Illinois Right to Life Committee
JULY 2007
July, 2007 Pro-Life News (see articles below): 07/31/07 College “health care” crisis? 07/27/07 Planned Parenthood comes out of the closet 07/24/07 Evidence mounts that legal abortions are not safe 07/20/07 Trust whom to provide health services? 07/10/07 Parents not buying Planned Parenthood attack on abstinence
Illinois Right to Life News for Tuesday, July 31, 2007 A July 28th headline in the Wall Street Journal reads, “College Students Face Rising Birth-Control Prices.” Because of a subtle change in Federal law written into the 2006 Deficit Reduction Act, drug companies no longer have incentives to provide subsidized birth control products to colleges. This change is forcing colleges to substantially raise the prices their student health centers are charging for birth control products. The monthly cost of contraceptives has risen from $15 to nearly $50 at most colleges. Were you aware that most colleges and universities were making a profit selling subsidized birth control products to their students? The Wall Street Journal reports, “College health centers also say the change threatens to lessen the quality of service they can provide, since the price increases have eaten into the profits they make.” Pamela Houle, administrative director for the health center at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., says the health center now subsidizes each NuvaRing by about $4. “Previously, we were making $17 a ring.” That may mean fewer education resources and materials down the line, she says. I must say that I was totally unaware until now that college health centers have been competing with Planned Parenthood for the birth control business of their students. Apparently, many colleges were making a tidy profit from these sales. According to experts quoted in the Wall Street Journal article, this is a serious crisis. Students are being forced to decide between switching to lower cost generic brands to protect their privacy or resorting to use of their parents’ health insurance plan to pay for birth control products. Health professionals are described as concerned that students are switching to less expensive contraceptives. They fear that switching is going to lead to unintended pregnancies by women who are less likely to consistently take a daily pill. Lee Shulman, board chairman of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals stated, “One of the seminal concepts in contraceptive medicine is when a woman is using a method correctly and successfully, the last thing you want to do is change her from that.” He says even switching from one type of daily pill to another can pose new risks for side effects and discomfort, potentially leading women to stop taking it. That last phrase (leading women to stop taking it) says it all. It reveals the real concern of “reproductive health professionals” is not the health of women who use contraceptives, but rather, trying to ensure that they will always take their birth control pills, regardless of risks or discomfort. Don’t create any changes that might allow these students to reconsider the routine they have gotten into. Doesn’t that sound like a very condescending attitude? If switching from one pill to another “can pose new risks for side effects,” what does that say about the safety of any of them? No wonder pregnancy and abortion are so common on college campuses. When college students violate the norms of morality by becoming sexually active before marriage, no one suggests that they might want to reconsider the potential negative consequences of their immoral behavior. Instead, the student health center profits by selling them birth control and advising them to practice safe sex. If college administrators are really concerned about the health of their students, they should provide counseling on the benefits of abstinence until marriage in their student health centers, rather than just encouraging unhealthy activity as the norm.
Illinois Right to Life News for Friday, July 27, 2007 Planned Parenthood comes out of the closet In a recent news line I mentioned a Planned Parenthood Chicago Area job posting for “Aurora Health Center, Aurora, IL.” The introduction for this listing stated, “PP/CA is opening a new, full-service health center in Aurora, Illinois in the fall of 2007.” This raised the question whether “full-service” would include abortion. Where exactly would this new Planned Parenthood Chicago Area abortion clinic be located in Aurora? I said, “Stay tuned for more information on defending life in Aurora, IL.” On July
26th the Aurora Beacon ran an article that
answered these questions. Planned Parenthood is coming to 240 N. Oakhurst in Aurora.
Yes, they will be doing abortions there. Until now the construction site was
called the Gemini Health Center, but now we learn that Gemini is a subsidiary of Planned
Parenthood. Another article appeared in the Chicago Tribune on July 27th. That article indicates the Pro-Life Action League
has scheduled a strategy meeting for concerned citizens on August 16th. Tony Perkins of Family Research Council comments on this
Planned Parenthood news by writing: “Halloween must have come early in Aurora,
Illinois. What else could explain Planned Parenthood's decision to disguise its newest
abortion facility as the ‘Gemini Health Center’? According to the Chicago
Tribune, the world's biggest abortion merchant decided to keep the construction of
its Illinois facility a secret for fear that the project's builders would boycott or quit.
