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Letter Regarding Planned Parenthood

In November of 2007 I began drafting a response to a local editorial supporting a new Planned Parenthood clinic in our town of McMinnville, Oregon. There are many understandable reasons to oppose Planned Parenthood, but with a limit of 300 words, I focussed on how PP promotes premature and inappropriate sexual education leading to irresponsible sexual behavior, and then benefits from the results at others' expense or demise.

This was the first letter I'd ever researched or written about Planned Parenthood. It wasn't until devoting several weeks of investigation to what Planned Parenthood actually does and supports (in their own words, no less) that I became energized to openly oppose it. Prior to this, I was aware that Planned Parenthood supported and performed abortion, but didn't know about its "educational" efforts, the actual statistics, or the relationship between them.

The paper resisted publishing my letter, saying that my statements were "difficult to substantiate." After providing all sources and making some minor edits, they ran it on December 15, 2007. A week later they ran a letter that dismissed its contents as a "litany of lies" and "myths," even though the editors knew that all facts, figures and statistics in my letter were from Planned Parenthood, itself, or reputable third parties. Following is the original letter as I submitted it to the News Register, along with notes indicating all sources.

The News-Register's October 27 [2007] editorial "Planned Parenthood Welcomed" misrepresents Planned Parenthood's activities, implying that PP merely provides "information about options for preventing pregnancy."1 Whether the local clinic performs abortions, Planned Parenthood promotes a sexual philosophy that devalues humanity and brings disease and death on an unbelievable, global scale. PP incites this from the earliest possible age, usually behind parents' backs or against their will,2 and collects almost a billion dollars a year doing so.3 PP has a long list of surprising sexual teachings for kids. Among other things, it states that children as young as five years old should learn about autoeroticism; homosexual, lesbian and bisexual orientations;4 and that children as young as eight should be taught about contraceptives and where to get them.5 Sexuality is a compelling, fulfilling dimension of human nature, but its misuse results in heartbreak, disease and undesired pregnancy. PP says we can avoid these consequences by buying into their assortment of prophylactics. Despite their widespread use -- and without going into their damaging side-effects -- each year in the USA there are still approximately 1-2 million new STD infections6 and 2-3 million unintended pregnancies7... where PP benefits again by pushing another round of drugs and "health services." About half of these "unplanned" children are then killed by abortionists,8 making abortion -- yet another source of PP revenue -- the leading cause of death in America, roughly equal to heart disease and cancer combined.9 No war, plague, famine, or natural or man-made disaster in history has caused as much illness or killed as many people as PP's flawed, irresponsible philosophies.10 Even "Big Tobacco" and AIDS don't come close.11 For these and related reasons, informed, rational people desire a Planned Parenthood clinic next door about as much as an inveterate murderer, child molester or drug dealer.12

1. http://www.newsregister.com/news/results.cfm?story_no=227815
2. It is no secret that Planned Parenthood proudly supports distribution of information and pharmaceuticals irrespective of parents' consent or notification, even in the presence of their objections. They also support provision of medical procedures like abortion without parental consent and practice it where allowed by law.
3. Planned Parenthood's annual report for 2005-2006 showed income of over 900 million.
4. From Planned Parenthood's document, "Human Sexuality -- What Children Need to Know and When They Need to Know It": "By Age Five Children need to know that... touching their sex organs for pleasure is normal ... [they should] seek privacy when they want to touch their sex organs for pleasure .... Ages Five to Seven need to know ... that people experience sexual pleasure in a number of ways ... that sexual identity includes sexual orientation -- lesbian, gay, straight, or bisexual ...."
5. Ibid. "Ages Eight to 12 [need to know] ... that masturbation is very common and that it is normal to masturbate ... about contraceptive methods ... how to get contraceptives ...."
6. From the Centers for Disease Control 2006 and historical trend data.
7. 49% of pregnancies are unintended according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute.
8. 54% of unintended pregnancies are aborted, about one for every three live births. Actual numbers vary year to year, but are recently in the 1-2 million range. Ibid.
9. CDC shows heart disease deaths at 652k, and cancer at 554k, totalling 1.2 million.
10. The philosophy and practice of irresponsible sex and abortion cause hundreds of millions of disease infections every year, and tens of millions of deaths. 1999 World Health Organization data estimates 340 million STD infections per year worldwide. AGI estimates approximately 46 million abortions per year. That is almost 400 million people directly affected or killed every year, more than the total population of the USA. No known event in human history has caused illness or death at this rate.
11. According to the CDC, smoking contributes significantly to approximately 400,000 American deaths per year, about 1/4-1/3 of deaths by abortion. According to the CDC report on AIDS/HIV, there are about 17,000 AIDS-related deaths per year in the USA, about 1% compared to those killed by abortion. They also listed approximately 37,000 new infections annually, which is around 1-2% of those who contract STD's on an annual basis in the USA due to irresponsible sexual activity.
12. This is the only sentence in the entire letter that is purely my own opinion. It is the proper reaction to have towards a person or institution that does the things that Planned Parenthood does and supports.