PLANNED PARENTHOOD IN DUBUQUE: A PIPELINE TO ABORTION

Have you noticed the thousands of advertising dollars Planned Parenthood is spending locally to mislead citizens of Dubuque County into believing it is merely a “health clinic” and “education center”? This plan of deception must not succeed. Its own reports document the staggering number of abortions Planned Parenthood commits each year in the U.S. – more than 305,000 last year alone.

And Planned Parenthood has admitted since the day it opened its doors in Dubuque that it will refer women and girls to its other facilities – such as those in nearby Bettendorf, Iowa City, and Madison – for abortions. (Telegraph Herald, “Planned Parenthood to Open in ‘Days’,” Aug. 17, 2008, page 1A; KWWL News, Aug. 21, 2008). Will Planned Parenthood surreptitiously begin aborting babies right here in our backyard? It’s only a matter of time.

THE STORM LAKE STORY
Just ask residents of Storm Lake, Iowa. That’s where local Planned Parenthood staff informed community members earlier this year that the facility had abandoned its referral-only policy for abortions, and planned to begin administering medical abortions. “Planned Parenthood officials, however, when repeatedly asked whether [medical abortions were] being provided in Storm Lake, refused to answer the question,” quoted the local newspaper on April 2, 2009 (Storm Lake Pilot Tribune, “Planned Parenthood Says Abortion Pill is ‘Safe’, But Not Confirming Use At Local Facility”). But once the media spotlight was off, medical abortion quickly topped the list of services – and still does – on the local Planned Parenthood website.

THE SPENCER STORY
It’s a story with which Spencer, Iowa, is only too familiar. There, Planned Parenthood surreptitiously altered its referral-only policy for abortions last fall and quietly became a primary source of medical abortions. When it hit the local newspaper, Planned Parenthood would not “directly confirm plans to add [medical abortion to] the Spencer clinic.” (Spencer Daily Reporter, “Abortion Pill Worries Spark Local Protest", June 10, 2008). But, as in Storm Lake, medical abortion was soon first on the list of available services, where it remains, on Spencer’s Planned Parenthood website.

PROTEST WORKS
Stealth. Surreption. Subterfuge. Denial. That’s the Planned Parenthood way. A new clinic opens that Planned Parenthood claims will not offer abortion, but will “refer only”; then, one day, with no fanfare or public acknowledgement, the policy quietly changes and abortions begin. Indeed, the American Life League, a Planned Parenthood watchdog group, surveyed Planned Parenthood affiliates in 2008 and found that medical abortion was added to the list of services at more than 60 facilities across the nation in one year. (2008 Report on Planned Parenthood Facilities in the United States, American Life League, released March 4, 2009).

Will this be the Dubuque story?

Together, with constant protest, we can stop Planned Parenthood in Dubuque. Constant protest will keep the facts about Planned Parenthood in the public eye and will cut down on potential Planned Parenthood customers. Constant protest will demonstrate that we in Dubuque believe in life and the sanctity of the parent-child relationship. What happened in Spencer and Storm Lake, and in many other communities nationwide, does not have to happen here.

Take, Beaufort, South Carolina, for example. STOPP, another Planned Parenthood watchdog group, reports that Planned Parenthood closed a facility there only nine months after it opened because it was not able to attract customers and did not have community support. STOPP reports similar closings of Planned Parenthood facilities in New York, Wisconsin, and California. (see http://new.stopp.org/plan-success.html).

With constant protest, our combined voices will be heard in Dubuque as well. That Planned Parenthood is not, and has never been, welcome in Dubuque County will be incontrovertible.
Join our protest, and together, we can Stop Abortion, and Stop Planned Parenthood.