Until this week, none of the painters, carpenters, and electricians knew that within the
walls they erected the senseless slaughter of the unborn would continue. It's a sad irony
that for all of Planned Parenthood's talk of embracing abortion in America, they are
unwilling to identify themselves! In interviews, executives at Planned Parenthood say
they're thrilled to have kept the building's true owner under wraps. As for the widespread
deception, the group is unconcerned. No surprise there.” Perkins makes an excellent point. If Planned Parenthood is so proud about the abortion services they provide, why do they want to hide their intentions from everyone? Steve Trombley is also quoted as saying, “90 percent of medical services are for preventative gynecological services. Only 10 percent of what we do relates to abortion services.” But you can be sure that Planned Parenthood’s revenue from abortion will be much more than 10 percent of their business. Again, they are trying to get the public to ignore the fact that they are the largest abortionist in the nation. We must educate the public on this key fact. Once people understand, will they continue to allow nearly 300 million of their tax dollars to go to Planned Parenthood each year? Already, we had 189 House members who voted to end government funding of Planned Parenthood. We need to recruit 29 more members so this bill can be passed.
Illinois Right to Life News for Tuesday, July 24, 2007 Evidence mounts that legal abortions are not safe Can we cover this subject too much? Abortion supporters certainly do not think so. They always go back to the same argument that
illegal abortions are dangerous and women are dying because of them. In nations where abortion is against the law (such
places actually still exist), abortion advocates demand that abortion be made legal so it
will be safe. They trumpet large numbers of
deaths from illegal abortions. In fact, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a co-founder of NARAL
who did many abortions himself before his conversion to defend life, long ago refuted the
totally false claim that large numbers of women are dying from illegal abortions. He revealed that abortion advocates just invented
claims that 5000 to 10,000 women were dying annually from illegal abortions in the U.S.A. Actually, 39 maternal deaths were recorded for
1972, the year before Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide. Abortion advocates continue to use the same tactic
with false statistics worldwide as their primary justification for making abortion legal. Is there any reason to believe that legal abortion is
safe? Recent closures of large abortion
providers in New Jersey reveal the ugly truth. Should
we think that similar conditions would not be found in large abortion mills in Chicago,
New York, San Diego, or elsewhere around the nation?
Why would the only filthy, unsafe abortion providers be located in New
Jersey? Jill Stanek found that WDIV in Detroit conducted an undercover investigation
of an abortionist who is still licensed in Michigan.
They aired a three-part expose. That
report revealed “Dr P.” commits abortions in more than one abandoned building
and openly breaks parental notification and 24-hour waiting period laws. This takes New Jersey off the hook as the only
state where legal abortions are obviously not safe. In
just the last year other reports on closing down unsafe abortion providers have surfaced
from Florida, Alabama, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Back in March 2007 I covered the case of
Metropolitan Medical Associates in New Jersey that was closed down by state officials until they
cleaned up filthy conditions and other medical violations.
Unfortunately, New Jersey allowed Metropolitan Medical Associates to re-open
after they passed a second-try, follow-up inspection. Now New
Jersey officials have issued a report on Alternatives abortion mill in Atlantic City. It sounds like the dirty twin of Metropolitan. Officials again found filthy conditions, including
“what appeared to be dried blood under the leg pads” on the procedure tables;
dust, rust, dirt and debris on some equipment; and “soiled and stained” floors
in the operating room, laboratory and recovery room. Other
violations include the clinic's lack of hot water, abortionists not scrubbing for procedures, and using the
scrub area for storage. Some medications and
medical supplies were expired, with expiration dates ranging from 2002 to 2005. Both registered nurses employed by Alternatives
have allowed their licenses to expire, one in July 2006 and the other in May 2007. How would a woman go about finding a provider of safe
abortions? Are abortion advocates and
feminists outraged by these unsafe legal abortions? Are
they warning women to avoid these unsafe abortion providers? Nothing is mentioned on the web sites of NARAL
Pro-Choice America, Planned Parenthood, or National Organization for Women. NARAL is concerned that the Department of Health and Human Services web site actually states, “Abortions can have complications. There may be emotional consequences, as well: some women say that they feel sad and some use more alcohol or drugs than before.” NARAL says such statements are “politically biased” and “replacing science with political rhetoric.” The illusion that legal abortions are “safe” continues. Do not let the facts get in the way!
