Massachusetts judge upholds anti-protester law
U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro recently upheld a 2007 Massachusetts law, signed by Governor Deval Patrick, requiring that all pro-life protesters must maintain a distance of 35 feet from any abortion mill. Tauro claims that this law does not violate First Amendment rights, or guarantees of equal protection or due process.
Obviously, this law could undermine the effectiveness of sidewalk counselors and protesters outside of the clinics, since it imposes the largest buffer zone now in effect in the U.S. This, in turn, could obviously benefit the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts. Please pray for our government leaders and for all those who continue to fight Planned Parenthood in Massachusetts. May their words be heard so that they can save the lives of the preborn and help their mothers avoid being hurt by abortion.
YouTube? More like 'OurTube'!
YouTube has yet again demonstrated that they are looking out for Planned Parenthood. As you may remember, several months ago, American Life League informed its readers that YouTube had banned its ALL Report exposing Planned Parenthood's horrible ad campaign. The video was later placed back online after ALL publicized this injustice and called for the video to be reinstated. Now the same thing is happening to Live Action, a pro-life student organization that made recent news with its videos of recorded conversations of PP employees taking donations specifically designated for abortions committed on African-American babies. Live Action has had four videos removed from YouTube over a two-week period.
YouTube gave Live Action the same reason it gave to ALL received: The videos were removed due to inappropriate content. However, YouTube is not known for being discriminatory towards other videos that are truly inappropriate. There is content on YouTube that is practically pornographic, and PP has commercials that would fall into this category. Is YouTube looking out for Planned Parenthood? "These four videos have received over 160,000 YouTube views in total, with the oldest video having been public on YouTube for over seven months. Why are these videos being removed now?" asks David Schmidt, Live Action's media director. Live Action's president, Lila Rose, said, "It is discriminatory for YouTube to selectively censor material that clearly does not contain inappropriate content. We will continue to apply pressure on YouTube until it restores the videos."
Send e-mails to YouTube to let them know that this is wrong and that they need to allow these videos to be available.
Appeal of Aurora clinic dismissed ... again
The Planned Parenthood mega-clinic in Aurora, Illinois was the center of media attention for some time, and STOPP made sure to bring the story to our readers. The most recent attempt to close the killing center and remove Planned Parenthood from Aurora is the second time such an effort has failed.
According to the Beacon News, "Fox Valley Families Against Planned Parenthood filed the appeal in July, after the city issued a final certificate of occupancy to the clinic on July 1. Prior to that, the facility had operated under a temporary certificate issued in October of last year." Fox Valley Families Against Planned Parenthood has been working hard to kick Planned Parenthood out of the area and is using every option available to do so. Its latest attempt challenged the permanent occupancy permit granted to PP. City attorney Alayne Weingartz claims that Aurora's Zoning Board of Appeals dismissed the case for "lack of jurisdiction."
"In January, the board dismissed a similar appeal of the temporary certificate from the same appellants, and on the same grounds," the Beacon News continued. "The new appeal [filed in July]... simply [reiterated] the case opponents made earlier, that Planned Parenthood violated several conditions in the zoning code, and needed to obtain a special-use permit to operate a not-for-profit medical clinic in a business boulevard zoning district." Nonetheless, PP has been welcomed by the government into the town, even though it has entered it under false pretenses.
Since the second appeal was denied, a third appeal has been filed with the city's building code board of appeals. Weingartz conceded this is the proper venue for challenging PP's final certificate of occupancy, but nonetheless "argues that even this board's jurisdiction is limited."
Please pray for the citizens of Aurora. Pray that the appeal is granted, and that Planned Parenthood is forced to move out of Aurora for good.
Letter from Fort Worth, Texas
Last week, we received a letter from Fort Worth, Texas group that has been a long-time STOPP supporter and very active in its fight against Planned Parenthood. Here it is:
Dear Marie, here is the info about what we do at the PP mill in Ft. Worth TX.
