I am begging every young woman and parent of a daughter to read Abby Johnson's response below.
[Abby Johnson is a former Director of a Planned Parenthood affiliate and was Planned Parenthood's Employee of the Year for the entire US who walked away from her enormous salary and Planned Parenthood power when she saw a 13-week abortion take place on an ultrasound. She had two abortions of her own and was complicit in manipulating women to undergo 22,000 abortions before God changed her heart. Now she is fighting tirelessly to support women in crisis and to save the unborn while helping women heal after abortion and helping abortion workers leave the industry. Her true story can be viewed in the movie "Unplanned" showing at movie theaters now.]
In an interview with Glenn Beck, Abby Johnson was asked, "Where did you make your mistake?" She replied, "I made my mistake when I went to college, and I started living a life of IMMODESTY in my speech, my behavior, my dress. I saw that attracted the attention of guys, and that was attention I wanted."
Dear young ladies, while I would love for you to care about guys enough to avoid becoming a stumbling block or a source of temptation for them, I am much more interested in YOU personally. Instead of asking you to consider others before yourself, let's just consider you for a moment. What's in your best interest? Even if all the godly guys manage to look away when you walk by in that skimpy outfit (that's his responsibility, not yours, as you like to tell me), there are far more jerks, perverts, and creepy old men who will feast their eyes on your physical beauty for a free thrill without ever regarding your heart, mind, or soul. Lots of desperate women require men to pay top dollar to see their goods, but you are putting much of yours on display for free, both in person and on social media. Only your future husband who respects you so much that he has committed himself wholly to you until death (or Christ's return) deserves that privilege. The immature guys whose attention you gain will look at you as an object, more than once, and they will prey on you. You are setting yourself up to be manipulated, used, and abused over and over again. You think you can handle them, but scientific studies show that repeated pressure will eventually wear you down. The jerks you attract with your immodest words, actions, or dress will lead you down a path of so many regrets. Modesty isn't just a wise choice to help out the good guys, it is the best way to love and respect yourself!
I have shared the information below with women in crisis pregnancy situations and with their significant others. I have written extensively about it when I worked as a freelance writer. I have even spoken to students and public high school principals about it, but few were willing to believe that Planned Parenthood manipulates women to the extent that they do. Perhaps hearing it from Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood director and Employee of the Year for all the Planned Parenthood centers in the US, would add some credibility.
Planned Parenthood comes into schools for the sole purpose of selling abortions. They build relationships of trust with students, encourage them to engage in risky sexual activity, and dole out contraceptives that will FAIL. Not only is the human error rate extremely high for young people, but they deliberately give out contraceptives with the highest failure rates. That sense of false security increases sexual activity. Their goal is to sell each girl they meet in the schools at least 3 abortions before they turn 30. That is the only reason Planned Parenthood comes into schools with their "sex ed" programs.
IPPF has manipulated nations around the world into accepting the Convention on the Rights of the Child for the purpose of stripping parental rights so that children can have abortions without parental consent. All this political activism is for the purpose of selling more abortions. (Not discussed in video but more information is available here.)
Abortion is Planned Parenthood's bread and butter. Each Planned Parenthood center is given abortion sales quotas with financial incentives for meeting and exceeding them. No quotas are given for the other services. Every other service they offer, many of which are funded by government grants, are ultimately designed to gain women's trust so they can eventually sell them more abortions. Planned Parenthood directors and execs have gotten filthy rich from the blood of manipulated women in crisis and from the death of those women's innocent children.
Every elected representative who voted against the Born Alive Act, which only sought to prevent infanticide after a baby has been born alive after a botched abortion, received significant campaign contributions from Planned Parenthood. The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) is one of wealthiest and most powerful organizations in the world. IPPF manipulates politicians to vote against the will of their constituents when it will help IPPF sell more abortions. (Not discussed in video, but more information is available here.)
Planned Parenthood's name is a misnomer. No client walks out of Planned Parenthood offices with a planned pregnancy. IPPF exists to terminate pregnancy, not support it. They offer clients no prenatal services whatsoever except for the pregnancy test itself which they use to sell abortion.
The undercover videos about selling baby body parts were not isolated events. Baby body parts are sold across the nation. Abby's one affiliate earned over $2.5 million a year from the sale of baby body parts (or "pieces of children" as Abby's affiliate referred to them) alone.
