Planned Parenthood, abortion heavyweight, dons clerical garb

Raw Story
Apr. 03, 2006

Planned Parenthood, dubbed by critics the "super-merchant" of abortion, is taking clergy into its flock in an effort to retouch its image, according to an upcoming report in the New York Times.

Excerpts:
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"People wearing clerical collars and small crucifixes were wedged at tables laden with muffins, bowing their heads in prayer. Scripture was cited. But the name of the sponsor cast everything in a new light: the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

To its critics, Planned Parenthood is the godless super-merchant of abortion. To its supporters, it is the dependably secular defender of abortion rights. But at this breakfast, God was everywhere.

"We are here this morning because, through our collective efforts, we are agents in bringing our fragile world ever closer to the promise of redemption," Rabbi Dennis S. Ross, director of Concerned Clergy for Choice, told the audience. "As clergy from an array of denominations, we say, 'Yes' to the call before us."

The Interfaith Prayer Breakfast has been part of Planned Parenthood's annual convention for four years. Most of the ministers and rabbis there have known the group far longer.

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The Episcopal Church endorsed the distribution of birth control information in the 1930s, and other mainline denominations and Jewish congregations followed. In the late 1960s, some 2,000 ministers and rabbis across the country banded together to give women information about abortion providers and lobby for repeal of anti-abortion laws.
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The rest of the article can be read at the New York Times Website at this link.