730 - Peace & Life: Protest Signs/PP closings - April 11, 2025
- Peace & Life Connections
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
April Hands-Off Demonstrations
CL board member Julia Smucker reports: "I attended one in my area to protest current abuses of power and attacks on vulnerable people, especially those who have fled violence or need safety nets. I saw a few pro-abortion and pro-war signs, but also several that jive at least implicitly with CLE themes. A few examples here.”
Planned Parenthood Puts its Manhattan Center Up for Sale
And Closes 4 Centers in Illinois
The Manhattan Center in New York City is currently open, but they’ve announced they’re selling the building. They expect to build a new one, but don’t give specifics. This center used to be named the Margaret Sanger Center; but in 2020 PP removed Sanger’s name due to her racism.
You can see under the Manhattan Center listing on the Problems at Planned Parenthood – New York City page they have (documented from official sources) one patient death, four malpractice suits, and a huge kerfuffle with employees about racism. Unofficially, there have been 33 ambulance calls in five years, but the call dispatches aren’t publicly available; we know because protesters on the sidewalk take pictures. New York doesn’t make its health inspection records publicly available with specifying which center has violations.
We don’t know if problems like these have anything to do with its upcoming closing. But it’s not an unreasonable guess.
Meanwhile, on January 22, 2025, PP announced four Illinois centers closing in March: Bloomington, Decatur, Ottawa, and Englewood in Chicago. These were small centers so didn’t have as many problems as others, but the others have many. You can see documentation at Problems at Planned Parenthood - Illinois (or check your own state).
Then on April 8, PP announced a center in Vermont will be closed on June 3, 2025.
Our own project website, Grassroots Defunding of Planned Parenthood, mainly matches each PP center to nearby alternatives. It also keeps track of centers that have closed (both permanently and for now).
For a major petition drive to stop the millions of dollars from the U.S. government, see:
We recommend the petition, but not the accompanying video.
Member Groups News
A joint letter from Pax Christi Korea and our member group Pax Christi USA to President Trump urges him to reach out and resume negotiations to bring a full end to the Korean War.
Democrats for Life just organized a trip to the U.S.-Mexico border to confer with local activists to see for themselves the needs: Mothers, Migrants, and Mercy: A Firsthand Look at the Border
Rehumanize International is running its annual art contest. The point: “Illustrating the inherent dignity of every human being by sharing creative narratives through poetry, prose, music, and visual art.” See Create | Encounter
The Latest on the Blog
Rachel MacNair expands on what we said in the last issue about the leaked group chat story: Signal Chat: The Media Misses the Actual Scandals.
Jim Hewes shares his personal experience and waxes philosophical about Abortion and the Unwanted Child.
Quote of the Week
Tony Magliano
Where Peter Is, April 8, 2025
Many Catholics, as well as many other Christians, hold inconsistent opinions regarding the protection of life.
Some condemn abortion, but fail to oppose the mass murder of war – which mostly kills innocent people – including countless babies. While others work for an end to the violence of war and war-preparation, but ignore the violence done to unborn babies by abortion. And still others who work to protect the environment, irrationally promote the murder of unborn children through abortion as a distorted means to control population.
But all life issues are morally and logically linked. It’s what the Catholic Church refers to as the “consistent ethic of life.”
