Yuck

There's so many things wrong with this web site produced by Planned Parenthood of Southwest Oregon but we'll just leave you with a few excerpts. The first is from their "Love Letter" to a 12th grader from his parents.

Dear Kevin,

You're growing into a handsome, bright, and sexy young man....

We know that you are as amazed (and probably confused) about your emerging sexuality as we sometimes are. It's difficult to accept you as a "sexy young man" - and frankly, hard to ignore. As you go through the process of understanding yourself as a sexual person, please think about the beliefs and values we have shared with you over the years. We hope you will consider them carefully.

Next, in case you want to get a jump start on the indoctrination Planned Parenthood has in store for them at one of our state-sponsored schools, they give some recommendations for talking shop with your three year old. Yes, you read correctly -- a three year old.

Q. What happened to my penis?
A. You never had one. Only a boy has a penis. A girl has a clitoris.
Q. Can I see where the baby came out of you?
A. The baby came out through an opening between my legs called the vagina. I prefer not to show you my vagina because it's a private part of my body. Would you like to look at a book on how babies are born?

The repeated theme to parents throughout the site is: You needn't worry about telling "too much, too soon." Children absorb what they are ready to, and are not overstimulated, encouraged, or whatever by more detail. The real danger lies in "too little, too late."

Finally, they do mention something Planned Parenthood does know an awful lot about:

Studies suggest that 1 out of every 4 children in this country experiences some form of sexual victimization before age 17; 15% - 20% are boys. Contrary to the early warnings of our own parents the typical child molester is not the stranger who entices children with candy. The majority of sexual abusers are adult heterosexual males who are rarely strangers. In fact, 70-80% are known to the child - and often are relatives.

No "Plan B" For A Good Conscience

By Djana Milton

Ipecac, the vomit-inducing syrup administered after someone swallows poison, is the only medication pharmacists in the State of Washington are required to carry. A pharmaceutical commonly known as "Plan B," which in some cases stops implantation and may potentially terminate the life of an unborn baby, could soon be added to the list.

Earlier this year, the Washington State Pharmacy Board ruled that pharmacists in the state did not have to dispense the controversial drug if they had religious, moral or ethical objections to it. But the Board subsequently withered in the face of an assault from Governor Christine Gregoire, pro-abortion special interest groups, and a seemingly complicit media. A pharmacist may object to dispensing the drug (a "conscience clause"), but another pharmacist in the same pharmacy must be available to dispense Plan B and give referrals to pharmacies that sell it.

Since the Board's initial unanimous decision in favor of pharmacists' rights was announced on June 1, the Governor threatened the Board, the special interests issued blistering press releases, and the media quoted only outraged women. Absent from the majority of the public discourse are the voices of women and other Americans who believe that rights should be applied universally and without prejudice.

The ideal that human rights apply to all has come under attack by special interests and politics. One of the founding principles of our great nation - the right to exercise one's conscience - seems an early casualty. Abraham Lincoln's words should remind us of our responsibilities in the face of injustice - as in this case when the rights of others are in jeopardy. Lincoln said: "To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men."

Our governing bodies are obligated to ensure that the rights of all individuals are respected equally. In Washington, the Pharmacy Board had a civil obligation to not craft rules that violate pharmacists' rights just to make it convenient for those who, in the pursuit of their own desires, would trample upon the rights and convictions of others.

As former presidential candidate and secretary of state Williams Jennings Bryan said in 1915: "The chief duty of governments, in so far as they are coercive, is to restrain those who would interfere with the inalienable rights of the individual, among which are the right to life, the right to liberty, the right to the pursuit of happiness and the right to worship God according to the dictates of one's conscience."

In Washington, the Board is failing to protect the right to life, as well as pharmacists' right to liberty and freedom of conscience. Similar boards in Massachusetts, Nevada, North Carolina and Wyoming have also ruled against pharmacists' conscience clauses.