Abortion counselors LIE to their patients to convince them to buy an abortion. "Counselors" receive sales training and have scripted responses for virtually every patient concern to deliberately pressure these women into having an abortion. Women with faith based concerns about abortion are told that God will forgive them because He understands their situation. Patients do not receive counseling at Planned Parenthood. They receive a sales pitch. Christian crisis pregnancy centers like the CareNet center where I served do provide patients with legitimate counseling and a full list of options plus hope, support, encouragement, and love.
Planned Parenthood sets much higher quotas for the abortion pill, RU486, because it takes less of their time and yields higher margins. It is not at all safe or comfortable as they claim. It's excruciatingly painful, involves so much blood loss that many patients fear they might die, and causes continued blood clots for up to 8 weeks afterwards. Furthermore, it doesn't always expel all of the baby, so patients may need to come back for the surgical procedure, leaving them to pay for and recover from both the chemical and the surgical abortion.
Candela suction abortions are much safer if used with an ultrasound to guide the placement of the instrument, but many Planned Parenthood facilities do not use ultrasound during the procedure because it takes an extra three minutes per abortion and requires an extra helping hand. Abby's facility performed 30-50 abortions a day, so they cut corners wherever possible to fit in more abortions.
Ultrasounds are used during the initial examination to determine the size/age of the baby which then determines the cost of the abortion. Patients are not shown the ultrasound images of their babies on purpose. (CareNet crisis pregnancy centers offer ultrasound images so moms can see their babies for free, and that image often changes their mind about the abortion.)
Listen to Abby as she shares her experiences in this eye-opening video:
There was nothing constitutional, ethical, or American about the Roe v. Wade decision. It is at least as bad as the Dred Scott Case (which was also passed and defended by Democrats) in terms of it's outright bigotry. Both decisions deemed the convenience and preferences of one person as superior to the freedom of another, except Roe v. Wade takes hatred of another human being to the level of barbaric murder, inflicting excruciating pain on the most fragile human life, often when that life can feel pain at the most heightened level in all his or her existence. Abortion is no less barbaric than ISIS beheadings, yet misguided judges rendered it legal by making up an implied right to privacy that isn't stated explicitly in the Constitution and then declaring it more important than a child's right to life, to a voice, or to freedom or opportunity. Why have we allowed 60 million children to be tortured and killed simply because their parents chose to be irresponsible or because an evil person chose to defile and abuse another?
Roe v. Wade set a precedent which began the tsunami of judges legislating from the bench so as to tear down the Constitution instead of upholding it as they were sworn in to do. As with Roe v. Wade, they often don't even use legitimate cases to change law through judicial decisions. Just as Norma McCorvey was manipulated, lied to, and treated as a mere pawn to get abortion legalized without giving her any of the help she was promised, proponents of the new social order are ever on the prowl for an opportunity to do the same so as to dismantle American laws and values.
Roe v. Wade also set in motion America's moral erosion straight into the pit. Once the courts had deemed life no longer sacred or worth protecting, the prevailing worldview changed. Human life became disposable and disrespected. The marriage sacrament was deemed no longer necessary and a father's presence in the home devalued and disregarded.
New scientific technology has only provided further evidence dispelling the myth that the baby is just a clump of tissue, while confirming the tremendous pain these unborn children feel. Post-abortion syndrome and all the other physical and psychological consequences of abortion have been well documented, proving that birthing the baby is almost always in the best interest of the mother, even in cases of rape. Undercover investigations have exposed the escalating criminal activity taking place on a regular basis in abortion centers (covering up sexual abuse and trafficking, selling baby body parts) and the incessant lying and bullying of young mothers to convince them that abortion is the only option. (So much for being pro-choice; abortion is the only choice given by greedy abortionists.) Planned Parenthood propaganda urges children (as young as 11) to engage in risky sexual activity for the admitted purpose of increasing demand for their abortion services. The contraceptive products they dispense for profit give clients a false sense of security, but the brands dispensed have the highest failure rates. Abortion centers are constantly working to grow demand for their services which is extremely damaging to everyone to society as a whole.
