THE RYAN REPORT

Planned Parenthood’s ‘new’ European model targets Oregon

STOPP International’s founder and executive director, Jim Sedlak, recently went to Oregon to help Jackson County Right to Life and others in their fight against a new Planned Parenthood initiative that included condom ads on television. (See also “STOPP founder takes aim at PP TV condom ads in Oregon” below.) These ads are only one part of Planned Parenthood Health Services of Southwestern Oregon’s effort to encourage Oregon to adopt certain western European countries’ approaches to adolescent sexuality. PPSSO has established a website (“We Can Do Better”) which contains a 71-page report of the same name that details PP’s plans to get Oregonians to accept sexual activity of teenagers as normal.

The report is comprised of chapters written by a team of Planned Parenthood officials and other like minded people who went on a “European Study Tour” to find out what the Netherlands, Germany and France are doing regarding adolescent sexuality. For years PP has been telling us that such countries have lower pregnancy, birth and abortion rates than does the United States. The “We Can Do Better” report attempts to explain this by page after page of the same old PP mantra: sex-education, contraception, and abortion. PP casts this as some sort of novel “European Plan.” It is designed to get media attention and the support of government officials who can send more of our hard-earned tax dollars in PP’s direction.

Planned Parenthood selectively uses statistics from France, Germany and the Netherlands to demonstrate the purported effectiveness of its European strategies; however, there is at one set of very, very important statistics that PP ignores — those revealing the serious decline in the fertility rates of these counties, declines that threaten their very existence. The following data was ignored by PP, but it is readily available from the United Nations on its website for Europe and North America. The rates indicate the average number of children that would be born per woman if all women lived to the end of their childbearing years and bore children according to the given age patterns of fertility.

France: 2.5 (1970) declined to 1.7 (1993)
Germany: 2.0 (1970) declined to 1.3 (1994)
Netherlands: 2.6 (1970) declined to 1.5 (1995)
United States: 2.5 (1970) declined to 2.1 (1994)

Now what has happened during this time in these countries? Well, according to the PP “We Can Do Better” report the three European counties have embarked on policies promoting sex education, contraception and abortion to a higher degree than has the United States. But the critical point that Planned Parenthood is missing is that when you teach children to do such things they grow up to be adults that do such things and the long-term result is declining fertility. A nation needs to have a fertility rate slightly above 2.0 in order to just replace those who die. Fertility rates below that point indicate declining populations. On the practical side, this will mean major problems for consumer driven economies, social security and other government programs. Populations will gray, and Europe will find itself importing more labor just to keep things going. Such countries will die and will be taken over by people who have at least the sense to know that if a nation, race or culture does not reproduce itself, it will die off. It’s simple math.

In addition, acceptance of the goal of Planned Parenthood to change societal norms means accepting sin as a way of life and rejecting God’s plan for human sexuality. One chapter of the Planned Parenthood report is entitled “Religious Influence,” and it sheds some light on just how closely PP links rejection of traditional religion to an increased acceptance of teenage sexual activity, contraception and abortion. The report says that in the Dutch Reformed Church and in the Dutch Catholic Church, the level of participation of youth ages 15-19 has steadily declined from 60% in 1965 to 9% in 1993. The report says that in Germany most people do not engage in any regular religious activity. As for France, the PP report says that it is about 90% Catholic but that church participation declined from a high of 80% in the 1960s to between 4% - 7% after 1980 (pages 19–20). While the report does not cite its source for these statistics, few would likely disagree.

The PP report points out that the religious climate in the U.S. differs from that in the three studied European countries. The report laments the influence U.S. conservative religious elements have on what is taught in public schools and on government funding policies for abstinence until marriage programs. But let’s be clear, PP does see something useful in organized religion, for the report clearly indicates that faith communities in Oregon should be engaged to promote Planned Parenthood’s agenda! The chapter ends with the following sentence. “At the very least, we need to break the agreement that has allowed fear, shame, ignorance – and in many cases, a particular religious viewpoint – to dictate public policy around sexual health.”

