Trying (and Failing) to Look More Respectable

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you might remember the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health (ICAH).

In partnership with Planned Parenthood, ICAH is part of a coalition called the Illinois Campaign for Responsible Sex Education. (ICAH and the ICRSE apparently operate out of the same office, as they have the same mailing address.)

The Campaign’s goal is to strip all funding of abstinence education for Illinois schools and instead require them to use so-called comprehensive sex education programs.

You may also remember that two years ago, ICAH’s annual fundraiser was held at the headquarters of Playboy magazine in downtown Chicago. I took part in a protest of the event, and wrote about it here.

Tickets to the adults-only event cost $75, and those who kicked in an extra $50 were also entitled to “a tour of the Playboy offices and art collection” as well as a VIP reception with Christie Hefner.

Christie Hefner (the daughter of Hugh Hefner, the founder of Playboy), has been its CEO since 1982. It was she who decided that the company could make more money by producing increasingly harder-core pornography — something that even her father was reluctant to do for a long time.

ICAH’s 2007 fundraiser — also an adults-only event — featured a stripper and was held at “Chicago’s premier liquor spa”.

This year, though, ICAH seems to be going for a more respectable approach to its annual fundraiser.

Apparently, there will be no strippers or porn providers as the guests of honor. And it looks as if they’ve scrapped the adults-only policy.

So, are they really less extreme than they used to be? Not really.

This year, the keynote speaker is scheduled to be U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky, who has a “100% Pro-Choice” score from NARAL Pro-Choice America.

I mentioned over a year ago that on the ICRSE’s links page, one of their “recommended links” for teens is Go Ask Alice!, Columbia University’s “Health Q & A Internet Service”. (The link is still there today.)

Just one click from the Go Ask Alice! home page takes you to a page that lists several questions. One of these questions is, “Menage a Trois?”

Answering this question, Go Ask Alice! gives advice on how to arrange a threesome, and says that “there’s nothing wrong with giving it a try, as long as you’re all practicing safer sex…” (That’s just for starters. On the site, there’s much, much worse.)

And, ICAH, like every major pro-abortion organization, continues to oppose parental notification and consent laws [PDF] — which the vast majority of Americans support, even many who call themselves “pro-choice”!

Remember that the the next time someone calls you an “extremist” for being pro-life.

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