Habitat for Humanity Backs Out of Partnership with Planned Parenthood
Saturday, June 7, 2008 at 07:10AM Habitat for Humanity, the nation’s largest Christian ministry dedicated to housing the poor, announced that it would end its scheduled partnership with Planned Parenthood after the agreement generated media attention and criticism among Christian groups. Before the backlash, Habitat for Humanity planned to facilitate the opening of Planned Parenthood in a housing area built by the ministry.
On Tuesday, the Christian ministry’s board of directors of its Sarasota branch voted to “dissociate” itself from the project after the scheduled transaction became public and drew hundreds of protesting phone calls and e-mails.
Duane Bates, director of public and media relations for the national Habitat organization, explained that the organization had erred in its judgment.
“Habitat for Humanity of Sarasota has declined a donation of land from Planned Parenthood, stating that accepting the land ‘would not be in the best interests of our ongoing work in the community, the families we seek to serve or the broader Habitat for Humanity community,” he said, according to Cybercast News.
Dawn Vargo, bioethics analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said she was delighted that Habitat for Humanity would back out its of deal with Planned Parenthood. However, she believed the group should have known better.
“It would appear as though they have recognized that Planned Parenthood is on the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to valuing human life and advocating for the needy and defenseless,” she explained in a statement. “Hopefully, they will remember this in the future before aligning themselves with organizations that promote the destruction of innocent human life.”
Founded in 1976 as a Christian non-profit and non-governmental organization by Millard and Linda Fuller in Americus, Ga., Habitat for Humanity has built over 200,000 homes in its cause to provide housing for the needy.
This is why those of us with religious and moral values should not keep our opinions to ourselves. Opponents like to say we’re shoving our values down other people’s throats but we have every right to exercise our 1st Amendment privilege like anyone else and in the end, it does some good in the world.
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Reader Comments (6)
Habitat for Humanity disappoints me! What are they thinking about? How on earth could they partner with this horrid pro-abortion group? It is really a scandal and I am glad you posted on it. People need to be careful who they give their money to.
I wondered the same thing...what were they thinking originally?
I guess the leadership of Habitat for Humanity isn't quite so Christian. Esentially, H f H was allowing Planned Parenthood to build an abortion clinic in their area. H f H, of course, builds for poor families. So...H f H wants an abortion clinic in poor areas? What sort fo stereotypical behavior is that? The connotation is that there should be population control for the poor. Nice.
What "stereotype" are you referring to Amy? Is a fact a stereotype?
The stereotype is that poor people don't know how to control their reproduction so government or abortion agencies need to step in and provide abortions. I think these poor people know just what they are doing.
That stereotype certainly wasn't true of us and we lived below the poverty level for several years, yet we had children. We just learned to prioritize.
So what "fact" are you pointing to?
Shouldn't H4H have taken the land? That would have been a welcome asset that would assist H4H in its mission, no?