THE RYAN REPORT

PP/Girl Scout connection incites Texas cookie boycott and withdrawal of girls

On February 7, 2004 the Waco Tribune Herald in Texas ran a front page article about a boycott of Girl Scout cookies caused by links between the local Girl Scout council and Planned Parenthood. Organized by Pro-Life Waco's John Pisciotta, a Baylor University economics professor, the boycott gained attention via local Christian radio KBDE-FM's 60 second public service announcements which urged listeners to abstain from Girl Scout cookies because of the Bluebonnet Girl Scout Council's links with Planned Parenthood of Central Texas (PPCT).

According to Pisciotta's email updates, the Bluebonnet Council serves Bell, Bosque, Brazos, Coryell, Falls, Freestone, Grimes, Hill, Leon, Limestone, Madison, McLennan, Robertson and part of Burleson counties. He is asking people to e-mail Bluebonnet executives and tell them why they will no longer buy their cookies. He prefers to call this "fast and abstinence" rather than a "boycott."

Specifically, these are the Bluebonnet links to PPCT that Pisciotta cites. (1) At a banquet on May 8, 2003, the Bluebonnet Council honored PPCT chief executive Pam Smallwood as a "Woman of Distinction" to serve as a role model for Girl Scouts. (2) The Bluebonnet Girl Scout Council for many years has co-sponsored PPCT's Nobody's Fool summer sex promotion program. Last July, as revealed in their printed flyers, PPCT distributed the astounding book, It's Perfectly Normal, to youngsters in grades 7-9 who attended the conference. The book is semi-pornographic and is a direct assault on Christian sexual morality. Ryan Report readers can obtain a contact information list for several Bluebonnet Council leaders from John Pisciotta at john_pisciotta@hotmail.com. He has also offered printed material to anyone who has questions about Bluebonnet's involvement with PPCT.

According to the Waco Tribune Herald report, PP's Pam Smallwood said she is very angry over the boycott. The same report indicates quite a different reaction from Rick Ellis, the leader of Waco Right to Life:

"I'm sorry that the girls may have to suffer a while for what their leaders have done," he said. "But if someone's involved with Planned Parenthood, we don't need to be involved with them."

Ellis said he is looking for Bluebonnet Council leaders to "recant" their association with the Nobody's Fool event and other ventures with Planned Parenthood of Central Texas.

If people are aware of that linkage, he said, they can't "in good conscience" buy the cookies.

"Hitting them in the pocketbook is a pretty common technique these days," he added.

On February 10, 2004, the Waco Tribune Herald reported that in Crawford, Texas the parents of nine Girl Scouts announced that their daughters will leave the organization due to its relationship with Planned Parenthood of Waco.

Brownie Troop 7087 leader Donna Coody said her daughters did not belong in an organization that sponsored a sexual education event where kids received material indicating homosexuality and abortion are acceptable.

Regarding the Bluebonnet Council's recognizing PP's chief executive as a "Woman of Distinction," Crawford's Lisa Aguilar said, "That's not who I want as a role model for my daughter." Aguilar said her 10-year-old daughter broke down in tears when her parents explained Planned Parenthood's role in abortions.

STOPP wishes to point out that this problem involves a particular Girl Scout council in a particular state. Certainly, there are many Girl Scout councils around the country that would have nothing to do with Planned Parenthood. Readers are urged to follow John Pisciotta's example of researching their own local Girl Scout council to see if it has any ties with Planned Parenthood and, if so, to work to convince any such council to severe it's ties with the nation's leading abortion chain. If you are a Girl Scout leader, or your daughter, niece, or granddaughter is in Girl Scouts, please consider getting the Bluebonnet Council contact list from John and writing to these Bluebonnet leaders to urge them to move quickly to denounce Bluebonnet's ties with PPCT before the negative press impacts Girl Scouts and their cookie sales nationwide.

