Congratulations and thanks go to everyone who let Wal-Mart know of their serious opposition to having one of the Wal-Mart stores host a Planned Parenthood promotion and literature distribution. The set up for the event was presented in this post from Vital Signs from last Friday.
But then pro-life activists started with their phone calls, e-mails and, at the local level, more direct contact with Wal-Mart officials.
And Wal-Mart wisely decided to cancel the event altogether.
Leading the petition to Wal-Mart for the mega-store to reconsider its' affiliation with the nation's #1 abortion organization was Jim Toth, pro-life chairman of the Knight of Columbus for the state of Washington. The efforts of Toth and his fellow Knights were joined by American Life League and other pro-life, pro-family groups whose efforts then created hundreds of individual appeals from around the country.
Claire Hartford was one of those and here is her description of how things played out:
"After reading the Vital Signs Blog post, I called Wal Mart's 800 number to register my concern about Planned Parenthood distributing material at their Richland, Washington store. It took awhile to get through the maze of recorded instructions but I finally was able to speak with a customer service representative. She politely took my complaint and said that someone would call me back about the matter in a few business days.
"However, it was only a few hours later that a manger from the Richland store itself called me. He explained that there had been some 'miscommunication' about Planned Parenthood getting an OK to distribute materials at the store. In fact, he said that the matter had been reviewed and it was decided that Planned Parenthood did not, after all, fit within their guidelines of what type of groups they allowed to 'partner' with Wal-Mart.
"Best of all, the manager informed me that the event had been canceled. He thanked me for my concerns and expressed his understanding of my position. I, in turn, thanked him for his prompt return of my call -- but even more for doing the right thing by refusing Planned Parenthood's promotion."
