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(4/29/2006)
Pro-Life Speaker Discusses Planned Parenthood Agenda
Jim Sedlak tells Rapid City crowd about history, philosophy of controversial organization
By Bob Ellis Dakota Voice Jim Sedlak, Executive Director of STOPP International, spoke to a crowded room about Planned Parenthood Friday night at South Canyon Baptist Church. Sedlak, who speaks around the United States and internationally about pro-life topics, was in Rapid City at the invitation of Citizens for Life, a local pro-life group. Sedlak’s speech centered around the history and practices of Planned Parenthood. Sedlak said that PP founder Margaret Sanger held to three basic philosophies which shaped the character of Planned Parenthood: (1) uninhibited sexual activity, (2) limiting childbirth, and (3) eugenics, or selective breeding to produce a superior gene pool. Mr. Sedlak said that Sanger practiced what she preached, in that she lived a promiscuous lifestyle, and that when one of her (few) adult children told her they were pregnant with a fourth child, Sanger told them they had “disgraced the family.” Mr. Sedlak said that all of Planned Parenthood’s presidents have had ties to the organized humanist movement, as outlined in the Humanist Manifesto. Sedlak said Sanger won the 1957 Humanist of the Year award for promoting the philosophy of humanism. According to Sedlak, Alan Guttmacher and most other PP leaders since Sanger have also received various awards from the humanist society. While Planned Parenthood has a right to spread their message, Sedlak asked the crowd if they have a right to do it with tax dollars. He said that one third of their budget, some $265 million, came from taxpayer funds. Sedlak said that Planned Parenthood receives its earned revenue through a business model consisting of three tiers: (1) sex education in schools and youth organizations that teaches “it’s your decision” when it comes to children having sex; (2) selling contraceptives to sexually active children; and (3) selling them abortions when contraceptives fail. Interestingly, a Consumer Reports study on condoms last year indicated condoms distributed by Planned Parenthood had some of the worst failure rates. One of those condoms, in the form of a lollipop, was on display at the gathering. It was on a stick and inside a wrapper just like a lollipop. Sedlak also showed the crowd several keychains which are sold by Planned Parenthood, one of which is a mockery of Michelangelos Sistine Chapel painting of God reaching down to Adam, only on the keychain, God is handing Adam a condom. This keychain seems to be in keeping with the sense Planned Parenthood has had the past two Christmases as they have sold “Choice on Earth” greeting cards, playing off the traditional “Peace on Earth” sentiment. Sedlak also displayed a book about sex education offered by Planned Parenthood called “It’s Perfectly Normal.” The book covers topics ranging from reproduction, birth control, and abortion to homosexuality. The back of the book says it is “For age 10 and up.” Mr. Sedlak said dozens of communities have been successful in removing Planned Parenthood from their areas, including Monrovia, CA; South Carolina; and the biggest success in the panhandle of Texas where that area of the state went from having 19 Planned Parenthood offices down to only four. Sedlak said that the South Dakota abortion ban, HB 1215, was setting a good example for the rest of the country, and that a number of states are already following in South Dakota’s footsteps. He said that it would have been inconsistent for the legislature to have included the kind of rape and incest exception that many have called for. “That would say that it’s okay to kill the child for the father’s crimes,” he said. “The law would completely lose its own moral argument.” Sedlak also said such an exception would likely have undermined the law when it comes before the U.S. Supreme Court because the court has already identified such an inconsistency when it examined the Doe v. Bolton case in 1973. Rejecting the suggestion that the report of the South Dakota Task Force to Study Abortion ignored science, Sedlak said that on the contrary the report contained the science which was not available in 1973 when the Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion in America. Sedlak said the U.S. Supreme Court recognized at the time that if it could ever be proven that life existed in the womb, that the Roe decision would be nullified. He said that when HB 1215 goes before the Supreme Court, the supporting evidence of the task force report will go with it, and all the scientific evidence contained within that report overwhelmingly points to life in the womb. When asked about a recent national poll which indicated a majority of Americans believed that abortion was murder, but a majority also believed abortion was just a personal choice, Sedlak said this dichotomy indicated that Planned Parenthood has been successful in promoting its philosophy that there are no moral absolutes, that morality changes according to the situation. A number of pro-life legislators and candidates were present, including U.S. House of Representatives candidate Bruce Whalen, state Rep. Elizabeth Kraus (Rapid City), state House Majority Leader Larry Rhoden (Union Center), and District 32 Republican Senate candidate Elli Schwiesow. Whalen, who briefly addressed the crowd, affirmed his pro-life stance and said Native tradition and law are also pro-life, citing Oglala Sioux Tribal Code section 1.05 which says, "A child conceived but not born is deemed to be an existing person so far as may be necessary for its interests and welfare to be protected in the event of its subsequent birth." Whalen condemned the proposal of Oglala Sioux president Ceclia Fire Thunder to build an abortion clinic on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Jim Sedlak has been involved in the pro-life movement since the early 1980s. He has given talks throughout the United States and in Canada, England, Mexico, Northern Ireland, Italy, New Zealand and Australia. Sedlak has appeared on TV shows such as “Politically Incorrect” with Bill Maher, Mother Angelica’s TWTN, and radio shows including Dr. D. James Kennedy’s “Truths that Transform” and Marlin Maddoux’s “Point of View.” The evening was hosted at South Canyon Baptist Church in Rapid City by Citizens for Life, and emceed by Citizens for Life member Al Carlson.
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