In the face of intense pressure from South Texas STOPP, Planned Parenthood in Corpus Christi has announced its disaffiliation from Planned Parenthood Federation of America effective January 1, 2011—the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God.
Corpus Christi has a long history of intense pro-life activity against local abortionists. But because the Corpus Christi Planned Parenthood was not involved in surgical or medical abortion, it was not the focal point of the opposition.
Then, in 2007, Corpus Christi pro-life leader Therese Perez discovered that Planned Parenthood was engaged in the Corpus Christi schools. She invited American Life League vice president Jim Sedlak to speak at the “Truth Jam” for youth. He joined local pro-lifers in picketing the Corpus Christi headquarters of the Planned Parenthood affiliate.
Strategy was laid out and South Texas STOPP was launched—an organization dedicated specifically to stopping Planned Parenthood. In describing the solid wall of opposition that South Texas STOPP built against Planned Parenthood, Perez emphasized, “Most of all we asked Our Blessed Mother Mary, Queen of Truth and Purity, to lead us to victory, and she did.”
Carefully implementing all of the facets of the STOPP International plan to defeat Planned Parenthood, the Corpus Christi STOPP Associate group won many victories along the way. Among those victories:
- It persuaded the Corpus Christi City Council to deny $30,000 in funding to PP.
- It was able to get the Nueces County Hospital District to deny $70,000 in funding to PP.
- Its efforts resulted in the removal of Planned Parenthood from the Corpus Christi Independent School District.
- It impacted local opinion about Planned Parenthood through continual community outreach, via media and a consistent prayerful presence at Planned Parenthood facilities, fundraisers, and other events.
In making the announcement of its disaffiliation from Planned Parenthood, PP CEO Amanda Stukenberg, long-time mouthpiece for abortion “rights” in Corpus Christi, said the decision was made because Planned Parenthood Federation of America is requiring every affiliate to do surgical and/or medical abortions.
Though Stukenberg said Planned Parenthood did not want to do abortions, there is no doubt that a major part of that decision not to do so was because of the active fight that is currently being waged against it by South Texas STOPP. Planned Parenthood leadership realized that openly committing abortions would only intensify its opposition and lead to further loss of support in the community. Stukenburg is desperately trying to save her operation by renaming it Family Planning of the Coastal Bend and dropping all association with Planned Parenthood.
The impact of such disaffiliations on Planned Parenthood is legion. The end result is a weaker, more vulnerable local entity which loses its bulk discounts and the many other perks that flow to it as a part of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America abortion empire. Disaffiliations damage the Planned Parenthood Federation by dropping affiliate numbers and result in a loss of corporate identity in those locales where the disaffiliations occur. Legislators realize that their constituents are well-served without Planned Parenthood’s presence, and it makes it more difficult for Planned Parenthood to justify a need for its “services” in other parts of the nation. When the dust settles, both the national and local Planned Parenthood organizations are weakened by disaffiliations. Pro-life persistence will eliminate the progeny of Planned Parenthood as well.
“When we got the e-mail from Jim Sedlak on December 20, 2010, that Planned Parenthood of South Texas was disaffiliating from the national organization of Planned Parenthood and would be no more as of January 1, 2011, it was difficult to absorb,” said Perez. “In less than three years of our following STOPP International’s program to close Planned Parenthood, Planned Parenthood of South Texas, the first Planned Parenthood in the USA to receive federal funding and that opened here in Corpus Christi during the 1950s, was no more.”
Congratulations to South Texas STOPP for this hard-won victory through the intercession of Our Lady. Corpus Christi now joins Amarillo as the two Texas cities that have the distinction of seeing Planned Parenthood banished from their midst.
If you need further proof that Our Lady is responsible for these victories, contemplate this: Both cities became PP-free on the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. After implementing STOPP’s plan to eliminate Planned Parenthood and consecrating the battle to Mary, Amarillo became Planned Parenthood-free on January 1, 2009, and Corpus Christi joined its companion city on January 1, 2011.