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Black pro-lifers oppose taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood

A group of pro-life African-American pastors and other leaders plans this coming Monday to ask the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to join them in demanding that over $300 million in taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood be stopped, reports Catholic News Agency. Ms. Day Gardner, one of the leaders of the effort, charges that Planned Parenthood is a “racist organization” which has “bought off” presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama.

The group includes NAACP delegate Loretta Grier, Day Gardner of the National Black Pro-Life Union, Levon Yuille of the National Black Pro-Life Caucus, and Alveda King, niece of the civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Explaining their motives in a press release, they argue that Planned Parenthood should be defunded for reasons like the revelation earlier this year that a Planned Parenthood development director was willing to accept a donation from an actor posing as a racist donor. In his call to the fundraiser, the supposed donor claimed he wanted to target black babies for abortions.

The group also cites Alan Guttmacher Institute and Center for Disease Control statistics showing that a “huge majority” of abortion clinics are located in minority neighborhoods. They further cite investigations of Planned Parenthood in Kansas for falsifying documents and preparing illegal late-term abortions and also note accusations that California Planned Parenthood has defrauded taxpayers of over $180 million.

Speaking in a phone interview with CNA, coalition member Day Gardner, founder and president of the National Black Pro-Life Union explained the NAACP’s stand on abortion.

“The NAACP takes the ‘position of no position,’ and of course we know that if you don’t come out for or against something, usually you’re for it,” she stated.

The demonstrators’ presence at the NAACP convention, Gardner explained, aimed to bring attention to abortion issues in the black community.

“It’s necessary to state what a lot of America does not know, especially Black America,” she said. “In the African-American community we’ve lost more than 17 million children to abortion.”

She said the demonstration would bring to light “the fact that Planned Parenthood is a racist organization,” citing the YouTube videos depicting Planned Parenthood fundraisers who were what Gardner described as “happy and excited” to take donations from racist donors.

Describing Planned Parenthood as a “billion-dollar organization,” Gardner said one-third of the organization’s funding came from taxpayer monies.

Last month, she noted, her coalition demonstrated at the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters, demanding candidates refuse campaign donations from Planned Parenthood.

Day Gardner said her coalition has sent letters to Senator Barack Obama regarding what she called Planned Parenthood’s “racist past” and present day activities which she said included “planting these abortion facilities in our neighborhoods and targeting African-American girls and women.”

According to Gardner, the coalition has also asked Sen. Obama to refuse any money from Planned Parenthood.

However, she noted, Planned Parenthood has recently endorsed Obama, lamenting that “he is accepting of, and happy about, that endorsement.”

“He is not on board with us at all,” Gardner said. “He knows what this racist organization does, but money is more important to him. Basically they’re buying him off and his hard work.”

[07/13/2008]

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