Without the unconstitutional Roe v. Wade ruling, there is no moral, legal, scientific, rationale whatsoever for abortion on demand. Dear SCOTUS, once you have a legitimate case, remember Queen Esther's famous refrain. You were appointed for such a time as this. That will be your chance to stop the largest and most horrific form of genocide in world history from continuing in America. Please stop the brutal killing from our sin stained land. To do any less would be to side with terrorists.
The following article is old, but it provides an easy to understand explanation of the case.
The current public outcry about families being separated at
the border (not a new problem by any means as the Flores Consent Decree was enacted in 1997 when Bill Clinton was president and expanded under Obama's administration) seems at the heart to be a question of how to best balance
justice and mercy. How do we open our
borders to fleeing refugees and hurting families who want to assimilate and
build up our country without letting in those who seek to destroy us? How do we process families quickly while
making sure that children are entering with their actual parents instead of
child traffickers or those using them as golden tickets only to be abandoned
later? How do we discern between the
real refugees and the posers? How do we
make the path to citizenship simple and affordable without that path being
manipulated by drug lords, terrorists, violent gangs, and serial criminals? How do we convince immigrants to come here legally and inform those seeking asylum about the no cost refugee pass that gets them inside the border safely and legally instead of encouraging them to put themselves and the minors with them at great risk by coming here illegally? What do we do with children of criminals
whose families will not claim them or fail to show up in court? If our family could not
even board a plane for a domestic flight without our diapered baby being
violated for a diaper search by TSA agents while the rest of us endured the
humiliation of body scans and pat downs because of the horrific acts of a few
who have nothing in common with us, how can we expect our border agents and
government officials to figure out the best way to balance justice, mercy, and
national security when so many people, including drug dealers and human traffickers, are crossing our borders illegally each day?
Only God has ever achieved that
perfect balance between justice and mercy (Isaiah 30:18,
Hosea 2:19), but He
calls us to seek both as well (Zechariah 7: 8-14, Matthew 23:23). How can we expect to appropriately deliver justice and compassion with wisdom when our nation
has forsaken God and His precepts?We
should be crying out to Him for help in resolving these issues and studying the Bible which provides the wisdom we need, but we
have kicked God out of our schools, governments, and marketplaces. The new
social order persecutes, bullies, and files lawsuits against those who dare
to live out and defend the Christian faith in their daily lives.Yet, a brief review of world history indicates that anti-Christian, atheistic governments not only lead us in the opposite direction from justice and mercy, but they are usually connected to ruthless, tyrannical, murderous regimes. "Atheism was an integral part tenant of Marxist-Lennism/Maoist/Stalinism communism....which caused the death of approximately 110,286,000 people between 1917-1987." (Source) Consider also the dire consequences of forced secularization of Soviet Russia, China, and North Korea.
Planned Parenthood Federation condemns this separation of children from their parents while lobbying nonstop for the right (with government funding) to rip children out of their mother’s womb without the father’s or grandparents'consent and often with the mother's consent which is only obtained by coercion or from her pimp. Often Planned Parenthood will then sell the baby body parts for profit.Our nation’s judges have legalized this
barbaric practice of child sacrifice and dismemberment while Congress continues to fund it and while
the courts choose to ignore the fact that body parts are sold illegally.Planned Parenthood also chooses to look the other way when their clients have been abused or when their payers are pimps, pedophiles,
and traffickers instead of reporting the inhumane, illegal activity to the authorities, so it continues unabated. Where is the justice or mercy in any of that? How genuine is their outrage over families being separated temporarily during due diligence and legal proceedings following illegal entrance into the USA while they separate children from their parents permanently by killing the children in the most painful, violent way possible? Is Planned Parenthood afraid the increased protections at the border will curb their revenue stream?
There is also public outcry over our nation’s history of slavery,
yet many of the same people upset over black slavery dismiss or ignore human trafficking, which is the most prolific and vile form of slavery that continues
in record numbers to this day! Trafficking of both women and children into sexual slavery is largely aided by
illegal immigration and Planned Parenthood!
We express great condemnation for racism while the culture
continues to praise Planned Parenthood, whose founder was a racist eugenicist (she sought to exterminate "inferior" non-Anglo races) whose
writings largely influenced Hitler’s extermination protocols.Planned Parenthood still targets minority communities with abortion
having reduced the black population by over 16 million people since 1973. There are at least 36% fewer black Americans today because of abortion, not counting
the children those 16 million could have birthed.
