RESPONSE: Writer has it all wrong
I was totally floored reading the letter to The Press by Father Pat Bell published Feb. 1 as "Good deeds documented."
It is not my intent to attack the good father, as he did Mr. Neumann, but Father Bell is very, very wrong in asserting that there are no "we" or "they" when it comes to the issue of killing children in the womb. There is a tremendous division when it comes to pro life vs. pro choice Americans. For you to say that Planned Parenthood urges the "client" to take the middle (neutral?) ground is disingenuous at best.
At least a full one-third of PPFA's revenues for the year 2006 (2007 and 2008 stats are unavailable) were from abortions performed in their clinics. The other "services" performed by PPFA are barely incidental. Prenatal care? There were 96 abortion patients for every four receiving prenatal care at PPFA clinics in 2006. Adoption? The same year saw abortions vs. adoption referrals at Planned Parenthood at a 120 to one margin. Infertility? There was a total of only 316 infertility patients from all of PPFA's clinics for the same year, yet there were 289,750 abortions performed at clinics associated with Planned Parenthood Federation of America. These are your figures taken from PPFA's annual reports and tax returns.
Did you really mean to say, father, that "... at Planned Parenthood our focus is on health care and prevention?" I would contend that figures cited above are evidence that PPFA isn't much more than an abortion mill.
Father Pat, you are in a most enviable position right now to do God's work. You sit as a board member on Planned Parenthood of the Inland Northwest. Why don't you use your position to urge your fellow board members to consider giving up this vile, detestable practice of killing children and concentrate PPFA's efforts in all of the other areas that seem to shine for PPFA? Then again, with revenues looking to be in excess of $1 billion for 2009, of which more than one-third will come from your clinics, I guess I'm just dreaming.
I'll close with this shocker, father. Since it was God who said "I knew you before you were in the womb," it may very well be that He is a pro lifer. In fact I'll bet my life on it, just as you have.
RICHARD E. ALBERTS
Hayden
