Poinsettias and Planned Parenthood
Poinsettias are a traditional flower during the Christmas season. Many churches and homes are adorned with these colorful flowers.
For several years, James Hartline has been trying to alert the pro-life community in the United States about the connections between poinsettias and Planned Parenthood.
Mr. Hartline has an extensive web site devoted to this. The connection is this.
- Seventy percent of the poinsettias sold in the United States come from the Ecke Ranch in California. A June 2006 press release from Ecke said that it is "the only North American based company breeding and producing geraniums and poinsettias."
- The Ecke family runs the Ecke ranch. The current CEO of the ranch is Paul Ecke III.
- In the fall 2005 San Diego/Riverside County Planned Parenthood Newsletter, the Planned Parenthood President's Council major donor list included:
- The Ecke family
- Elisabeth (Jinx) Ecke
- Lizbeth A. Ecke and David Meyer
- Paul Ecke III and Julie Hampton
- Paul and Magdalena Ecke Poinsettia Foundation
- Sara Ecke May and Andrew W. May Family
According to a November 17, 2005 North County Times report, Elisabeth "Jinx" Ecke joined her three grown children, Paul Ecke III, Lizbeth Ecke and Sara Ecke May, to contribute $250,000 of the needed $340,000 for the renovation of the new Planned Parenthood abortion clinic at 1820 Marron Road in Carlsbad. At the dedication of the new Carlsbad abortion facility, clinic staff honored the Ecke Family with a catered reception.
ACTION: Mr. Hartline asks pro-lifers across the nation to take the "Choosing Babies Over Poinsettias Pledge."
Until the Ecke Family completely stops funding the abortion industry and Planned Parenthood, will you commit to stop purchasing poinsettias? Will you encourage your church to stop purchasing poinsettias? It's that simple. Spread the word. Encourage everyone in America to stop purchasing poinsettias until the Eckes stop supporting the killing of unborn babies.
You can also contact your local nurseries, stores and florists and tell them to stop carrying Ecke products, until they stop funding Planned Parenthood.
Lists of Ecke retailers and distributors are available online.
You can also express you displeasure with the Ecke family's support for the abortion industry by sending them a message at:
Paul Ecke III, CEO
Paul Ecke Ranch
P.O. Box 230488
Encinitas, CA 92023-0488Phone: 760-753-1134
Fax: 760-944-4002
E-mail: questions@eckeranch.com
According to its web site, the Ecke Ranch products also include the Flower Fields brand and the recently acquired Oglevee brand.
Real estate developer specifically accepted PP as a tenant while refusing others
On December 29, Thisweek Newspapers in Minnesota ran a story on the downtown development in Apple Valley, Minnesota. It specifically featured the Shops on Galaxie development. In that story, it gives some details on a number of businesses operating there, including a family fun center modeled on the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant, a confectionery shop, a family owned deli, a personal training center, an upscale salon and spa, a Japanese sushi restaurant and a Planned Parenthood Express Center.
We've told you about this Planned Parenthood operation before, but the article brought out some interesting points. It describes the PP facility as follows: "Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, South Dakota, and North Dakota recently opened its second Express Center. Located along the southern stretch of the Shops on Galaxie, director of business development Susan Bruce said they decided to locate in Apple Valley and the Shops on Galaxie because of the central location and the fact that it was a new building. The 1,500 square foot Apple Valley Planned Parenthood Express Center will provide birth control, emergency contraception, pregnancy testing, sexually transmitted infection screening and HIV testing. It will also carry retail product lines that include herbal teas, spa products, and lifestyle books and magazines."
Note that the paper clearly describes the PP employee as the organization's director of business development. PP is a business. Everyone seems to know that except our elected officials who keep giving it our money.
The article also quotes Avalon Real Estate co-owner Kris Knox as follows: "We turned down prospects from more common name brand businesses," Knox, the Shops on Galaxie lease and management agent, said. "We purposely wanted to have an eclectic mix."
In a conversation with American Life League this week, Knox indicated that he did not pursue Planned Parenthood, but when they approached him, he accepted them as tenants because this facility was to be a walk-in counseling center. He said that he checked with the landlord of a similar Planned Parenthood express clinic and was told it was a well-run establishment and the neighboring tenants had no complaints about PP's presence. So, he accepted them as tenants.
Express clinics can be particularly difficult to picket because of their location and what is perceived as the benign activities done there. But this experience shows that we must demonstrate against every Planned Parenthood facility, no matter what it does or where it is located. Chances are that if, when this developer checked with the other landlord, he had been told that the PP facility was a problem because it attracted demonstrators and upset customers, it would not have been allowed in the Shops on Galaxie.
Planned Parenthood continues to push Plan B
Trying to build its profits, Planned Parenthood continues to push Emergency Contraception, otherwise known as Plan B, across the country.
Planned Parenthood of Hawaii began selling the over-the-counter version of Plan B in Honolulu the week before Christmas. Its executive director, Barry Raff, told reporters that Planned Parenthood is selling the two-pill kit for $30. He also said that a dozen customers asked for Plan B in the first three days it was being sold. Since Planned Parenthood pays only $4.25 for the kit, it made a profit of over $300 from those first 12 customers.
Planned Parenthood of Connecticut is trying to capitalize on this new product by selling "I (heart) EC" t-shirts for $18 each, thus increasing its profits from sales of the pills.
