Pro-Life Advocate Wants Dr. Phil to Stop Promoting Planned Parenthood

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Oct 19, 2005   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Pro-Life Advocate Wants Dr. Phil to Stop Promoting Planned Parenthood Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 19, 2005

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A pro-life group that monitors corporate donations to Planned Parenthood says it wants Phillip McGraw, Ph.D, better known as Dr. Phil, to stop promoting the nation’s largest abortion business. Dr. Phil’s opinion on abortion is unclear the group says, but Life Decisions International is calling on him to stop touting the abortion business.

LDI points to a recent Dr. Phil television program in which two viewers expressed opposing view on distributing condoms in school. Dr. Phil asked the guest who opposed condoms if she was persuaded by the view that teenagers will have sex anyway.

The guest said she knew some teens will have sex anyway, but said distributing condoms wouldn’t lower the rate of sexually transmitted diseases.

McGraw responded: "That is absolutely not true. It is on the decline. Unwanted pregnancy is on the decline." The guest said that was because of the success of abstinence programs.

Dr. Phil replied, "The fact is that the research does not support what you’re saying. If you look at the massive studies that are nationwide, if you look at the Planned Parenthood studies, the fact of the matter is that kids who go through a thorough sex education program of which making condoms available with some anonymity…that kids do use them when they have them."

Douglas Scott, president of LDI, said he’s concerned that Dr. Phil would promote the abortion business because it makes Planned Parenthood look like "an agenda-free, independent research agency."

"Planned Parenthood ‘studies’ (actually conducted by its Alan Guttmacher Institute [AGI] affiliate) are usually long on opinion and short on ‘study.’"

Scott also said Dr. Phil has partnered with a pro-abortion group, the Children’s Defense Fund, because of its advocacy on other issues.

"Not every CDF program is intrinsically destructive to children. Not every Planned Parenthood project is intrinsically destructive to children," Scott said. "But everything these groups do, no matter how small or innocuous on the surface, promotes an agenda. And that agenda is unquestionably destructive to children."