In This Issue
- The fight against Planned Parenthood in California going strong
- Planned Parenthood-center status
- The fight against Planned Parenthood in Chattanooga, Tennessee, continues
The fight against Planned Parenthood in California going strong
By Jim Sedlak
The state of California is under constant attack by Planned Parenthood. A few weeks ago, the organization opened a new abortion center in Oxnard. It is the 108th Planned Parenthood center in the state. To put that number in perspective, one out of every five centers operated by Planned Parenthood in the United States is in California. No other state comes close. New York has 47 PP centers and ranks second, while Washington ranks third with 33 PP centers.
In addition, Planned Parenthood pushes all kinds of sexual deviance on the children in California. It appears that the state legislature is at Planned Parenthood’s beck and call. A couple of years ago, it pushed through the legislature a very offensive school sexuality education bill.
Even when caught red-handed breaking the law, Planned Parenthood in California can count on government officials to cover up things. Readers will remember the tremendous undercover work done by the Center for Medical Progress that revealed undercover video of Planned Parenthood breaking many laws, including the selling of baby body parts and the changing of abortion procedures to be able to get the most useable body parts it could.
Rather than being prosecuted, the state attorney general, Kamala Harris, decided to go after the undercover investigators instead of Planned Parenthood. For the first time in state history, investigators were charged with crimes for revealing criminal activity. Harris was then elected a US senator and is now vice president of the United States. Her successor as attorney general, Xavier Becerra, continued the persecution of the undercover investigators and is now the Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Biden-Harris administration.
With this as background, after 18 months of being confined to our offices in Virginia because of the pandemic, I traveled to California last week at the request of local opponents of Planned Parenthood. The initial impetus for the trip was the Oxnard center opening, but I immediately found a vibrant anti-Planned Parenthood community anxious to close down the organization.
In a week of intense activities and meetings, I enjoyed meeting dedicated individuals who were directly fighting 19 Planned Parenthood centers in the general area north, south, east and in Los Angeles. My individual and small group meetings were passionate and filled with questions. My three larger meetings lasted an average of two hours and twenty minutes as the attendees truly tried to grasp the full evil of Planned Parenthood.
It was clear that they are upset not only about Planned Parenthood’s position as the operator of the largest abortion chain in the nation, but also about the organization’s direct attack on their children and their religion. The fact that a large number of Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s top people receive awards for spreading the Secular Humanist religion as defined in Humanist Manifesto 2 further inflamed their desires to see it closed down.
The resolve of these parents and religious leaders was contagious. To see them filled with the Spirit of the Lord as they became even more determined to end Planned Parenthood’s attack on the lives of preborn children and the souls of their born children was awe inspiring.
As I flew back East, it was clear that the God-fearing communities of California will never abandon their faith or their children to the satanic force that is Planned Parenthood.
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.
Planned Parenthood-center status
STOPP has been documenting for years the tremendous decline in the number of Planned Parenthood physical centers in the United States. In 1992, Planned Parenthood had 922 centers and publicly announced a goal of having 2,000 centers by the year 2000. Due to the great work of anti-Planned Parenthood activists all across the country, PP did not make its goal of 2,000. In fact, it never made it to 1,000. The highest number of centers Planned Parenthood ever had was 938 at the end of 1995!
Since then, the numbers have been steadily declining. In 2009, American Life League began a program, Bringing Jesus to Planned Parenthood through Mary, that saw the number of centers drop dramatically. In 2019, we added the Marian Blue Wave to our arsenal, and during the pandemic year of 2020, Planned Parenthood affiliates closed a total of 33 centers across the country, bringing the total number of Planned Parenthood centers to a record low of 563. That’s a total of 375 closures in 25 years.
Of the 33 that closed in 2020, 19 were originally designated as “temporary closures.” Six months into 2021, Planned Parenthood has now permanently closed two of them—in Pekin, IL, and Pomona, NJ.
Planned Parenthood has only reopened two of the temporarily closed centers:
- Planned Parenthood of Michigan reopened its Jackson center at 2009 W. Michigan.
- Planned Parenthood of Greater New York (PPGNY) reopened its Massapequa center at 35 Carmans Road.
The remaining 15 centers are currently closed.
Last week, PPGNY said it will reopen four more. It optimistically announced last week that “centers in Kingston, Staten Island, Rome, and Goshen will begin accepting in-person appointments and walk-ins as early as this summer.” For now, all these locations remain “temporarily closed.”
STOPP does its full research on Planned Parenthood centers in November and December. However, we do take note of any announcements Planned Parenthood makes publicly. As we write this, Planned Parenthood opened the center in Oxnard, CA, this year and closed an existing one in Shelton, WA.
The fight against Planned Parenthood in Chattanooga, Tennessee, continues
Three months ago, the community in Chattanooga was rocked when Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi placed a local advertisement looking to hire two full-time employees—one a community organizer and the other a health educator.
The reason why the community became so upset was that Planned Parenthood has no visible operations in or near Chattanooga. The city has been free of abortion providers for over 30 years, and the fact that the largest abortion chain in the nation was interested in their city came as a shock.
Some members of the pro-life community in Chattanooga called STOPP, and we gave them information on Planned Parenthood and directed them to our Plan to Defeat Planned Parenthood that is posted on our website.
This week, News Channel 9 ran a news item about the fight against Planned Parenthood going to the local school board as citizens to try to stop Planned Parenthood from being able to get to their children through the schools (a favorite trick of PP). The article stated, in part:
“Pastor Frank Ramseur of Calvary Chapel in Chattanooga is asking school board leaders to oppose any influence by Planned Parenthood in the district. This comes as the organization has hired two full time staff members in Chattanooga – a health educator and community organizer.
A video from Calvary Chapel’s website shows Pastor Ramseur encouraging people to sign a petition he plans on presenting to school board leaders. “I invite you to sign a petition with us that we can submit to our school board that is basically saying we do not want Planned Parenthood anywhere near with their curriculum our kids,” Ramseur said in the video.
On their site, it reads: “Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi has hired a Health Educator whose job will be to examine current sex education programs, including those within Hamilton County schools, and offer a ‘comprehensive sex education’ curriculum meeting their National Sex Education standards. We are gathering signatures to present to Hamilton County Schools superintendent, Dr. Bryan Johnson and the school board, imploring them to stand against any influence by Planned Parenthood.”
School board members are already denying that Planned Parenthood had any influence on the current curriculum in Chattanooga schools. If true, that is great, and the folks opposed to Planned Parenthood want to keep it that way.
We congratulate the pro-life community of Chattanooga for aggressively working to defend their city and their children from Planned Parenthood.