Take up Knitting

The Girls, Inc. and American Girl doll company story has been all over the pro-life web sites and blogs.

I didn't see any direct references to Planned Parenthood on the site but their fingerprints are all over it. If you are familiar with Planned Parenthood's modus operandi you are familiar with the lingo and buzz words that let you know, "We support abortion" -- references to "rights", empowerment, helping girls to explore "community activism, careers, healthy risk-taking" and "stopping violence". Then there's the lack of support for abstinence education funding. Just check out their Legislative Action Center.

The trademarked mission/motto for Girls, Inc. is, "To inspire all girls to be strong, smart and bold." The words kindness, love, and beauty never appear. I suppose they need to toughen girls up for the world Planned Parenthood, Girls, Inc., and the media and consumer markets have prepared for them. The name Girls, Inc. -- emphasis on the Inc. -- says it all.

In the words of “Donny” DonDero, National Executive Director from 1963 to 1974, here's how the organization has changed since it's founding in 1864.

I look back very happily on my time leading Girls Incorporated, and I think the organization today is marvelous. It used to be mostly home-oriented — cooking, sewing and washing. Fortunately — because I think it was important to move with the times — it has become more of a socially progressive organization. The emphasis really has changed.

Indeed.

I did those things as a girl and teenager in the 70s and 80s. I loved to knit and embroider and bake. I still do. Those hobbies are much more healthy, productive, worthwhile, and educational than all of the Girls, Inc. "progressive" community activism, career exploration, and sex ed programs combined. But it's not really about the girls anyway. It's about corporations selling products, CEOs and high-profile "do-gooders" winning awards, and certain groups pushing their ideology.

Margaret Gates, National Executive Director from 1983 to 1993, was probably a little too honest in her statement discussing program development at Girls, Inc.

The time was right. There were all these folks out there – child development experts, educators, women’s colleges – who were talking about girls’ needs, but they couldn’t do anything without access to girls. [All these experts needed girls they could actually test all their whacked-out theories on.] When the foundations saw us, they knew they were looking at a good thing. [Access to inner-city and poor girls from broken homes with parents who didn't have a clue what we were trying to do. White middle-class kids with parents who were also clueless and spent their time trying to be hip, smoking pot and swapping spouses worked just as well.] We had the infrastructure for getting programs out to a quarter of a million girls around the country. Not only that, we wanted to do programming that a lot of other organizations wouldn’t touch. Like sex education... [Oh, great.]

We decided to build a more comprehensive approach to sex education. The program we ultimately called Preventing Adolescent Pregnancy exposed the myths [abortion is a bad idea] and imparted the truth [abortion is a good idea], showing girls that they had the power to control their sexuality and their reproductive future [by just popping a few pills or foreign instruments in your body]. In a rigorous evaluation, this program was deemed successful in its dual goals of postponing the age of first sexual activity and reducing the incidence of adolescent pregnancy.

If only we could go back and interview these girls, who are now women, and see where they are in their lives and how they feel about the Girls, Inc. experiment they were unwittingly part of.

[Comments in brackets and italics mine.]

People are being encouraged to call the American Girl company, a subsidiary of Mattel Toys, Inc., in Middleton, Wisconsin to voice their complaint about Girl, Inc.'s support for abortion. A better idea, if you live in Washington state, call one of the licensees of this...uhm...garbage... and voice your displeasure.

Seattle
(Licensee) YWCA of Seattle, King County & Snohomish County
1118 Fifth Avenue Seattle, WA 98101
Mailing Address 708 Martin Luther King Way
Seattle, WA 98122
Bus: (206) 568-7850
Fax: (206) 568-7851
Email: vrucker@ywcaworks.org

Tacoma
(Licensee) YWCA of Pierce County
405 Broadway Tacoma, WA 98402-3995
Bus: (253) 272-4181
Fax: (253) 597-6683
Email: Jallen@ywcapiercecounty.org

Aberdeen
(Licensee)Grays Harbor County Public Health & Social Services Department
2109 Sumner Avenue
Aberdeen, WA 98520-3600
Bus: (360) 532-8631
Fax: (360) 533-6272
Email: kluzzi@co.grays-harbor.wa.us

The Hand of God

In case you missed it, here are some of the fruits of this October's Seattle Silent No More Awareness Campaign in Westlake Park.

A young woman with tears in her eyes came up to Kim Johnson looking for help. Kim was able to give her the contact info for Silent No More Awareness.

"Longtime observers" of events in Westlake Park said -- "This was the most worthwhile event we've ever had at Westlake Center. Keep doing what you are doing."

An elderly homeless man who appeared to be part American Indian told us about his relative who'd had an abortion. We were able to give him a SNMA card with the number of the toll-free help line as well as the local number for Project Rachel.

