Posted on 11/27/2002 7:13:45 AM PST by jern
Some Christians are lashing out at Planned Parenthood for a greeting card they say mocks their holiday season.
The cover of the light-blue card features a snowflake design and the words "Choice on Earth."
Several national Christian groups opposed to abortion are protesting on Web sites, radio shows and in letters to newspapers nationwide. They say the language demeans the Christmastime "Peace on Earth" message proclaimed by the angels.
Charlotte's Diane Hoefling, who helps lead the anti-abortion effort at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, e-mailed 50 friends, family and supporters, urging them to protest the cards, which she claims "pervert the Biblical announcement of the Son of God as a newborn baby."
In a statement on the organization's Web site Tuesday, Planned Parenthood President Gloria Feldt of New York called the criticism "vicious" and said the cards send "an inclusive seasonal message for people of all faiths."
To answer the protest, Feldt said Planned Parenthood will sell "Choice on Earth" T-shirts, also to raise money for the reproductive health-care organization whose services include abortion. The T-shirts sell for $15 each, the cards for $15 for a pack of 25.
The fight comes at a time when both sides in the debate agree that the Republicans' victory in the midterm election will likely lead to a new drive to limit abortion.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader-elect Trent Lott, R-Miss., already has promised a vote in the next Congress to ban late-term abortions. Republicans also are expected to push sexual abstinence teachings as part of a new welfare law.
Planned Parenthood on Tuesday announced the creation of a Web site for Republicans opposed to limiting abortion.
A national Planned Parenthood spokeswoman said the cards have been sold for the past seven years on its Web site and through affiliate offices in Charlotte and 126 other U.S. cities without controversy. Feldt blamed an organization called STOPP -- Stop Planned Parenthood -- for leading the fight against the cards. Others, though, have taken up the cause.
Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, Colo., led by conservative Christian author and speaker James Dobson, called the cards "outrageous and deeply offensive" and urged Planned Parenthood to withdraw them.
Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America noted that Christmas celebrates the birth of a baby to a young mother -- a baby who was laid in a manger because there was nowhere else to go.
"If Planned Parenthood had been around 2,000 years ago," she said, "then Jesus would have been a target to be aborted."
But Walter Klausmeier of Raleigh, who oversees Planned Parenthood affiliates in Charlotte and four other N.C. cities, called charges that his group is mocking Christmas "absolutely false."
He said the critics' motives go beyond greeting cards.
"They have their agenda to take choice away from people," Klausmeier said. "... The cards say, `Choice on Earth.' I think it's a great message, a universal message, an ecumenical message."
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