Darwin’s theory of evolution and survival of the fittest led
to the common notion that some people are much more valuable than others.Darwin's utterly flawed theory, with
mathematically impossible odds no matter how old people pretend the earth may
be and with countless holes requiring constant modification to the theory to
account for contradictions as new evidence against it continues to be found
(whereas the Creation account has neverever needed revision, for God's word is always true), was what helped slave owners justify their
mistreatment of slaves. Darwin’s theories convinced slave that they were
superior and that their convenience justified their mistreatment of African Americans. That same logic is used every day by Planned Parenthood to convince women to prioritize their convenience over their innocent child's right to life.
It took Biblical truth, religious faith
that instilled great courage, and a bloody war to finally overcome such
misguided and evil thinking regarding slavery and to finally put an end to the Democrats’ slavery practices. Yet, Darwinian theories are still presented, taught, and even preached in schools across our nation from kindergarten through post graduate schools as if they were proven facts.
The truth is that all human life is sacred, made in the image of God. From the womb to the
tomb, no matter which nation, tribe, or tongue that life may represent, human life is infinitely valuable.While everyone may have a different set of
gifts and a unique purpose, no life is any less precious than any other.Some people need education, training, discipline, and justice
before they can assimilate into American society without destroying it, but all are valuable.The family unit is also
sacred, ordained by God from the beginning for the good of society. The family should be protected and preserved
unless a family is corrupted by abuse which harms those within it.Until we collectively uphold the sanctity of human life and the sacredness of the traditional family consistently in our hearts and in our public policy across all issues, regardless of political implications, we will continue to fail in our efforts to preserve justice and mercy. Our nation's deeper problem is an abandonment of God and these core values. We have traded the truth for a lie. (Romans 1:25) We must turn back to God and to His absolute truth.
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.(Ephesians 4:13-16)
Let us seek Him for wisdom instead of
pointing fingers, feigning outrage for political purposes, or simply trying to
figure this out on our own without acknowledging the deep rooted hypocrisy within
our own hearts. Let us recognize how our confusion and hypocrisy escalates when we allow our firm foundation of moral truth
to be supplanted by the new social order being pushed upon us by secular progressives with little resistance from the family of faith.
America needs God desperately, so let those of us who have chosen to follow Him not forget to turn to Him first for wisdom in all these issues and to seek His righteousness, justice, and mercy in every area of life and policy. May we uphold His precepts and fight for what is true, just, and right. May we courageously stand against abortion, human trafficking, and unjust treatment of immigrants. Let us seek Biblical solutions for crisis pregnancy situations, orphans in need of families, the afflicted and poor in need of safety, shelter, and employment, and our many border problems in ways that preserve justice and offer compassion for the best long term interests of all. Let us never stop praying for our nation, for America is the only real hope for freedom and refuge left on this planet.
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)
8
___________________________
Addendum: I am not suggesting that we abandon our freedom of religion and force everyone to become Christians. Forced belief is not genuine or life-changing, so forcing any belief system on someone not only flies in the face of the freedoms America was founded upon that our heroes fought and died to preserve, but it also goes against the entire foundation of Christianity. God wants a genuine, authentic relationship with us that comes by choice. If He just wanted autonomous robots who serve Him, he never would have given us free will, and there never would have been a fall in the garden which brought sin into the world. I am advocating that believers stop giving way to fear and stand up in defense of our freedom of religion which was established to preserve our freedom to live out our faith without government interference. We have to stop accepting the progressive distortion of the founding fathers' intent. They want us to believe that we should have "freedom from religion", which is to suggest that the government should stop any attempts to practice religion in the public square. That false notion is being pushed into law by the ACLU and other heavily funded extremist groups.
While
listening to The Coventry Carol at church yesterday, I pondered the
lyrics.
It's a lullaby (based on Matthew 2:18) to all the male babies
throughout the kingdom aged two and under whom King Herod had massacred
after he discovered the Messiah had been born.
16 Then
Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became
furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and
in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the
time that he had ascertained from the wise men.17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.” (Matthew 2:16-18)*
So I asked, "What would enable and drive a man to commit such an atrocity?"
