Teen Savvy is the Planned Parenthood of North Texas annual workshop to promote their sex education agenda to children ages 11 and up. It focuses on children from various social service agencies that bus them in for the event. This year marks the 17th annual Teen Savvy.

The vanguard of pro-lifers arrived at the front entrance of TW Browne Middle School on Sprague Drive at 8:00 a.m. After others arrived and observed that signs were posted directing Teen Savvy staff, agencies and volunteers to enter on the Boulder Drive side, we moved around there.

More and more concerned citizens joined us and the estimate was that over 50 people stood for truth and life against Planned Parenthood in the streets of Dallas.

Organizations that participated were Texans for Life Coalition, Catholic Pro-Life Committee of North Texas (Respect Life Ministry of the Diocese of Dallas), Catholics Respect Life (Respect Life Ministry of the Diocese of Fort Worth), Texas Life Chain, and Texans Opposed to Planned Parenthood – all under the banner of the Dallas-Area Coalition Against Planned Parenthood.

We held the red “Stop Planned Promiscuity” signs, the purple “Planned Parenthood Steals Souls” signs, and a few of the ones stating “Planned Parenthood - America’s Largest Abortion Provider – 33% funded by your tax $$$”. From the entrance to the TW Browne parking lot, we covered both sides of Boulder Drive and a little father south toward Loop 12 from where most of the vehicles came.

A special addition to this year’s Teen Savvy protest was the appearance of David Hall and his 11-foot high tablets of the Ten Commandments.

These were strategically placed at the entrance of the school parking lot. David also blessed us with his trumpet renditions of “Jesus Loves the Little Children”, “Jesus Loves Me This I Know” and other hymns of the faith.

We spoke to one mother who slowed down to look at our signs and so one of our counselors walked over to her car. She told our counselor that she had been there at 8:00 that morning to try to register her daughter at Teen Savvy but was informed it was too early and to come back after 9:00. Our counselor then told her that this was a workshop sponsored by Planned Parenthood of which the woman was not aware. She said she was told it was an “abstinence rally” and knew nothing about Planned Parenthood being involved. The woman indicated to our counselor that she was going to call her daughter at home to tell her she would not be going to this event. When our counselor walked away, the woman was on the phone.

The vans carrying the children started arriving a little later than last year and the majority of them were unmarked so as to hide the identity of the Teen Savvy collaborators. Were they told to come in unmarked vehicles?

Also, many children arrived in private vehicles. The vans that were marked were from Girls, Inc., Alameda Heights Community Center, North Dallas Community Center, West Dallas Community Center, Bethlehem Community Center, Promise House (A ministry of Lovers Lane Methodist Church), Juvenile Department of Dallas County, something called “Tent 17”, and the First Presbyterian Church of Dallas. We took down license plate numbers on the unmarked vans, but most of them were rentals.

The majority of the vans arrived by 10:00 am or so, but there were many late-comers straggling in. Then around 11:00 more cars started coming which we surmised were lunch volunteers or the afternoon shift. During this time two vans arrived loaded with children from a Baptist church in Garland. An immediate call was placed to the phone number on the vans and we were put in touch with one of the pastors. When he was told that two of his church vans full of children were at a Planned Parenthood conference he said there must be some mistake. He was fully aware of what Planned Parenthood is all about, but was told that Teen Savvy was an “abstinence teaching” and he was not aware of the connection with Planned Parenthood. He then called the youth pastor on his cell phone. The youth pastor had pulled into the parking lot of TW Browne just a few minutes before. Of course at the time we didn’t know he was the youth pastor. After we hung up with the one pastor at the church, we watched as the youth pastor came out of the school and got back into his car. He also had a conversation with another man – not sure if it was a Teen Savvy staffer or one of the DISD security personnel. The two empty church vans were parked next to the youth pastor’s car. About 15 minutes later, those church vans loaded with the children pulled out of that parking lot and headed back in the direction from whence they came - all to the cheers of those of us watching in amazement! Praise the Lord for sparing these children!

While the drama of the church vans was going on, two pastors from the little church across the street came out to see what all the commotion was about. After all, these huge tablets of the Ten Commandments were practically in their front yard! David Hall was able to minister to them and tell them the truth about Planned Parenthood. Neither of them had a clue about the agenda of Planned Parenthood, and they were totally blown away by what they heard.

At their request we will follow up with sending them literature. We find that most churches do not know what Planned Parenthood really teaches and always encourage them to find out for themselves.

Then a gentleman from Tyler, Texas, showed up after hearing Jim Sedlak’s (Executive Director of STOPP International) interview on KCBI yesterday. He had been in Dallas on business and arrived at the picket as soon as he could get there. This man proceeded to pray mightily at the edge of the TW Browne parking lot along with one of the pastors from the little church. The louder and more strongly they prayed the more irritated Planned Parenthood personnel became. They talked to a police officer but there was nothing he could do. Thank God for our right to pray on the public sidewalk.

As these two gentlemen were ending their prayers, two parishioners from nearby St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church, arrived and began praying the rosary and holding signs. The last of us departed the scene about 11:45, and these two saints were still standing, still praying, and still holding those signs!

Follow-up: This afternoon, we called the youth pastor of the Baptist church to ask how he had found out about Teen Savvy. He was not there, so she left him a voice message. However, the receptionist was most gracious and thanked us for calling them. She said we caused quite a flurry over our phone call! The receptionist then told us that they wanted us to know that after finding out what was going on they "immediately left with their young people”.

submitted by Jessie Anne Nobles
Dallas-area Coalition Against Planned Parenthood
July 12, 2006