Black leaders: De-fund 'racist' Planned Parenthood

Demonstrators protest Planned 'racism' by Planned Parenthood at the organization's Washington, D.C., offices (Courtesy Students for Life)

A Republican congressman joined black pastors and pro-life activists in a demonstration at Planned Parenthood offices in the nation's capital today to protest an alleged pattern of racist practices by the abortion provider.

"African-Americans are having abortions at a hugely disproportionate rate according to their population, and Planned Parenthood has no shame whatsoever in accepting money that specifically targets our community," said Day Gardner, president of the National Black Pro-Life Union.

Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona appeared at the event this morning along with black leaders who signed a letter to all presidential candidates, the Congressional Black Caucus, both Republican and Democrat Congressional and Senatorial Campaign Committees and the Democrat and Republican National Committees.

The protesters, mobilized by the group Students for Life, are demanding Congress stop funding Planned Parenthood, which received more than $336 million in government grants and contracts in the most recent fiscal year, according to the organization's annual report.

The leaders presented documentation of an undercover investigation, reported by WND, in which a pro-life student magazine at UCLA found Planned Parenthood staffers in seven states were willing to accept a financial donation targeting the destruction of an unborn black baby.

The letter says the conversations with the Planned Parenthood workers "are haunting and chilling, sounding more like 1958 than 2008."

Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson at Planned Parenthood protest in Washington, D.C., offices (Courtesy Students for Life)

"Planned Parenthood's questionable, and possibly criminal, business practices are having a profound effect on African-American communities all across this nation," the leaders write.

Other participants in the demonstration included WND columnist Star Parker; Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King Jr.; Day Gardner, National Black Pro-Life Union; Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, B.O.N.D.; Kristan Hawkins, Students for Life; Rev. Clenard Childress, Black Genocide; Vivan Berryhill, National Coalition of Pastors' Spouses; Catherine Davis, Network of Politically Active Christians; Luke Robinson, Voice of Truth and Life Ministries; Sylinthia Stewart, Aftermath Ministries; and Arnold Culbreath, Life Issues Institute/ProtectingBlackLife.org.

The undercover investigation included a phone conversation, presented in a YouTube video, in which the caller states he wants his donation to be earmarked for a "black baby," because he thinks there are too many blacks and that he wants his son to avoid competition by affirmative action.

The probe also featured a conversation between an actor wanting to make a donation and a woman identified as Autumn Kersey, vice president of marketing for Planned Parenthood of Idaho.

Actor: I want to specify that abortion to help a minority group, would that be possible?

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Planned Parenthood: Absolutely.

Actor: Like the black community for example?

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Planned Parenthood: Certainly.

Actor: The abortion – I can give money specifically for a black baby, that would be the purpose?

Planned Parenthood: Absolutely. If you wanted to designate that your gift be used to help an African-American woman in need, then we would certainly make sure that the gift was earmarked for that purpose.

Actor: Great, because I really faced trouble with affirmative action, and I don't want my kids to be disadvantaged against black kids. I just had a baby; I want to put it in his name.

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Planned Parenthood: Yes, absolutely.

Actor: And we don't, you know we just think, the less black kids out there the better.

Planned Parenthood: (Laughs) Understandable, understandable.

Actor: Right. I want to protect my son, so he can get into college.

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Planned Parenthood: All right. Excuse my hesitation, this is the first time I've had a donor call and make this kind of request, so I'm excited, and want to make sure I don't leave anything out.

Hear conversations with Planned Parenthood staffers

The leaders who rallied today are lobbying for support in Congress for the Title X Family Planning Act and the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act to "expose the racist tendencies behind Planned Parenthood and to petition both political parties not to accept money from the abortion giant."

Sens. David Vitter, R-La., and Sam Brownback, R-Kan., are leading an effort to gain support for the Title X Family Planning Act, which would refuse funds to any organization that provides abortions.

Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., at Planned Parenthood protest in Washington, D.C., offices (Courtesy Students for Life)

The letter notes a case in Kansas reported by WND in which a Planned Parenthood branch faces 107 misdemeanor and felonies charges for allegedly violating state abortion law

"Employees of this organization have been accused of protecting child rapists and failing to report child abuse in several states," the letter says of the Kansas branch. In California, the letter points out, Planned Parenthood has been accused of defrauding taxpayers of as much as $180 million.

In the House, Franks has signed a letter asking for support of H. R. 4133, the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act. The legislation would also prohibit "federal family planning funding to organizations that perform abortions (excepting circumstances of rape and incest against a minor, or endangerment of the life of the mother)." The letter also is signed by Reps. Joe Barton, R-Texas; Doug Lamborn, R-Colo.; Paul Broun R-Ga.; Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md.; Rom Paul, R-Texas; and Mike Pence, R-Ind.

The pastors at today's rally called on "all candidates and heads of political parties to condemn Planned Parenthood's racist business practices and return every cent of any Planned Parenthood money contributed to their campaigns."

"Additionally," they said, "Congress absolutely must open an immediate oversight investigation into the business practices of the abortion industry – just as Congress has investigated the business practices of other industries."

Felony charges

WND reportedanother investigation in which 18-year-old Lila Rose posed as a 15-year-old seeking an abortion at a Planned Parenthood center in Santa Monica, Calif. A Planned Parenthood staffer suggested Rose could say she was 16 and avoid complications.

"Well, just figure out a birth date that works. And I don't know anything," the staffer said.

The Texas-based pro-life group Life Dynamics previously conducted an extensive undercover project in which an adult volunteer posing as a 13-year-old called every Planned Parenthood clinic in the U.S., saying she was pregnant by a 22-year-old boyfriend. Almost without exception, the clinics advised her to obtain an abortion without her parents' knowledge and told her how to protect her boyfriend, who would be guilty in any state of statutory rape.

Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger supported eugenics through birth control to cull people she considered unfit from the population. In 1921, she said eugenics is "the most adequate and thorough avenue to the solution of racial, political and social problems."

At one point, Sanger lamented "the ever increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all." Another time, Sanger wrote, "We do not want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population."

Bryan Fisher, executive director of Idaho Values Alliance, previously noted to WND that Planned Parenthood has located nearly 80 percent of its clinics nationwide in minority neighborhoods. About one-third of all abortions are performed on blacks, he said, even though they make up only 13 percent of the population.

Nationwide, almost half of all black pregnancies end in abortion.