They started doing surgical abortions at this site in June of 1996. We started our protest under the aegis of Catholics United for Life of North Texas several months before they started their killing in June. We did a daily month long protest during the last thirty days before they began their killing at the site that they use. We took out a full page signature ad featuring the Catholic and Episcopal bishops of Fort Worth along with a multitude of other prominent local clergy and lay people. There were several hundred names in the ad.
They began killing only on Thursdays, but have expanded to both Thursday and Friday and alternate Saturdays. Their abortionist, Neal Pock D.O., is retired from private practice and drives in from Tyler Texas (about 3½ [hour] drive) on Thursday mornings and stays over to do his dirty work on the other days. He is almost 73 years old.
We have had sidewalk counselors and prayer partners there every day they are killing. When our new bishop, the Most Reverend Kevin Vann, came three years ago, he started Celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at 6:20 A. M. every Friday morning he is in town at the Mother & Unborn Baby Care pregnancy center, two blocks from the PP mill and then proceeding to the PP center to pray the rosary with us while we sidewalk counsel, HE SAYS MASS AND PRAYS EVERY FRIDAY MORNING - I think he is the only bishop in the country that dedicates that kind of time to pro-life activism!
His Masses and presence at the abortion center give us great encouragement and we have started to see a lot more results since he started coming every Friday over the past three years. We have even been able to send sidewalk counselors over to help Counsel at abortion centers in our neighboring city of Dallas every week.
We probably average 15 people praying and counseling at the PP abortion center every day that they do abortions.
Thanks for your continuing efforts in fighting the evil web cast by the PP monster.
In Christ's Name for Life,
Chuck Pelletier, President
Catholics United for Life of North Texas
Thank you, Chuck, for your update. If you have a similar story or want to let us know what is going on, please send us a letter or let us know by sending us an e-mail.
Congratulations, you are five for five!
Over the last few months, we have asked you to take action on five urgent matters. These include the following:
1. Contacting Habitat for Humanity in Sarasota, Florida, to ask them to withdraw from an agreement to buy property from Planned Parenthood.
2. Contacting a Wal-Mart in Washington state, to ask them to prevent Planned Parenthood from distributing literature in the Wal-Mart parking lot.
3. Contacting the Greater Vallejo Recreation District in California, to ask them not to allow Planned Parenthood to participate in this children's event at the Children's Wonderland playground in Vallejo.
4. Contacting the city of Portland, Oregon, to ask them not to sell Planned Parenthood land for an abortuary, which they were scheduled to do on August 23.
5. Contacting the city administration and library in Lewiston, Maine to ask them not to put grandmother JoAn Karkos in jail for removing the book It's Perfectly Normal from the library and refusing to return it.
We are extremely pleased to report that all of these situations have had happy endings.
Planned Parenthood was stopped in Florida, Washington and California. In Oregon, the land sale was delayed for 60 days.
In your latest victory, JoAn Karkos, the 64-year-old grandmother who refused to return the pornographic children's book, It's Perfectly Normal, will not go to jail and will not have to return the copy of the Planned Parenthood-backed book she took from the Lewiston, Maine library. Judge Valerie Stanfill and the Lewiston library had reportedly received so many calls from STOPP supporters, they had to start accepting calls from county taxpayers only.
After the media and grassroots barrage, the city administrator, Jim Bennett, said Mrs. Karkos would no longer be threatened with going to jail and could keep the book. According to the Lewiston Sun Journal, "Bennett... said that proceeding with that kind of legal action would have accomplished nothing. Putting the matter to rest, he said, is in the best interest of the city. It saves money that would need to be spent to pursue the case in court, he said, and will keep Lewiston from becoming the epicenter of the debate over decency in publications."[emphasis added]
We thank Mrs. Karkos for her brave stand on behalf of keeping It's Perfectly Normal out of the hands of children. We also thank the STOPP supporters who stood with Mrs. Karkos and demanded accountability from all those who would expose children to the filth propagated by Planned Parenthood. And, of course, we praise God for this victory.
May God bless you all for responding so quickly to our calls for action. Know that you DO make a difference!