At the same time, in the pending Illinois case of Menges v. Blagojevich, Judge Jeanne Scott has recognized that rules forcing pharmacists to dispense Plan B, if proven at trial, "may establish that the object of the Rule [morning-after-pill mandate] is to target pharmacists... who have religious objections to Emergency Contraceptives, for the purpose of forcing them either to compromise their religious beliefs or to leave the practice of pharmacy."

Once a pharmacist is forced to dispense medication that might harm a budding life, that pharmacist becomes an accomplice in the gravest of crimes. The mental and spiritual damage that would result from compulsory disregard for the moral imperative not to kill cannot be undone.

A wise man once said, "Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right." That wise man was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

When the Washington State Pharmacy Board reversed their draft ruling on August 31, effectively trampling on the right of pharmacists to exercise their consciences, did board members recall and attest to Harper Lee's words in To Kill A Mockingbird: "[B]efore I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience"?

The Board caved to cowardice, expediency and popularity.

# # #

A New Visions Commentary paper published September 2006 by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 501 Capitol Court NE #200, Washington, D.C. 20002, 202/543-4110, Fax 202/543-5975, E-Mail Project21@nationalcenter.org, Web http://www.project21.org./

Djana Milton is a member of the national advisory council of the black leadership network Project 21 and a co-founder of Women First, a Washington pro-woman/pro-life organization. Comments may be sent to Project21@nationalcenter.org.

Note: New Visions Commentaries reflect the views of their author, and not necessarily those of Project 21.

The Original "Plan B"

Police Arrest Georgia Mother, Cousins in Second Forced Abortion Case

Columbus, GA (LifeNews.com) -- Police have arrested the mother and two cousins of a 16 year-old girl who are accused of forcing her to drink turpentine in an attempt to kill her baby in an abortion.

Maybe if they had renamed turpentine something like "Emergency Health Drink" or "Chicken Soup for the Uterus" and sold it in drug stores no one would have batted an eye.

Has your interpreter ever walked out during an abortion?

That's the question Planned Parenthood of Western Washington asks on their web site pushing one of their cheerful and ever-helpful publications, "Pregnancy Options: A Self-Study Guide for Professional Interpreters."

The whole scenario makes me cringe. What would cause an interpreter to probably lose a whole day's wages and potentially their job by walking out on their assignment? Think about all the poor interpreters who were told they were going to help with some "medical procedure" and ended up helping with abortions.

If you are an interpreter who walked out on an abortion and would like to share your story, please contact us at AIW:

Fortitude Ladies, Fortitude

From the Abortion Access Project Spring 2006 Newsletter:

Provider Appreciation Day March 10 marked the National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers. AAP extends our warm thanks to abortion providers throughout the United States for their extraordinary commitment and fortitude in ensuring women’s access to reproductive health care.

for‧ti‧tude – noun
mental and emotional strength in facing difficulty, adversity, danger, or temptation courageously: Never once did her fortitude waver during that long illness.

Performing abortions; not exactly a day at the beach.

October Pro-Life Mass

The next deanery-wide Pro-Life Mass & Meeting will be held on Saturday, October 7, 2006, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (a/k/a Our Lady of Victory). It is open to anyone who is Pro-Life (not just the leaders of the various groups). Please feel free to spread the word.

Mass will begin at 9:00 a.m. at Saint Michael Catholic Church, 1021 Boundary St. SE, Olympia, WA 98507. Father Ed White, Fr. Sean Raftis, Father Jim Lee & Father Thomas Nathe will be offering Mass. Refreshments and Fellowship to follow in the church gathering space. If possible, please bring something for the table (brunch type foods).

Fr. Ed will speak on the USCCB Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities. (Anointing of the Sick also available at this Mass). For directions and more information you can go to www.SaintMichaelParish.org or contact Karen Rotter at karenrotter@juno.com or Peggy at 253-564-6660. Hope to see you there!

"Freedom of Choice"

"Her parents chased her out into the yard, grabbed and tied her hands and feet together..."

