A Madison, Wisconsin, Catholic college has cut Planned Parenthood from a list of student resources after a petition seeking the abortion provider’s removal garnered over 15,000 signatures.
TFP Student Action of Edgewood College announced on November 19 it had verified “the same webpage that once directed students to Planned Parenthood is now unavailable.”
The organization that started the petition describes itself as one that works to “proudly affirm the positive values of tradition, family and private property.”
The TFP Student Action petition was addressed to Sr. Mary Ellen Gevelinger, O.P., Ed.D., the interim president of Edgewood College, a school run by the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa.
“Everyone knows what Planned Parenthood does,” the petition begins. “Not only is it the largest abortion provider in the nation, but it feeds the godless culture of death that keeps the abortion cycle running.”
The petition, which currently has more than 15,400 signatures, continues:
In many ways, Planned Parenthood is the flagship of the sexual revolution, the antithesis of Catholic moral teaching and natural law.
Edgewood College’s mission statement mentions its “committed to building a just and compassionate world.” But it’s hard to believe that a college dedicated to true justice would ever point students to Planned Parenthood, a place where innocent unborn babies are snuffed out and dismembered wholesale. How is that even remotely compassionate?
In face of this scandal, you and I cannot just stay silent and do nothing. We must speak up and prevent the Culture of Death from poisoning more young minds.
TFP Student Action Director John Ritchie told the College Fix he was happy the group had achieved its goal.
“As a Catholic institution, Edgewood College should have never included Planned Parenthood as a ‘wellness’ option for students in the first place, because the abortion provider is directly responsible for shedding innocent blood, which offends God so much,” he said.
Ritchie recognized the importance of people joining together to protect human life.
“When we band together and defend the right to life and fight for the future of the family, we can make a big difference,” he said. “So, let’s continue fighting the good fight with more enthusiasm and more devotion!”
However, interim president Gevelinger appeared to minimize the significance of the massive petition in achieving its stated goal, and to suggest the decision to remove Planned Parenthood’s name was primarily one that was made by her office.
She reportedly said in an email statement to the Fix:
As I understand the decision to put Planned Parenthood on the website, it was because the College had reduced the number of on-campus health services in recent years, and was pointing students to other areas for service, such as health care for women and men, and testing for certain diseases.
Since Planned Parenthood is a major provider of abortions, I asked that it be removed from the College website. This has been done without any public notice, and there has been no public response. The PP info was buried deep in the website.
In October, Father Stephen Sundborg, S.J., president of the Jesuit-run Seattle University, also removed Planned Parenthood from its list of student healthcare resources.