Planned Parenthood gets human needs wrong
On its national web site, Planned Parenthood has the statement: "Sexual expression and relationships are basic human needs like water, food, and shelter."
Of course, Planned Parenthood, as usual, is wrong.
In a 1987 article, "The Search for Understanding," by Janet A. Simons, Donald B. Irwin and Beverly A. Drinnien (West Publishing Company, New York) we can get a summary of the human hierarchy of needs as developed by Abraham Maslow and widely accepted in the scientific community.
The article points out, "Maslow has set up a hierarchy of five levels of basic needs. Beyond these needs, higher levels of needs exist ... In the levels of the five basic needs, the person does not feel the second need until the demands of the first have been satisfied, nor the third until the second has been satisfied, and so on." Maslow's five levels of basic needs are described as follows:
- Level 1: Physiological Needs
These are biological needs. They consist of needs for oxygen, food, water, and a relatively constant body temperature. They are the strongest needs because if a person were deprived of all needs, the physiological ones would come first in the person's search for satisfaction.
- Level 2: Safety Needs
When all physiological needs are satisfied and are no longer controlling thoughts and behaviors, the needs for security can become active. Adults have little awareness of their security needs except in times of emergency or periods of disorganization in the social structure (such as widespread rioting). Children often display the signs of insecurity and the need to be safe.
- Level 3: Needs of Love, Affection and Belongingness
When the needs for safety and for physiological well being are satisfied, the next class of needs for love, affection and belongingness can emerge. Maslow states that people seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation. This involves both giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belonging.
- Level 4: Needs for Esteem
When the first three classes of needs are satisfied, the needs for esteem can become dominant. These involve needs for both self-esteem and for the esteem a person gets from others. Humans have a need for a stable, firmly based, high level of self-respect, and respect from others. When these needs are satisfied, the person feels self-confident and valuable as a person in the world. When these needs are frustrated, the person feels inferior, weak, helpless and worthless.
- Level 5: Needs for Self-Actualization
When all of the foregoing needs are satisfied, then and only then are the needs for self-actualization activated. Maslow describes self-actualization as a person's need to be and do that which the person was "born to do." "A musician must make music, an artist must paint, and a poet must write." These needs make themselves felt in signs of restlessness. The person feels on edge, tense, lacking something, in short, restless. If a person is hungry, unsafe, not loved or accepted, or lacking self-esteem, it is very easy to know what the person is restless about. It is not always clear what a person wants when there is a need for self-actualization.
You will notice that nowhere in this hierarchy is "sexual expression" mentioned. Only in Planned Parenthood's world does sexual expression rise to the level of a basic need. Planned Parenthood would probably argue that "sexual expression" is part of Level 3, but there is no requirement that "giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belonging" involve sex. In fact, many, many people achieve all of this without sex.
Our purpose is not to get into a detailed discussion of all the aspects of Maslow. Rather, we just want our readers to understand that, when Planned Parenthood writes a line such as the one found on its web site, PP is, more often than not, wrong.
Planned Parenthood abortion facility closed by fire
An early-morning fire shut down Planned Parenthood's Women's Surgical Center, 4417 N 7th Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85013 on December 27. Newspapers reported that the center is said to have committed 350 - 400 abortions per month.
According to the web site of Planned Parenthood of Central and Northern Arizona, investigators believe the ignition source was likely an overheated fan motor used to cool computer equipment.
Planned Parenthood says that "while the fire was contained to a small portion of the facility, it produced smoke damage throughout, as well as extensive flooding from the water used to extinguish the blaze. The facility is not useable now, or for the foreseeable future. The Phoenix Fire Department has estimated the damage at $500,000."
Newspapers reported that Melissa Fink, communications director for Planned Parenthood says Planned Parenthood will rebuild a surgical center in the valley, possibly at the same location. In the meantime, PP will route people to Planned Parenthood's other facilities in the Valley.
Planned Parenthood had recently closed its abortion business in Tempe, Arizona and was reportedly sending women to the Seventh Street clinic for abortions. Now that that facility is closed, it is expected that all women seeking abortions in the area will be sent to Planned Parenthood's Northeast Phoenix Health Center, 3131 E Thunderbird Rd, Ste 48, Phoenix, AZ, 85032.
One last piece to this story - local pro-lifers tell us that, on Christmas Eve, just three days before the accidental fire, the pro-life community, along with Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, held a peaceful prayer vigil outside this facility. And now, no more abortions will be committed on the site.
Arizona Right to Life and other pro-lifers are already gearing up to do what they can to stop the building of a new abortion facility in town.
Praise God!!
Join the events in Washington, D.C.
American Life League is planning a series of events in Washington, D.C. on January 20, 21 and 22. The events will take place at the Holiday Inn on the Hill, 415 New Jersey Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. (Near Union Station, across from the Hyatt) and around the city.
Activities will include a full day of speakers on Sunday, January 21, as well as spreading the pro-life message on the streets of D.C.; praying at Planned Parenthood; meeting and networking with pro-lifers from all over the country; learning from experienced and effective pro-life veterans; and marching with thousands of pro-lifers on the mall in D.C.
If you need a hotel room, ALL has reserved a block of rooms at the Holiday Inn on the Hill. To stay in one of these rooms and get the ALL room rate, you will need to call Erik Whittington at American Life League at 540-659-4171.
There will be a large number of activities and you can choose the ones in which you want to participate. For more information, go to American Life League and also toRock for Life.
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