Town of Wellesley Recommends
Abortion Center to Pregnant Girls

By John Haskins
December 2000

The town of Wellesley is recommending an abortion center as well as other controversial groups on a plastic card which is being distributed by the Youth Commission to children and teenagers for their use when in crisis.

Many residents are expressing their opposition to the card and to town officials who presume to step between parents and their own children regarding fundamental moral decisions.

"I am particularly disturbed to see Planned Parenthood listed," said Attorney Hope Vassos, Wellesley mother of two. "I would not want my children to receive its counsel. It's biased and flawed by self-interest. In a crisis pregnancy, it only stands to reason that Planned Parenthood would encourage abortion. The more abortions it performs, the more money it makes. I don't think my child's best interests would be the focus of its concern."

Robert Bradley, speaking both as a Wellesley parent and as Chairman of the Massachusetts Family Institute, stated: "It is highly disturbing that our town officials have listed telephone numbers to radical, left-wing organizations as if not a single mainstream or conservative alternative exists for teens in crisis. There are numerous Crisis Pregnancy centers and gender confusion counselors, for example, to whom troubled teens can turn without going to groups like these."

Both Monsignor Lind and Father Harrington of St. Paul's Catholic Church expressed concern about the town distributing the card as it now exists. Father Harrington said that the card had come to his attention, but he would not make any public comments before he has met privately with town officials.

Other parents have expressed their concern about the message the card sends to youth and what it reveals as the ideological bias of some current town officials.

Other listings on the card include a state alcohol and drug hotline, youth crisis and runaway hotlines, the Massachusetts Eating Disorder Association, an "HIV/Aids Y-line," a rape crisis center, AlateenAl-Anon, the Youth Commission, the police department and the Samaritans suicide and depression hotline. Rounding out the list are a driving school and a pizza shop. The pizza shop has been removed from a recent version of the card because its listing represented an advertisement of a business, sources said.

Activist Organizations
Amid the listings, almost as if they were official town services or perhaps state or federal agencies, are Planned Parenthood and an activist homosexual organization. Both of these organizations resist the principle that parents have the primary responsibility over the sexual education and sexual activity of their own children.

The clinics of Planned Parenthood obtain vast sums by aborting babies, many carried by teen mothers. Despite their obvious profit motive and an aggressive ideological agenda, they present themselves as unbiased advisors to "women in crisis."

The organization aggressively opposes laws that affirm any meaningful role for mothers and fathers of pregnant girls who have been presented with abortion as an option. Nevertheless, it is the only resource to which Wellesley's town officials steer distraught pregnant girls for "objective" guidance. On this, the organization is far removed from the will of the general public, according to opinion polls. Numerous polls have confirmed that a majority of Americans believe abortion is the killing of an innocent human being. Public opinion has been shifting steadily against abortion over the last decade, particularly as to "partial birth abortion," where a living baby is pulled by a doctor's hand from the uterus, its scull punctured and its brains vacuumed out just as the baby is being born.

Atty. Vassos points out that, "Planned Parenthood's sex education materials actually encourage kids to engage in sex. A flagrant example is the explicit 'Safe Sex Menu' it recently distributed from its booth to teens attending a rock concert. It should have been x-rated."

The National Gay and Lesbian Youth Hotline, also presented on the youth card, urges children and teenagers who are at a point of uncertainty and vulnerability in the formation of their sexual identities to "accept" their "homosexuality." Mental health professionals say that many adolescents experience such temporary uncertainty for various reasons and may be highly susceptible to external pressures at such a time.

Numerous other options exist for children and teens in crisis, including psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists and certified counselors who would steer them away from such extreme "solutions" as abortion or lifelong homosexuality.

Advancing a Radical Agenda
Some parents feel the card raises the fundamental issue of democratic representation. In the guise of an official expression of Wellesley's guidance to the town's youth, it advances a political perspective that is every bit as offensive to some voters and residents as neo-nazi groups would be.

But a town selectman, Atty. Peter Gubellini, told Massachusetts News, "I am wholeheartedly in favor of having the card look exactly the way it looks. Sometimes teenagers have sexual identity issues and I'm glad there is someone there who will listen to them." He refused to consider whether any other "listeners" are available to "questioning teens," as the gay/lesbian hotline calls them.

Gubellini asserted that Planned Parenthood is unbiased and objective "because they give girls a choice." He refused to address parents' objections that, although it is formally "non-profit," the organization has a strong financial incentive to perform crisis abortions and is regarded as the most extreme pro-abortion group in the country. Asked several times about the possibility of listing less radical alternatives instead of, or at least in addition to, these two groups, Gubellini became angry and terminated the interview abruptly.

Arnold Wakelin, Executive Director of the Town of Wellesley told Massachusetts News that the card had not yet come to his attention. He explained that he knows virtually nothing about either Planned Parenthood or the National Gay and Lesbian Hotline and therefore could not comment on the appropriateness of their listing on such a card.

Wakelin said Youth Commission members are appointed by the town's selectmen, including Gubellini. If the selectmen were convinced that the commission had done something not in the best interests of Wellesley youth, the selectmen have "the power of persuasion" to get it changed, he said.

When called again to determine if taxpayers' money had funded the card, Wakelin said curtly that he would not answer any more questions.

No Role for Clergy or Faith-Based Guidance
The concern of some parents is that by choosing two organizations whose declared long-term agenda is to minimize the influence of parents at such times of desperation, the town has sent a message to teenagers about the insignificance of the parent-child relationship.

In addition, religious alternatives would have been near the top on a list a few decades ago - if such a list had been necessary. Some Wellesley residents point out that there is clearly no Constitutional barrier to including priests, ministers and rabbis as resources. After all, the various branches of the U.S. military provide full-time chaplains for servicemen. But Wellesley's town officials appear to have made the determination for parents and youth that clergy have nothing to offer troubled young people - even to those on the edge of an irreversible decision like suicide or abortion.

Rainy Wilkins, a member of the Youth Commission, argued that the card is not actually an endorsement of the organizations whose numbers it presents to teens. But, for whatever reason, the town has chosen to steer distraught youth to the most left-wing activists possible, leaving parents out of the decision. Whether one or more officials consciously used the card as a political document - in effect, censoring more traditional, mainstream options for troubled young people - remains unclear.

Massachusetts News made unsuccessful attempts to contact the town's Youth Coordinator.