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June 27, 2011
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Pro-Life Wisconsin thanks Gov. Walker for signing life-affirming budget bill


Yesterday Governor Scott Walker signed a budget bill that 1) redirects $1 million in state and federal family planning funds away from Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, the state’s largest abortion provider, 2) applies current law abortion funding restrictions to the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics (UWHC) Authority, and 3) removes boys/men aged 15-44 from the BadgerCare Family Planning Program and requires parental notification for minor girls in the program. Click here for more detail on these budget provisions.

Pro-Life Wisconsin is grateful to Governor Walker for signing into a law a life-affirming budget bill. This budget respects the consciences of Wisconsin taxpayers who oppose the use of public funds to directly or indirectly subsidize abortion. The provisions to cut state and federal grant money to Wisconsin’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood; stop state payments to UW medical residents for abortion training; block UW plans to establish a late-term abortion facility; and make common sense changes to the BadgerCare Family Planning program are all fiscally and morally responsible steps that further a culture of life in the great state of Wisconsin.

Sexual freedom has its costs


Pro-Life Wisconsin's Virginia Zignego had the below op-ed in the Friday, June 24 edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in response to a June 21 letter from a Planned Parenthood community organizer. Props to the MJS for printing a pro-life perspective.
Sexual freedom has not liberated women. Instead, it has made them slaves to pregnancy tests, STD tests, cancer-causing hormonal contraceptives and abortion used as backup birth control.

As a 2005 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I had many opportunities to witness the havoc the "hookup" culture wreaks on women. It's a little difficult to say, "I am woman, hear me roar!" with a friend as she is hunched over at the student health center with a pregnancy test and STD test results.

Contraception works to change the way people think about sex and pregnancy. Contraceptives provide a false sense of security; contraceptives not only fail to lower rates of unintended pregnancy and abortion but may increase them.

Click here to read the rest.

United Way launches statutory rape ad campaign in Milwaukee


Back in May, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote about an effort by United Way of Greater Milwaukee to reduce teen pregnancy in Milwaukee. The effort involved an ad campaign using Disney-type fairy princesses; the ad campaign was put on hold due to concerns of copyright infringement.

On Friday, June 24, the “Fairytale statutory rape ad campaign” launched at bus stops throughout the city. Read more here.

Preventing teenage pregnancy is something we’re all in favor of, but mixing United Way, Planned Parenthood, sex ed and Disney princesses into the mix is hardly the solution.

United Way is tied very closely to Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin (click here for a 2010 pledge form, listing PPWI as a “Community Health Charity”). In addition, United Way and PPWI are members of a “Healthy Youth Alliance,” pushing comprehensive sex ed across Wisconsin. The list of ties goes on and on.

United Way refers these young girls to PPWI for treatment or “services.” PPWI has been shown willing to cover up purported statutory rape, sending these young girls right back to their abusers. It’s a vicious circle, rather than a deplorable societal injustice moving toward an end point.

Through its ties to Planned Parenthood, United Way is assisting in the cover-up of statutory rape, exacerbating the problem and allowing it to continue.

An article about teenage pregnancy in urban high schools, titled “Nobody gets married anymore, Mister,” hits the nail on the head. Read it here. Excerpt:
Within my lifetime, single parenthood has been transformed from shame to saintliness. In our society, perversely, we celebrate the unwed mother as a heroic figure, like a fireman or a police officer. During the last presidential election, much was made of Obama’s mother, who was a single parent. Movie stars and pop singers flaunt their daddy-less babies like fishing trophies.

None of this is lost on my students. In today’s urban high school, there is no shame or social ostracism when girls become pregnant. Other girls in school want to pat their stomachs. Their friends throw baby showers at which meager little gifts are given. After delivery, the girls return to school with baby pictures on their cell phones or slipped into their binders, which they eagerly share with me. Often they sit together in my classes, sharing insights into parenting, discussing the taste of Pedialite or the exhaustion that goes with the job. On my way home at night, I often see my students in the projects that surround our school, pushing their strollers or hanging out on their stoops instead of doing their homework.

The war on girls


From the Wall Street Journal:
Mara Hvistendahl is worried about girls. Not in any political, moral or cultural sense but as an existential matter. She is right to be. In China, India and numerous other countries (both developing and developed), there are many more men than women, the result of systematic campaigns against baby girls. In "Unnatural Selection," Ms. Hvistendahl reports on this gender imbalance: what it is, how it came to be and what it means for the future.

In nature, 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. This ratio is biologically ironclad. Between 104 and 106 is the normal range, and that's as far as the natural window goes. Any other number is the result of unnatural events.

Yet today in India there are 112 boys born for every 100 girls. In China, the number is 121 — though plenty of Chinese towns are over the 150 mark. China's and India's populations are mammoth enough that their outlying sex ratios have skewed the global average to a biologically impossible 107. But the imbalance is not only in Asia. Azerbaijan stands at 115, Georgia at 118 and Armenia at 120.

