THE RYAN REPORT

Omaha Girl Scouts hire Planned Parenthood executive

“This is mind-boggling,” said Jim Sedlak, executive director of American Life League’s STOPP International. “After all the protestations of the Girl Scouts that they have no association with Planned Parenthood, the Girl Scouts – Great Plains Council in Omaha, Nebraska announced today [June 17] that it has hired Beverly Todd Nolte to be its new executive director.”

“A quick check on Ms. Nolte’s background,” Sedlak said, “shows that she was the vice president of Marketing at Planned Parenthood of Nebraska and Council Bluffs for the last three years and was also listed as a lobbyist for the organization.”

In January of this year, Nolte defended a program that informed teens on how they could bypass Nebraska’s parental notification law. She was quoted in an article published by the Omaha World-Herald on January 11, stating: “"We see it as a issue of information teens need to have,” adding, “We're standing up for teens' rights."

“Now that Nolte is head of the Girl Scouts,” asked Sedlak, “Does this mean all the Girl Scouts of the Great Plains Council will be told how to get abortions behind their parents’ backs?”

Since March of this year, STOPP has been conducting research to determine how many of the 315 Girl Scout Councils in the United States have some sort of relationship with Planned Parenthood. To date, STOPP has been able to classify 108 of the councils. “On March 19,” Sedlak revealed, “we received an e-mail from the Great Plains Council informing us that they had no relationship with PP. Obviously, that has now changed.”

As of June 17, 25 of the 108 councils STOPP classified (23%) do have a relationship with Planned Parenthood. You can view the results of STOPP’s efforts at www.all.org/stopp/scouts.

Sedlak concluded, “It is time parents in Omaha and elsewhere took a serious look at the Girl Scouts.”

Planned Parenthood of Nebraska and Council Bluffs’ 2002 IRS Form 990, available from Guidestar, indicates that Nolte was paid $58,240 for her services to Planned Parenthood that year. See also “Great Plains Council names new director.”

Girl Scout/PP update: How you can help

As the previous article indicates, STOPP is still hard at work tracking down the relationships between Planned Parenthood and the Girl Scouts across the United States. Emails and phone calls have been coming into our office from across the country, and the issue is still a hot topic in the media. For those that missed the background on this controversy, it is in both the February 2004 Ryan Report and the May 2004 Ryan Report.

In addition, the 700 Club produced a 7-minute news segment on the issue, which aired on June 4, 2004 and included commentary from STOPP’s executive director, Jim Sedlak. This segment has been placed on line at the Pro-Life Waco web site. Pro-Life Waco’s John Pisciotta took the lead in exposing the PP/Girl Scout connection in his region of Texas. STOPP has worked closely with John throughout this whole campaign and salutes his efforts to fight PP influence in the Girl Scouts.

While this campaign has been moving along well so far, in order for it to reach its full potential we need your help. Here’s what you can do:

First, visit STOPP’s special web page focused upon the links between the Girls Scout and Planned Parenthood. Click on your state and to see how your local Girl Scout council has been classified. If your local council is listed as having no relationship with Planned Parenthood, write or call that council to thank it and urge it never to cooperate in anything with Planned Parenthood in the future. You can find contact information by using the “Council finder” link on the web page. Such a message will let the council know that people in the region care about this matter and this will make it less likely that the council would change in the future to partner with Planned Parenthood.

If your council is listed as having a relationship with Planned Parenthood, use the “Council finder” link to get contact information for the council in order to complain to it and urge it to severe its ties with Planned Parenthood. You should also mount a public campaign to make the relationship known and to urge others to ask the council to drop its association with Planned Parenthood. To see how pro-lifers in Waco, Texas successfully got their local Girl Scout council to severe its ties with Planned Parenthood visit Pro-Life Waco. One way to start such a campaign is to simply write a letter to the editors of your local papers exposing the connection. STOPP has recently updated two of its pamphlets, which are available from our resource department (1-866-LET-LIVE). These pamphlets can be used to educate your community so it knows why you are opposed to the Girl Scouts partnering with Planned Parenthood. These pamphlets are entitled, "Who was Margaret Sanger?" and "Why do we oppose Planned Parenthood?" Feel free to quote from them in your letters. If the local council will not sever its ties with Planned Parenthood, girls can be urged to join the American Heritage Girls instead.

