Pro-life group rebukes Planned Parenthood for sending birth control to Haiti

Jan 21, 2010 / 18:31 pm

Following the horrific earthquake in Haiti last week, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) launched a campaign to provide what they call “emergency and basic health services” to victims in the country. But according to Douglas Scott, “Planned Parenthood looks at emergency birth control the same way most people view food, water and shelter.”

“Planned Parenthood will use any excuse to ask for money, even when doing so is ridiculous,” said Douglas R. Scott, president of Life Decisions International (LDI).“What the people of Haiti need is food, water, clothing, and shelter. They do not need anything that Planned Parenthood has to offer.”

According to the IPPF website, in addition to “essential basic and primary healthcare” they are also working to provide “specialist maternity and sexual and reproductive health services.” IPPF argued that an increased vulnerability of women to HIV infection and sexual exploitation often follows natural disasters and that “many women lose access to family planning services, exposing them to unwanted pregnancy, and, in cases of rape, access to emergency contraception and counseling.”

IPPF has also sent out thousands of letters asking for donations to rebuild its clinics in Haiti which were destroyed by the Jan. 12 earthquake.

But Scott countered, “Planned Parenthood's deadly network wants to provide 'sexual and reproductive health to people affected by the disaster. While there are many organizations offering essential healthcare to the people of Haiti, Planned Parenthood wants to be sure that this includes birth control and abortion.”

Scott also stated that “This is kind of self-serving opportunism is common for Planned Parenthood.”

According to Scott, after the fall of the Romanian dictator in 1989, Planned Parenthood donated $22,000 to the country to buy abortion equipment and coordinated an airlift of 40,000 condoms. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, the organization offered a free week of “reproductive health care” which Scott claims U.S. taxpayers helped underwrite. After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Planned Parenthood allegedly raised money to provide “essential medication” and “bare necessities” which consisted of a few months supply of birth control pills and emergency birth control kits, says Scott.

“Planned Parenthood looks at emergency birth control the same way most people view food, water and shelter,” Scott remarked. “And why do I think that not one person left homeless by a disaster was concerned about birth control?”

“I hate to sound cynical, but I am … and my cynicism is based on experience,” the LDI president said.

“What better fund-raising tool is there than a photograph of desperate men, women and children who had been devastated by an earthquake? Planned Parenthood routinely uses natural disasters to raise money, but it addresses not one true need. When people are standing outside with a hand stretched out, they do not expect someone to put a condom or birth control pill in it. Planned Parenthood officials should be ashamed,” he added.

CNA attempted to contact IPPF's headquarters in London but did not receive a reply.