LETTERS: PLANNED PARENTHOOD IS DECEPTIVE

To the editor:

How many of us really care about the millions of children murdered each year in our abortion mills? What are we waiting for? Who are we expecting to lead us out of the killing fields? Will no one do anything except the few, the brave, those members of grassroots organizations scattered throughout small communities and large cities, all trying to survive on small donations from a few citizens as Planned Parenthood smilingly receives millions of our tax dollars each year and contributions from corporations.

Did you know that a recent survey revealed that a whopping 82 percent of voters who call themselves pro-choice have a positive image of Planned Parenthood? Here is a shocker: In the same survey, 57 percent of those who call themselves pro-life also have a positive opinion of Planned Parenthood.

Here is what the Democratic U.S. senator from South Dakota, who also serves as the leader of his party in the upper chamber, recently said: "I want to assure you that Planned Parenthood does not receive any money from the federal government. I guess that you could technically say that, since their funds are funneled through a third party, thus hiding the fact that they actually receive tens of millions of federal dollars each year."

Seventy-six percent of Democrats support Planned Parenthood, and 68 percent of independents and 59 percent of Republicans view this organization in a favorable way.

Are you one of the voters who associate Planned Parenthood with family planning, education, assistance for teen-agers and access to counseling and other services? If your are one of those who believes Planned Parenthood values family and personal responsibility, I would keep it under my hat, unless you are among pro-choice friends. Most pro-choice and pro-life voters believe health insurance companies should be required to pay for birth control. Most also believe that abstinence-only education is not a realistic alternative to sex education.

When Christians and pro-lifers, who are most often one and the same, believe Planned Parenthood is just fine, it is time for our church leaders to speak up lest their silence be construed as a callous disregard for all God's children, those at the very beginning of life as well as those who are nearing the end of their lives here on Earth.

After all, humans are spiritual beings who are only using these bodies to get around while here temporarily. We are all destined for eternal life. We must teach those who have been deceived by the spin doctors that abortion and euthanasia are not the road to utopia, but rather the road to disaster here in this life as well as in the next.

If people don't think that murder is wrong, how can they ever repent before their deaths? We are robbing our young of their consciences and possibly contributing to their doom here on this earth as well as in the hereafter.

CHRISTINE E. STEPHENS

Cape Girardeau