Here are three reasons:
A Seared Conscious
Fear
Lust for Power or Control
Then I considered that those are the same themes of Planned Parenthood's sales strategy to convince clients to choose abortion.
Their recent advertising campaigns have sought to remove the stigma of
abortion-on-demand (abortion for convenience purposes only). Since
science has blown holes all through their previous argument that it's
not a baby, just a clump of cells like a tumor invading your body, they now have to make killing innocent babies seem less horrible. So
after their previous #ShoutYourAbortion
campaign, they are now launching a new ad campaign in which PPF CEO Cecile
Richards talks about her own abortion of convenience as if it was no big deal. They want you to believe that your CONVENIENCE is more important than an innocent child's LIFE! Our culture has been working with PPF to sear the
human conscience for decades. Whether in the womb, on life support, or
in old age, our culture has been trying to deny the sanctity of human
life so they can pursue their own selfish desires. Our progressive cultures strives to deaden the moral conviction and awareness of eternity which God has placed inside each human heart. (Ecc.
3:11)
The majority of PPF's clients and/or target audience are
youth as young as 10. Much of their lobbying work and propaganda over
the past decade or more have pushed for the "Sexual Rights of the
Child" and for increased privacy laws. The goals are two-fold: encourage more
risky sexual behavior among children at younger ages when they are too young to understand God's design for sex and too irresponsible to use
contraceptives correctly, and keep parents completely
out of the loop. Without the shelter and guidance of their parents,
children and young teens feel much more desperate and afraid. So they go to their
guidance counselors who often send them directly to PPF centers for
abortions without parental consent, or they go to PPF on their own because they remember seeing them in their
schools teaching a morally bankrupt version of "sex education". Once these girls walk into PPF clinics, PPF "counselors" use fear tactics to pressure them into an
abortion. They convince these girls there is no other option by failing to provide any other alternatives and by giving them all these worst-case scenarios while failing to inform them of the physical and emotional risks of abortion. They push girls through the abortion mill quickly before they have a chance to back out (as if they were ever given a choice) by using fear as the primary catalyst.
The Rights of the Child propaganda seeks to convince young people that they are the ones who should have control over their lives and over
their bodies (and that their parents need not know or interfere) despite
how naturally immature, irresponsible, and naive most kids are at that age. They have even lobbied to have children sit on government
boards making decisions about reproductive health...as if kids have a clue at that age. Power and control are
the candy they dole out to children to win their favor and lure them
in.
For their older clients, they argue that abortion will give
them more control over their own lives and more power to pursue their
dreams. Such flimsy arguments are completely self-centered, one-sided,
and short sighted. Children are a blessing not a curse. PPF argues that
it's okay to kill all the children in the land like Herod did except they focus on the children who are still in the womb (or who were born alive following a botched abortion) so as not to interfere with women's careers or immediate goals. They justify abortion because they think it will keep them on the throne of their self-centered lives. But the truth is that we are not
in control of our lives; God is. And if we try to live it outside of
his plans and purposes, we will live an empty, lonely, miserable
existence that may give us lots of worldly things, but it will not give
us anything that truly matters or lasts forever.
So this
Christmas, if and when we hear the Coventry Carol being sung, let us weep not only for
the children Herold had slaughtered but also for the millions of babies
butchered every year through abortion.
*********
Extra
tidbit gleaned from The Book of Mysteries by Jonathan Khan:
When Isaac blessed Esau (after giving Jacob the greater blessing), he told him he would live by the sword and under the dominion of his brother Jacob. Furious, Esau plotted Jacob's death. Jacob's descendants became the Jewish people, Israel. Esau's descendants became the nation of Edom (the Idumeans). During the Roman Empire, an Idumean was appointed by the Romans to rule over Judea, and his name was Herod. And so the prophecy of the sword came to pass. Just as Esau plotted to kill Jacob, Herod plotted to kill the Messiah.
********
For further information on Planned Parenthood's marketing strategies, visit these posts:
I wept (rare for me) when this dear woman, Norma McCorvey (aka "Jane
Roe") came to one of our Bible study meetings and shared her testimony, which included not only her involvement in the Roe v. Wade case but also the way Jesus transformed her heart and life. She has been fighting against abortion ever since. (Read her 2015 court testimony here.)
