For the first Christmas since 2002, Planned Parenthood will not be offering their “Choice on Earth” holiday greeting card. While we can all be thankful for that, the offensive message is still carried on their non-seasonal “mission product” T-shirt.

Why, you ask, would Planned Parenthood exploit a sacred Christian theme to promote its mission? It is part of Planned Parenthood’s multi-pronged strategy to normalize abortion and lifestyle choices.

Absurd? Consider the association they have with the Girl Scouts. With involvement in 20 percent of the organization’s councils, Planned Parenthood conducts educational events and conferences for young girls. During these events attendees are given the book It’s Perfectly Normal. Examples of Planned Parenthood’s embedded social agenda are noted by reviewer Lee Duigon:

Page 73 of the 1996 paperback edition lists nine reasons to have an abortion, capped by this masterpiece of moral anorexia: "The female did not want or intend to become pregnant." There are no reasons offered not to have an abortion. The author probably couldn't think of any. Harris' enthusiasm for homosexuality is boundless. She dubs it “perfectly normal” and “the highest form of love,” according to "the ancient Greeks" (pp. 17-18). Those who object to it are "ignorant" and “misinformed.” Harris also lists the anus (pp. 23, 26) as “a sex organ.” Perhaps we ought to be grateful she left it at that.

Another reviewer, Jim Sedlak, remarks,

[It’s Perfectly Normal] has line drawings of men and women in bed together. It shows with line drawings of how to put on a condom. It gives descriptions on how boys can masturbate or how girls can masturbate. We're talking very specific stuff.

The message is clear—that any form of sexual expression is normal and acceptable as long as it is based on an informed choice freely chosen. It is a message moored deep in the post-Christian mindset where individual choice is the only absolute and societal tolerance the only virtue. What better way for Planned Parenthood to shape culture than to inculcate the young with their bent morality. But is choice really what Planned Parenthood is about?

CHOICE, YOU SAY?
In states across the union, Planned Parenthood has been a vocal critic of the “Choose Life” license plate to the point of filing suit against some states for authorizing the sale of such.

But isn’t choosing life a choice? Aren’t all choices, even for life, to be held inviolate by those who sacramentalize choice? Apparently not. Planned Parenthood argued that unless states also authorized a “Choose Choice” license plate, it was somehow violating the first Amendment. I, for one, would have agreed to that concession provided the alternate plate more logically and candidly read, “Choose Death” or “Do Not Choose Life.” But that is not likely to gain much traction with the Culture of Death, as pro-choice advocates continually reject associations with “pro-abortion” and “pro-death” labels.

Nevertheless, it’s hard for Planned Parenthood to run from their record. For instance, according to the organization’s website, in 2004 (the last year for which they have published figures) Planned Parenthood provided services for 255,015 abortions as compared to 1,414 adoption referrals. In other words, over 99 percent of Planned Parenthood’s services involved the taking of life.

Particularly revealing is Planned Parenthood’s criticism of the U.S. for eliminating funding for China's population control program—a program based not on reproductive choice, but on coercive abortion. The cognitive dissonance is astounding. That an organization which advocates reproductive “rights” could argue for the funding of forced-abortion is quite frankly, Orwellian. As one observer has said, “Can someone who cannot oppose forced abortion really be pro-choice?” That’s well said, and equally applicable to those who rightly mourn the thousands killed over the last few years in war-torn Iraq, but are strangely silent about the thousands killed each day in sterile abortion clinics.

Sadly such incongruities are not bothersome to those who have come to view reproductive choice and abortion as not only inviolable, but sacramental. For example, the former Senate majority leader, Tom Daschle, once said that Roe v. Wade was “sacred ground.” So sacred, in fact, that it has served as the litmus test to weed out many well-qualified judicial candidates. And then there is feminist and author, Ginette Paris, whose book, The Sacrament of Abortion, calls for “restoring abortion to its sacred dimension.” Unbelievable.

Pulling back the wizard’s curtain, the “Choice on Earth” campaign is seen for what it really is—part of the continuing effort by pro-choice advocates to normalize the destruction of life up to within a few inches of birth—by packaging their message in religious wrapping.

FACED WITH CHOICE
Over two thousand years ago abortion was tolerated, and even common, in Roman and Greek society. It was in that setting that a young unwed Jewish girl faced the consequences of an unplanned pregnancy. Reasonably, a girl in her condition could expect to be disowned by her parents, rejected by her fiancé, charged with adultery and even subjected to stoning. Short of that, she could be labeled a social outcast unfit for marriage to men of respectable character, and left to endure the hard, lonely life of a single parent. But rather than exercise her “sacred right” in the reality of her shocking circumstance, this young girl rejoiced in God’s grace for the unexpected blessing.

 

In the prospect of a condition that was sure to result in social disgrace and personal difficulty within her religious, “finger-pointing” sub-culture, Mary’s response was one of extreme faith. It is sad that many today, even well-meaning Christians, would have counseled Mary to terminate her pregnancy reasoning that it is unjust, cruel and unnecessary for a young, unmarried girl to bear an unplanned child. I think Mary’s reaction to such well-meaners would have been to gently point out that if all we see in life’s difficult situations is injustice and cruelty, then our God is too small.

THE GIFT OF LIFE
Jesus Christ, in the unfathomable dimensions of His love, willingly exited this world by the most scandalous method of his day—death by crucifixion—to give the gift of life to all who would receive Him. I have often wondered whether God chose an equally scandalous entry into the world to demonstrate that every child—planned or unplanned—is a gift, not a choice, to all who would receive “a little one in His name.”

“And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. . . . See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.” (Jesus)

Regis Nicoll is a freelance writer and a Centurion of the Wilberforce Forum. His "All Things Examined" column appears on BreakPoint every other Friday. Serving as a men’s ministry leader and worldview teacher in his community, Regis publishes a free weekly commentary to stimulate thought on current issues from a Christian perspective. To be placed on this free e-mail distribution list, e-mail him at: centurion51@aol.com.

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