for his office are available online.

Las Cruces New Mexico PP Clinic Closes

The Las Cruces New Mexico Planned Parenthood clinic closed in late July because of a lack of money, according to a July 25, 2003 report in the Las Cruces Sun-News. The clinic started in Las Cruces eight years ago and offered birth control.

"The current economic conditions have so significantly impacted Planned Parenthood of New Mexico that we are no longer able to absorb the same losses that we have traditionally carried," said Michelle Lynn Featheringill, president and CEO of PP of New Mexico. "For this reason, we are forced to cease clinical operations in Las Cruces."

The report indicated that PP of New Mexico plans to continue providing sex education programs in the schools and community and that PP's patients would be able to be absorbed by other non-PP clinics.

STOPP contacted Lorenzo Espinosa, a supporter of New Mexico Life League, which is an associate of American Life League. He said, "This is good news for all people of New Mexico. God works in mysterious ways. We have many people here in New Mexico that pray that these places are closed down." In May, American Life League's president, Judie Brown, and its director of associate relations, Patrick Delaney, addressed the Conference 2003 for Life, sponsored by New Mexico Life League.

See "Planned Parenthood to close today"

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