What is causing the skewed ratio: abortion. If the male number in the sex ratio is above 106, it means that couples are having abortions when they find out the mother is carrying a girl. By Ms. Hvistendahl's counting, there have been so many sex-selective abortions in the past three decades that 163 million girls, who by biological averages should have been born, are missing from the world. Moral horror aside, this is likely to be of very large consequence.

Read more here.

NARAL NY director admits to felony theft; Planned Parenthood Virginia official caught stealing wine


Things that make you go, hmmm.

On Friday, June 24, the former NARAL NY director plead guilty to felony theft:
A former president of a prominent abortion-rights group’s New York chapter admitted Wednesday she got the organization to pay for thousands of dollars in a summer house rental, child care, clothes and other personal plums by passing them off as business expenses.

Former NARAL Pro-Choice New York leader Kelli Conlin pleaded guilty to falsifying business records, a felony. Her case will be closed without jail time or probation if she pays more than $75,000 in restitution.

A Planned Parenthood official in Roanoke, Virginia, was caught stealing wine:
David Nova, vice president of Planned Parenthood Health Systems in Roanoke, was charged earlier this year with three counts of petit larceny. The charges stem from bottles of wine Nova took through a self-checkout line at the Cave Spring Kroger. The incidents occurred on two separate dates in January, according to online court records.

As part of an agreement reached in Roanoke County General District Court last week, Nova was not convicted. The case was continued for a year, with the understanding the charges will be dismissed after Nova completes his jail time and avoids further charges.

In 2002, the then-director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin was convicted of felony theft in a remarkably similar situation:
Using her NARAL checkbook, Katherine Venskus siphoned off $12,939 from the organization over the next several months, according to the criminal complaint. She was charged with felony theft and forgery in April 2002 in Dane County Circuit Court and pleaded no contest to the theft charge in August of that year, with prosecutors dropping the forgery charge.

Pro-life news wrap-up


- A Catholic church's Respect Life group was banned from an Illinois parade after the parade committee found their ultrasound banner offensive. Read more here.

- "Europe is dying," a U.S. population expert told the Senate hearing. Read it here.

- Putting money over "healthcare", Indiana Planned Parenthood facilities have stopped seeing Medicaid clients as the funds ran out. Read more here.

Affiliate activities


Our affiliates need your help this summer!
County Fairs: Waukesha (July 20-24), Ozaukee (August 3-7), Wausau (also known as the Wisconsin Valley Fair, August 2-7), Fond du Lac (also known as the Fondy Fair, July 20-24), Juneau (August 17-21) & St. Croix (July 20-24).

LiFest: Brown, Outagamie, Calumet and Winnebago Co. affiliates will be doing an info table at LiFest in Oshkosh (July 7-10).

Parades: Ashland 4th of July; Cedarburg 4th of July; Sheboygan Brat Days (Saturday August 6); and Eastman (Crawford County) 4th of July Parade.

All of these efforts are coordinated and staffed solely by volunteers! We need your help! Contact Pro-Life Wisconsin toll-free at (877) 463-7945 or email info@prolifewisconsin.org to find out how you can spread the pro-life message in Wisconsin this summer.

Sawyer County affiliate, Queen of Peace, Protector of Life, will be displaying the "Cemetery of the Innocents" (400 crosses representing the thousands of daily abortions in the USA), at Holy Family Parish along Hwy 51 in Woodruff, WI., June 9 - June 22. Further set-ups are planned throughout the summer. For more information, contact Bob Ornberg at (715) 699-1287.

Pro-Life Wisconsin Walworth Co. will be praying at Planned Parenthood in Delavan, WI  on Monday, June 13 from 4 to 5 p.m. Signs are provided. Contact Phil Cullen for info - 262-742-3299.

Pro-Life Wisconsin Juneau County gathers for prayer witness every Monday from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Family Planning Health Services, 522 State Road 82 # F, in Mauston. Please call Richard Irwin, (608) 565-6706, for more information. They meet every second Tuesday of the month at the Hatch Public Library in Mauston at 7 p.m. in the Community Room.

Pro-Life Wisconsin Winnebago County prays at the Planned Parenthood on Wisconsin Ave. in Appleton from 12 - 1 pm on the first Monday of every month. If you cannot attend please take a moment to say a prayer for defunding Planned Parenthood permanently. Bring your own signs or make your own if you would like.

Pro-Life Wisconsin Marathon County prays the Rosary once a month on Saturday at 10:45 a.m. at Family Planning Health Services. Call Ron Putzer at (715) 842-5368 to confirm date.

Pro-Life Wisconsin Fond du Lac County prays in front of Planned Parenthood, 333 N. Peters Ave., Fond du Lac, on the second Saturday of the month from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. For information, call Ann at (920) 921-6062. A pro-life Rosary is said at 8:30 a.m. before the 9 a.m. Mass each Saturday at St. Mary's Church, Marquette St. at E. Merrill Ave., Fond du Lac.