Project Mustard Seed: Ask Ben & Jerry's to stop funding PP

Project Mustard Seed is an organized letter writing campaign directed at corporations that fund Planned Parenthood. Once a month, participants are asked to write a letter expressing opposition to a company's funding of Planned Parenthood. Project Mustard Seed gets its information about corporate supporters from Life Decisions International. If you are interested in joining the Project Mustard Seed contact the founder, David Arms, at PO Box 1951, S. San Francisco, CA 94083 or contact him by email at mseed4life@aol.com

The letter recipient for February is Ben & Jerry's which makes ice cream.

Please write to:

Mr. Yves Couette
President & CEO
Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc.
30 Community Drive
South Burlington, VT 05403

STOPP & American Life League support H.R. 3069

STOPP International, following a recommendation by American Life League's president, Judie Brown, is wholeheartedly endorsing the Right to Life Act introduced by Congressmen Duncan Hunter [CA-52] on 9/10/03. As Mrs. Brown has pointed out, this bill has the potential to put an end to the senseless slaughter of the innocent and we are thankful that Congressman Hunter took the lead on this momentous legislative proposal.

ALL and STOPP staunchly support this bill and we urge readers to contact their U.S representatives and Senators to ask them to support it as well. The legislation currently has 23 co-sponsors in the House, but it needs more as soon as possible. The short, simple, powerful text of the legislation is as follows:

To implement equal protection under the 14th article of amendment to the Constitution for the right to life of each born and preborn human person.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the `Right to Life Act'.

SEC. 2. RIGHT TO LIFE. To implement equal protection for the right to life of each born and preborn human person, and pursuant to the duty and authority of the Congress, including Congress' power under article I, section 8, to make necessary and proper laws, and Congress' power under section 5 of the 14th article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the Congress hereby declares that the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution is vested in each human being.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. For purposes of this Act:

(1) HUMAN PERSON; HUMAN BEING- The terms `human person' and `human being' include each and every member of the species homo sapiens at all stages of life, including, but not limited to, the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being.

(2) STATE- The term `State' used in the 14th article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States and other applicable provisions of the Constitution includes the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and each other territory or possession of the United States.

For the latest information about this bill visit http://thomas.loc.gov/ and type HR 3069 into the search engine.

Walton Family Foundation responds to STOPP on PP funding

On October 20, 2004, STOPP wrote the following to the Walton Family Foundation, which was founded by the same family that created Wal-Mart.

As the included material shows, The Walton Family Foundation has in the past provided funds to Planned Parenthood. The included portion of your 1998 IRS form 990 shows a grant of $74,000. The included copies of pages that were once on your website show grants to Planned Parenthood in 2000 and 1999.

I don't see any grants to Planned Parenthood listed on your current website or on the included portion of your 2001 IRS form 990. However, this material shows a very large other grants category which could, possibly, include grants to Planned Parenthood.

Please inform me of the amount and date of your last grant to any Planned Parenthood affiliate, and your current policy regarding future grants to Planned Parenthood.

Thank you. I hope to hear from you soon.

On November 11, 2003, Buddy D. Philpot, the executive director of the Walton Family Foundation, responded in a letter which stated,

The Walton Family Foundation, Inc. has not made any grants to Planned Parenthood since January 2001 through the date of this letter. In addition, there are no pending grants to this organization. It is our policy not to discuss items related to any past or future grant policies.

In the May 2001 issue of the Ryan Report, STOPP did a story about the Walton Family Foundation's funding of Planned Parenthood and urged readers to contact this foundation to voice their displeasure concerning such grants. Readers may now wish to commend the Walton Family Foundation for not granting Planned Parenthood any money since that time and urge the foundation not fund Planned Parenthood in the future. Contact information for Mr. Philpot is P.O. Box 2030, Bentonville, AR 72712-2030, 479-464-1570, 479-464-1580, fax.

National petition to de-fund Planned Parenthood

The Center For Reclaiming America has launched a national petition to rally 100,000 pro-life citizens from across the country to demand that their tax dollars not be used to fund Planned Parenthood's pro-abortion agenda. The "De-fund Planned Parenthood" petition states:

As a citizen of this nation, and one who views life as a gift, I am asking my leaders in Congress to take immediate and decisive action to halt the flow of federal tax dollars currently being provided to Planned Parenthood, the nation's leading provider of abortions. I am vehemently opposed to having my tax dollars used to support an organization whose chief concern is the destruction of American life. I also call on Congress to defund any and all programs and organizations that encourage or perform abortions in America. In addition, I call on state leaders to stop the flow of state taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood and other abortion organizations.

