Pro-abortion political fund to mislead voters, parents, teens

"Beware!" said Ed Szymkowiak, national director of STOPP International. "While our nation's most credible physicians have concluded that adolescent pregnancy, birth and abortion rates have declined as the direct result of abstinence-only programs in schools, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund (PPAF) is spinning misinformation into a contrived campaign issue to market sex, contraception and abortion to our nation's youth."

Planned Parenthood President Gloria Feldt announced today that PPAF will spend $7 million for TV ads in key states in coming days. "Planned Parenthood wants to take money away from abstinence programs, and obtain more money to teach kids about sexual promiscuity," Szymkowiak said. He warned viewers to beware of misleading information in the PPAF voter guides.

Throughout the 1990s, abstinence-only programs in schools increased dramatically, and teen pregnancy rates declined. Planned Parenthood contends that this decline is the result of more effective contraception. However, the Consortium of State Physicians, a group of non-partisan experts, debunks this contention. These physicians concluded that "the contention that these declines are due to increased contraceptive use by teenagers does not withstand critical analysis and review" ("The Declines in Adolescent Pregnancy…," a special report issued by the Consortium of State Physicians Resource Councils, January, 1999).

On the contrary, the same physicians stated: "There is strong evidence that the abstinence message is effective and that abstinence education programs will play an important role in the future of healthy teens."

"If Americans follow Planned Parenthood's advice, the reduction in teen pregnancy, birth and abortion rates seen during the 90s will be reversed," Szymkowiak said. "Of course, this is what Planned Parenthood wants, because Big Abortion can then make millions of dollars in profit. Abstinence works, promiscuity does not. Do not be misled by Planned Parenthood's economically motivated ads."