If your local Girl Scout council is listed on STOPP’s website as not responding to STOPP on this matter, use the “Council finder” link to contact your local council and ask it if it has any relationship with Planned Parenthood as defined by the seven possibilities listed on STOPP’s website. You should do this by mail or email so you have a record of the response that you can send to STOPP so we can use it to update our website. Send any responses to STOPP’s special e-mail address for matters pertaining to the Planned Parenthood/Girl Scout issue — no2pp@all.org, or to STOPP at P.O. Box 1350 Stafford, VA 22555. Several people have already helped us in this way. Obviously, once you find out whether or not your local Girl Scout council is partnering with Planned Parenthood, you should then follow the applicable actions described in one of the previous two paragraphs.

One of the most powerful letters we have seen came from a 64 year-old grandmother who was a Girl Scout in the 1950s and whose own daughter was a Girl Scout in the 1970’s and whose granddaughters are involved in Girl Scouts now. On June 12, she wrote to her local council, which had ignored STOPP’s inquiries, and got a response back on June 16 which she forwarded to us so we could update the STOPP website. Of course, she let the council know about her family’s involvement in Girl Scouts. This example shows how important it is for local people to get involved in this issue, especially those who are or have been in Girl Scouts.

For those wishing to do even more, you can write to any of those councils that have a relationship with Planned Parenthood. Point out that their actions are harming the Girl Scout’s reputation all over the country. In one letter STOPP received, a pro-life Girl Scout leader in a council not affiliated with Planned Parenthood expressed her concerns about the negative image the Girl Scouts are now getting nationwide because of the actions of other councils. Because of the actions of some of her sister councils and the national attention this has received, this woman is now in a position of having to worry about her church sponsorship being in jeopardy. Such concerns can be expressed to offending councils as well as to the national Girl Scout office. Its website features contact information for several departments. Ask the national office to issue a directive to all Girl Scout councils that there shall be no further associations with Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion chain.

See also, “Mixed Messages: The Girl Scouts Relationship with Planned Parenthood.”

PP infiltrates tax funded employment-training program

For several years, Delaware County Right to Life has opposed a family planning educational contract that Delaware County, N.Y., has with Planned Parenthood. Details of their fight can be found the Delaware County Right to Life website.

DCRTL used the Freedom of Information Law to obtain information from the county. The information included the actual contract as well as the quarterly reports the contract requires Planned Parenthood to file with the county. The contract showed that Planned Parenthood got $300 per client just to provide education about “family planning.” From the quarterly reports, pro-lifers learned that Planned Parenthood has infiltrated a county employment-training program called BEST (Better Employment, Services and Training). From October 2000 to September 2003, Planned Parenthood educated 165 people from the BEST program for “family planning” or “reproductive health.”

Now what does such education have to do with job training? Does learning about condoms or sometimes abortifacient birth control drugs and devices make one more employable? Is one a better worker because one knows how to contracept? Obviously, Planned Parenthood's family planning education has nothing critical to do with job training and employment preparation. Then why is it being allowed?

To answer that last question, one needs to understand that Planned Parenthood, although willing to "educate" any potential customer, is particularly interested in finding potential customers whose income would qualify them for government assistance for “family planning” services. Thus, Planned Parenthood makes special efforts to integrate itself into the fabric of the county’s social services structure by cultivating contacts within the social services department who are sympathetic to Planned Parenthood's goals.

This social services relationship has evidently been exploited by Planned Parenthood to get access to those in the BEST program. Many of those in the BEST program, be they single mothers or others, very well may qualify for public assistance for “family planning” services due to low income or lack of a job. Thus, once Planned Parenthood makes contact with such people at the BEST program, such people may well become regular Planned Parenthood customers.

Evidence of another example of such infiltration is contained in the reports Planned Parenthood has filed with the Delaware County Department of Social Services through the years. Planned Parenthood has accessed the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children — better known as the WIC Program — within Delaware County. Here again we see Planned Parenthood positioning itself so it can gain access to lower income people, who are also likely to be eligible for “family planning” services subsidized by tax dollars.

