Shocking—But Not Surprising

The Observer— Official Newspaper of the Catholic Diocese of Rockford
Publication date: October 7, 2005

Life Lines
By Patricia Pitkus Bainbridge
Director, Respect Life Office

The widespread devastation wrought by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the Gulf Coast has been reported extensively. People who survived the storms continue to face a multitude of problems. Many have lost family members, friends, and pets. Many more have lost homes, cars, clothing, and other material possessions. Some were injured or became infected from exposure to unsanitary conditions. Many suffering from previous health conditions were evacuated without their life saving medications.

U. S. News & World Report described the conditions: “doctors and nurses. . . struggled against enormous odds to keep thousands of seriously ill people alive without the most basic tools—food, water, medicine. . .displaced residents with chronic health problems tried to make do without life-sustaining treatments like insulin and kidney dialysis. Even those who were healthy when the hurricane hit risked serious injury or death through dehydration, infection, or starvation. . .”

Louisiana’s Secretary of Health and Hospitals, Dr. Fred Cerise, told Newsweek, “People have died and will die because there’s not enough resources.”

In response to the tragic effects of the hurricanes, there has been an enormous outpouring of assistance offered by the Church. Thousands of parishes, Catholic Charities USA, local Catholic Charities, St. Vincent DePaul Societies, the Knights of Columbus, and a number of other humanitarian agencies and individuals continue to provide the basics of life including shelter, food, water, and essential medical care to those suffering from the disaster. Thousands of physicians from all over the country rushed to the various shelters in the Gulf Coast.

As these various Church-based entities and health care professionals exerted great effort just to keep hurricane victims alive and provide for their basic needs, one very large, well-funded organization chose to capitalize on the suffering of others to promote its own agenda and add to its own coffers.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA)—the largest single committer of abortions and the major promoter of “recreational sex” in this country—responded to the tragedy of Katrina by saying, “Planned Parenthood clinics . . . are doing everything possible to attend to the needs of patients in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.”

To what “needs” is Planned Parenthood “attending?” Are they providing water? Food? Clothing? Shelter? Medicine? Certainly not. They are attending only to services that advance their agenda—redefining moral values, encouraging recreational sex, providing band-aids for the consequences of non-marital sexual activity, pushing birth control pills/shots, and terminating the pre-born.

While some may find this shocking, it is not surprising. After the September 11th terrorist attacks, one Planned Parenthood affiliate sold red, white, and blue condoms to “hopefully stem the increase of unintended pregnancies while letting Americans display their colors proudly.” The New York City affiliate offered “complete reproductive health care from September 18th through September 22nd free of cost” to “the many New York women who have been displaced or may otherwise be in need due to the World Trade Center tragedy.”

Not content with spreading its insidious agenda, Planned Parenthood is taking advantage of the Gulf Coast catastrophe to add to its already over-flowing assets by appealing to individuals and foundations for funds. The Hewlett Foundation responded with a $1 million grant.

The grant, coupled with Planned Parenthood’s available assets of $549.8 million, makes one wonder why they are not willing to provide or at least donate to authentic relief efforts. They certainly could afford to do just that, but apparently they choose not to.

Defenders of Planned Parenthood argue that the organization is not set up for disaster response. That’s true, but many other organizations, corporations, and individuals— also not set up for disaster response—have found ways to respond to the hurricanes by sending truck loads of food, water, clothing, medicine, and other necessities of life.

As usual, Planned Parenthood’s claim about providing for the needs of the poor is nothing but a self-serving façade. Then again, if you kill pre-born babies for profit, deception is probably no big deal.


Copyright, 2005