Young, alone, homeless, addicted to drugs, and having no true understanding of what
abortion is or does to a human life, she came to the attorneys in this
case for help. Instead, they deceived and manipulated her into serving
their own purposes.
In the same manner, desperate women come to
abortion centers looking for guidance, hope, and positive solutions,
but instead they are told the same lies Norma heard and given no other
options, no support, and no hope. The abortion workers are more than
happy to take their money, though. These women are treated as pawns in
the abortion industry's profitable game.
While there are certainly plenty of individual cases of horrific abuse
against women by men, and I'm all for eliminating all forms of violence
against women and trafficking of women (eradicating porn is the first
place to start), U.S. laws provide much greater privileges and
protections to women than to men. It is not so much a system problem as
it is a lack of common morality and mutual respect by both genders. In
many cases, women are merely victims of their own choices. (For example,
if you choose to get a Ph.D. in women's studies, and an equally gifted
male gets an M.D. in orthopedic medicine, the guy will make more money.
Of, if you choose to wear a vagina body suit, both men and women will
look at what is wrapped around your body without noticing your face or
brain at first glance, and it will totally be your own fault. If
feminists continually berate, demean, emasculate, and dehumanize men as
is so common on sitcoms I hear, then they should not be surprised when
men leave them or start acting like jerks or as someone less than
human.)
Norma McCorvey, and all the vulnerable women like her who
visit Planned Parenthood centers around the world, and the children
they carry in their wombs are legitimate victims, and Planned Parenthood
is their abuser. So as a woman who values the rights and lives of all
women, I will speak out against Planned Parenthood and celebrate when
our government redirects funding away from PPF to legitimate public
women's health providers. I will continue to give of my time and money
to pregnancy life care centers and to the Christian maternity homes where
women receive authentic love, valuable support, comprehensive education,
effective counseling, material provisions, and lots of hope and
encouragement without taking a penny from these women in crisis.
Learn more about Norma McCorvey and read seven powerful quotes by her here.
As described in the previous post, the purpose of this blog series is to debunk the myth that pro-life Christians only care about the unborn and not the born while looking for ways to bring both sides of the abortion issue together to provide better services for more people. This post will examine various approaches for caring for women on both sides of the abortion issue and show how pro-life Christians extend love to women in crisis pregnancy situations in ways that help women not just during their crisis but for the rest of their lives.
When a woman suspects she could be pregnant and that pregnancy is considered a crisis for her, she will typically seek help from any of the following:
1) Her doctor
2) A government funded, free or low-cost health care clinic
3) Planned Parenthood
4) A faith-based pregnancy life care center
Given that Obamacare was supposed to provide health insurance for everyone, including those who cannot afford it, any woman should have access to comprehensive health care during crisis pregnancy situations. She may visit her general practitioner or gynecologist, or she may seek out free or reduced cost health care clinics such as those listed at www.womenshealth.gov. Non-profit clinics supported by generous donors instead of government grants have more flexibility to manage operations in ways that most effectively meet the needs of their clients. The Neighborhood Christian Clinic is a full service health care facility that has been serving as a role model for other facilities around the country. Alliance Defending Freedom developed the map below to show the locations of over 13,540 clinics providing comprehensive health care for women.
The most popular women's resource among pro-choice advocates is Planned Parenthood. As favors continue to be bought and sold between Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) and the Obama administration and the Clinton Foundation, government funding of Planned Parenthood has been increasing. For example, government funding increased from 33% in 2009 to 46.5% in 2010, which equated to $1.3 million per day, according to STOPP research's analysis of Planned Parenthood's annual reports. Even some pro-life voters support government funding of Planned Parenthood since the organization provides sex education, birth control, pap smears and other cancer screenings (but not mammograms), and STD testing. They believe Planned Parenthood's prevention services are reducing abortion rates, but PPFA's business model actually provides incentives for increasing in the number of abortions provided.