Such targeting of the poor is completely consistent with the philosophy of Planned Parenthood’s eugenicist founder, Margaret Sanger, who believed the human race could be improved if certain people used birth control so they would not reproduce. Of course, most Planned Parenthood supporters nowadays will not likely publicly admit to such motivation.

Ryan Report readers are urged to investigate the relationship of Planned Parenthood with their own local county department of social services. Find out if and how Planned Parenthood has extended its tentacles into your community via its relationship with your local department of social services. You can use the Freedom of Information Law to help you do this, as well as visits to the county department of social services and discussions with county officials. STOPP has a special web page, which gives tips on how to use the Freedom of Information Law. If you find out that Planned Parenthood is using any department in your county to further its agenda, mount a public campaign to end the association. See part 3 of STOPP International's plan for defeating Planned Parenthood for proven tactics to end local county support for Planned Parenthood.

Ryan Report readers may wish to contact the BEST program to request that it end its relationship with Planned Parenthood. STOPP contacted the Delaware County accounting unit and was told that the BEST program receives funding from the New York Work Block Grant, a federal grant administered by the state of New York. The BEST website indicates that the contact person for the program is Bob Hobkirk. STOPP recently called him and had an email exchange with him as well. He was fully aware of the BEST/Planned Parenthood relationship and staunchly defended it. Perhaps, if he hears from polite STOPP supporters from around the country, he may change his views. His email is hobkirrb@delhi.edu.

Planned Parenthood’s 2004 Congressional legislative agenda

In last month’s Ryan Report we told you about some documents obtained by STOPP at the PPFA annual conference and indicated that we would provide more details this month about the PPFA legislative agenda STOPP obtained. When PPFA held 2004 Congressional Day of Action on April 22, 2004, it urged its attendees to fan out to lobby legislators in Washington regarding the issues detailed below. Readers can access the text for Congressional bills referenced simply by going to Library of Congress and typing in the bill number into the search engine. Once the bill appears, one can find the current list of cosponsors by following the “Bill Summary & Status” link.

At the top of PPFA’s Congressional Day of Action legislative agenda is the Freedom of Choice Act (H.R. 3719/ S.2020). Sponsored by Jerrold Nadler [N.Y. 8] in the House and by Barbara Boxer [Calif.] in the Senate, the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) had 82 cosponsors in the House and 17 in the Senate as of June 4, 2004. FOCA seeks “To prohibit, consistent with Roe v. Wade, the interference by the government with a woman's right to choose to bear a child or terminate a pregnancy, and for other purposes.” Planned Parenthood says that, “Once passed, FOCA will protect a woman’s right to choose by federal statute meaning that if our worst fear comes to pass and the Supreme Court were to overrule Roe v. Wade, women in the U.S. will have the protection of federal law in the exercise of their right to choose.”

Next on PPFA’s Congressional Day of Action legislative agenda is opposition to the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act of 2003 (H.R. 3664/ S. 1397). Sponsored by Michael Bilirakis [Fla. 9] in the House and by Judd Gregg [N.H.] in the Senate, the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act of 2003 (ANDA) had 15 cosponsors in the House and 13 in the Senate as of June 4, 2004. ANDA amends the Public Health Service Act to prohibit any government (federal, state, local) that receives federal tax dollars, from discriminating against any health care entity because it refuses to provide coverage of, or pay for, induced abortions. ANDA also expands the definition of "health care entity" to include (in addition to physicians) other health professionals, a hospital, a provider sponsored organization, a health maintenance organization, a health insurance plan, and any other kind of health care facility, organization, or plan.

PPFA says that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops drafted the language of ANDA. PPFA objects to allowing religious entities that operate in the public sphere, such as Catholic hospitals, the freedom to follow their beliefs when it comes to providing abortions. PPFA says, “…their claimed right to refuse to provide these services imposes serious burdens on people who do not share their religious views.”