In conclusion, STOPP does not view PP’s “European model” as anything new. It’s the same godless PP agenda with the same old lies dressed up with some incomplete statistics. As fertility rates continue to decline worldwide due to such shortsighted thinking, hopefully governments will wake up before it's too late and kick Planned Parenthood and its cronies off the tax-supported gravy train.

STOPP founder takes aim at PP TV condom ads in Oregon

The following article entitled, “Planned Parenthood foe takes aim at local TV condom use ads,” by Amanda Haines, was published in the October 24, 2003 issue of the Daily Courier of Grants Pass Oregon, p. 6A. Used with permission.

The founder of an international organization aimed at stopping Planned Parenthood is in Grants Pass this weekend, urging locals to speak out against condom ads on television. James Sedlak, founder of Stop Planned Parenthood (STOPP) and vice-president of the American Life League, is a featured speaker Saturday at the Love Life Convention at the Josephine County Fairgrounds. The event is sponsored by Josephine County Right to Life.

Sedlak, a former research physicist who joined the pro-life movement in 1980, said the ads are aimed, not at improving teenagers' health, but at normalizing sexual activity at too young an age. "The real objective is to get sexuality between teenagers accepted. The ads do a very dangerous thing. The community is no longer establishing the norms of behavior. Planned Parenthood is," he said.

The ads have been running on local television stations since Oct. 5. The two 30-second spots urge parents to support and encourage condom use by teenagers. Jackson County's Public Health Services Department, in partnership with the local Planned Parenthood affiliate, pledged $10,000 to air the ads.

"(Jackson) county is paying for this and people need to say, 'How dare you use my money to promote a lifestyle I don't support.' Every citizen has that right," Sedlak said. He also encouraged locals to appeal to Jackson County's Board of Commissioners to pull the ads.

Sedlak is critical of more than the ads. He encourages pro-life supporters to take action against Planned Parenthood's presence in schools and other youth programs. He took issue with the organization's promotion of condom use and its reliance on the "European model" of safe sex media campaigns. "We don't tell parents to give filtered cigarettes to their kids because they're less harmful. We tell them not to smoke," he said. "Condoms are not that effective: Aside from everything else, it's bad science to promote condoms as an effective way to prevent disease.”

Sedlak cited a 2001 study by the National Institute of Health that found condom use only reduced the risk of AIDS/HIV transmission by 85 percent. “If they told me when I got on the plane today that I had only an 85 percent chance of having a safe landing, I wouldn't have gotten on," he said.

In addition, he said, European safe sex media campaigns omit data that indicate the populations of Germany, France, and The Netherlands are dying. "These countries are not having enough children to replace the parents," he said. "And they're not having children because of the mentality that children don't have any value, that the real value is pleasing yourself. They treat pregnancy like it's a disease, not a natural function of the human body."

Sedlak is not opposed to sex education. He simply believes it should be provided solely by the parents, reflect good moral values, and be age-appropriate. None of those things, he said, are provided by school sex education programs. Since teachers can only know a child's physical age and children develop emotionally at such varying rates, sexual education programs, he said, often do more harm than good. "Boys and girls are different. In boys, the sexual drive is a very physical one. In girls, it's a wanting of love and romance," he explained. "When you teach sex education in a classroom, it increases the boys' interest in sex, and it makes the girls wonder why it is that they're not interested. It weakens the girls' resistance, while it increases the boys' desire."

Sedlak's group encourages an active, non-violent opposition to Planned Parenthood, even in areas like Josephine County where Planned Parenthood clinics are not abortion providers. "Getting Planned Parenthood to help solve a social problem (like teen pregnancy) is like asking Enron to solve your financial problems," he said. "They both only show you the numbers that look good for their purpose, while behind the scenes it's all falling apart."

[The article ended with information for those wishing to attend The Love Life Convention where Jim was speaking.]

United Way admits giving PP $3 million in 1999

The national United Way posted a web page which stated the following in October 2003:

Pro-choice and anti-abortion advocates in all parts of the country have tried to make the abortion issue a United Way issue. United Ways have taken a position of neutrality on this divisive issue because we do not want any single issue to overshadow our mission "to increase the capacity of people to care for one another."