Authorities in Maine said the parents apparently thought that, in light of their daughter's stage of pregnancy and the different abortion laws in each state, the abortion should be performed in New York.

Huh? So they were exercising their parental rights by kidnapping their daughter? If they had decided to take her to a Planned Parenthood in Maine it would have been ok? I'm confused.

WA State Medical Association to Meet; Euthanasia, MAP on the Agenda

The Washington State Medical Association is meeting this weekend in Spokane for their Annual Meeting. One of our embedded reporters there has alerted us to the fact that two items on the agenda for the WSMA are: Euthanasia and Plan B (the abortifacient drug that sometimes acts as a contraceptive.)

In the ultimate irony, the person putting forward a resolution asking the WSMA to take a neutral stance on euthanasia is long time assisted suicide and abortion supporter, William O. Robertson the founder of and current Medical Director for the state's Poison Control Center. He is also a long-time supporter of Washington's Hemlock Society strategically renamed Compassion and Choices of Washington (CCW).

It's also been reported that the "William O. Robertson" Patient Safety Award, named after Dr. Robertson, will be awarded to a lucky recipient this weekend.

It appears that Dr. Robertson has already made some progress toward normalizing assisted suicide among the medical profession here just by virtue of the fact that they've managed to stack the organization with like-minded doctors and form their own "coalition" within the WSMA. The WSMA's "End of Life Consensus Coalition" includes Dr. Robertson and Robb Miller of the Washington state Hemlock Society (now CCW) on the Steering Committee. (I suppose it's easier to claim you've got a consensus when everyone on your steering committee already agrees with you.) The chairman of the steering committee is Stuart Farber, MD who recieved a $250,000 grant from George Soros's pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia group Open Society Institute.

Another of our correspondents mentioned to us that they had spoken to Dr. Robinson in the course of calling Poison Control and he seemed like such a "friendly, caring, elderly gentleman." It's eerily similar to the abortion lobby and the grandfatherly abortionists they always put up as the paragon of caring and compassion. It's deja vu all over again in Washington state.

Oregon to Host National Network of Abortion Funds

According to the Abortion Access Project Spring 2006 Newsletter (.pdf).

National Network of Abortion Funds Susan Yanow will also co-present with Angela Hooton from the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health at the upcoming conference of the National Network of Abortion Funds in Portland, Oregon. Their presentation, “Self-Induced Abortion– What Abortion Funds Need to Know” will discuss reported use of medications to self induce abortion among Latina immigrants and others in the U.S., and address issues this emerging trend presents regarding access to abortion and reproductive health care.

More from the Women's Health Activities Update 2006

A few weeks ago we stumbled across the "Washington State Department of Health Community and Family Health Women's Health Activities Update 2006" (MS Word doc, 7 pages, available from the Women's Health Resource Network page of the Washington DOH web site). We did an initial post on their contraception/sterilization program here but want to highlight a few of the other activities keeping your ever friendly and helpful Washington state DOH busy.

Plan B Marketing and Distribution Plan
· FPRH exhibits a tabletop display at professional conventions to raise awareness with practitioners and the general public about the importance of making emergency contraception accessible to women.

· FPRH continues to purchase emergency contraception for distribution through FPRH-funded agencies and appropriate partners. These doses of emergency contraception are provided at no cost to the client. In addition, some public health nurses are distributing emergency contraception to their clients.

(Key talking points at conventions and to clients: This will help reduce abortions; Plan B does not cause abortions. Under NO circumstances are you to use the words "prevents implantation of an embryo."

Sex, Condoms and Abortion Education
· DOH also plans to implement and evaluate community-based media literacy projects throughout the state. The goal is to reduce teen pregnancies by delaying initiation of early and unsafe sexual activity and by raising youth awareness around media (mis)representation of human sexuality. The project-sites will use an abstinence-based media literacy curriculum that will enable youth to deconstruct media messages related to sexual behavior.

