Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 18, 1995 TAG: 9503210023
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHRYN B. HAYNIE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
On the one hand, we offer ``contraceptive counseling'' and ``pap smears for women'' as we demonstrate a ``selfless professional commitment to strong families and social betterment.'' And on the other hand, we're ``nothing more than another abortion mill.''
He implied that the prominent civic leaders who comprise the United Way leadership of our valley have been duped by Planned Parenthood, and that somehow we've kept our strong commitment to reproductive choice a secret all these years.
He suggests that all United Way volunteers who have observed our programs, reviewed our financial audits, asked us to come to their churches and civic organizations and overseen the United Way's rigorous allocations process every year for the past 24 years have somehow missed the boat. How insulting.
I wonder where Williams has been while we've been working with high-risk young people to help them gain information and skills to better handle pressures of adolescent sexuality? What resources does he offer to parents who want help with communications about sexuality with their children? What has he been doing to help the thousands of women and men who come to our center every year for birth control, so they can avoid unintended pregnancies and thereby reduce the numbers of abortions he deplores?
More than 8,000 women and men came to Planned Parenthood of The Blue Ridge for birth control last year. How does he reconcile that fact with his charge that we failed to stem the increase in unwanted pregnancies? What would the numbers be if we didn't provide our affordable professional and preventive services?
Does he know of the hundreds of women we helped access prenatal-care services, or our preconceptual program that helps women anticipating a planned pregnancy have a healthy pregnancy outcome? During all the years that he's publicly opposed us, I've never seen Williams attend one of our programs, visit our offices or seek the facts about Planned Parenthood.
Williams claims that Planned Parenthood has a conflict. Yet he presents some conflicting information of his own. He claims that United Way ``subsidies for education free up other funds that can be used for abortion.'' He doesn't mention that United Way funds are restricted for education programs.
Programs funded by United Way are prevention programs, which should be supported by those who oppose abortion since they help young people avoid unwanted pregnancy. He implies that somehow Planned Parenthood has extra resources that could be directed into these programs if United Way funding ends. He's wrong. Our prevention programs will be in serious jeopardy without United Way funding. The United Way's allocations process requires us to document not only the need for these programs, but alternate sources of funding as well. Our allocation reflects these realities, not the assumptions Williams has made by conjecture.
Planned Parenthood has added abortion services to our broad range of reproductive health-care services to keep abortion safe, legal and accessible, and to improve continuity of care for women who rely on us for health care. Concurrently, we're the foremost organization working to reduce the incidence of unplanned pregnancy through education and top-notch preventive medical services.
In 1994, 4 percent of the services provided by Planned Parenthood affiliates in the United States were abortion services; 96 percent were preventive services. A 1992 study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute estimated that Planned Parenthood prevented 494,000 pregnancies in that year alone.
We have served this community well for more than 27 years, and we'll continue to do so. Day after day, parents, teachers, ministers, youth leaders and students call upon us for reliable, accurate sexuality-education information. We're grateful for United Way's support, and for the thousands of people who, through their contributions, make it possible for us to respond to these important community needs.
We welcome anyone to visit our Roanoke center to learn the facts about Planned Parenthood. Even Williams has an open invitation.
Kathryn B. Haynie is president of Planned Parenthood of The Blue Ridge, Inc.
by CNB