No United Way funds are currently used, or have ever been used to support abortion services. Several United Way member agencies provide professional family and individual counseling services, which include professional counseling on pregnancy-related problems. Each agency encourages clients to make well-informed decisions.

United Way of America, the national service and training center for local United Ways, does not fund any agencies directly or indirectly. Volunteers of each independent local United Way organization make all funding decisions.

Does United Way of America support abortion? United Way of America, the national service and training center for local United Ways, does not fund any agencies directly or indirectly. All funding decisions are made by volunteers of each independent local United Way organization.

Do community-based United Ways support abortion? No local United Way funds are currently used, or have been used to support abortion services.

What Planned Parenthood programs/services are local United Ways supporting? United Way funded programs through Planned Parenthood include community health maintenance, e.g. communicable disease prevention; medical care service; family planning; health education; public awareness services; and family preservation and strengthening services, e.g. counseling and family life education.

Do community-based United Ways provide funds to Planned Parenthood? Nationally in 1999, local United Ways distributed an estimated $3 million to Planned Parenthood agencies. In 2000-2001, United Way organizations collectively raised $3.91 billion. Less than one percent of total funds are distributed to Planned Parenthood. Of that total, approximately one third of these dollars were donor designated to the agency by individuals.

STOPP supporters are urged to contact the national United Way by going to Contact. Under “category”, pick “voice your opinion” then pick the subcategory “other” to complain about UW giving money to Planned Parenthood. Send another message under the category “web site” and subcategory “errors” to note that the web page cited above should use the term pro-life advocates rather than anti-abortion advocates, especially since it refers to those who support abortion as pro-choice.

The Archdiocese of Vancouver, headed by Archbishop Adam Exner, OMI, has addressed the issue of United Way funding Planned Parenthood, according to a recent article in the archdiocesan newspaper. “The archdiocese, said Archbishop Exner, has had to take a hard look at its relationships with organizations and charities in the past, such as the United Way. Withdrawal from that umbrella charity was decided upon because of its affiliation with Planned Parenthood, an organization which promotes artificial contraception and an abortion choice policy” (B.C. Catholic, 9/29/03). STOPP urges any diocese that currently has a relationship with the United Way to consider following the example set by the Archdiocese of Vancouver.

To read tactics that you can use to oppose United Way funding in your region, see “United Way funding of PP,” the ninth article in the November 2001 issue of the Ryan Report.

Is your mutual fund supporting Planned Parenthood, abortion, pornography?

Recently, STOPP spoke with Pro Vita Advisors’ Thomas Strobhar about mutual funds that invest in companies supporting abortion, pornography, etc. Tom has written articles for ALL publications in the past (for example, “Blood Money” in the Winter 1991 ALL About Issues). Tom told STOPP about the $400 eVALUEator software program, which allows investors to screen mutual funds for such objectionable investments.

Another group that uses the eVALUEator is The Timothy Plan. On its website, The Timothy Plan’s investor relations manager, Debbie Hart, offers to run a complimentary “moral audit” for those concerned about their mutual funds or variable annuities (1-800-846-7526). The Timothy Plan provides investors with only investment options it finds to be clean.

The eVALUEator’s detailed profiles speak for themselves, but perhaps the most relevant screen for pro-lifers is the one for abortion related activities: Pharmaceutical companies that manufacture abortifacients, abortion-causing or abortion-related products (includes drugs and devices manufactured with the understanding and knowledge that they are or can be utilized as catalysts in the intentional abortion of unborn babies). Insurance Companies that create and/or market policies that pay for voluntary/elective abortions when not mandated by statute. Health-sector Companies that have one or more properties/facilities performing elective abortions when not mandated by statute. Companies that demonstrate a pattern of contributions to Planned Parenthood.

STOPP reviewed profiles for 34 funds. Unfortunately, 28 of them showed funds that failed the abortion screen, and 27 profiles showed funds that failed the pornography screen. Even the benign sounding Smith Barney Social Awareness Fund is a problem. While it avoids alcohol, tobacco, and gambling, it invested in both abortion and pornography according to eVALUEator. What kind of social awareness is that?