(Lesson 1 Objective: Students should know they don't have to have sex but if they do condoms and BC pills are available from the school nurse, their family doctor, or Planned Parenthood. Students should also by able to cite WACs and RCWs that prevent anyone from informing their parents that took condoms or pills. List of Planned Parenthood offices should be distributed at each class. Students should also demonstrate their understanding that they have a right to abortion under Washington law. Extra credit for those who can recite the law from memory. Lesson 2 Objective: Students should be able to identify the funny white man in Italy who wears a hat that looks like a beanie and any man with Southern accent holding a Bible. Accurately deconstructed messages include: People are trying to impose their values on me; If I say "yes" it's ok; I don't have to tell my parents because the nice ladies at Planned Parenthood will help me; Whitey is keeping me down; Are those the same people who got in big trouble for molesting kids? Lesson 3 Objective: Repeat lessons 1 and 2.)

Events Planned for Comprehensive Sex Ed Kick-Off Party and Celebrations
· Upon legislative request in 2004, DOH collaborated with OSPI to create Guidelines for Sexual Health Information and Disease Prevention. The voluntary Guidelines, released in January 2005, provide a framework for medically and scientifically accurate sex education for Washington youth. DOH and OSPI strongly encourage all school districts, community-based organizations, juvenile detention centers, and tribal health programs vested in adolescent health to participate in the distribution of the guidelines.

(Strategy: Experiment on the poor, ignorant, unsupervised and incarcerated first, i.e. the powerless. Work out the kinks. Sneak it into the 'burbs when parents aren't paying attention. Accuse disenters of placing personal views ahead of kids. Don't worry about the "voluntary" qualifier; remember the collectivization of agriculture in Russia was also voluntary at first.)

· DOH partnered with The Center for Health Training, OSPI, and Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Washington to submit a proposal on adolescent reproductive health. The Center for Health Training was successful in securing the CDC grant funding that will provide $150,000 per year for the next five years. The goal of the grant is to reduce the rates of unintended pregnancies, STDs, and HIV infection among Washington youth. During the initial year of the grant, funds will be used to provide technical assistance, consultation, and training to three local communities around comprehensive sex education and the use of the DOH-OSPI Guidelines for Sexual Health Information and Disease Prevention.

(NEA, DOH, PP, OSPI, PATH, BOP, ASHA, WMA, FPRH, UW are all on board. Please send us your finance code so we can make sure your grant money is properly coded and accurately credited to your budget.)

FDA Rules Men Allowed to Purchase Plan B

Plan B is about "preventing abortion." Yep. And if you believe that I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.

In legal terms, it's called "deception by silence." In moral terms, it's called "sin of omission."

Making Money off Your Misery

This web site sells Plan B, various birth control pills, the birth control patch, ED medications, and VD treatments with the odd flu and smoking cessation drug thrown in. Yikes. No wonder these people don't want to push abstinence; they're making too much money treating all the side effects of promiscuity.

I just had to shake my head at the totally lame copy writing. When I read it I get visions of a marketing/web development team sitting around a conference table passing a huge joint.

"Due to the contents of the package, we require an adult signature on all packages."

They can't be serious.

On the Plan B information page they have this:
"Gender of patient must be Female on consultation form. However, credit card holder can be male on Billing/Shipping form."

Won't be used by men who are exploiting women. Nawww. Never happen.

Birth control pills are in a category called "Women's Health" and VD treatments are in a category called "Sexual Health."

Whatever.

I did learn something though on their Plan B page:
"Plan B (Levonorgestrel) passes into breast milk. Do not take Plan B (Levonorgestrel) without first talking to your doctor if you are breast-feeding a baby."

I hadn't even thought about that and hadn't seen it in any of the Plan B promotional or sales sheets, Plan B web sites, or product inserts. Very interesting.

I'm now getting visions of some very sober trial lawyers sitting around a conference table smiling.

