| Politics

Planned Parenthood provided for the commission of 305,310 abortions in 2007 and honored a woman who calls abortion 'Sacred and prophetic Work'.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) – I took some time recently to read Planned Parenthood’s Annual Report. As a 501 c3 organization (with an affiliated “Action fund” for its more overtly political efforts) they have to make the report available to the public. I well understand the role and function of such reports having led not for profits groups in the past. It keeps members, supporters and friends aware of the organizations use of their funds and gives the organization the opportunity to self promote. The Planned Parenthood report is deeply disturbing.

Planned Parenthood is built on a lie. They have dressed themselves up as a “Health Care Provider” while they include the taking of the lives of innocent children in the womb as a “service” under their offering of “reproductive services”. They have insinuated themselves into the global delivery of “medical services” receiving massive government funding. There is nothing “reproductive” about abortion, it always kills. It is certainly not a service to the child, the mother, the father or society. Nor is it “health care”. It is feticide. Funding it is morally repugnant. Planned Parenthood is the leading institutional champion of a culture which has redefined “choice” to include killing young innocent human life and “freedom” to include the commission of unspeakable horrors against an entire class of people, children in the first home of the whole human race.

Their 2007 – 2008 Report takes their claims to a level of audacity which I have never seen. They honor a woman who refers to the killing of children in the womb through surgical strikes and chemical weapons as “Sacred Work” and “Prophetic Work”. Before I turn to this blasphemous claim, let us consider these words from a true prophet, the great Hebrew Prophet Isaiah “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who change darkness into light, and light into darkness, who change bitter into sweet, and sweet into bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own sight, and prudent in their own esteem!” (Isaiah 5:20, 21). This distinction between true and false prophets is not my own. It is a part of the Jewish and Christian tradition.

The “Didache” or “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” dates from the 1st Century. In it we discover how the early Christians discerned the difference between true and false prophets. Let me turn to its language: “There are two ways, one of life and one of death; and between the two ways there is a great difference. Now, this is the way of life… Do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not corrupt boys; do not fornicate; do not steal; do not practice magic; do not go in for sorcery; do not murder a child by abortion or kill a newborn infant." This is a part of a long line of unbroken Christian teaching which, along with the clear witness of the Scriptures and Councils affirms the absolute rejection of abortion in Christianity. To claim otherwise is simply to lie about history. The “Didache” also dealt with people using the name Christian and claiming to be prophetic when they were neither. Later we read this warning: “Let everyone who "comes in the Name of the Lord" be received; but when you have tested him you shall know him, for you shall have understanding of true and false.’

Now let us consider the content of this Annual Report. In its early paragraphs we read “Planned Parenthood is the leading sexual and reproductive health care advocate and provider, with 93 years under our belt. And in the near future, we will play a unique role in helping to shape the health agenda for the new administration.” The specter of this involvement should haunt us all and motivate us to do absolutely everything we can do to ensure that this organization not be allowed to frame the coming “health care” reform in this Nation. However, the report gets worse. Every year, Planned Parenthood honors those who embody their “mission”. One of those honors is the bestowal of the “Davis Award” on the man, woman or organization which they feel best embodies that mission. It is named after Reverend Tom Davis, a minister in the United Church of Christ and his wife. Davis wrote a book entitled "Abortion -- Is it Necessary?" in which he contended that the “sacred work of justice,” requires that America provide abortions to women. He is also the chair of the “Clergy Advisory Board” of Planned Parenthood. What is this group? Well, here is its “mission”:

“Members of our Clergy Advisory Board (CAB) speak out about the theological basis for choice and mobilize fellow clergy and lay religious leaders to join the PPFA Pro-Choice Religious Network, a national membership organization advocating for the right of women and men to make informed, morally responsible choices about their reproductive lives. Clergy members at the affiliate level support grassroots advocacy efforts and educational programming. Last year, CAB members issued statements in support of ...