Next on PPFA’s Congressional Day of Action legislative agenda is opposition to any increase in abstinence only education funding. No particular bill is mentioned, but PPFA says that the President’s budget seeks to double such funding to $273 million from the FY 2004 funding level. PPFA claims that such education is dangerous because it censors talk on contraception, which PPFA claims is responsible for declines in teen pregnancy. The Ryan Report has reviewed studies that debunk that PPFA claim. See, for example, the following issues, May 2003, May 2002 (p.6), and October 2001.

Next on PPFA’s Congressional Day of Action legislative agenda is support for Title X, one of the major federal domestic population control/contraceptive programs. No particular bill number is mentioned. PPFA complains that the program is under funded and obviously wants more money to be poured into this immoral and destructive program. STOPP has written extensively against this evil program. To learn more simply type “Title X” into STOPP’s search engine on our home page.

The final issue on PPFA’s Congressional Day of Action legislative agenda is support for the Cairo Consensus. 2004 marks the tenth anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development embodied in the “Cairo Consensus.” Cairo’s Programme of Action linked population control and sustainable development. PPFA apparently sees this Cairo Consensus as an important means of promoting so-called reproductive rights such as contraception and abortion worldwide and is worried that the U.S government is dissociating itself from the agreement it helped negotiate back in 1994.

PPFA cites the following four examples of U.S. actions, which PPFA sees as undermining the Cairo Consensus.

1. Re-enactment of what PPFA calls the Global Gag Rule, otherwise known as the Mexico City Policy. This policy prohibits any foreign non-government organization from getting U.S. “family planning” funds if the organization promotes or provides post-implantation abortions, with certain exceptions.
2. Defunding of UNFPA
3. An abstinence related provision and earmark with the President’s Global AIDS Initiative
4. Unspecified efforts to undermine international efforts to reaffirm the Cairo Consensus.

As part of its efforts to shore up the Cairo Consensus, PPFA asked its Congressional Day of Action participants to ask members of Congress to sign a letter addressed to Secretary of State Colin Powell urging him to reaffirm the Cairo Consensus on behalf of the U.S. government and its citizens.

Ryan Report readers are urged to use the information above in a proactive way. Let your representatives in Congress know how you feel about these same issues. The best way to thwart the PPFA legislative agenda is to mobilize people on our side to contact their representatives to tell them how they feel about the bills and issues above. Please contact your representatives as soon as possible and urge others in your community to do so as well. Then pray that these representatives will do the right thing. If they don’t, then vote to remove them.

$1.2 billion federal mega-bill pushes contraception and sex-ed

Senator John Kerry and Senator Hillary Clinton have joined seven other senators in cosponsoring an omnibus bill (S.2336) which essentially rolls several contraceptive and sex ed promoting ideas all in to one large bill. It was introduced in the Senate on Planned Parenthood’s 2004 Congressional Day of Action on April 22, 2004. The companion bill in the house (H.R.4192) has 109 cosponsors. Entitled, the “Putting Prevention First Act” it contains the following parts:

• TITLE I--TITLE X OF PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE ACT
• TITLE II--FAMILY PLANNING STATE EMPOWERMENT
• TITLE III--EQUITY IN PRESCRIPTION INSURANCE AND CONTRACEPTIVE COVERAGE
• TITLE IV--EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION EDUCATION AND INFORMATION
• TITLE V--COMPASSIONATE ASSISTANCE FOR RAPE EMERGENCIES
• TITLE VI--FAMILY LIFE EDUCATION
• TITLE VII--TEENAGE PREGNANCY PREVENTION

This horrid bill contains far too many evils to detail here. A few examples tied to tax dollars are listed below, but readers are urged to view the entire bill in all its sin promoting details by going to Library of Congress and typing “S.2336” in the search engine there.

The first part of this mega bill (Title I) would appropriate $643,000,000 for fiscal year 2005 to the infamous contraceptive promoting Title X program of the Public Health Services Act. That is well more than double what this awful program was appropriated for 2004, which was $280,000,000. See Title X of the Public Health Services Act’s funding history at the Office of Population Affairs website.

