THE WEDNESDAY STOPP REPORT

Planned Parenthood expanding in Lufkin, Texas

Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas has recently been raising funds to build a new 6,700 square foot facility in Lufkin. Members of the community have been very active in opposing this new facility and based on PP’s web site apparently it is having tremendous public relations problems due to this opposition. Lufkin for Life, with the assistance of several groups, including Texas Contractors and Suppliers for Life, plus the Houston Coalition for Life, have been working hard against the proposed site. These groups are speaking with local construction companies and their suppliers about the operations and motives of Planned Parenthood and encouraging them to not participate in the construction of this facility.

Despite the work of these groups the local media continues to bitterly defend Planned Parenthood. Ironically, the continued response in the media, whatever the spin, is only adding fuel to exposing the truth about Planned Parenthood. It is important, however, that all who oppose PP continue to voice their concerns in public forums.

On January 28 the Lufkin Daily News printed a letter to the editor written by a young lady named Colleen. The letter begins by stating, “I am a 15-year-old girl, and I am appalled that the citizens of Lufkin are allowing Planned Parenthood to build a new abortion chamber in our city.”

We congratulate Colleen on her powerful letter and her fervor to get Planned Parenthood out of the community. Since she is a teenager she is speaking for over 25 percent of PP’s customer base. We encourage people from across the country to follow Colleen’s lead and publicly state their opposition to Planned Parenthood’s actions. Writing a letter to the editor is a great way to start this public outcry.

We also congratulate Lufkin for Life and all who are fighting to prevent the building of this new PP facility. One of the most vital actions a community can do is to prevent Planned Parenthood from ever even getting its foot in the door. To find out how you can help in this struggle, e-mail Lufkin for Life president Robert Dickens.

Please investigate your local Planned Parenthood affiliate and find out what plans it has for expansion, either in locations or in activities. Also we encourage you to pray for the people of Lufkin that they may be victorious in preventing PP from expanding and ultimately in getting it entirely out of their community and away from their children.

Planned Parenthood, condoms and Valentine’s Day

Planned Parenthood generally uses Valentine’s Day to spread its sick philosophy of recreational sex. Valentine’s Day always starts Planned Parenthood’s celebration of “National Condom Week.” This year it is pushing condoms from coast to coast:

• Planned Parenthood of Golden Gate in San Francisco is encouraging people to send an e-card from their site that asks “Is your Valentine covered?” The card contains the following promotional message: "Valentine's Day is the first day of National Condom Week, will you be covered? Condom week is a celebration of the effectiveness of the condom in preventing unintended pregnancy, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections. Have fun testing your condom smarts at www.ppgg.org/condomquiz."

• Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington (D.C.) is selling “cupid condoms” and advertising them as “the perfect Valentine's Day gift for your sweethearts.”

Pro-lifers should be prepared in every state to counter this message of promiscuity from Planned Parenthood and to stress the importance and benefits of chastity.

New tool in the fight against Planned Parenthood

American Life League is dedicated to helping people all across the country fight the nation’s largest abortion chain – Planned Parenthood. One of the things we do is to create PDF files that can be used as fliers, posters and even ads in local newspapers.

We have just posted a new PDF file on our web site that you can use to spread the truth about Planned Parenthood.

We have five ads against Planned Parenthood on the web site. To view all that are available, simply go to Downloads.

You are welcome to download and use all of these files. If you need any of them customized for your local use, send an e-mail to stopp@ALL.org and we will do what we can to help.

American Life League Rapid Response Team

We all know the feeling. It is two o’clock on a Thursday afternoon and you find out that your state legislature is going to have a vote early next week on some bill that will provide funding to Planned Parenthood. You’re in a panic mode. What can you do?

Well, American Life League has developed an effort that may be able to assist you. As part of our ongoing efforts against Planned Parenthood, we have established a Rapid Response Team. When that panic situation occurs, give us a call and we may be able to help you out.

What can we do?

• First of all, we have an online petition to stop the taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood. We can immediately go to that petition, identify all the people from your state who have signed and send them an urgent e-mail asking them to take the appropriate action.

• Then we will mobilize any of our Rock for Life chapters in your state to have young people show up at any hearings that are taking place or to hold a demonstration as necessary to call attention to the vote and what needs to be done.

• Time permitting, we can contact your newspaper in the state capital and arrange to run an advertisement against Planned Parenthood in the newspaper on the day of the vote (or the day before).

• Finally, if there is a legislative or public hearing involved, we may be able to fly one of our staff out to testify at the hearing.

What can you do?

There are a number of things you can do now that will help us be ready to help you:

• Encourage everyone in your state to sign the petition against taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood so we will have a large list of contacts when the need arises.

• Encourage the youth in your area to become involved with Rock for Life and be ready to act when the time comes.

• Stay informed about what is happening in your state regarding bills that will either give money to Planned Parenthood or take it away. Contact us as early as possible when a situation arises in which you think we can help.

• Obviously, doing things on short notice requires that we have funds available to buy airline tickets, ad space, etc. American Life League relies on free will donations to do everything we do. Please consider a donation today to help us be ready when the need is urgent. You can donate online.

RRT in New Hampshire

We recently had the honor of putting our Rapid Response Team in action in support of New Hampshire Right to Life – an associate group of American Life League.

On Friday, January 26, we received a call that there would be a public hearing on a bill in New Hampshire that would strip all money from Planned Parenthood in the state. The public hearing was scheduled for Tuesday, January 30. The pro-lifers from New Hampshire requested two things of us:

• That we have an expert go to New Hampshire to testify at the public hearing.

• That we generate as much publicity as possible to call attention to the bill and to the evil of Planned Parenthood.

Our Rapid Response Team mobilized petition signers and the youth from the University of New Hampshire. We tried to place ads in the Concord Monitor, but they refused to print any of the three different anti-Planned Parenthood ads we were willing to pay for.

The results of our efforts combined with the local efforts was that the hearing room was filled with people and over 90 percent of them were in support of the bill taking all funding from Planned Parenthood. ALL’s vice president, Jim Sedlak, testified in person at the public hearing, did four different radio interviews and talked with a reporter from the Manchester Union Leader. Although the senate committee was filled with people who support Planned Parenthood and chances of the committee passing the bill were slim, pro-lifers were energized by the day and vowed to keep fighting.

Congratulations to New Hampshire Right to Life on leading this effort against Planned Parenthood.

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