Efforts continue to target Planned Parenthood

  An official of a nationwide ministry that directly opposes Planned Parenthood operations visited Oregon last month to encourage people involved in local pro-life battles in various communities statewide.
   Jim Sedlak, vice president of Virginia-based American Life League, spent April 4 through 14 in Oregon. All of his talks were focused on Planned Parenthood and the harm he says that agency does to society.
   He gave three workshops at the state convention of Oregon Right to Life in Salem, went to Florence and McMinnville to meet with groups opposing Planned Parenthood facilities in both cities, taped some cable TV shows, spoke to a pro-life group at Portland State University, spoke at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Eugene, spoke in Wilsonville to the activist group Life Support, and met with Precious Children of Portland, a group trying to stop Planned Parenthood from building a 45,000-square foot headquarters and abortion facility in a heavily African-American neighborhood in northeast Portland. He also spoke at the Pentecostal Ukrainian Bible Church’s weekly services.
   Through its STOPP (Stop Planned Parenthood) program, American Life League strongly criticizes Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s role as the nation’s largest operator of abortion facilities. In the mid-1990s the agency operated 938 facilities nationally and announced an aggressive plan to have 2,000 clinics by the year 2000.
   But according to Sedlak, local community opposition across the nation not only prevented Planned Parenthood of meeting that goal, but actually reduced the number of facilities across America to 814 today. Sedlak said about 160 of those facilities do abortions on site, while the remainder offer various abortifacient products for sale.
   American Life League also claims that Planned Parenthood’s sex education classes and website are designed to break down teenagers’ natural inhibitions and foster greater promiscuity, thus increasing the agency’s customer base for both contraception and abortion.
  “What we try to do is let (local residents) know that people are fighting Planned Parenthood all across the country and winning,” Sedlak told Christian News Northwest. “Because of actions by people just like them, Planned Parenthood has closed 120 clinics in the past 10 years.”
Sedlak said that he speaks across the country to groups “that are not exclusively made up of Christians, but certainly Christians make up a large part of those concerned.”
   In the case of those opposing the Planned Parenthood facility in northeast Portland, concerned Christians from a wide variety of churches were joined by similarly concerned representatives of the Muslim Community Center at a rally in mid-March on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard that drew about 130 people.
   They collectively voiced their displeasure with the city’s plan to use urban renewal property to build one of the largest abortion centers in the nation at the corner of Northeast Beech Street and MLK Jr. Boulevard.
   Those involved in the rally believe that Planned Parenthood is building the abortion center to target the large population of Blacks and Hispanics in the area. They note that Planned Parenthood’s own statistics show that an African-American baby is more than four times as likely to be aborted as a white baby, and a Hispanic baby is almost three times as likely.
   The two-hour rally was the conclusion of a nationwide “40 Days for Life” emphasis. Among the churches represented were Powerhouse Temple Church of God in Christ, Maranatha Church of God, Life Change Christian Center, Cornerstone Community Church of God in Christ, and Immaculate Heart, Holy Cross and Holy Rosary Roman Catholic churches.
  “Many motorists honked and waved in support and some even stopped and stood and prayer and sang with the pro-life assembly,” said Bill Diss, a local schoolteacher who founded Precious Children of Portland.
   For more information, phone 503-344-6183 or go to www.pdx4life.org.