How did Planned Parenthood and abortions ever become so intertwined that people can no longer seperate them? Dispite what the fanatics and your politicians want you to believe Planned Parenthood is not about abortion.
Planned parenthood discusses options, birth control and provides birth control. It provides cancer screenings and pre-natal care for pregnant women that want to keep their unborn baby. But if you listen to our fanatical politicians and the anti-rights crowd, Planned Parenthood is all about abortion.
In fact the fanatics believe Planned Parenthood is able to make unbelievable profits off these abortions.
Quick interlude to this is a John Stewart video which shows the insanity of this belief.
Daily Show: Mother F#@kers
HUH? Planned Parenthood clinics don’t actually perform abortions, they refer women to places that do perform these type of procedures if that is the womens choice. To state they make profits off of abortions is a smoke screen if you want to put it nicely and an out right lie if you want to state the truth. I think this is deplorable. I don’t know when our country went backwards and decided it was OK to start discriminating against women again. When did it become OK to take the attitude that all women should be barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen?
These are some of the the attacks I see on women’s rights. Yes, attacks against Planned Parenthood are attacks against women’s rights.
This information, as best as I can tell, comes from South Dakota‘s house bill 1217.
“First, she has to meet with a doctor. “No surgical or medical abortion may be scheduled except by a licensed physician and only after the physician physically and personally meets with the pregnant mother, consults with her, and performs an assessment of her medical and personal circumstances,” the bill says. In this consultation, the doctor must determine whether the woman has been under “coercion, subtle or otherwise,” when deciding to get an abortion.”
“The woman would then have to set up an appointment at a “pregnancy help center,” that offers counseling on what “education, counseling, and other assistance” she can get if she chooses to have the baby, as well as any “risk factors” that might be associated with an abortion. These centers could not perform abortions at their facilities, have an affiliation with a group or doctor who performs abortions, or ever refer pregnant women for abortions.”
Once she completes these steps, a woman can sign a consent form and schedule her appointment for 72 hours later, assuming the doctor makes an “an independent determination” that the decision is “voluntary, uncoerced, and informed.”
I have to admit this part of it really surprises me. “The woman would then have to set up an appointment at a “pregnancy help center,” that offers counseling on what “education, counseling, and other assistance” she can get if she chooses to have the baby, as well as any “risk factors” that might be associated with an abortion. These centers could not perform abortions at their facilities, have an affiliation with a group or doctor who performs abortions, or ever refer pregnant women for abortions.”
Until you get to the end of it where it talks about abortions the clinics provide, and all the care that they “supposedly” feel is a good thing is exactly what Planned Parenthood clinics do for pregnant women. They take the time to discuss all the possible options.
This quote also concerns me: “…determine whether the woman has been under “coercion, subtle or otherwise,” when deciding to get an abortion” Who would be providing this coercion? The husband? The boyfriend? Maybe the parents? Or is this a subtle way of trying to say that abortion clinics coerce women into having abortions?
Anyone that could actually believe the latter is very naive. Abortion clinics from my experience do everything within their power to dissuade a woman from having an abortion. Back in 1978 I brought my girl friend to a clinic to have an abortion. It was her choice. I honored that choice. They asked many questions to make sure it was what we really wanted to do. I don’t understand how anybody can think this is an easy decision. It is not something that is made lightly. It is not even necessarily the best decision. It is usually the best decision at the time. For us, it was the best decision that she could have made. Unfortunately we are no longer together. But I have been married to another wonderful woman for 31 years now.
Then we have another legislator that has the nerve to make this kind of a comment:
“As State Representative Roger Hunt, who introduced this bill, mansplains, it’s vital to force women to have 72 hours to tame their tempestuous, impulsive lady-brains so that they can “reflect on what choice she makes.” As you may have heard, most women just rush into these decisions willy-nilly!”
Could he be anymore condescending? Could he completely discount a women’s opinion any better? Where did this guy come from? Was there some type of time warp that sucked this guy out of the 1800’s into today’s society? The last time I checked it was the mans impulse for sex that lead to women being pregnant. This guy makes me ashamed to be a man.
Now we have a Georgia Legislature that wants to classify miscarriages as murder. Really? Lets step back and think about that for a minute. Does that mean that the man that punches his wife in the stomach or pushes her down a flight of stairs is guilty of murder? Or is it only the woman who suffered the miscarriage that is guilty? It is a vague law that doesn’t address how to determine what caused the miscarriage. Since most women have a miscarriage before they even know they are pregnant does that make them guilty of murder? Or even worse, guilty of neglect? You know that will be the next argument for this type of law. The woman is guilty of neglect because she didn’t even know she was pregnant. I mean after all, how can you not know you are pregnant? (snark) The last time I checked the burden of proof was on the state and people were innocent until proven guilty. Since 80% of pregnancies end naturally before they even reach term how can the state possibly prove the woman caused the miscarriage deliberately? This is just another blatant attack on women’s rights.