U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro recently upheld a 2007 Massachusetts law, signed by Governor Deval Patrick, requiring that all pro-life protesters must maintain a distance of 35 feet from any abortion mill. Tauro claims that this law does not violate First Amendment rights, or guarantees of equal protection or due process.
Obviously, this law could undermine the effectiveness of sidewalk counselors and protesters outside of the clinics, since it imposes the largest buffer zone now in effect in the U.S. This, in turn, could obviously benefit the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts. Please pray for our government leaders and for all those who continue to fight Planned Parenthood in Massachusetts. May their words be heard so that they can save the lives of the preborn and help their mothers avoid being hurt by abortion.
YouTube? More like 'OurTube'!
YouTube has yet again demonstrated that they are looking out for Planned Parenthood. As you may remember, several months ago, American Life League informed its readers that YouTube had banned its ALL Report exposing Planned Parenthood's horrible ad campaign. The video was later placed back online after ALL publicized this injustice and called for the video to be reinstated. Now the same thing is happening to Live Action, a pro-life student organization that made recent news with its videos of recorded conversations of PP employees taking donations specifically designated for abortions committed on African-American babies. Live Action has had four videos removed from YouTube over a two-week period.
YouTube gave Live Action the same reason it gave to ALL received: The videos were removed due to inappropriate content. However, YouTube is not known for being discriminatory towards other videos that are truly inappropriate. There is content on YouTube that is practically pornographic, and PP has commercials that would fall into this category. Is YouTube looking out for Planned Parenthood? "These four videos have received over 160,000 YouTube views in total, with the oldest video having been public on YouTube for over seven months. Why are these videos being removed now?" asks David Schmidt, Live Action's media director. Live Action's president, Lila Rose, said, "It is discriminatory for YouTube to selectively censor material that clearly does not contain inappropriate content. We will continue to apply pressure on YouTube until it restores the videos."
Send e-mails to YouTube to let them know that this is wrong and that they need to allow these videos to be available.
Appeal of Aurora clinic dismissed ... again
The Planned Parenthood mega-clinic in Aurora, Illinois was the center of media attention for some time, and STOPP made sure to bring the story to our readers. The most recent attempt to close the killing center and remove Planned Parenthood from Aurora is the second time such an effort has failed.
According to the Beacon News, "Fox Valley Families Against Planned Parenthood filed the appeal in July, after the city issued a final certificate of occupancy to the clinic on July 1. Prior to that, the facility had operated under a temporary certificate issued in October of last year." Fox Valley Families Against Planned Parenthood has been working hard to kick Planned Parenthood out of the area and is using every option available to do so. Its latest attempt challenged the permanent occupancy permit granted to PP. City attorney Alayne Weingartz claims that Aurora's Zoning Board of Appeals dismissed the case for "lack of jurisdiction."
"In January, the board dismissed a similar appeal of the temporary certificate from the same appellants, and on the same grounds," the Beacon News continued. "The new appeal [filed in July]... simply [reiterated] the case opponents made earlier, that Planned Parenthood violated several conditions in the zoning code, and needed to obtain a special-use permit to operate a not-for-profit medical clinic in a business boulevard zoning district." Nonetheless, PP has been welcomed by the government into the town, even though it has entered it under false pretenses.
Since the second appeal was denied, a third appeal has been filed with the city's building code board of appeals. Weingartz conceded this is the proper venue for challenging PP's final certificate of occupancy, but nonetheless "argues that even this board's jurisdiction is limited."
Please pray for the citizens of Aurora. Pray that the appeal is granted, and that Planned Parenthood is forced to move out of Aurora for good.
Letter from Fort Worth, Texas
Last week, we received a letter from Fort Worth, Texas group that has been a long-time STOPP supporter and very active in its fight against Planned Parenthood. Here it is:
Dear Marie, here is the info about what we do at the PP mill in Ft. Worth TX.