Another group concerned about morally responsible investing is Ave Maria Mutual Funds, which has been advertising lately in the National Catholic Register.

Finally, the United States Catholic Bishops have a 1991 document entitled, “Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines,” which pertains to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' own investments. Some of its good points include an absolute exclusion of investment in companies whose activities include direct participation in abortion and a statement that the conference will not invest in companies that manufacture contraceptives.

The policy on pornography is: “The USCCB will not invest in a company that derives a significant portion of its revenues from products or services intended exclusively to appeal to a prurient interest in sex or to incite sexual excitement. These would include, but not be limited to, sexually explicit (X-rated) films, videos, publications, and software; topless bars and strip clubs; and sexually oriented telephone and Internet services.” While such a policy is a step in the right direction, one wonders why it applies only to a company that derives a significant portion of its revenues from such pornography. Shouldn’t it apply to a company that derives any portion of its revenues from pornography? Readers may wish to contact individual bishops to suggest that this policy be strengthened in the near future.

Pro-lifers mobilize against new PP clinic in Issaquah, Washington

An October 2, 2003 article in the Seattle Archdiocesan newspaper, The Catholic Northwest Progress, reported on how the East King County’s pro-life community mobilized recently against a new Planned Parenthood clinic. This summer when Matt and Georgene Ulrich heard about the opening from a friend, they swung into action. With the help of the Knights of Columbus and other volunteers, they launched a petition drive against the clinic. With the permission of the pastors of St. Joseph’s Parish in Issaquah and Mary, Queen of Peace Parish in neighboring Sammamish, they collected petition signatures after masses. Additional signatures were obtained from members of St. Jude Parish in Redmond for a total of about 300.

The petition noted that Planned Parenthood is the nation’s leading abortion provider. The petition was submitted to Issaquah Mayor Ava Frisinger and the city council. The mayor wrote back saying that the city could not deny a permit to a business that was properly zoned. The pro-lifers then tried, unsuccessfully, to get the owner of the building where the clinic would be to change his mind about signing a lease with Planned Parenthood.

Now that the clinic is in place, the opposition to it has not ended, and the regional Helpers of God’s Precious Infants group will likely be adding this clinic to its list of those where the Helpers regularly hold prayer vigils. As Matt rightly noted, besides focusing the power of prayer to change minds and hearts, such vigils will make people aware that there is an abortion provider in their community. Although a Planned Parenthood spokesperson has said that they wouldn’t be doing abortions at the clinic, Matt has pointed out that they do provide abortifacients and has warned that it is possible that the clinic might decide to do surgical abortions in the future.

STOPP congratulates the Ulrichs and the other area pro-lifers for taking a stand against Planned Parenthood. While it might seem to some that their actions have not been successful, we must remember that the educational process sometimes takes awhile. The petition, the prayer vigils, and the local news reports are all part of an educational process that is detailed in STOPP International's plan for defeating Planned Parenthood. When Matt recently contacted STOPP for advice on how to continue with the battle, we immediately urged him to read this valuable resource, as well as STOPP’s special annual report about PP which is loaded with facts to help pro-lifers educate their community about the evils of Planned Parenthood via letters to the editor, newsletters, presentations, talk radio shows, etc.

Communities facing similar situations have not given up and have been successful in ousting Planned Parenthood. In the September 2003 issue of the Ryan Report, we told readers about a similar situation in Houghton, Michigan, which resulted in Planned Parenthood closing shop there two years after it opened. For many other examples of victories against Planned Parenthood, see part 4 of STOPP International's plan for defeating Planned Parenthood.

Boycott grinds PP abortion mill construction to a halt

The October 12-18, 2003 National Catholic Register carried a front page story about a group of contractors in Texas who are fighting a new 6.2 million dollar abortion clinic Planned Parenthood is attempting to build in Austin, Texas. When Chris Danze, an Austin construction contractor, heard about the new abortion mill he wrote to 25 of his closest vendors, who supply him materials such a cement, steel, and wood. Danze told them if he saw their trucks at the Planned Parenthood site, he would no longer do business with them. Most of these vendors complied.