And then we have South Dakota’s bill 1171. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2011/0217/1224290022312.html
This bill basically gives people the right to kill anyone that provides, performs or requests an abortion. I realize this is a broad interpretation of the bill, but you know some husband that just shot his wife will use it as justification. Or some other husband that just shot up an abortion clinic will use it as justification. Basically SD just gave people the motive and the justification they need to kill innocent people because they are “murderers.” How can we justify a law like this one? What good could possibly come out of it?
Lets not forget Roe v Wade is still the law of the land. Abortions are still legal. Providing birth control is legal. Maybe that is what upsets them so much.
And now we have Lila Rose making fake videos about Planned Parenthood.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201102060002
Kind of reminds me of ACORN. The rabid right after a few years managed to destroy the only organization that made sure that minorities and the poor registered to vote and went out and voiced their opinion. You can call me paranoid if you like, but don’t you think there was an ulterior motive for that persecution? And now it appears they are using the same tactics against Planned Parenthood. What is up with that type of behavior? How can people buy into the obvious entrapment that was used and say Planned Parenthood is guilty instead of the people tat made the video? Maybe I should visit their house. Guaranteed I can make a vido that will make them guilty of crimes they would never dream of committing. How do they get women to buy into that type of persecution? Or are there really women out there that believe other women shouldn’t have any rights? That they should be kept down? They should be second class citizens?
But back to Planned Parenthood. They provide pre-natel care for women that can’t afford it. GYN exams. Cancer screening. If there are people against this then they either don’t understand what Planned Parenthood does or they don’t care and want to end the benefits that are provided. Either way it is disgusting and a sure sign of what the religious right are trying to do to this country. They want to drag us back to the days of the medicine man. The hawker that stood there in his horse carriage and sold the magic juice for all ailments. Until we can have people actually see what is going on in this country we are in trouble. We have already seen what is being done to our rights. It is not just women. Wisconsin is case in point.
Unfortunately you can’t divide this along party lines. There are almost as many Democrats as Republicans that want to oppress women’s rights. They can all agree on one thing, every women has no right to make decisions about here own body. Every women should be forced to carry every baby to term regardless of how she was impregnated. Raped? Too bad, make lemonade. Incest? Did good ole daddy get his rocks off on your behalf? Or maybe it was some uncle or brother or cousin. Again too bad. Make lemonade. I have lost the ability to fight these kinds of people. I speak out and then speak out some more, but my fellow Americans seem to feel this, “it is all the woman’s fault” is an acceptable way to deal with these problems. It is a shame that nobody wants to stand up for the women.
But on a positive note, I think the awareness in this country has been expanding and that is a good thing. However, even other women believe that abortion should be illegal, that women’s rights should be abused. M. Bachman stated that Planned Parenthood clinics are popping up in shopping malls and just makes it to convenient for women to get an abortion while they are out shopping. Is she for real? Does she really believe that women who have abortions put so little thought into it that they would have one while out shopping? It is that attitude that makes the rest of the country hate women who have abortions. Who hate women for getting pregnant when they weren’t married. But what is their answer to that problem? Abstinence? It has been proven for the past 30 years that abstinence doesn’t work. Teenage pregnancy is higher among those who practice abstinence than those who have access to birth control. Yet they still want to take away the only other options available. Kill all Planned Parenthood clinics.
Over the past couple of weeks we have seen the true agenda. It is occurring in WI, it is occurring in IN and OH. It is taking away women’s rights along with the rest of our rights. Don’t be fooled they WILL be coming for you.
I think George Carlin says it best. He was a man ahead of his time.
George Carlin: Pro Life, Abortion, And The Sanctity Of Life
Hi ghostrider – yes, Planned Parenthood DOES provide abortions, just not at all their clinics. Most do referrals, but some in fact do abortions.
That aside, the issues you have raised are heart stopping – the egregious direction of women to “crisis pregnancy centers” is a MONEY MAKER for those centers that have NOTORIOUSLY offered WRONG information filled with lies, medical misinformation, and propaganda. That is OUTRAGEOUS. Sending women to people who are not medically trained while asserting they can’t get GOOD information from REAL medical providers is dangerous! It shows that it’s all entirely political and has not a care in the world about women’s health. These are people who do believe that women SHOULD die if they even THINK about abortion rather than maternal sacrifice of their health and lives.
The assault on women is of long standing. This is not new – I’ve watched this attack on Planned Parenthood and women for over two decades. It has just never been this egregious before. Never been this powerful before.
