Second Planned Parenthood Considering Offering Gift Certificates for Abortions
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 5, 2008
Austin, TX (LifeNews.com) — A second Planned Parenthood facility is considering offering its customers a chance to purchase gift certificates that could be used for abortions. The Planned Parenthood in Austin, Texas is contemplating the idea after an Indiana affiliate made national news with its gift cards that could be used for abortions.
As LifeNews.com reported last week, Planned Parenthood of Indiana offered Christmas gift certificates that purchasers could give to friends and family.
While the intent was for the certificates to be redeemed for contraception, birth control and legitimate medical services like breast exams and Pap tests, PPIN officials admitted they can also be used to pay for abortions.
Sarah Wheat, a spokesperson with the Austin, Texas Planned Parenthood tells KEYE-TV that her center is considering the same thing.
"We are not currently offering that here in Austin but it is something that has caught our attention and that’s something we’re looking at,” she said.
“If we do offer any kind of a card that it’s exactly what the community most needs that it’s focused on the services we see, which are preventative exams,” Wheat added.
If the abortion business offers the gift cards, there is no word on whether they will be able to be used to pay for abortions, which are offered at one of the three Austin Planned Parenthood facilities.
Regardless, Jerri Lynn Ward, the president of the Travis County chapter of Texas Right to Life, told KEYE that she’s upset by the potential.
“This is the season to celebrate the birth of our savior Jesus Christ, and to offer a gift card that includes services such as abortion or pills that cause abortions to me is repellant,” she said.
Ward says that Planned Parenthood also offers abortion referrals and that any gift card, even for legitimate medical services, ultimately helps a business that profits from doing abortions.
"They are the biggest providers of abortion in the country so I would take anything they said with regard to limiting it to different services with a huge grain of salt," she told the television station.
The Indiana Planned Parenthood that offered gift certificates for abortions is the same facility where a new video exposed a staffer’s covering up a girl’s statutory rape by not reporting it to authorities.
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