December 02, 2003

The Predators Of Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood's outspoken activists remain stone-cold silent about Holly Patterson. She's the teenager who died of tragic complications from taking the abortion drug cocktail RU 486, which she obtained from a northern California Planned Parenthood clinic in September. Holly and her unborn child suffered a painful, bloody, and prolonged death.

[Death After Abortion Pill Reignites Safety Debate By Marc Kaufman Washington Post, November 3, 2003]

Patterson was seven weeks pregnant when she received the chemical abortion regimen. After seven days and two desperate trips to a hospital emergency room seeking help for intense cramping and bleeding, she succumbed to "septic shock, due to endomyometritis (inflammation) due to therapeutic, drug-induced abortion," according to an Alameda County coroner's report. The silence of the abortion lobby speaks volumes:

Ho-hum. Just one [sic] more innocent casualty in pursuit of the almighty "right to choose." Nothing to see here. Move along.

While Patterson's family mourns and the Food and Drug Administration investigates, Planned Parenthood continues to dispense the abortion kill pills to pregnant teens-and it continues to entice young people to its abortion clinics with a glitzy, MTV-like website offering "sexuality and relationship info you can trust." Called "Teenwire.com," the Planned Parenthood site is chock full of colorful graphics, hip jargon, voluminous health advice, and lots of exclamation points:

"Check out our interactive color diagrams of female and male anatomy!"

"SEX TALK LIVE!"

"Got Lube?"

"I want both guys!"

"MASTURBATION: Go there!"

Amid explicit discussions of "dry humping," oral sex, masturbation, and encouragement for "queer and questioning" teens, the Teenwire.com site issues a stern note to parents who might be trying to monitor what kind of sex education propaganda their kids are reading. Planned Parenthood lectures mothers and fathers that "this Web site is for teens. This is their place. Take a look around the site if you like, but please do not register on the site."

Translation: We're the experts. You are meddling parents. Bug off and butt out.

Teenwire.com's readers are advised by Planned Parenthood legal experts to call a free hotline number for confidential pregnancy tests and private abortion counseling. Responding to a 14-year-old girl nicknamed "devilchik" who writes a letter asking the experts if she can get an abortion without her mom's permission, the Planned Parenthood advisers supply a list of state laws regarding parental notification and consent. California, where Holly died, has no parental involvement requirement. In a section titled "Yikes!" the experts enthusiastically explain the "judicial bypass" process for circumventing parents altogether when a teen wants to take RU 486 in secret.

The website pounds home the blithe message that "abortion is a very safe procedure" akin to taking an aspirin or getting tonsils removed. Shamelessly courting repeat customers, the website also mentions several times to its teenage audience that second abortions are no big deal. Ignoring the untold number of American women who suffer from post-abortion trauma, the Planned Parenthood experts also tell young girls that abortion "poses little danger to a woman's emotional and mental health. Although a woman may feel some regret or remorse, the most common emotion after an abortion is relief."

Teenwire.com's section on abortion pills (mifepristone and misoprostol) reads like a cheerleading pharmaceutical press release. "It's finally here!" crows Planned Parenthood writer Susan Motamed. "It's time-tested and super-safe," she informs teens. "Not one woman has died from using mifepristone with misoprostol to end pregnancy," Teenwire.com falsely asserts. Unmentioned are the approximately 400 adverse events linked to RU-486 by its manufacturer, including hemorrhaging, bacterial infections, and the deaths of three women in North America, including 18-year-old Holly.

Predators win the trust of their victims by luring them away from their closest loved ones, speaking their language, and telling them what they want to hear. Planned Parenthood subverts parents and dispenses death pills to vulnerable teens like candy-cheap! easy! super-safe! But as Holly's dad, Monty, sobbed at a press conference after his daughter's RU 486-induced homicide: "There's no quick fix for pregnancy, no magic pill. They told her it was safe, and it killed her."

Put that in capital letters, Planned Parenthood experts. File it on your website under "Yikes!" in memory of Holly Patterson and her child who never had a chance.

Michelle Malkin [email her] is author of Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores. Click here for Peter Brimelow’s review. Click here for Michelle Malkin's website.