McGavick's Gains Against Cantwell Evaporate

A new poll by Rasmussen Reports finds pro-abortion Sen. Maria Cantwell now leads Republican challenger Mike McGavick 52% to 35%.

McGavick had been touting this virtual dead-head against Cantwell on his web site and in fund-raising letters, which incidentally seem to be arriving at my house every week now.

One error in Life News' report says, "McGavick backs legal abortion but supports some pro-life laws." The fact is McGavick has not named one pro-life law he would support. I've asked his campaign if he would support the current bill to suspend the sale of RU-486 (a bill that if passed would be very helpful to women in Washington state) and they have refused to answer.

A Win. Finally.

Anyone who is listening closely to the fight over forcing pharmacists to become participants in the America's abortion industry, understands that it is an anti-Christian and specifically anti-Catholic enterprise. Judge Jeanne E. Scott has now allowed for the lawsuit filed by the Illinois pharmacists who were fired after refusing to distribute the abortifacient Plan B that sometimes acts as a contraceptive to proceed to trial.

In a 28-page opinion, issued on September 6th, Judge Jeanne E. Scott said that the pharmacists’ allegations, if proven at trial, “may establish that the object of the Rule [morning-after-pill mandate] is to target pharmacists, such as the Plaintiffs, who have religious objections to Emergency Contraceptives, for the purpose of forcing them either to compromise their religious beliefs or to leave the practice of pharmacy."

Exactly.

Born in Lies

A recent news item from Argentina shows the abortion lobby there is using the same tactic -- namely lying -- the abortion lobby used in the United States to legalize and normalize abortion there.

In one of the best editorials detailing some of their biggest whoppers and how they managed to accomplish their goal with the willingness of some very educated if perhaps naive people (supreme court justices, politicians, lawyers, and sadly some in the church), National Review said this on the 25th anniversary of Roe:

The abortion regime was born in lies. In Britain (and in California, pre-Roe), the abortion lobby deceptively promoted legal revisions to allow "therapeutic" abortions and then defined every abortion as "therapeutic." The abortion lobby lied about Jane Roe, claiming her pregnancy resulted from a gang rape. It lied about the number of back-alley abortions. (Argentina's health minister is now using this same lie in 2006.) Justice Blackmun relied on fictitious history to argue, in Roe, that abortion had never been a common law crime.

The abortion regime is also sustained by lies...This movement cannot speak the truth.

We know at least one of our readers who prefers scripture references to back-up our commentary. See John 8:44.

Women First Responds to Seattle Times

Dear Editor--
Regarding your article concerning pregnancy centers (8/18/06), there are a number of published studies supporting the hypothesis that a link exists between induced abortions and breast cancer. Although these findings may be disputed by some, the National Cancer Institute did in fact publish the results of a 1994 study by Dr. Janet Darling of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center citing just this link.

Why would anyone object to making these findings available to women who are considering abortion?

Don’t medical clinics have a responsibility to inform patients of all risk factors before recommending or performing a medical procedure? Don’t women have the right to choose for themselves whether they are willing to trade their current situation for another more insidious one down the road?

Finally, don’t medical researchers have an obligation to interview representative samplings of women in the course of their studies? I wonder how many women from the Silent No More Awareness Campaign would agree that post-abortion psychological stresses are of a no more severe nature or duration than those following a birth.

Demanding that pregnancy centers filter information and tow a party line serves only to endanger women and deny them their right to true choice.

Djana Milton
Women First
Djana Milton is the co-founders of Women First, a Pierce County group formed to promote dialogue about issues facing women, particularly expectant mothers.

