Enemies of Life

How goes the fight against Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood inserts itself into communities and spreads its perverted doctrine by operating so-called health clinics. Despite the name these are not places of healing; they are centers of deception and death. Moreover, the number of Planned Parenthood clinics is a good indicator of the influence and support the organization has at a local level.

Back in 1993, Planned Parenthood operated 922 clinics across the United States. William Jefferson Clinton had just been inaugurated as president of the United States and Hillary Clinton was a longtime supporter of Planned Parenthood’s activities. With friends in the White House, Planned Parenthood announced its goal of having 2,000 clinics by the year 2000. It immediately began to open new clinics across the country and its numbers increased to 938 facilities by 1995.

A proven plan

Then American Life League and STOPP launched an intense effort focused on Planned Parenthood clinics. We began educating people on how to stop Planned Parenthood from coming to town and how to close existing clinics. We produced a set of videotapes telling the truth about Planned Parenthood’s dirty deeds. Our tapes and literature were used in community after community. In many places, the tapes were shown on cable-access TV to reach a wider audience.

The efforts produced immediate results. Although Planned Parenthood managed to open a number of new clinics, it was closing old clinics faster than opening new ones.

Since Planned Parenthood is run like a commercial business and has nothing to do with helping people, every clinic must bring in enough money to support itself or it is closed down. Our educational efforts were causing local governments to stop giving taxpayer money to Planned Parenthood. Moms and dads were using our book, Parent Power, to get Planned Parenthood out of the schools and deny the organization access to their children. Community members began seeing Planned Parenthood as a controversial organization. By 1997, Planned Parenthood’s total number of clinics had dropped to 900—a loss of 38 in just two years.

As the effort intensified, STOPP, which had been a separate organization, merged its activities into American Life League. With the increase in resources we were able to continue our successful efforts.

In 1999, we published our Plan to Defeat Planned Parenthood. The plan highlighted three reasons why people oppose the organization: The killing of babies through its abortion business; its intrusion between parents and children through its sex education programs and “confidential” services to minors; the huge amount of taxpayer money that pours into its coffers.

People across the country used our plan and by the year 2002, the number of clinics had decreased to 875. Planned Parenthood scrambled to stop the plunge. Then in 2003, its executives came up with express clinics, which allow clients to “quickly pick up their birth control medication or get contraceptive advice.”

Express clinics are a way for Planned Parenthood to open storefront operations with very little overhead. Thus, it can appear to maintain its clinic numbers at a minimum cost.

This strategy worked for a short time as Planned Parenthood’s clinic numbers dropped only slightly from 2002 to 2005. At the end of 2005, it operated a total of 872 clinics, including the express clinics. But we were confident that the strategy which had closed Planned Parenthood’s regular clinics would work against the express clinics as well.

Continuing success

Our latest analysis of Planned Parenthood’s clinic statistics has again shown a significant number of Planned Parenthood clinics closing. In December 2006, Planned Parenthood operated a total of 859 clinics—13 fewer than a year earlier and 79 fewer than it operated in 1995.

The drop in Planned Parenthood clinics is even more dramatic when we exclude the express clinics. In December 2006, Planned Parenthood operated just 817 regular clinics. Thus the drop in Planned Parenthood’s regular clinics went from a high of 938 in 1995 to 817 in 2006—a net drop of 121 clinics in 11 years.

These numbers show that God is blessing our work. Evidently our Plan to Defeat Planned Parenthood is sound. What is needed is an all-out effort to get it implemented in every community where Planned Parenthood has a clinic or wants to establish one.

God shows His mercy with every clinic closing. A recent occurrence in Phoenix, Arizona shows how God works miracles. Planned Parenthood operated two surgical abortion centers in Phoenix. Local pro-lifers, often led by Arizona Right to Life, regularly demonstrated against these facilities. On Christmas Eve 2006, Catholic Bishop Thomas Olmsted joined a group of pro-lifers in prayer outside the Planned Parenthood Women’s Surgical Center at 4417 North 7th Avenue, where Planned Parenthood was committing 350- 400 abortions every month.

Three days later, an earlymorning fire shut down the clinic. No one was harmed. According to the web site of Planned Parenthood of Central and Northern Arizona, investigators determined the ignition source for the fire was likely an overheated fan motor used to cool computer equipment. Planned Parenthood says that “The facility is not useable now, or for the foreseeable future.”

No doubt Planned Parenthood officials think that the fire was just a coincidence three days after a prayer vigil led by Bishop Olmsted, but the faithful consider it God’s answer to their prayers. Believe what you wish, but no children will be killed there for a long time.

Not all clinic closings are so dramatic, but faithful persistence by pro-lifers has resulted in Planned Parenthood closing down almost a clinic a month for the last 11 years.

What lies ahead?

Since the 2006 midterm elections, Planned Parenthood has been boasting of victory and looking forward to a boon in business. Its executives haven’t been this excited since Bill Clinton was first elected president. Planned Parenthood feels like part of the “in” crowd again. Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, is a former staffer to Nancy Pelosi—the new speaker of the House of Representatives. Thus Richards is allying Planned Parenthood with all the culture of death leaders in America.

In other words, Planned Parenthood is moving aggressively and we must stop it.

Of course it will be the Lord, not us, who will win final victory over Planned Parenthood. When you look at Planned Parenthood’s programs—killing over 255,000 babies a year and leading our teenagers into lives of sexual sin—it becomes clear that Planned Parenthood is doing the work of Lucifer.

To move forward this year, we need a multitude of prayer warriors beseeching heaven that God will use people all across the United States to peacefully bring ruin upon Planned Parenthood. We need every organization fighting Planned Parenthood to establish a prayer support group for its efforts. We need every bishop, priest, pastor, religious and lay person to offer prayers for the success of our united efforts against Planned Parenthood. We need Celebrate Life readers to remember the fight against Planned Parenthood in your daily prayers.

With the grace that God will send in answer to your prayers, 2007 will be a holy year in the fight against Planned Parenthood. We will move forward with peaceful, prayerful actions in imitation of Jesus Christ and Planned Parenthood will not be able to stand before His righteous army.

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About the author

Jim Sedlak

Jim Sedlak is executive director of American Life League, founder of STOPP International, and host of a weekly talk show on the Radio Maria Network. He has been successfully fighting Planned Parenthood since 1985.