This article was written from a post-conference press release from Grand Strand Citizens for Life and from independent research and an interview with Jim Sedlak, which were conducted by the Miscellany staff.
MYRTLE BEACH Jim Sedlak gave a very strong take on Planned Parenthood’s philosophies when members of Grand Strand Citizens for Life met Nov. 4. for their annual conference.
Sedlak, director of Public Policy for the American Life League and director of STOPP (Stop Planned Parenthood) International, said that Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger’s three basic philosophies were eugenics, uninhibited sex, and birth control.
Members of the pro-life group were encouraged by Bob Lyncheski, president of GSCL, to educate themselves and others on important life issues. They did this by listening to the findings of Sedlak, and Tina Boyle, director of Project Rachel.
Sedlak, who has studied Planned Parenthood for 15 years, provided the 91 people in attendance with an overview of his findings about the organization’s history and evolution.
He said that in 1916, Planned Parenthood was founded by Sanger as the American Birth Control League. Her three philosophies are still endorsed by Planned Parenthood today Sedlak said. Much of the fodder for debate about the founding basis of the agency is found in Sanger’s publication “Birth Control Review.”
In April 1932 Sanger wrote an article entitled “A Plan for Peace.” In it, she described her idea of population control: “to keep the doors of immigration closed to the entrance of certain aliens whose condition is known to be detrimental to the stamina of the race, such as feebleminded, idiots, morons, insane, syphilitic, epileptic, criminal, professional prostitutes, and others in this class barred by the immigration laws of 1924. … to apply a stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is already tainted, or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring.”
In her article “A Plan for Peace,” Sanger suggested that a Population Congress in the United States should “apportion farm lands and homesteads for these segregated persons where they would be taught to work under competent instructors for the period of their entire lives.”
Ed Szymkowiak, STOPP national director, said that Planned Parenthood has never outwardly denounced these segregation and sterilization beliefs of Sanger. He said she was described as an “equal opportunity racist” because she sought the “fit” and “unfit” in society, or rather the wealthy versus poor. He said that today Planned Parenthood emphasizes funding for programs in countries where there are people of color who are predominantly poor.
The Planned Parenthood name was adopted over the American Birth Control League in the 1940s.
In the late ’70s, Faye Wattleton took over as president of the organization and began projecting a more positive spin on Planned Parenthood’s activities, said Sedlak.
Sedlak supports his views by examining the Planned Parenthood organization today. Planned Parenthood affiliates must believe and uphold the beliefs and philosophies of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Each affiliate is evaluated at least every four years, he explained. He has examined the numbers attached to Planned Parenthood activities and the activities themselves and has found them to sustain the Planned Parenthood philosophy.
He explained to the Myrtle Beach group that Planned Parenthood constantly pushes sex education with the assumption that children will have sex. He added that Planned Parenthood defines “responsible” sex as using contraceptives, and if children become pregnant, they encourage abortion.
He suggests looking at the numbers for confirmation of their activities; Planned Parenthood carried out twice as many abortions or abortion referrals in 1998 as they did adoption or prenatal referrals. He also said that 5 percent of women who are Title X eligible have abortions, but 35 percent of the women who go to Planned Parenthood have abortions. In other words, women were seven times more likely to abort with Planned Parenthood.
“Margaret Sanger hated large families, and she promulgated birth control by whatever means, including abortion. Her plan was to appear to be against abortion while for contraception,” he said.
Sedlak attributes the accuracy of this statement to the words of Sanger herself. In her book Woman in the New Race, she wrote, “The most merciful thing a large family can do to one of its infant members, is kill it.” He also offered the story of Alexander Sanger, Sanger’s grandchild. As one of four children, Alexander Sanger recalled his parents flipping a coin on the occasion of the conception of their fourth child to decide who would tell Margaret the news. Grandmother’s reply to the news: “You have disgraced the family.”
“Sanger’s organization pressured the U.S. Post Office from enforcing the Comstock Act, which allowed information regarding contraception and pornography through the mail. In 1996, Congress passed the Communications Decency Act, designed to keep pornography off the Internet. Planned Parenthood was one of the leading opponents of this bill and fought to have it declared unconstitutional,” said Sedlak. One might say they are responsible for allowing pornography on the Internet, he continued.
He suggests reading the Planned Parenthood Web site and publications to decide for oneself about the decency of the organization’s education tactics. He said the book It’s Perfectly Normal, which is endorsed by Planned Parenthood and intended for children, “routinely interferes with the age of innocence, as the pope calls it.”
Sedlak said Planned Parenthood continues to support the eugenics beliefs of Sanger. “They’ve got very clever words, but you need to look at what they do, study it,” he said.
Five years ago the Planned Parenthood organization in America built a medical facility in conjunction with MexFam, Planned Parenthood in Mexico, in Tijuana. Sedlak said, “The soul reason for building (the facility) is to provide free sterilization.”
Sedlak said the tax-exempt Planned Parenthood receives almost 30 percent of its funding from tax dollars. Last year, funding from state and federal government totaled $176 million. That same year they procured a profit of $125 million.
In the S.C. Legislature a bill is pending to ban the use of state tax dollars in supporting Planned Parenthood.
Several years ago, Sedlak and the STOPP organization approached the IRS in discussing the nonprofit status of Planned Parenthood. They were told by an IRS representative that ‘it would take an act of Congress (to reverse their tax exempt status) because they are so politically entrenched.’
“Whether you like it or not, Planned Parenthood uses your money to promote the killing of unborn babies,” he said, adding that the business makes a profit on the sale of birth control pills, contraceptives, abortions, and sterilizations.
At the Houston, Texas, office abortions run from $375 to $1,700.
“Planned Parenthood does almost nothing for free,” said Sedlak.
Because it is commercially driven, Sedlak said, Planned Parenthood can be stopped and forced to leave a community as its offices must turn a profit or are closed. He encouraged listeners to become aware of the group’s operations in their communities and to begin to speak out against their efforts to enter schools.
Planned Parenthood no longer operates in Mississippi or Hawaii because the communities became informed of Planned Parenthood activities.
Tina Boyle addressed GSCL members on the suffering of women and men resulting from the emotional and spiritual trauma of abortion. Boyle serves as director of Project Rachel, an organization that provides healing to women who have had abortions or lost a child through a miscarriage. She is a certified addiction counselor and shared her own story of miscarriage.
Boyle explained that post-abortion syndrome is the best kept secret in the abortion industry. She provided several examples of women she has counseled who have lived with this problem for 20 or more years before coming to terms with the abortion of their child. Using a short video and a poem written by a woman suffering from post-abortion syndrome, Boyle was able to explain how deeply rooted this emotional pain can become.
“It is important to remember that there are always at least two victims in an abortion, the baby and the mother in whose memory her unborn child forever remains. Other victims may include the father, grandparents and anyone who encouraged the abortion,” Boyle said. “Abortion shakes the foundation of one’s soul and infects the core of one’s being. Feelings of fear, anger, denial, grief and low self esteem are common to women who abort their children. Many of these victims feel they cannot be forgiven and are unworthy of love.” (Women in need of post-abortion assistance may call (843) 683-HOPE.)
Sedlak said that it takes five to 10 years for post-abortion trauma to set in. He said that the national organization Rachel Vineyard Ministries has a growing demand for weekend retreats for women injured by abortion. They have scheduled more than 50 weekends in the coming year from Alaska to Florida.
For more information about the American Life League consult its website (www.all.org), or about the Planned Parenthood organization at its website (www.plannedparenthood.org).