Visit http://cfra.info/133/petition.asp?RID=5054792 to sign this petition.

Coalition for Life press conference a huge success after PP tries to shut it down

The executive director of the Coalition for Life in Texas, David Bereit, said, "Planned Parenthood must be afraid of what we have to say to resort to such strong-arm tactics." He was referring to PP's failed attempt to shut down a Coalition press conference in Houston. Here's what the Coalition's February 9, 2004 update had to say about the incident:

On Wednesday, February 4, Planned Parenthood held its annual "Celebrating Roe v. Wade" luncheon at the Westin Galleria. To counter the abortion chain's fundraising plans, the pro-lifers booked a room in the same hotel to hold a press conference exposing Planned Parenthood's shocking $17.4 million of profits in Houston during the last year, and to announce an aggressive new campaign to strip Planned Parenthood funding.

Apparently the state's largest abortion provider has something to hide, because once the press release about the Coalition for Life news conference was distributed across Houston, Planned Parenthood executives called the hotel and pressured them to cancel our meeting-room reservation.

Not to fear. The Coalition for Life has never allowed the abortion industry to set our agenda. The press conference was simply moved to the public right-of-way directly in front of the Westin Galleria. Thanks to Planned Parenthood's failed attempt to silence Pro-Lifers, there was a subsequent surge of media interest and Planned Parenthood's finances were exposed to a much wider audience.

Needless to say, the press conference was well attended by both pro-lifers & members of the media, and was covered by multiple local news agencies.

More than one reporter credited their interest in covering the event to the last minute pressure imposed by Planned Parenthood on the hotel to remove pro-lifers.

Praise God! David Bereit basically repeated a tactic that he and STOPP's executive director, Jim Sedlak, used last year at Planned Parenthood Federation of America's annual conference. See the May 2003 issue of The Ryan Report for more details. Such tactics are an excellent way of using Planned Parenthood's own event to get out the pro-life message about the evils of Planned Parenthood. Ryan Report readers are urged to add this effective tactic to their own playbook against their local Planned Parenthood affiliate.

Get Austin, Texas Planned Parenthood boycott updates

In the past several weeks STOPP has used The Ryan Report email list to forward you the latest breaking news from building contractor Chris Danze on the national headlines-making story of his efforts to get other contractors to boycott the building of Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Austin. See the November 2003 issue of the Ryan Report for the initial story. Readers are urged to contact Chris Danze at cdanze@yahoo.com and ask him to place you on his email list directly so that you can get these updates immediately and directly from him. You can also visit http://www.boycottplannedparenthood.org/about.html to find out information as well. The "news" section contains links to national stories that have been written about this amazing effort to stop Planned Parenthood.

Doctor resigns after pro-lifers expose his other job as PP abortionist

Dr. Donald Whitaker resigned his job at the Tower Pavilion for Women; on the Wesley Medical Center campus in Hattiesburg, Mississippi after pro-lifers exposed his other job has a Planned Parenthood abortionist in Mobile, Alabama.

In a story posted on its website on January 9, 2003, Southern Mississippi's Sun Herald indicated that protestors from Alabama and Florida picketed outside of the Tower Pavilion with signs claiming that Whitaker performed abortions in Alabama. One of the protestors indicated that Whitaker went to Mobile once a week to perform abortions at a Planned Parenthood office. The protestors figured this out because of protests at the Mobile Planned Parenthood facility and because Whitaker was a defendant in a civil lawsuit in Mobile County, which was dismissed with a settlement in 2003.

Pro-life Mississippi's Pat Cartrette commended the Mobile pro-lifer's protest saying, "We believe that OB/GYN patients have the right to know if the same physician responsible for the care and delivery of their unborn baby is also aborting unborn babies."