Illinois Right to Life News for Friday, July 20, 2007 Trust whom to provide health services? Who might you think of as “your trusted local provider of health information and services”? Well, Planned Parenthood Chicago Area proclaims on their web site that they are “your trusted local provider of health information and services.” Are you convinced? If so, maybe you should check a little further. Planned Parenthood Chicago Area has job postings including a number of openings for “Reproductive Health Assistant”. The position description includes responsibilities to: educate and counsel patients in reproductive health matters, maintain medical records and logs, and participate in health center efforts to comply with organizational quality assurance guidelines and pertinent government regulations including OSHA and CLIA. The education requirement for “Reproductive Health Assistant” is “completion of an accredited high school program or equivalent required; further education and/or training preferred. Additional training and/or education in reproductive health or medical services are desirable.” Does this sound like the educational background anyone you know would like to trust for counseling on reproductive health matters? Well, the position description goes on to list experience requirements, stating that “Previous professional experience with the provision of family planning services is preferred. Previous medical laboratory and/or counseling experience desirable.” None of the specified experience is considered a requirement for the job. In fact, between education and experience requirements, the only thing required is a high school degree or equivalent. Apparently, not much background is needed to become an abortion sales person. A pro-lifer who went undercover to investigate how Planned Parenthood Express in Orland Park would counsel a late-term pregnant woman must have encountered one of these “Reproductive Health Assistants”. She found that almost any question she asked resulted in the counselor leaving the room to get an answer. Of course, she was eventually assured that terminating her pregnancy in the seventh month would be “safer than childbirth” and “would not be painful.” Apparently, experts the counselor checked with did not know much more than she did, or were they just lying? The Planned Parenthood Chicago Area job postings revealed something else. The location for one of the postings for “Reproductive Health Assistant” was “Aurora Health Center, Aurora, IL.” The introduction for this listing stated “PP/CA is opening a new, full-service health center in Aurora, Illinois in the fall of 2007.” Since “full-service” would certainly seem to include abortion, can we safely conclude that Planned Parenthood Chicago Area intends to open an abortion clinic in Aurora? Unfortunately, other information that has been discovered seems to confirm this grime reality. Stay tuned for more information on defending life in Aurora, IL.
Illinois Right to Life News for Tuesday, July 10, 2007 Parents not buying Planned Parenthood attack on abstinence A recent poll by Zogby International again
confirms earlier polls showing that American parents strongly support abstinence education
for their children. Almost 90% of parents
agree that being sexually abstinent is best for their child's health and future. About 80% think it's important for their child to
wait until they're married to have sex. Similarly,
80% of parents think sex education in public schools should place more emphasis on
abstinence instead of contraceptive use. The
survey also found strong support for Federal funding of abstinence education programs
despite opposition from abortion advocates in Congress.
About 60% of parents say more funding should go to abstinence
education instead of comprehensive sex education and only 20% want more sex education
funding. Planned Parenthood’s own statistics demonstrate the wisdom of parents on abstinence education. Jennifer Roback Morse just reported on two Planned Parenthood studies that show how unreliable both the pill and condom are for most groups of young people. These studies break down the population into age groups, income levels, marital status and race. A poor cohabiting teenager using the pill has a failure rate of 48.4%. This means nearly half of poor cohabiting teenagers get pregnant during their first year using the pill. As a comparison, a middle-aged, middle-class married woman has a 3% chance of getting pregnant after a year on the pill. Likewise, over 70% of poor, cohabiting teenagers using condoms will be pregnant within a year. Such results confirm that Planned Parenthood knows that their so-called comprehensive sex education will not reduce pregnancies and abortions among teenagers, but such programs will certainly produce new customers for Planned Parenthood. As Ms. Morse observes: These figures cast new light on the debate
over contraception education. The commonly
quoted failure rates of 8% for the Pill and 15% for the condom are inflated by the highly
successful use by middle-aged, middle-class married couples. Yet, the government promotes contraception most
heavily among the young, the poor and the single. The
“overall failure rates” are simply not relevant to this target population. Planned Parenthood and its allies in the sex
education business have had conniptions over federal funding for abstinence education. But at least abstinence actually works. If you don’t have sex, you won’t get
pregnant. It works every time. With contraception, we can absolutely
predict that some sexual encounters will result in pregnancy. The young, the poor and the unmarried are the most
likely to experience a contraceptive failure. For these groups, pregnancy is not a rare
accident, but highly likely. When the
inevitable pregnancy occurs, guess who is ready to help solve her problem? That’s right: Planned Parenthood will sell
her an abortion. The same people who teach
sex education, which increases the demand for purchasing contraception, also sell the
“solution” to contraceptive failure, which is abortion. Yet the federal
government spends about $12 on contraceptive-related programs to every $1 spent on
abstinence education. We don’t give federal grants to
tobacco companies to teach students “low-risk” forms of smoking on the grounds
that “kids are going to smoke anyway.” We
shouldn’t be giving federal grants to groups that sell contraception, to teach kids
to use contraception. It is time for
the federal government to get out of the sex education business once and for all.
IRLC could not agree more. Planned Parenthood has a blatant conflict of interest. They are focused on making money by expanding their customer base, not on providing for the health and well being of teenagers.
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