One man mentioned that one of the speakers reminded him of a women he knew that might have had an abortion and thought he might look her up to see how she was doing.

Two high school students took photographs for a photo essay.

Several men and women had a look of shock on their face when they wandered into the square. They turned around and left when they saw the signs "I Regret my Abortion." I really wonder what these people were thinking. Had they been involved in an abortion? Maybe they were "ok" with abortion but didn't think anyone actually got one. Whatever the reason behind their reaction they really, really, really did not want to deal with it.

Seattle's Madame Restell

Madame Restell was the famed New York City abortionist who plied her trade in the mid- to late 1800s. In the end she took her own life at her palatial home located on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fifty-second Street with an estate estimated to be worth over $1,000,000 at the time.

The beautiful mansion was built upon property her husband bought the property when prices were low.

With the rise in real estate Lohman (Restell's husband) sold the upper portion of the property, but kept the 125 feet front where the Restell residence and the Osborne flats were subsequently erected. When he built the Restell house he had to raise the sum of $27,000 and executed a mortgage for that amount to the Mutual Life Insurance Company. Mrs. Restell, while on bad terms with her husband, succeeded in buying up the mortgage without his knowledge.

Fast-forward to 2005 and Seattle, Washington.

You'll have to take my word for it but this notice (now removed) appeared on the City of Seattle's Women's Commission web site in July of 2005.

Aradia Women's Health Center is seeking 2-3 new board members in 2005 to support our mission providing compassionate, personalized women's reproductive care rooted in a unique advocacy-based healthcare model. In particular, we're seeking new board members to help Aradia Women's Health Center move forward on its newly developed Strategic Plan in order to ensure the success of the organization for the next 30+ years...We're looking for persons with a deep commitment to women's healthcare and reproductive rights, including safe and legal abortion services. Skills all board members must possess are: prior volunteer and/or board service for a nonprofit organization... We also are seeking persons with the following qualifications to strengthen the leadership of our team: Fundraising, Financial management/accounting, Real estate, Facilities planning, Legal, Culturally competency (sic) as it relates to the audiences we serve, Strategic planning and evaluation. Board members are asked to make a two-year commitment of approximately three hours per week to the organization. (italics mine)

Marcy Bloom of Aradia Women's clinic told John Carlson in a March of 2005 interview on his show there was "no money" in abortion. So why do they need board members with a specialty in "Real Estate"?

Washington State Pro-Life?

I don't know how long this poll has been on the KIRO-TV web site. The question is, "On the abortion debate, are you pro-choice or pro-life?"

It's just about tied. (48% pro-choice/50% pro-life/2% unsure)

(UPDATE: This poll and the article have been removed from the KRIO web site as of Oct 11.)

Same with this one which asks, "Do you favor the overturning of the abortion law? Without even defining what the "abortion law" is, this one is pretty close.

Assuming these are Seattle readers, or even Washington readers, the results are interesting since we are constantly told by the Seattle-PI, NARAL and various wanna-be politicians how "pro-choice" Washington is and there's nothing we can do about it. Nope. Nothing. Just give up.

Or, maybe it's just that more pro-life people look to the internet for news about abortion they can't get in the MSM.

These polls are not scientific but I wonder how anyone can insist on believing that abortion is supported by the majority of the people in this state.

Washington State Republicans are you listening?

Donations to WA-NARAL by State Politicians

I just did a quick look through the public disclosure filings with the Public Disclosure Commission and are some of more interesting donors to WA-NARAL so far this year:

Karen Fraser (D) -- State Senator gave $100 to WA-NARAL
Holly Plackett -- Former Redmond city council member
Jan Drago (D) -- Seattle City Council
Karen Keiser (D) State Senator -- $100 to WA-NARAL
Joe McDermott (D) State Representative -- $100 to WA-NARAL
Tom Rodney (R) State Representative -- $100 to WA-NARAL
Jean Berkey (D) State Senator -- $100 to WA-NARAL
Harriet Spanel (D) -- State Senator -- $100 to WA-NARAL
Phil Rockefeller (D) -- State Senator -- $100 to WA-NARAL
Mary Helen Roberts (D) -- State Representative -- $100 to WA-NARAL
Former Governor Gary Locke and his wife Mona contributed a total of $250 to WA-NARAL (Not running for office and he still supports abortion.)

Of course this list doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of which politicians are actively supporting the state's abortion industry. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels received direct donations from a least one Seattle abortionist, Deb Oyer, and her husband Tom Weeks (yes, that Tom Weeks) and was also a "celebrity" judge at WA-NARAL's "Chocolates for Choice" fundraiser earlier this year. Long-time pro-abortion politician Ron Simms counts an endorsement from WA-NARAL in this November's election among his top three.

And we haven't even gotten to the Republicans.