By The Special Guests Publicity Service
Planned Parenthood plans on going Upscale
Like any business, Planned Parenthood is trying to respond to the market. People in more affluent communities struggle with unwanted pregnancies as much as anyone. But according to critics of the non-profit’s new chain of more upscale, urban health centers across the country, the organization’s “market response” is just that – marketing – and not in line with its benevolent mission statement.
Chris Slattery, president and founder of EMC Front Line Pregnancy Centers, is one of those critics, and he’s available to offer his side of the debate in an interview.
“As part of a reasonable and healthy discussion, even when you oppose something, you hear the argument,” says Slattery. “But this completely rails against Planned Parenthood’s traditional position that their services are in place to meet the specific needs of lower income women who cannot afford to raise a child.”
On the other side, Planned Parenthood officials say that offering birth control and other sexual health care services to those who can afford them enables the organization to make enough money to offset losses in low-income communities. This, in turn, makes it possible for Planned Parenthood to subsidize its other operations, including those that serve the poor.
For Slattery, the new facilities are simply too over the top to persuade him from his anti-Planned Parenthood stance. “It’s just too ridiculous to buy their argument when you look at the investments in these sites. Average square footage seven times that of their low-income-community counterparts? Amenities that include muted lighting, hardwood floors and consultant-selected color palettes? Are you kidding me?”
ABOUT CHRIS SLATTERY
Chris Slattery, founded Expectant Mother Care, also known as EMC FrontLine Pregnancy Centers, in 1985 in Manhattan. EMC has grown to 15 office locations in 6 counties, including Westchester, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Hudson County NJ.
Chris was honored with the “Champion for Life” award, a pro-life tribute, from John Cardinal O’Connor, and had the privilege of being the Confirmation sponsor of the famous Dr. Bernard Nathanson, the producer of the acclaimed videos, The Silent Scream and Eclipse of Reason.
Chris’s opened NYC’s first full time crisis pregnancy center locations, and quickly implemented on site clinic care with ultrasound and full pre-natal care programs 20 years ago, to supplement the main work of crisis pregnancy counseling. EMC’s counselors have served over 70,000 girls and women since they opened, and have saved over 12,000 from a certain abortion in that time. Thousands have turned to abstinent lifestyles, as well. They provide one-on-one friendly counseling and in many locations on site medical care, in addition to referrals for adoption, housing, and legal aid, and provide material supplies for mothers and babies.
Chris has been sued by two NY State Attorney Generals, Robert Abrahms, and Elliott Spitzer, and by numerous abortion mills.
He also recently won a quick settlement of suit filed against a major NY abortion mill chain for their deceptive advertising in the Yellow Pages.
Chris has been a pro-life leader for over 25 years . . . organizing Operation Rescue in NYC, prayer vigils, protests at Planned Parenthood conferences – their Board meetings& their abortion sites, Marches, Life Chains, Truth Tours, training sessions, conferences, press conferences, lawsuits against his opponents.
Chris has granted hundreds of TV, radio, and print media interviews with local, national and international media in the past 20 years.
More info at: www.nationalproliferadio.net.
THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE MAY HELP WITH SHOW PREP:
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
June 23, 2008, 8:59 am
Planned Parenthood Goes Upscale
Posted by Sarah Rubenstein
Planned Parenthood is setting its sights on the affluent.
As part of a “rebranding” of the nonprofit to appeal to those with more financial means, Planned Parenthood affiliates are building a broader network of suburban clinics and posh health centers, according to a front-page article in today’s WSJ.
Two elegant new health centers have been built, and at least five more are on the way, the largest of which will be 75,000 square feet. They include muted lighting, hardwood floors, airy waiting rooms in colors selected by marketing experts – plus, walls designed to withstand a car’s impact should an antiabortion protest turn violent. Planned Parenthood has also opened more than two-dozen quick-service “express centers,” many in suburban shopping malls.
Despite some critiques to the contrary, Planned Parenthood insists it’s not compromising is long-held focus on serving the poor with birth control, sexual-health care and abortions. Officials there say they take a loss of nearly $1 on each packet of birth-control pills distributed to poor women under a federal program that funds reproductive care. But they make a profit of nearly $22 on each month of pills sold to an adult who can afford to pay full price. That money helps subsidize other operations, including care for the poor as well as pursuing Planned Parenthood’s political agenda.
“It is high time we follow the population,” said Sarah Stoesz, who heads Planned Parenthood operations in three Midwest states. She recently opened three express centers in wealthy Minnesota suburbs, “in shopping centers and malls, places where women are already doing their grocery shopping, picking up their Starbucks, living their daily lives,” she said.
Posted on June 26, 2008