Most of us have already learned that Planned Parenthood of Columbia-Willamette hopes to move its headquarters to a site on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Beech Street in Portland. Considerable opposition to this project has been voiced by many of our fellow citizens, people of all faiths, including Catholics. More than a year ago an organization entitled Precious Children of Portland was started with the very specific goal of stopping Planned Parenthood from building a new facility on MLK Jr. Boulevard. The larger goal is to remove Planned Parenthood from all our neighborhoods. Some thirteen PPFA (Planned Parenthood Federation of America) facilities can be found in Portland’s metropolitan area.

Why all the opposition? Frankly, too many of our people, including Catholics, fail to understand the disingenuous approach of PPFA in promoting its cause. I fear that many of our Catholic people have been taken in by the propaganda. I believe it is important for us to support the efforts of Precious Children of Portland and to stop the killing of unborn children in our community.

Did you know, for example, that PPFA is the single largest abortion provider in the United States? In 2005, 264,943 surgical and (medical) abortions were performed at PPFA facilities. Furthermore, PPFA claims to serve women’s “choices.” But it reports providing prenatal care to only 12,548 women in 2005 and infertility services to 248.

PPFA profits are alarming. Its revenues keep expanding, $902.8 million in the year ending June 30, 2006 ($55.8 million more than expenses). Fees for abortions range from $350 to $650 and over 1/3 of its income, $305.3 million, comes from taxpayer dollars.

Even though PPFA representatives claim an interest in reducing abortions, at the same time they advocate unrestricted access to abortion and lobby or file suits against even very modest and widely supported laws that reduce abortions, such as parental notification or counsel before a minor daughter’s abortion.

“Freedom of choice” apparently is not worth supporting when people disagree with PPFA. The right of conscience for doctors and nurses morally opposed to abortion is skirted by PPFA. When the government states it will not force health professionals to violate their medical and moral judgment on abortion, PPFA objects with the bizarre claim that such a policy “intrudes on private, personal medical decision-making.”

When tragedies occur, PPFA is quite selective in its efforts to help victims. For example, when many people lost their lives in the 9/11 terrorist attack, the January 2006 SEGO Mine disaster, and Hurricane Katrina, PPFA offered relief to the survivors in the form of free birth control and abortions. That’s a rather restricted agenda, to say the least.

It doesn’t end there. PPFA also supports the dangerous abortion drug RU-486, promoted its approval by the FDA and volunteered to conduct early U.S. drug trials. PPFA continues to promote RU-486 despite the medical finding that the risk of death after such abortions, from infection alone, is 10 times the risk of deaths from all causes in surgical abortions at the same stage of pregnancy. Add to this the fact that PPFA exports its ideology to developing nations, by promoting abortion as family-planning and even pressing for our taxpayer dollars to support those who are involved in coerced abortions abroad.

Do we really want to welcome such activities in our community? PPFA supporters are not comfortable when conversations are focused on the culture of death in today’s society. PPFA is a major contributor to the spread of that culture. If we keep silent and stand on the sidelines, this dark force will continue to spread and eventually destroy not only the lives of the unborn but even the moral fiber of our nation.
Folks from Precious Children of Portland are making their protest known. Promoting respect for life and protecting human life from conception to natural death is not a “right wing cause.” It is a matter of justice. Many of us continue to express concern about the violence of war and the absence of peace. Long ago Pope Paul VI reminded us that if we want peace we must work for justice. There is no justice when relationships are wrong. Relationships among all citizens, especially parents and their children, are obviously quite wrong when abortions flourish as they do in today’s world.

I urge all our Catholic people and friends to express their opposition to our city leaders about the proposed PPFA project on MLK Jr. Boulevard in Portland. The so-called “health and education services” to be provided in that facility would only destroy more human lives and promote promiscuous behavior on the part of young people. The time for saying “no” to PPFA in our community is now.