It was a devilishly clever idea.
On February 2, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin called Paul’s Pantry — part of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, a well-respected Catholic charity — and asked if a truck could be sent over to pick up a donation of food.
Regardless of Paul’s Pantry’s response, Planned Parenthood wins. Either Paul’s Pantry sends a truck, which gives Planned Parenthood an astonishingly self-serving photo op, or else Paul’s Pantry refuses, which gives Planned Parenthood the opportunity to unload on them with both barrels and claim that Planned Parenthood is a genuine humanitarian service agency, while this Catholic charity is “extremist” or something and doesn’t really care about feeding hungry people.
Paul’s Pantry smelt a rat from the beginning.
Planned Parenthood to Food Pantry: Take Our Donation…or Else
Craig Robbins, the food pantry’s executive director, explains what happened next:
All I told the young lady from Planned Parenthood was that I couldn’t send a truck to pick up, and gave her a list of other food pantries that might want to pick up, I gave her no reason at all and she didn’t ask why. Soon after, I started receiving the hate e-mail and phone calls. I politely explained to callers that although we are non-denominational in regards to those we serve, we are a Catholic organization who shares a board of directors with our sister organization, St. Vincent de Paul. We adhere to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and to the Rule of St. Vincent de Paul. I also explained our Gift Acceptance Policy and how acceptance of the donation would compromise our core values and possibly damage the reputation of Paul’s Pantry.
Exactly no one should be surprised that Planned Parenthood wasted no time in launching an all-out assault on Paul’s Pantry.
It began with a Facebook post:
Next, according to Jill Stanek:
[Robbins] said he did tell one of the callers they could simply drop off their donation, “which happens about 100 times a day – in that case we don’t know where the food comes from. But if an organization wants a receipt, Paul’s Pantry has a gift acceptance policy. “If the donation is going to hurt us, we don’t accept it.”
Craig said it never got to that point with Planned Parenthood, though. PP invented the rest of the story. “What was their purpose?” . . . “If they really intended to feed the poor they should have just dropped the food off and left it at that. But was it for their own self-promotion?”
Planned Parenthood Willing to Throw Hungry People under the Bus
As we saw recently with the Susan G. Komen for the Cure funding debacle, Planned Parenthood was ever so willing to destroy Komen and throw women with breast cancer under the bus.
Now we see that they likewise have no qualms about destroying the reputation of a Catholic food pantry and throwing hungry people under the bus too.
There’s a bleeding obvious explanation why Planned Parenthood wants to force a Catholic food pantry to take a donation from them: because they’re desperate for the kind of good PR that comes from that kind of photo op. It’s the sort of thing that makes people forget about — or at least overlook — their huge abortion business.
Sure, Planned Parenthood claims to be all about “choice.” But if you’re a charity that makes the choice to have nothing to do with them, be warned: they’ll bring out the long knives when they come after you.
This is the second mafia-style shakedown we’ve seen by Planned Parenthood this month. And make no mistake: it will not be the last.
Support Paul’s Pantry with a Donation
As a post-script, it cannot be emphasized enough how admirably Paul’s Pantry handled itself throughout this whole affair. I strongly encourage you to consider making a donation to thank them for their principled stand and their wonderful ministry.
You can make a donation via their website.