Scientists and Medical Doctors Continue to Back-up Bloggers' Doubts about Plan B

Dear Dr. von Eschenbach,

In the 1960s, Dr. Frances Kelsey was a newly-hired physician with the FDA, and her first assignment was a presumably easy review of a "safe" sedative, thalidomide. However, she and other reviewers found deficiencies in methodology and in the completeness of data, especially that for chronic toxicity, in the experimental trials. She came under tremendous pressure from the Merrell company and from superiors who were badgered by the drug firm to approve the drug, but she refused to back down on her demands for better scientific evidence of safety.1
Fast forward four decades, to the FDA being pressured by a pharmaceutical company and political organizations to make Plan B available over-the-counter. The rationale offered for this change is that emergency contraception is safe and if it is more easily available it will reduce unwanted pregnancies and the abortion rate. However, the available scientific evidence does not support this rationale.

Emergency contraception use has been associated with concomitant sexually-transmitted infections and a higher incidence of ectopic pregnancies. Increased availability of emergency contraception has not resulted in a decline in pregnancy or abortion rates. Such evidence indicates that women using emergency contraception should be under the care of a physician to provide best care, including monitoring women for complications of the medication and sexually-transmitted infections. Women required to make a visit to their physician to obtain a prescription can be better evaluated and treated.

· Ectopic pregnancy--The British Government issued a warning to doctors to be especially aware of a potential complication of ectopic pregnancies following emergency contraception use. The post marketing surveillance experience in the United Kingdom, with specific reference to 201 emergency contraception failures, found 12 ectopic pregnancies, or a 6% rate‹triple the expected rate for both the UK and the US. (See: CMO update #35, dated 4-2-03, content # 20 at HERE)

· Sexually-transmitted infectionso In Sweden, following over-the-counter availability of emergency contraception in the late 1990¹s, there was a 30% increase in Chlamydia infections from l999 to 2001.2

o In Washington state, in the seven years following the start of the pharmacist direct pilot project for dispensing emergency contraception, chlamydia infection rates rose from 169.8 to 285.9 cases per 100,000, with teenage women showing a 36% increase (l997-2004) (see: HERE).
o A California study of women having different levels of access to emergency contraception found that 12 percent of all participants acquired a sexually-transmitted infection.3
o These data do not implicate a causal association between over-the counter emergency contraception and chlamdia or other sexually-transmitted infections, but show a need for physician supervision of any sexually active woman. Without physician oversight, these undiagnosed and untreated sexually transmitted infections may lead to infertility and cervical disease, which is surely not a good public health result for these women.

Easy access to emergency contraception does not necessarily produce intended results--Theoretically, the goal of enhanced availability of emergency contraception has been to reduce unintended pregnancies and abortion rates, but such results are lacking in actual research. In one study, advanced provision of emergency contraception did not decrease abortion rates.4 In Sweden, where emergency contraception is available without a prescription, increased induced abortion rates among teens have been found.2 A study in California compared three groups of women who had 1) pharmacy access to emergency contraception, 2) advance provision of emergency contraception, or 3) clinic access. Compared with controls, women in the pharmacy access groups and the advance provision groups did not have a significant reduction in pregnancy rates.3 While there was no reported significant differences between groups with respect to contraceptive or condom use or sexually transmitted infection rat! e or sexual behaviors, 12 percent of participants acquired a sexually-transmitted infection.3

A thalidomide catastrophe was prevented in the U.S. by one person, Dr. Kelsey, staunchly standing for good science in the face of tremendous pressure. Please stand firm in protecting the health of women and not make Plan B available without a prescription.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Sharon Quick, MD, FCP, FAAP
Washington State Coordinator, American Academy of Medical Ethics

1. Daemmrich A. A tale of two experts: thalidomide and political engagement in the United States and West Germany. Soc Hist Med. 2002 Apr;15(1):137-158.
2. Edgardh K. Adolescent sexual health in Sweden. Sex Transm Infect. 2002 Oct;78(5):352-356.
3. Raine TR, Harper CC, Rocca CH, et al. Direct access to emergency contraception through pharmacies and effect on unintended pregnancy and STIs: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2005 Jan 5;293(1):54-62.
4. Glasier A, Fairhurst K, Wyke S, et al. Advanced provision of emergency contraception does not reduce abortion rates. Contraception. 2004 May;69(5):361-366.