"A case of Pro-life Profiteering?"

April 29, 2001

This is not Mark Crutcher's LDI of Denton, Texas, Life Dynamics Inc - the well respected ministry in the forefront of the prolife movement.

In browsing the Life Decisions International web site, I could not find a name connected with the group - save a Washington, DC,  address and telephone number. There is a president mentioned (Douglas Scott) and board members, but no names connected with this group on their web site, that we could find as of this writing.

I was sent to this site in regards to their Planned Parenthood boycott list - a list a companies that we are supposed to boycott due to their support of Planned Parenthood. Sounded like a great thing to me!

Their domain name is *fightpp.org* which I'm guessing means "Fight Planned Parenthood." Given the response from Life Decisions International, this writer could be wrong.

Much to my dismay, in seeking to find the boycott list on its web site, it was no where to be found. In contacting the group I was told,

"The Boycott List is available for order only. It is not available online. Please visit our website for details: www.fightpp.org."

Turns out the list is only available if you send them $15.60.

It's not that the amount is a whole lot of money, but does it not defeat the purpose of a boycott and a "ministry" to not make the list of companies supporting Planned Parenthood readily available? I mean, that is their reason for being right? To "Fight Planned Parenthood?"

For the most part, prolifers have difficulty in getting information out to begin with - and then have to pull teeth to get people to act on it. This is just one more hurdle to jump.

One has to wonder how many people have actually purchased this boycott list. Maybe 100 .... 1000 ? It seems to me, to be quite impudent to have a boycott that only a few hundred or a thousand people know about. 

If it were my organization's goal to fight Planned Parenthood (and it is)  I would be begging people to take the boycott list! It was MTTU.COM's reason for contacting them to begin with - to get the information out there so prolifers would know *who* to boycott.

MTTU.COM  even offered to post the boycott list for them at no cost! I was thinking, "Maybe they are concerned about web site bandwidth costs. We will eat the extra charges, so prolifers can KNOW who to boycott!"

Not only were we rejected by LDI, but received a nasty email from its president Douglas Scott.

One well-known prolife pastor wrote:

"I'm leery of giving money and my address to someone that calls for a boycott of PP (Planned Parenthood) but won't offer any info on groups to boycott unless I pay for it. At best it could be well-intended, but profiteering on a cause that ought not to cost anything. At worst, it's a front organization preying on Christians (who) want to see PP gone forever. They sure don't have a real public cause that they present that needs the funding and why they are charging.  Strange.

I'll stick with A.L.L. and S.T.O.P.P. for resources along with sources of info on businesses that work with PP in my own community. There, the info is free of charge and I can contribute if I so desire."

At best, this is a self-defeating organization as the list of companies that are to be boycotted is held close to the vest and must be purchased. At worst, it is prolife profiteering. 

Life Decisions International was asked for a comment in regard to this story and have received no response at the time of the posting.

You can contact LDI at: ldi@fightpp.org

Steve Wetzel
Missionaries to the UNBORN

P.S. If anyone has an up to date list of corporate sponsors of Planned Barrenhood, we would like to post it. Free of charge.

UPDATE:

Then again, maybe we won't be posting the list!  MTTU.COM just received the following from Ted Gerk and Douglas R. Scott of Life Decisions International,

" ... this is to serve as legal notice that _The Boycott List_ published by Life Decisions International is copyrighted. It may not be copied, placed online, etc."

Imagine that! A copyrighted boycott list! Huh - go figure!

I understand the "National Abortion Rights Action League" (NARAL)  has a list of companies that support their cause (abortion on demand).  We may have to get the information from the baby killers themselves, to know who to boycott!!!

Be assured, that the information posted will be free of charge!

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