Vigil for Life-PLW Dane County have a perpetual presence on the sidewalks in front of Madison's Planned Parenthood abortion facility (3706 Orin Road, Madison, WI 53704). Each day that Planned Parenthood is open for business (every week day), 2 people (at least!) will be scheduled to be present on the sidewalk. The times and days are as follows: Monday-Wednesday: 9 a.m. - 11 a.m.; Thursday 1 p.m. - 6 p.m.; and Friday, 1pm - 3pm. Individuals or groups are needed to sign up for these 2-hour shifts, especially on a monthly basis. You may also "stop by." Those interested should click here to view the online scheduling calendar or contact affiliate leader Laura Karlen at (608) 445-2064 or email laura@vigilforlife.org.

Pro-Life Wisconsin Chippewa Valley prays and gives public witness against abortion and contraception outside the Eau Claire Planned Parenthood (1231 Menomonie St.) every Thursday from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. and the first Saturday of the month at 11 a.m.

Pro-Life Wisconsin Milwaukee County gathers regularly on Saturday mornings at the Affiliated abortion center, 1428 N. Farwell Ave. in Milwaukee, between 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. SIDEWALK COUNSELORS ARE NEEDED! If you can come pray or counsel women entering the abortuary, please contact Peggy Hamill, (262) 796-1111, or e-mail info@prolifewisconsin.org for more information.

Pro-Life Wisconsin Outagamie County invites you to love your preborn neighbor as yourself, by going out to the places where abortions are sold and committed. Please plan to come and sidewalk counsel (beside the driveway), pray and witness with signs at Planned Parenthood Appleton North on 3800 N. Gillett St.

Pro-Life Wisconsin Waukesha County will join other pro-lifers for monthly prayer in front of the Planned Parenthood in Waukesha, 426 W. Main St. Prayer gatherings will be held the fourth Saturday of every month at 10 a.m.

Pro-Life Wisconsin Kenosha has consecrated our fight against Planned Parenthood to Jesus through Mary.  We pray every Saturday at 11 a.m. in front of the Planned Parenthood facility, located at Roosevelt Road and 36th Avenue in Kenosha. Please come and pray the Rosary, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and other prayers with us. For more information contact Karie Kinzler at kakinzler7@yahoo.com or at (262) 656-0301.

Please join Pro-Life Wisconsin Racine for a prayer vigil every Wednesday from 11 a.m. until noon at the Racine Planned Parenthood, 832 Main St. All are welcome to join with your presence or your prayers.

Rock County Chapter of Pro-Life Wisconsin encourages people to come to the Rockford abortion mill to pray, witness and counsel. The Northern Illinois Women’s Center is located at 10th St and Broadway, Rockford, Ill. Mothers seeking abortion enter between the hours of 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays. The Rosary begins at 9:30 a.m. followed by the Divine Mercy Chaplet. For more information please call Mary Jane Stephan (815) 624-2270 or (815) 670-1166. PLW Rock County is also on Facebook!

Courtesy announcements


The Lumen Christi Respect Life Committee invite you to Sidewalk Counseling 101
with Dan Miller, the 40 Days for Life Milwaukee Coordinator. Sessions held at Lumen Christi Catholic Church Library, 11300 North St. James Lane (and Mequon Road) Mequon, WI, At 7:00 pm on Thursday, June 30, Wednesday, July 13, Tuesday July 19, and 9 am, Saturday, July 30. All are welcome to any or all sessions but participants must RSVP to Kerry by phone (414) 559-1032 or email:  Lalermk10@aol.com.

Pro-lifers pray the Rosary every Thursday evening at 6 p.m. at the West Bend Planned Parenthood, 532 Shepherd’s Drive, West Bend, WI. Located on the West end of town, approximately 1-1/2 miles west of Hwy 45 on West Washington Street (aka: Highway 33) in West Bend. It is in a shopping mall on the north-side of the street. We are on the sidewalk.

Holy Hour for the Unborn: St. John the Evangelist Parish, 8500 W. Cold Spring Rd., Greenfield, Wis. We come together every fourth Wednesday of the month from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. to pray for the end of abortion. The church has 24 hours of Adoration seven days a week. Contact Kathy Knaack with questions, Kathy.knaack@gmail.com.

Cenacles of Life meets at St Mary’s Good Shepherd Chapel, 108 McHenry St, Burlington, WI every Wednesday at 6 p.m., and recites the second oral Rosary in the main body of the church, finishing at 7:15 p.m.

Cenacles of Life meets every Saturday morning at 6:45 a.m. to pray two Rosaries for pro-life intentions before the 7:30 a.m. Mass at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Pine Bluff, west of Madison.

The Servants of Our Lady of Guadalupe has a prayer vigil every Monday at 4:30 p.m. in Wisconsin Rapids on 8th St. by the Shopko mall to pray for the closing of the Planned Parenthood. If you have any questions contact Will Goodman at (608) 698-7443.

The Servants of Our Lady of Guadalupe has a prayer vigil every Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. in Stevens Point in front of the strip mall next to Family Video to pray for the closing of Family Planning Health Services. If you have any questions contact Jen Dunnett at (715) 340-2779.

If you enjoy receiving the Monday Update every week, please consider donating to Pro-Life Wisconsin’s life-saving work. For your convenience, credit card donations are accepted by phone, (262) 796-1111 or toll-free (877) GOD’S WILL or use our secure online donation form. Thank you for your generosity!