Director, Commonwealth Policy Center

Casey Mattox of Family Research Council has responded to Planned Parenthood’s “Clergy Advocacy Board Statement,” an open, “pastoral” letter encouraging people to not assume that “all religious clergy disapprove of abortion.” In the words of the letter (which is no longer available via PP’s site but is archived at FRC):

"The truth is that abortion isn’t mentioned in the Scriptures-Jewish or Christian-and there are clergy and people of faith from all denominations who support women making this complex decision. The beliefs of each person are deserving of respect. No one should be allowed to force their faith teachings on others."

This is a vintage example of how the rhetoric of abortion rights activists so often contradicts their methodology. Breathlessly exhorting women to not allow anyone to “force their faith teachings” on them, Planned Parenthood actually does a little theological force feeding of their own by falsely asserting that religious scriptures have no opinion on abortion (see Psalm 139 for a beautiful description of the unique personhood of the unborn).

Mattox has a wonderful reply in which she offers to donate Bibles to every operating Planned Parenthood clinic in the United States. After all, if PP is serious about valuing personal religious beliefs on abortion, why not allow religious education to empower women?

It’s no accident that the wording of the letter is ambiguous and suggestive. Rather than claim that there are many “people of faith from all denominations” who are pro-choice, why not get specific about which churches and denominations are? Good thing for them they did not, though. The overwhelming majority of Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and Islamic communities condemn abortive “family planning” as sinful.

This is just the latest chapter in a long record of misinformation produced by Planned Parenthood. By the way, if the folks at Planned Parenthood really are all about helping women make a “complex” decision, why their continued opposition to ultrasounds?