They started doing surgical abortions at this site in June of 1996. We started our protest under the aegis of Catholics United for Life of North Texas several months before they started their killing in June. We did a daily month long protest during the last thirty days before they began their killing at the site that they use. We took out a full page signature ad featuring the Catholic and Episcopal bishops of Fort Worth along with a multitude of other prominent local clergy and lay people. There were several hundred names in the ad.
They began killing only on Thursdays, but have expanded to both Thursday and Friday and alternate Saturdays. Their abortionist, Neal Pock D.O., is retired from private practice and drives in from Tyler Texas (about 3½ [hour] drive) on Thursday mornings and stays over to do his dirty work on the other days. He is almost 73 years old.
We have had sidewalk counselors and prayer partners there every day they are killing. When our new bishop, the Most Reverend Kevin Vann, came three years ago, he started Celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at 6:20 A. M. every Friday morning he is in town at the Mother & Unborn Baby Care pregnancy center, two blocks from the PP mill and then proceeding to the PP center to pray the rosary with us while we sidewalk counsel, HE SAYS MASS AND PRAYS EVERY FRIDAY MORNING - I think he is the only bishop in the country that dedicates that kind of time to pro-life activism!
His Masses and presence at the abortion center give us great encouragement and we have started to see a lot more results since he started coming every Friday over the past three years. We have even been able to send sidewalk counselors over to help Counsel at abortion centers in our neighboring city of Dallas every week.
We probably average 15 people praying and counseling at the PP abortion center every day that they do abortions.
Thanks for your continuing efforts in fighting the evil web cast by the PP monster.
In Christ's Name for Life,
Chuck Pelletier, President
Catholics United for Life of North Texas
Thank you, Chuck, for your update. If you have a similar story or want to let us know what is going on, please send us a letter or let us know by sending us an e-mail.
Congratulations, you are five for five!
Over the last few months, we have asked you to take action on five urgent matters. These include the following:
1. Contacting Habitat for Humanity in Sarasota, Florida, to ask them to withdraw from an agreement to buy property from Planned Parenthood.
2. Contacting a Wal-Mart in Washington state, to ask them to prevent Planned Parenthood from distributing literature in the Wal-Mart parking lot.
3. Contacting the Greater Vallejo Recreation District in California, to ask them not to allow Planned Parenthood to participate in this children's event at the Children's Wonderland playground in Vallejo.
4. Contacting the city of Portland, Oregon, to ask them not to sell Planned Parenthood land for an abortuary, which they were scheduled to do on August 23.
5. Contacting the city administration and library in Lewiston, Maine to ask them not to put grandmother JoAn Karkos in jail for removing the book It's Perfectly Normal from the library and refusing to return it.
We are extremely pleased to report that all of these situations have had happy endings.
Planned Parenthood was stopped in Florida, Washington and California. In Oregon, the land sale was delayed for 60 days.
In your latest victory, JoAn Karkos, the 64-year-old grandmother who refused to return the pornographic children's book, It's Perfectly Normal, will not go to jail and will not have to return the copy of the Planned Parenthood-backed book she took from the Lewiston, Maine library. Judge Valerie Stanfill and the Lewiston library had reportedly received so many calls from STOPP supporters, they had to start accepting calls from county taxpayers only.
After the media and grassroots barrage, the city administrator, Jim Bennett, said Mrs. Karkos would no longer be threatened with going to jail and could keep the book. According to the Lewiston Sun Journal, "Bennett... said that proceeding with that kind of legal action would have accomplished nothing. Putting the matter to rest, he said, is in the best interest of the city. It saves money that would need to be spent to pursue the case in court, he said, and will keep Lewiston from becoming the epicenter of the debate over decency in publications."[emphasis added]
We thank Mrs. Karkos for her brave stand on behalf of keeping It's Perfectly Normal out of the hands of children. We also thank the STOPP supporters who stood with Mrs. Karkos and demanded accountability from all those who would expose children to the filth propagated by Planned Parenthood. And, of course, we praise God for this victory.
May God bless you all for responding so quickly to our calls for action. Know that you DO make a difference!
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