{"id":43761,"date":"2011-12-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/1950s-era-planned-parenthood-booklet-proclaims-gift-of-life\/"},"modified":"2011-12-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-12-26T00:00:00","slug":"1950s-era-planned-parenthood-booklet-proclaims-gift-of-life","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/1950s-era-planned-parenthood-booklet-proclaims-gift-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"1950&#8217;s-Era Planned Parenthood Booklet Proclaims &#8220;The Gift of Life&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A pamphlet published in 1951 titled <em class=\"citation\">The Gift of Life<\/em> contains some traditional advice about human sexuality and the sanctity of life. For instance, the first page states, &quot;The gift of life is shown to us with the birth of each new baby.&quot; Then on pages 21-22 the authors inform readers (presumably the average American teenager), &quot;If one of the new male sperm meets and unites with an egg cell, a new life begins.&quot; The cover has a picture of a happy family&mdash;a mom and dad and three children&mdash;apparently leaving a church building.<\/p>\n\n<p>It&#39;s all pretty standard stuff for a 1950&#39;s-era booklet, until you notice the publisher information. It reads: &quot;Distributed by Planned Parenthood of America, Inc., 501 Madison Avenue, New York 22, N.Y.&quot;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3361,3364,3466,3726,4520,4690],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-43761","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-abortion","tax_ctp_tags-abstinence","tax_ctp_tags-baby","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-national-sanctity-of-life-day","tax_ctp_tags-precious-life"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>1950&#039;s-Era Planned Parenthood Booklet Proclaims &quot;The Gift of Life&quot; - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/1950s-era-planned-parenthood-booklet-proclaims-gift-of-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"1950&#039;s-Era Planned Parenthood Booklet Proclaims &quot;The Gift of Life&quot; - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A pamphlet published in 1951 titled The Gift of Life contains some traditional advice about human sexuality and the sanctity of life. For instance, the first page states, &quot;The gift of life is shown to us with the birth of each new baby.&quot; Then on pages 21-22 the authors inform readers (presumably the average American Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/1950s-era-planned-parenthood-booklet-proclaims-gift-of-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/1950s-era-planned-parenthood-booklet-proclaims-gift-of-life\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/1950s-era-planned-parenthood-booklet-proclaims-gift-of-life\/\",\"name\":\"1950's-Era Planned Parenthood Booklet Proclaims \\\"The Gift of Life\\\" - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-26T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-12-26T00:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/1950s-era-planned-parenthood-booklet-proclaims-gift-of-life\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/1950s-era-planned-parenthood-booklet-proclaims-gift-of-life\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/1950s-era-planned-parenthood-booklet-proclaims-gift-of-life\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"1950&#8217;s-Era Planned Parenthood Booklet Proclaims &#8220;The Gift of Life&#8221;\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"1950's-Era Planned Parenthood Booklet Proclaims \"The Gift of Life\" - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/1950s-era-planned-parenthood-booklet-proclaims-gift-of-life\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"1950's-Era Planned Parenthood Booklet Proclaims \"The Gift of Life\" - CT Pastors","og_description":"A pamphlet published in 1951 titled The Gift of Life contains some traditional advice about human sexuality and the sanctity of life. 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