Title IV of the “Putting Prevention First Act” appropriates $10,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2005 through 2009 to promote Emergency Contraception. Title VI appropriates $100,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2005 through 2009 for sex education. Title VII appropriates $20,000,000 for fiscal year 2005 to reduce teen pregnancy by methods that can include “condom or contraceptive use.” Title VII also says, “Funds under this section are not intended for use by abstinence-only education programs.”

When one sums up the total amount of U.S. taxpayer dollar appropriations proposed by this sin-soaked bill, it comes to a whopping $1,213,000,000. Planned Parenthood affiliates such as Planned Parenthood of North Texas and Planned Parenthood Affiliates of New Jersey have already come out in support of this legislation and no doubt many other Planned Parenthood affiliates will do so soon as well.

Archbishop Burke on politicians supporting Planned Parenthood

The following excerpt is from “Catholic politicians and bishops,” by Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, under the sub heading of, “Exclusion From Holy Communion.” The article appeared in the June 21-28, 2004 issue of America.

The matter is complicated further by the public nature of the Catholic politician’s violation of the moral law in supporting or voting for legislation that permits the taking of an innocent human life, for the sin risks scandal to others. The scandal is especially grave when Catholic politicians not only fail to restrict the evil of abortion within the bounds permitted by the U.S. Supreme Court, but even promote the “right” to abortion, praising the historical extension of this right and harshly criticizing those who favor laws to protect unborn human life. How can one not be gravely scandalized by the spectacle of Catholic politicians who advance the agenda of pro-abortion organizations like Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Rights Action League?

In other words, for the Catholic politician to receive Communion when he or she has publicly violated the moral law in a grave matter like procured abortion risks leading others into thinking that they can accept procured abortion with a right conscience. In such a case, if the Catholic politician does not recognize the lack of the proper disposition to receive Communion, then the church herself must refuse the sacrament, in order to safeguard the worthy reception of the sacrament and to prevent a serious scandal among the faithful…

STOPP’s executive director tours Indiana

Bringing a message that “Planned Parenthood can be defeated in your community,” Jim Sedlak, executive director of American Life League’s STOPP International, traveled through Indiana to speak at various meetings and to participate in protests of Planned Parenthood facilities. “Planned Parenthood has been infiltrating trusted institutions throughout the country, such as the Girl Scouts, the YWCA, and many others, peddling their perverted propaganda to young children,” said Sedlak. “Planned Parenthood’s message undermines the Judeo-Christian values we parents attempt to instill in our children. Fortunately, the behemoth Planned Parenthood portrays itself to be is actually a paper tiger, one that will soon be defeated through persistent prayer and peaceful activism.”

Jim Sedlak began his tour on Saturday, April 24 in Bloomington at the Church of the Good Shepard. The next day Jim spoke at St. Michael Church in Indianapolis. On Monday, he was at The Commons in Columbus and on Tuesday he prayed outside a Planned Parenthood in Indianapolis (where one baby was saved that morning) and talked that evening in Carmel at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel church. The next day, Jim spoke at Roncalli High School in Indianapolis and at Our Lady of the Greenwood, in Greenwood. The tour culminated on Thursday, April 29 with a protest of a Planned Parenthood abortion facility, in Bloomington. “The purpose of my talks is to educate the citizens of Indiana about Planned Parenthood’s threatening agenda,” said Sedlak. “It is an organization whose programs bring a great deal of harm to children, parents and to the community.”

In 1993, Jim was identified by Planned Parenthood Federation of America as one of the 15 “most active” fighters against Planned Parenthood’s sex education programs. In 1995, Planned Parenthood featured Jim in two segments of its anti-life film, Unholy Alliance. Jim has been featured at numerous statewide, national and international pro-life conventions. He has been a featured guest of the Dr. Laura Schlessinger Show, Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect, MTV’s Sex in the Nineties series and Mother Angelica’s EWTN. Additionally, Jim provides commentary for the USA Radio Network, Salem Radio Network and American Family Radio on breaking news stories.

To schedule a talk in your community by STOPP's executive director, Jim Sedlak, or by STOPP's national director, Ed Szymkowiak, call 540-659-4171 or write to STOPP.

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