Planned Parenthood Targets Poland for Abortion with US Funds, Courtesy of Obama

From LifeSiteNews
By Tim Waggoner

The International Planned Parenthood Foundation (IPPF) has wasted little time in putting to use the millions of taxpayer dollars that have been made available to it by President Obama's decision to rescind the Mexico City Policy, which forbade U.S. funds from going to organizations that promote or perform abortions overseas.

In a letter advocating a series of Women's Day marches in Poland which took place yesterday and which were advertised with the words "Come and Join Us Because ... Poland is Ill," the IPPF urged support for the pro-contraception, pro-abortion and pro-homosexual agenda of the marchers.

The Women's Day event "has become a grassroots democratic movement," the "biggest demonstration of women's rights supporters," says the IPPF. According to the organization, last year Women's Day marches in cities around the country attracted some 4,000 participants.

"Among the demands, they make are: easy access to contraception; abolishing the gender role stereotypes that people are socialized into; right to decide about oneself and one's body; no more treating women as sexual objects; proper sex education in schools; and treating equally women who are elderly, poor, homosexual, of different ethnicity, of low social standing or handicapped."

In the letter IPPF also denounced a law being drawn-up by a bioethics committee aimed at protecting human life. According to the IPPF, the proposal seeks to ban certain in vitro procedures and some abortifacient contraceptives such as the morning after pill, as well as reverse the current law that forces doctors to refer patients to an abortionist even if doing so violates their conscience.

While abortion in Poland is illegal in many circumstances, it is permitted in cases where the mother's health or life is endangered by the pregnancy, where the pregnancy is the result of a criminal act, or where the fetus is seriously malformed. Poland has long been a target of anti-life forces due to its comparatively conservative abortion laws, traditional understanding of the family, and strong Catholic identity.

John Smeaton, the director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) and one of Europe's most prominent pro-life and pro-family activists, responded that in his view that the IPPF is just "patronizing" women of a country who know better than to trust the world's largest abortion provider.

In the Women's Day statement IPPF "blatantly and falsely claim to represent all Polish women in calling for easy access to contraceptives, including abortifacient contraceptive drugs and devices, attacking the Catholic Church, and opposing doctors' right to conscientious objection to abortion," said Smeaton.

"Armed with millions of US dollars promised by Barack Obama to fund the killing of unborn children overseas, they are now concentrating their anti-life propaganda on Poland.