Planned Parenthood Gets American Cancer Society Anti-Smoking Grant 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 28, 2007
Des Moines, IA (LifeNews.com) — What do the nation’s largest abortion business and the American Cancer Society have in common? Apparently more than most people would think as the anti-smoking giant awarded the pro-abortion group’s Iowa affiliate a large grant to tell its customers they should stop smoking.
Planned Parenthood has specifically focused on moving beyond abortion to provide women with non-abortion reproductive health care in order to increase it’s clientele and reshape its image as an abortion business.
A new grant makes it appear the abortion advocacy group is trying to branch out further.
The American Cancer Society recently awarded Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa a $5,000 grant to “train clinic staff to provide smoking-cessation assistance to patients.”
Jim Sedlack of STOPP International, a Planned Parenthood watchdog, says the anti-smoking grant is nothing new.
In 2005, the Iowa Planned Parenthood received a $23,000 grant from the American Legacy Foundation and was also funded last year by the American Cancer Society to the tune of $3,000.
Sedlack says the anti-smoking campaign seems to contradict Planned Parenthood’s mantra on other related issues.
"When Planned Parenthood pushes its ‘medically accurate sex ed’ programs it states that telling children to not have sex is ineffective but instead they must be taught about how to use contraception," he said in a report LifeNews.com received.
"Yet somehow it deems that telling kids, ‘don’t smoke’ is sufficient to prevent them from smoking," he added.
Iowa isn’t the only place Planned Parenthood receives money from anti-smoking agencies.
In 2006 Planned Parenthood of Pasadena began a program called SmokeBusters that is, “aimed at children in grades 1 – 5, effectively an anti-smoking program that helps children understand about making healthy choices.”
Sedlack also finds it ironic that Planned Parenthood is pushing an anti-smoking program because nicotine and hormonal contraception are a deadly combination and makers of contraception warn user not to smoke while they use the product because of a tremendous risk of blood clots and stroke.
"Of course if you want to be free from this risk it is wise to use neither nicotine nor contraception but if Planned Parenthood said that, it would lose millions of dollars of revenue," Sedlack said.
The watchdog said the American Cancer Society is providing funds to Planned Parenthood when the group has pointed out the connection between an increase in cancer and the use of contraception on its web site.
ACTION: Urge the American Cancer Society to stop funding Planned Parenthood. To contact the ACS call 1-800-227-2345; write to: American Cancer Society, 1599 Clifton Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30329; or use its contact page at: https://www.cancer.org/asp/contactUs/cus_global.asp.
