The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) has announced that it is launching a massive campaign directed at undermining the Vatican’s role in the United Nations. The IPPF, which is headquartered in London, is urging “governmental, non-governmental and other institutions to endorse existing appeals for a review of the Vatican’s status with the United Nations.” To counter this move, the Catholic League is embarking on a project that will make public the anti-Catholic element in Planned Parenthood’s history.
The decision to target the Vatican is being led by IPPF Director-General Ingar Brueggemann. It comes in the wake of protests by the Vatican to Planned Parenthood’s response to the refugee problem in Kosovo. The Vatican has objected to the IPPF policy of distributing condoms and abortion-inducing pills to the refugees fleeing Kosovo.
Catholic League president William Donohue responded this way:
“Only an organization driven by fanaticism would think that the men, women and children in Yugoslavia who are being victimized by Slobodan Milosevic are in dire need of condoms. What these people need is precisely what Catholic Relief Services offers, namely food, clothing, shelter and medicinal supplies.
“Drunk with ideology, the IPPF now seeks to punish the Holy See by challenging the Vatican’s non-member state permanent observer status in the U.N. In defense of the Vatican, the Catholic League is contacting U.N. officials informing them of the anti-Catholic strain that has marked Planned Parenthood’s record. To that end, the Catholic League is compiling evidence of this bigotry, and will make public its findings in the not-too-distant future. Our objective is to inform government officials in the U.S., and at the U.N., of the bigoted legacy of Planned Parenthood. The record will show that this organization has no legitimate place at the public policy table in any nation.”