I worked for Planned Parenthood though, and I will lay out one critique = we dismissed the emotional quality of this choice, one you so firmly DO note: this is a hard decision arrived at through deep deliberation and heartache. By PP’s presentation of it as a “medical issue” as if it were exactly the same import as removing a mole, we LOST the battle. We should never have tried to make this dispassionate – it is NOT. There is almost no one who is not emotionally impacted by it.
Many changes came in PP’s attitudes over the years, none less powerful than what women of color told PP – this is not their central issue, and yes, it DOES matter how they feel. But by the time PP’s leadership accepted the WOMEN’s views, it was too late. We had made this into a sterile, white women’s issue of convenience through our OWN advertising. It’s why I no longer work for them.
The sheer cruelty of the RW assault on women means they have few REAL champions organizationally on either side. People who genuinely care about their emotional health as well as physical. They need access to people who recognize how much abortion is more than a mere medical procedure – it’s often the death of hope. It’s the hard reality of happiness dashed. Women who walk into clinics with bravado still cry. Not because it’s the wrong decision – it’s NOT – but because it means that what should have been one of the happiest moments of a woman’s life, being pregnant with a wanted child – this time is not. Wrong guy, wrong time, wrong circumstances, dangerous health problems, whatever – it’s not the dream they once had.
Do the RW actually care about “babies”? There is very little evidence they do. Apparently upon birth their warranty runs out. I have several nun friends who argue loudly and clearly that if you want to stop abortion, protect and support the children who are here!
Here is the huge RW disconnect – in the uterus a baby is a precious gift from God. Out of the uterus, it’s YOUR responsibility, don’t talk to me or ask me to pay for it. When parents of children with sever autism asked CA Governor candidate Meg Whitman how she would help them if she won, Whitman pulled herself up and said she was OUTRAGED that parents would ask for help for these children. “They’re YOUR children. YOU take care of them.” So much for “gifts from God”.
The best transformation has been the creation of new programs that offer women more than sterile medical assistance and more than freaking “repentance” for their emotions. Across the nation groups such as “Exhale” and Latinas for Reproductive Rights, and the expansion of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice to name but a few, all are meeting the emotional, spiritual, and psychological issues that women have attending this difficult choice. And they ARE making it a choice – offering all options, no judgement, everything to help, nothing to condemn – so women have the freest and most open support on every front, before and after abortion. That is essential for women’s true equality.
What we now need is to bring that compassion INTO the political debate – not just the issues of medical rights but of values rights. You, narrow male ueber Christian politician, do NOT get to dictate any woman’s medical, emotional, spiritual process especially not with phony rules and regulations that impose YOUR values on me. We need the values arguments front and center – it’s about my whole worth as a woman, my intelligence and moral authority over my conscience, and it’s not American to dictate to me what that should be.
If you don’t plan to welcome my child into the world with love and support and engagement and compassion – then you don’t get to tell me I have to give birth to someone whose life – as opposed to mere temporary existence in my womb – means nothing to you. Only I can decide what is benefit and what is harm with respect to that.
I know, it’s a bloody outrage.
Ghostrider, Nice post.
(I think it might be the case that while Planned Parenthood doesn’t perform invasive abortions, they are able to prescribe both “the morning after pill” (which can be used up to five days after intercourse) and “the abortion pill”, mifepistrone, (which may be used within nine weeks of pregnancy). To the extent that PP prescribes mifepistrone, they could technically be describe as abortion providers unless one makes explicit that the word “abortion” is referring only to medically invasive procedures such as D&C.)
I wish people would understand what Planned Parenthood is for.
I wish people would consider the concept of “family planning” beyond whether or not to use a condom or the best way to wake up their wife to change the baby.
As far as abortions, well I have my opinion. I try not to spew it all over the place, because I am not a woman. I will never have an abortion, I can not ever be in a position where one would be called for.
But personally… If memory recording and playback ever does become possible, I would love to see every 12 year old boy be required to experience first hand what it feels like for a woman to go through the process of giving birth.
And quite frankly, every girl, within 10 days of her first menstrual cycle, as well.
I would also like to see these pseudo-cons and theo-cons rounded up and forced to calculate the cost of every birth in the US, including pre-natal and neo-natal care, be forced to volunteer at least 14 days at a neo-natal ICU (with infants with fetal alcohol syndrome, drug addiction, immature organs, and all the other complications seen among premature births), and then submit a viable plan on how to manage our society with the addition of these extra lives.
I notice that Arizona’s “race and gender” law didn’t mention severe handicaps or HIV infection. Or any other long-term, usually fatal, health problem. I also noticed that there attempt to restrict abortion did not include funding for improved pre-natal care and screening.
The so-called “pro-life” movement seems to believe that every fertilized ova is sacred, but past birth they are disposable.
Ghostrider, It makes me sad that no one ‘in power’ will see this insightful post.
You are presnting the facts as they should be presented!
As a female, I Thank you for injecting reality into what should be a non-issue.