Planned Parenthood to Host Homosexual Bishop at Prayer Breakfast     4/13/2005
By Robert Knight

Robinson’s address is the latest evidence of the abortion-homosexual alliance.

V. Gene Robinson, the nation’s first openly homosexual Episcopal bishop, will address an “interfaith” prayer breakfast sponsored by Planned Parenthood (PP), the nation’s largest provider and promoter of abortions.

In an interview with Planned Parenthood’s Choice! magazine, Robinson declared himself “pro-choice” and described pro-life Episcopalians as being “off the deep end.” The prayer breakfast, part of PP’s 2005 annual conference, is slated for 7:30 a.m. on Friday, April 15, at the Washington (D.C.) Hilton.

The homosexual activist movement has long been an integral part of America’s pro-abortion movement, and vice-versa. The pro-abortion National Organization for Women (NOW) campaigns for all aspects of the homosexual agenda, including same-sex “marriage” and hate crime laws, and assails the Boy Scouts for barring homosexuals as scoutmasters.

Likewise, major homosexual activist groups are part of liberal coalitions that work against pro-life judicial nominees, for socialized medicine, and for legislation restricting the rights of pro-life demonstrators, such as the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE), which treats pro-life protesters as criminals.

More evidence of the ties between the radical homosexual movement and pro-abortion forces came on April 7, when Kate Michelman, former president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, presented the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s (NGLTF) “Annual Leadership Award” to former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean. Mr. Dean, who was defeated by John Kerry for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, was honored for his “lifetime achievement and commitment to progressive causes,” including service to “the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community.” Dean presided over Vermont’s adoption of homosexual civil unions that are identical to marriage in all but name.

NARAL Pro-Choice America, formerly called the National Abortion Rights Action League, represents the abortion industry. The group campaigns against any restrictions on abortion, including partial-birth abortions, and opposes requiring abortion clinics to comply with medical safety standards for outpatient centers.

On April 11, the chief executive of the pro-abortion Democratic activist group Emily’s List switched jobs to become president of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest homosexual pressure group. Joe Solmonese, who has spent his career raising money for Democratic candidates, had run Emily’s List since 2003. That group distributes money to elect pro-abortion Democratic women. Emily’s List has a staff of 85 and a $40 million budget. Human Rights Campaign has a staff of 125 and a budget of $30 million, according to the Washington Blade, a weekly that caters to homosexuals.

On January 18, 2001, the Human Rights Campaign issued a statement opposing John Ashcroft’s nomination as U.S. Attorney General, noting that he opposed much of the homosexual agenda:

Finally, as a pro-choice organization, we are extremely concerned with Ashcroft's activism in trying to outlaw abortion throughout his long public career. Given his extreme record in this regard, we are concerned about his ability to enforce current law as defined by Roe v. Wade and his ability to properly and vigorously enforce the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act so that women will have access to basic reproductive health care without encumbrance.

Arthur Kropp Jr., a homosexual who died of AIDS in 1995 at age 37, headed People for the American Way (PFAW) for several years. PFAW was created by Hollywood producer Norman Lear to battle “the Religious Right” and to fight for the Left’s pansexual agenda of abortion on demand, homosexual activism, unrestricted pornography, and the appointment of “pro-choice” judges.

Here’s PFAW’s take on “gay rights” from its Web site, on which they back every portion of the homosexual agenda, from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act to hate crime laws and homosexual “marriage”: “While great strides have been made in recent years, basic rights remain unsecured and virulent right-wing homophobia remains commonplace.”

Last fall, PFAW’s director of education policy, Nancy Keenan, became the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, another example of the revolving seats among the groups promoting a homosexual-abortion agenda.

PFWA’s deputy legal director, Judith P. Schaeffer, is an open lesbian who wrote an April 6 column for USA Today making the case for “gay marriage” on the grounds that it would resolve tax code difficulties.

In 2004, PFAW joined other pro-abortion groups for the April 25 March for Women’s Lives in Washington, D.C. PFAW’s Web site proclaimed: “As speaker after speaker told the gathered masses at the March, the miles we walk won't change a single anti-choice or anti-woman policy unless our final destination is the voting booth.”

And what about Bishop V. Gene Robinson, who left a wife and two children and who now lives with a male partner? He makes his views on abortion clear in an interview published on April 6, 2005, in Planned Parenthood’s Choice! magazine. Here’s an excerpt:

Little has been written about your stance on reproductive rights. Are you pro-choice?

Absolutely. The reason I love the Episcopal Church is that it actually trusts us to be adults. In a world where everyone tries to paint things as black or white, Episcopalians feel pretty comfortable in the gray areas.

I'm sure there must be individual congregations, and certainly individuals, who are off the deep end about this issue, but for the most part, the stance that we have taken speaks to our people as a mature and adult way of dealing with this — that we protect a woman's right to choose but also say that obviously there are very deep things involved here.

So we encourage our folks to take this very private issue seriously. We urge them to talk to their priests about it and to think through all the questions they might have. And then we absolutely stand behind a woman's right to choose. …

Has abortion been a divisive issue in your church?

Not really — surprisingly. From time to time it has come up, but the church has steadfastly resisted efforts to retract in any way our support for a woman's choice.

Appointing a homosexual bishop has consequences. In fact, it is splitting apart the U.S. Episcopal Church.

On April 9, the Hartford Courant reported that the Episcopal Bishop of Connecticut, Andrew D. Smith, has threatened six priests in his diocese with expulsion for objecting to his 2003 vote for Robinson’s elevation to bishop. The priests, who, like the majority in the worldwide Anglican Communion, contend that the ordination of an openly homosexual bishop is unbiblical and violates church canon, have “abandoned the communion of the church,” Smith’s letter says. The paper reported that the priests could be defrocked as early as Friday, April 15.

Robert Knight is director of CWA’s Culture & Family Institute.

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