Planned Parenthood

An older gentleman in my parish told me a story today. In 1972 he lived in Pierrepont Manor, NY, which is an extremely small, rural village in upstate NY. Village is an overstatement. It's essentially a four corners and doesn't have a thousand people living there. It's 20 minutes to the nearest shopping and deep in the heart of the snow belt (think 250+"). My friend lived on an unpaved road on the outskirts of this humble place. He was a school teacher and late in the winter 1972 he and his wife had a baby girl. A joyous occasion. His wife spent a couple days in the hospital and they brought their healthy, beautiful baby girl home. Within a week after being home a representative from Planned Parenthood came to the door. "Greetings Mrs. ...., I'm from Planned Parenthood. We understand you have had your second child. We want you to know that there are ways to prevent this from happening again and we can help you." She never said a word and immediately slammed the door shut. And then went on to have 2 more boys. Unreal. For what it's worth. That baby girl grew up to be a beautiful woman. She served in the US Army and is now out. She married a handsome young man, also a soldier, who came home from Iraq today for a 2 week furlough.