These abortion revenues are a key concern for pro-life Christians, not
simply because abortion destroys sacred, innocent, defenseless human life, but because these revenues motivate PPFA
to increase abortion revenue through methods that are deceptive,
manipulative, unloving, and cruel. As an example, reference this previous blog post. It explains one strategy International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) uses for increasing number of abortions. IPPF reaches out to children as young as 9 years old with pamphlets that encourage adolescents and teens to engage in risky sexual activity while IPPF actively
opposes legislation requiring parental consent. PPFA provides low quality contraception while assuring clients their products will make sex safe. (PPFA's condoms were determined to be the lowest quality out of 23 brands Consumer Reports tested for effectiveness.) The truth is that unmarried sex is never safe. Many of
these methods put women and children at risk of great physical,
psychological, and emotional harm while mistreating, misleading, and
dehumanizing women. Women in crisis first and foremost need loving compassion
and comprehensive counseling, not pressure to immediately have an abortion.
Planned Parenthood advocates insist the organization helps women by preventing unplanned pregnancy and thereby decreasing abortion rates, but a closer look reveals the opposite.
The following video shows how Planned Parenthood has increased the number of abortions it provides and continues increasing its overall market share in the abortion industry.
Personal testimonies and undercover videos expose the fact that Planned Parenthood workers force women into choosing abortion. When women ask about other options, PPFA workers insist that abortion is really their only option. Clients are not informed of all the short term and long term risks of abortion, nor are they made aware of the long term benefits and resources available to support women who would prefer to carry their babies to term. Testimonies supporting these claims from women who were pressured by Planned Parenthood to have an abortion can be found here, here, and here. If a woman's right to choose is PPFA's platform and battle cry, then shouldn't they give women more than one option so women can actually have a choice?
The ideal first point of contact for women in crisis is a faith-based pregnancy life
care center. With 5-years of experience as a volunteer for centers under the Care Net umbrella, I have seen first-hand the life changing impact these centers are having on the lives of women. I will primarily share about Care Net programs and services, but women have plenty of other wonderful faith based options as well such as Life Call or Birthline/Lifeline Pregnancy Centers. Click on these links to find a center near you. These centers are unique in that unlike Planned Parenthood and all the secular and/or government funded options, these centers provide what women need first and foremost in the midst of a pregnancy crisis, and they offer all their services FREE OF CHARGE! These centers collectively provide all of the services below, but any center should provide most of them.
Spiritual, emotional, and relationship counseling
Free pregnancy testing
Options
counseling, including comprehensive information on parenting (including
adoption), as well as information on abortion procedures and risks
STD/STI testing and information
Limited obstetrical ultrasound services
Bible study classes
Support groups and peer counseling
Material assistance, including diapers, maternity clothes, strollers, cribs, car seats, baby food, formula, baby apparel, layettes, and more
Job and housing assistance and referrals
Additional community referral
Prenatal care referrals
Childbirth, life skills, prenatal child care, homemaking education
Tutoring and support in obtaining a G.E.D. or opportunities to enroll in college classes
Adoption referrals
Parenting Classes
Fertility Awareness Education
24-Hour Support Hotline
Shelters and/or maternity home placement referrals
Abortion recovery programs
The decision to abort, parent, or adopt will impact a woman for the rest
of her life. Since this decision is so important, it is imperative that
the mother not make the decision hastily or in a state of panic,
desperation, anxiety, fear, or desperation, lest regret haunt her for decades. To make a wise decision a
woman needs all the facts about all her options, but she also needs to know the absolute truths about her sacred identity and her infinite worth. Far too many women find themselves in a crisis pregnancy situation because they went looking for love, affirmation, and acceptance in all the wrong places. We look for opportunities to show these women how much God loves them and to share with them His perfect plan for their lives while actively demonstrating that love in the ways we care for them. Our first priority when a client comes into our office (which typically looks and feels more like a warm and inviting home instead of cold clinic surrounded by barbed wire fence as was the case for the abortion clinic next door to the women's center where I volunteered) is to listen and comfort her spirit. While licensed nurses perform ultrasounds or conduct pregnancy and/or STD tests, we empathize with these women while offering them support and encouragement. We listen to their many questions, and answer objectively, laying out all the options while noting the pros and cons for each one.
While Planned Parenthood's abortion quotas result in high pressure tactics to push as many women through the abortion mill as fast as possible with counseling sessions that present abortion as the only reasonable option, staff at these pregnancy life care centers are open and honest about each scenario. They exude peace and calm to quiet the client's anxious spirit so she can think more clearly through her options.
