INDIANAPOLIS (CNS) A holiday gift-certificate campaign by Planned Parenthood of Indiana "is offensive because Christmas is about celebrating the gift of human life", said the director of the pro-life ministry office of the Indianapolis archdiocese. Sr Diane Carollo made the comments in a nationally televised interview Dec. 3 on ABC’s "Evening News."
The Planned Parenthood gift certificates are being advertised as "the gift of health," and can be redeemed for "services or the recipient’s choice of birth control method," according to the organization’s press release, which has generated local, state and national media coverage.
Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion provider.
In a Dec. 4 interview with The Criterion, Indianapolis’ archdiocesan newspaper, Sr Diane called it "outrageous that Planned Parenthood would have the audacity to offer lethal gift certificates for the Christmas holiday."
A member of the Servants of the Gospel of Life, she has headed the pro-life ministry for nine years.
In Indiana, Planned Parenthood operates abortion clinics in Bloomington, Indianapolis, Avon and Merrillville as well as 35 smaller sites they describe as "health centers," where they sell artificial contraceptives that function as chemical abortifacients.
Planned Parenthood said the certificates, ranging in value from $25 to $100, are redeemable for health services at clinics throughout Indiana and Illinois and can go to any service offered, including abortion.
Chrystal Struben-Hall of Planned Parenthood of Indiana has been quoted in media reports as saying her organization "decided not to put restrictions on the gift certificates, so it’s for whatever people feel they need the services for most."
"Apparently, they do Pap smears and breast exams, but it’s a fact that these certificates could be used to procure an abortion," Sister Diane said.
This Christmas, "there will be 6,000 fewer babies in Indiana" because of abortions at Planned Parenthood clinics in the state during 2008, she said. "Nationwide, there will be approximately 290,000 fewer babies because they were aborted in Planned Parenthood facilities."
She also told The Criterion that in an interview on the same network news program on which she appeared, Planned Parenthood of Indiana’s president and CEO, Betty Cochrum, promoted the gift certificates as ideal "for women’s health."
Right to Life of Indianapolis president Marc Tuttle, who is a member of St. Luke the Evangelist Parish in Indianapolis, was indignant in his response to Planned Parenthood’s press release about the certificates. The release was titled "Give the gift of health this holiday season."
"While most of us are spending the next month preparing to celebrate the birth of our Savior," Tuttle said, "Planned Parenthood of Indiana is sinking to new lows in sacrilege."
Volunteers with the Great Lakes Gabriel Project, a parish-based pro-life organization which helps expectant mothers experiencing crisis pregnancies, and other pro-life supporters in central Indiana planned to sing Christmas carols beside an empty manger scene Dec. 13 in front of a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Indianapolis.
Organizers said they would sing "Away in a Manger" and "Silent Night" in remembrance of the nearly 50 million unborn babies in the U.S. who, they noted, will never "lay down their sweet heads" on any bed because abortion was legalized by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.