Tower Pavilion's attorney indicated it would investigate the matter and said that the Pavilion neither approved nor condoned abortion procedures. A January 8, 2004 report by WDAM News 7 said the Wesley Medical center reacted by issuing a statement that the hospital's mission is loving God, serving others, excelling in health care, and that none of its facilities performed abortions.

Several days later, on January 15, 2004, The Hattiesburg American announced that Whitaker withdrew his membership at the Tower Pavilion and gave up his privilege to practice at Wesley Medical Center. Planned Parenthood in Mobile refused to comment about the resignation.

Planned Parenthood receives no Ohio "Women's Health" grant funds

Ohio Right to Life posted the following good news on its website on January 23, 2004.

Affiliates of Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the U.S., have received none of the state tax funds awarded under Ohio's new "Women's Health Services" Program, which replaced the state's Family Planning program on January 1, 2004. During the week of January 20th, the Ohio Department of Health awarded over $1 million in grant funds to 22 grantees for the remainder of the current fiscal year. All 22 of the grantees were local health departments. Under the former budget's family planning program, Ohio's 10 Planned Parenthood affiliates received the majority of the funding. As a result of the lobbying efforts of countless grassroots pro-lifers, pro-life members of the Ohio General Assembly were able to replace the program's preference for federal Title X grantees with a preference for local health departments in the 2-year state budget adopted in June 2003.

"Awarding women's health services grants to local health departments makes good public policy sense" said Mark Lally, Legislative Counsel of Ohio Right to Life. "Local health departments have a long history of providing health services to low income women, but unlike Planned Parenthood, they are not driven by an ideological commitment to promoting abortion. They are also facing tight budget situations and can use the funding. This is a victory both for Ohio's women, who will receive quality health services from a non-controversial source, and for pro-life taxpayers, who will not have to subsidize an organization that is committed to the destruction of unborn children," Lally said

PP closes Encinitas, California killing center after 5-years of pro-life protesting

Planned Parenthood of San Diego & Riverside Counties in California has posted on its website a notice that its Encinitas facility permanently closed on November 21, 2003. Praise God! This notorious killing center was situated at Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas. A report on the closing in the February 2004 issue of San Diego News Notes indicates that, according to the California Department of Health Services, 3306 abortions were performed at the Scripps hospital clinic just in 2000. Planned Parenthood began renting space there in 1998 and state records indicate that it paid $75,730 in rent in 2000. No details on the reason for the closing were given by PP or the hospital.

The presence of the Planned Parenthood abortion mill at the hospital had been a public relations problem for the hospital. Howard Putnam, a member of Open Eyes Ministries, said he had been witnessing outside the facility every Monday in 1999 and 2000. Since then he and others maintained a presence out the facility every third Saturday of the month. Putnam indicated that there were sometimes as many as 70 pro-lifers at the site.

At times, according to Putnam, pro-lifers had such things as coffee, coffee cups, pennies, cigarettes and milkshakes thrown at them. But positive things happened as well during the 5-year protest. Putman tells of one woman who stopped to thank them for being there. She told the pro-lifers she was going to have an abortion, but now she has a 2-year old son. Another women was actually in the facility to have an abortion, changed her mind and then came out crying and prayed with the pro-lifers who supported her decision to keep her baby. One time a highway patrolman stopped to question the legality of the pro-lifers presence and then ended up praying with them.

Pastor Gary Cass of West Hills Christian Fellowship said, "We've seen 17 abortion clinics close in San Diego County and over 40 abortionists quit because of the fervent prayers and faithful actions of pro-lifers in our community." Starting in January, the successful pro-lifers moved on to another PP facility at 347 West Mission Avenue in Esondido. If you are interested in joining them on the third Saturday of every month from 8-11 am contact Howard Putnam at Hows4life@compuserve.com.

STOPP congratulates Howard and Pastor Cass and everyone else that took part in this wonderful victory for Our Lord's precious innocent babies in Encinitas. The life saving efforts of pro-lifers in this region are a wonderful example of just how effective a peaceful, prayerful presence at the PP abortion site can be. May God continue to bless their efforts.

Back issues of the Ryan Report.