Many are familiar with the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). In fact, little more than two years ago, the YWCA, founded in 1855, was ranked as the world’s second-largest women’s organization. They serve two million women and girls in the U.S. and 25 million worldwide.
Most would assume that a “Christian” organization like the YWCA would never support abortion or the world’s largest abortion giant, Planned Parenthood. But if you fall within that group, think again. While the YWCA has found itself on a pro-life boycott list for years – thanks to the relationships of many YWCA chapters with Planned Parenthood – those same relationships continue to get more blatant. Clearly, the national YWCA needs to take a stand against Planned Parenthood because its state and local chapters obviously feel very free to support abortion rights.
Take, as a prime example, the recent article first published in the Times Herald-Record by Danielle Marse-Kapr, the “gender equity coordinator for the YWCA of Orange County.” Marse-Kapr’s article is entitled “My View: YWCA mobilizing young women in reproductive-rights fight.” At first glance, knowing that the YWCA is a Christian organization, many may wonder if the article supports the pro-life issue.
The YWCA would be a perfect organization to truly empower women, right? They could easily highlight the truth about the unborn child’s humanity and the great harm abortion inflicts on women. They have a worldwide stage, and they could use it for much good. Instead, however, this is what Marse-Kapr writes:
In April 2011, I joined a group of YWCA advocates under 30 in Washington, D.C., for the YWCA National Conference. We joined thousands of activists around the Capitol for the “Stand Up for Women’s Health” rally to protest the defunding of Planned Parenthood as a stipulation of a new health-care bill. Each evening we would huddle around the TV to see what would become of Planned Parenthood’s funding.
As staff of the YWCA, an organization that functions as both a social service and a social justice agency, we are very familiar with the lives of women who need the affordable care that Planned Parenthood offers. Furthermore, we have all personally accessed Planned Parenthood for health care and reliable health-care information.
By the end of the week, though we were relieved that Planned Parenthood had not been defunded, the narrow 58-42 vote was an ominous foreshadowing of what was to unfold over the next 12 months — a brutal assault on women’s reproductive rights.
A year later, the struggle has only intensified. Legislators are sponsoring bills that: require women to undergo medically unnecessary procedures before terminating a pregnancy, claim that fetuses have “personhood,” and dictate that life begins before conception, among others.
I hardly think that Marse-Kapr is correct when she claims that “all” of YWCA’s staff have “personally accessed Planned Parenthood.” That sounds like quite the exaggeration to me, but if she is in fact correct, the situation with YWCA is a lot worse than any of us could imagine. That kind of association with the abortion giant is mind-boggling for a Christian organization – or, really, for any organization that claims to empower women.
Women are not empowered when they are encouraged to seek advice and medical help from an organization that is a proven agent of deception.
Whether or not Marse-Kapr’s claim is accurate, the fact that she felt free to make this claim signals a big problem within the YWCA. Why are they allowing one of their staff members to brag about a close relationship with Planned Parenthood?
The answer is that they either fully support Planned Parenthood’s abortion mission, or they have failed to inform their staff of YWCA’s true position. Since the YWCA has posted Marse-Kapr’s article on its official national blog, it seems that it leaders agree with her statements and that they fully support Planned Parenthood. This is disgusting.
Marse-Kapr rejects the idea that “fetuses” have personhood. She makes it clear that she opposes legislatures “dictating” that life begins before conception. She’s wrong on at least two counts here. First, we don’t claim that life begins before conception. That’s plain silly. A new, unique human life begins at the very moment of conception (accurately defined as fertilization). That’s Biology 101, folks, and apparently Marse-Kapr needs to return to class. Secondly, a legislature can’t “dictate” that life begins at conception. Science has already proven this. All a legislature can do is agree with modern medical science and pass laws supporting the unborn human being’s equal right to life. Marse-Kapr – and perhaps the entire YWCA – needs to realize that scientific facts aren’t “dictated.” They’re simply facts.
After discussing her opposition to ultrasound laws, Komen’s initial defunding of Planned Parenthood, and other pro-life positions (all of which she explains quite inaccurately), Marse-Kapr lets us know exactly what the YWCA is doing to combat pro-life legislation, including the attempted defunding of Planned Parenthood:
At the YWCA, we are doing work to mobilize more young women to the voting booths. This November, young women will ensure that anti-choice politics does not decide the future of our reproductive rights.
There you have it, folks. A YWCA staffer, acting as if she speaks for the whole organization, claims that the YWCA specifically works to ensure that women do not vote pro-life. According to Marse-Kapr, the YWCA proudly supports a woman’s right to choose abortion, whenever and for whatever reason she wants to. And her claims appear true, since the YWCA proudly advertises her words on their blog.
Join me in calling on the YWCA to denounce Marse-Kapr’s statements. Join me in calling on this Christian organization to explain that they do not support Planned Parenthood and that they will require their local chapters to disassociate with the abortion giant.
YWCA Contact Information:
Email: info@ywca.org
Phone: 202-467-0801
Twitter: @YWCAUSA