While the hope is each woman will choose not to abort, we respect her decision without judgment, remind her that we are always here for her, and invite her back to join one of our abortion recovery programs if needed. We build relationships with women and follow-up with them, if they give us permission, to make sure their needs are met and to continue offering support and services as needed. We serve these women knowing that our job is to love these women unconditionally as Christ loves the church. While it may be our desire to save her baby, only God has the power to direct a woman's heart, so we leave that responsibility to Him. When the primary goal is to love like Jesus without any pressure to accomplish what only God can do or to meet quotas, women always benefit, regardless of what option they choose.
These centers are entirely funded by faith filled donors and primarily staffed by community volunteers who have completed extensive background checks and rigorous training. A key value communicated through each training session and upheld daily
in the clinics is that the mothers are our primary concern. This is not
to say that we do not care about the baby, but just as flight
attendants instruct parents to put the oxygen mask on themselves first
before putting a mask on their children, we minister to the mother's
needs first with the hope of saving both the mother and the child from
heartache and/or devastation.
The Board of Directors for each facility or community network are comprised of like-minded community leaders who volunteer their time to guide ministry staff and volunteers, hold directors and office managers accountable to the core values and vision, and make strategic decisions to ensure the centers are effectively meeting needs and serving women with the love of Christ. By avoiding the corrupting influences of government money and control and eliminating the pressure of quotas or monetary incentives, these centers can focus instead on delivering the highest level of service for their clients motivated out of a sincere and unconditional love for hurting women.
I have also had the privilege of volunteering as a buddy and as an adoption educator for a faith based maternity home, which receives referrals from faith based pregnancy life care centers, and ministry partners and friends. These maternity homes provide loving nurture and room and board to women in unplanned pregnancy situations who choose to carry their babies to term. Typically, up to eight women will live in a large home at a time with a married couples serving as house parents who lead the clients as if they are all part of a family. Family meals, evening devotions, basic chores to teach personal responsibility, life skills training, birth classes, parenting and adoption classes, counseling, medical needs, and mentoring are all included. These homes provide an oasis for women where they can process through all their thoughts and feelings while separated from negative influences or competing voices, make decisions regarding parenting or adoption, reset the direction for their lives, set goals, and establish a plan for pursing a healthy, productive, fulfilling life.
To be pro-life is to love women unconditionally, intentionally, sacrificially, and wholeheartedly. The DNC's support of Planned Parenthood does the opposite by deceiving, manipulating, and abusing women for selfish financial gain. The corruption found throughout Planned Parenthood is like leaven in that it will only increase causing more women and children to suffer. Gosnell's crimes against women and children seemed extreme, but he wasn't an isolated case as numerous women have testified, and similar stories will continue to surface as liberal, abortion minded-Supreme Court Justices knock down legislation designed to make abortion facilities safer for women. As federal funding enables Planned Parenthood to expand its operations, women will be more likely to turn to PPFA first instead of to more ethical, loving, helpful alternatives. For these reasons, conservative pro-life Christians are voting against the DNC in favor of party platforms that support defunding Planned Parenthood.
As a compromise between the two sides, money currently given to Planned Parenthood could be redirected to more trustworthy comprehensive healthcare centers that do not profit by performing abortions or by receiving kickbacks for abortion referrals. The video below counters Planned Parenthood's outrageous and deceptive argument against this proposal.
These healthcare centers should be measured by how well they treat patients with incentives for reducing abortion and disease as opposed to PPFA's incentive plan which seeks to provide more abortions. Contraception could be provided by these centers but in a way that respects religious liberty. Clients should be educated enough to understand how to use contraceptives correctly, typical failure rates, health risks, and how contraceptives work so that clients can make informed decisions consistent with their religious beliefs. For example, those who believe life begins at conception would need to know enough to avoid the IUD, the pill, ring, and other hormone methods that prevent implantation. While there would still be plenty of doctors who would be willing to perform abortions, doctors should not be forced to perform abortions against their religious convictions and against the original Hippocratic Oath they swore to uphold.
The next installment will debunk the myth that conservative pro-life Christians care more about the unborn than people of various ages, stages, races, genders, abilities and special needs. It will present the big picture perspective used by compassionate pro-life Christians to provide the most meaningful, loving, long term care, support, and benefit for the most people in a more ethical manner than the DNC's quick fix, band-aid proposals.
