Planned Parenthood to launch major abortion campaign in Latin America

Sep 23, 2004 / 22:00 pm

Financial documents, obtained by Friday Fax, reveal that the International Planned Parenthood Federation plans to launch an aggressive campaign to increase access to abortion in Latin America and it will do so in partnership with Catholics for a Free Choice.

The report appears in the Sept. 24 issue of the Friday Fax, a publication of the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute.

The financial and strategic documents obtained by the Friday Fax indicate that Planned Parenthood has more than quadrupled how much it spent on abortion promotion in Latin America, from $199,761 in 2002 to $849,769 in 2003. It intends to maintain this spending level through 2009.

By 2009, it expects to increase the number of safe-abortions or abortion-related services provided in Latin America, from 507 in 2002 to 2028 by 2009, and increase emergency contraceptive visits, from 2,000 in 2003 to 10,000 by 2009. Emergency contraceptives are abortifacients; they prevent a conceived embryo from implanting in the uterus.

Planned Parenthood says it will take these actions in order to counter the "growing opposition from conservative forces that have gained greater power in recent years. Often acting in the name of religion, they effectively utilize media and advocacy strategies to dominate public debate and thwart progress."

Planned Parenthood plans to do all of this with the participation of Catholics for a Free Choice in order to undermine the influence of the Church in Latin America, reports Friday Fax.

According to the president of Catholics for a Free Choice, Frances Kissling, Planned Parenthood has always been “a close colleague, but in the last year we've seen increased passion, along with a new vision for the future of reproductive health and rights in the region. Hope, it is said, is the best contraceptive, and IPPF/WHR is leading the field in giving women hope."

The financial data obtained by Friday Fax also flies in the face of claims made by the organization’s director-general, Steven Sinding, that Planned Parenthood’s loss of federal funding has damaged the organization and even cost women in the developing world their lives.

Despite this apparent loss of funding, the organization is still able to pay some of its employees in the hundreds of thousands. The president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Gloria Feldt, earned $460,277 in 2003. COO George Stokes earned $204,846. The medical director of Planned Parenthood of New York City, Michael Momtaz, reportedly earned $310,064, plus $72,617 in benefits in 2002. A regional director, Carmen Barroso, earned $197,000, plus more than $20,000 in benefits in 2003.