The boycott grew and letters were written to every construction company and supplier within 60 miles of Austin. The media picked up the story. As a result of all this, subcontractors began backing out of their contracts with Planned Parenthood's general contractor, Browning Construction Company. All of the eighteen cement contractors within 60 miles of Austin joined the boycott.

While Planned Parenthood did stage a groundbreaking on September 23, and indicated it would complete the project, the efforts of Chris Danze continued. Then, in early November, Browning Construction announced it, too, was pulling out of the project! On November 5, 2003, WorldNetDaily reported that owner James Browning stated, "We have requested that the construction contract be terminated because we are unable to secure and retain adequate subcontractors and suppliers to complete the project in a timely manner due to events beyond our control."

Amid the significant amount of national media attention this received, Planned Parenthood complained that the boycott was a "campaign of harassment and intimidation," and Chris Danze called Planned Parenthood, "a social movement that promotes sexual chaos, especially of our youth." Even the Wall Street Journal commented on the event, writing on its web page on Nov. 11th, “But wait. If pro-life is a fringe movement and pro-choice is mainstream, why can't Planned Parenthood find a single supplier in a 60-mile radius--that's an area bigger than Maryland--willing to do the job? It would seem that the proponents of legal abortion have done a poor job of persuading Americans of their point of view--or, at any rate, a poor job of persuading Austin-area concrete contractors and suppliers.”

On November 13th, the Houston Coalition For Life sent out an e-mail update that stated, “In an attempt to shore up sagging public confidence in the project, Planned Parenthood hosted a glitzy luncheon at the Four Seasons Hotel with a former Clinton advisor as speaker. At the event, the abortion chain announced that they will now serve as their own general contractor. Here's an update on the matters from Chris Danze:

The Planned Parenthood announcement yesterday that THEY will be the general contractor means they DO NOT HAVE a general contractor. In their statement they said they will protect the names of their subcontractors. Browning was doing that. They don't realize it is difficult even in a city Austin's size for a particular construction company to do anything without other construction people knowing about it. With the amount of attention the mayors have given this project it would be near impossible for anyone to work on the abortion chamber incognito. Putting the mayors up front on the attack may have helped morale for the pro-abortion people temporarily, but the fact is, it solidified the construction community against this project. At the fundraising luncheon held at the Four Seasons Hotel yesterday, Planned Parenthood had on display a 60 lb. bag of concrete mix with a sign on top that read: 'pro-choice concrete'. If they plan on pouring the foundation with 60 lb. bags of mix from Home Depot, we better pull up a chair, we'll be here a while. They are in trouble folks.

Certainly, this has been a big blow to Planned Parenthood; but the worst part of the whole event, for Planned Parenthood, could be that other communities around the country might follow the example of what was done in Austin. The efforts of Chris Danze and the contractors involved in this boycott are to be highly commended. Their efforts have focused attention on the evil of Planned Parenthood and have helped galvanize opposition to the new abortion clinic. Hopefully, this opposition will continue, even if the abortion mill eventually opens its doors to kill. STOPP commends these businesspeople and urges all businesses to follow their example and cease doing any business with any Planned Parenthood affiliate or clinic. You don’t need to sit around waiting for your president or congressman or governor or county official to take action against Planned Parenthood. You, like Chris Danze, can start the ball rolling from the grass roots. With prayer and God’s help, you can stop Planned Parenthood too!

To thank Chris Danze or ask how you can help him expand the boycott even more, write to him at: Chris Danze, Maldonado & Danze Inc., 9506 Brown Lane, Austin, Texas 78754.

Reader feedback requested

STOPP asks that readers of the Ryan Report give us some feedback to help make the Ryan Report better. Please consider taking a moment to let us know how you feel about the following. Send comments and suggestions to stopp@all.org. Thank you.

• Topics covered
• Length of articles (too long / too short)
• How has the Ryan Report been helpful to you?
• Do you have any friends who we should add to the list (give us their e-mail addresses)?
• Suggestions for improvement?

Back issues of the Ryan Report.