by Kristin Sparks
A lengthy new survey released by the National Campaign to prevent Teen Pregnancy — which, surprisingly, has the endorsement of Planned Parenthood (PP) — contains a rather revealing statistic: A clear consensus exists that school-aged teens should not have sex. Results show that 95 percent of adults and 93 percent of teens surveyed said that it was important that youth be given a strong abstinence message from society.
Yet PP continues to ignore the truth and promote alleged “safe sex” and “birth control” over abstinence. Just in time for Spring Break '01, PP marketers announced the arrival of their latest fashion craze — the Planned Parenthood condom. In a news release dated April 17, 2001, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) announced the availability of “special latex formulation” condoms that are to be distributed nationally “in a variety of styles, colors and flavors.” The condom wrappers bear a toll-free number to contact the nearest PP center, where minors can obtain information or “make a confidential appointment.”
Equally disturbing was the news release itself, which also announced the solicitation of “Mother’s Day donations” that could be made on-line “in celebration of Mother’s Day.” This from an organization that promotes turning girls and women into mothers of dead children.
Continuing to regard pregnancy as if it were a disease to be “corrected,” PP announced that their new product offers “top quality protection against pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.”
“The Planned Parenthood name tells you it’s a condom you can trust,” PPFA President Gloria Feldt said. Nationwide, PP affiliates expect to distribute more than 25 million condoms in the next year. Perhaps the young girls who became pregnant after a condom was used, or the boys and girls who developed AIDS after using a condom, should come forward and testify to their effectiveness.
Better yet, PP could resurrect Jocelyn Elders to remind teens how safe and effective condoms are. Elders, the disgraced U.S. Surgeon General appointed by the equally-disgraced Clinton administration, was removed from office following a public outcry over disclosure of her promotion of promiscuity among American youth. As Surgeon General, she consistently attacked the Catholic Church and promoted masturbation, promiscuity and fornication. After her forced removal from office, Elders packed up her belongings, including her infamous “condom Christmas tree” (she “decorated” her office Christmas tree entirely with condoms), and went on to become a member of the Board of Directors of PPFA.
Elders’ love affair with condoms surfaced much earlier, though. As far back as her tenure as state health director in Arkansas, under then-Governor William Clinton, she was regarded by many as a condomaniac.
A 1993 Associated Press dispatch revealed that Elders, charged with protecting the health of Arkansas residents, ordered the distribution of defective condoms to school children. Tests conducted on four lots of condoms, slated for school children, were determined to be defective at a rate 10 times higher than that approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The federal government was considering seizure of the defective lots; but state officials decided to release them to schools anyway, rather than, according to Elders, “undermine public confidence in condoms.”
With such a checkered past, Elders was an excellent candidate to join the board of PP and tour the country championing their programs and continuing PP’s attack on the youth of America. Now it seems that Gloria Feldt has picked up where Jocelyn Elders left off — with the PP line of “condoms you can trust.”
On yet another front, PP in the Minneapolis/St. Paul hub of Minnesota distributed so-called “Prom Survival Kits” for students this prom season. The prom kits contain breath mints, a party popper, a $10 certificate for Planned Parenthood “services” and a hefty supply of Planned Parenthood condoms.
“What we’re trying to achieve with the kits are to make certain that young people are safe and that they protect themselves and that they do the responsible thing,” said PP spokesperson Lori Moucha.
Local abstinence educator Barbara Anderson disagrees and observed that “prom night should not be viewed or promoted in any way as promiscuity night, and that is exactly what Planned Parenthood is doing by giving out these party kits to teens and telling them to party, have fun and have ‘safe’ sex.”
Parents of prom-age children have every right to be concerned about this latest venture, which is designed to appeal to teen humor while masking a truly deadly and deceptive message.
(Kristin Sparks is editor of HLI Reports. Article courtesy of Human Life International.)
