Today is National Pink Out Day, a day when we all come together to show that we support Planned Parenthood and are disgusted with the lies and deceptions being spewed by their detractors in an attempt to ACORN them. Today at Eclectablog, you will hear from many of our writers about their perspectives on the importance of standing with Planned Parenthood during their current time of need. The fact that Republicans in Congress are willing to shut down the federal government in order to destroy this essential health care provider is a testament to just how desperate conservatives have become.
My personal experience with Planned Parenthood doesn’t come from having utilized their services. I have been fortunate and haven’t needed to. But I can say, unequivocally, that every important woman in my life has, at one time or another, utilized one of the myriad services that Planned Parenthood provides. Mammograms. STD screening. Contraceptives. Abortions. Every one of these women in my life has turned to Planned Parenthood at some point, knowing they could be trusted to provide professional services at an affordable cost. And it’s affordable largely because what they do is so important that they receive federal funding – none of which, by the way, goes toward abortion services.
I was going to explain why it’s so important for us all to make a donation to Planned Parenthood. Then, last week, I listened to Dan Savage’s Savage Lovecast and he said it better than I ever could. As some of you know, I am a big fan of Dan Savage and even filled in for him for a week, writing his Savage Love column.
You can listen to Dan’s emphatic support of Planned Parenthood HERE. Here is a transcript, which picks up at the 8-minute mark in the Lovecast:
[T]he Republican agenda, as we saw when the Republicans seized control of state legislatures all across the country in 2010, the Republican agenda has been to attack abortion. TRAP legislation. Ultrasounds. Vaginal wands. Rick Perry successfully closed three quarters of the abortion clinics in Texas.But it’s not just abortion that drives them crazy as we have seen on the concurrent attacks on access to birth control and contraceptives. That ultimately this about Republican, the opposition – right wing conservative nuts – to women controlling their own reproductive lives. Their own lives, period. Their own reproductive lives. Their own health.
Because they know when they defund Planned Parenthood they aren’t preventing abortion. They are not defunding abortion. They know. And the target is also to defund contraception. To defund treatment for sexually-transmitted infections.
Remember, these are the same assholes – these right wing anti-Choice assholes – the same people who opposed the introduction of a vaccine for HPV. And the reason they opposed that, the introduction of that vaccine, was because they liked the fact that women were dying of cervical cancer from HPV infections earlier in life. They used those deaths from cervical cancer related to HPV to argue FOR abstinence education and against … sex.
And defunding Planned Parenthood because of these videos means defunding contraception. Means defunding vaccinations for HPV for women which they opposed all along. Cancer screening and prevention. That’s vaccines for HPV. They’re going after that, too. They didn’t want those coming online in the first place and this is going to allow them to take it out.
We have to stand with Planned Parenthood now. When it’s a little diffcult. When it’s a litlle awkward. When they’re under fire. We need to stand with Planned Parenthood. I stand with Planned Parenthood and you should, too. I’m going to make a donation to Planned Parenthood today and I’m going to ask YOU to make a donation to Planned Parenthood today. Go to PlannedParenthood.org and click on “Donate“.
I’ve said this before – if you’ve been listening to the show long enough to hear me come to Planned Parenthood’s defense in the past, you’ve heard me say this – you don’t have to donate $500. You don’t have to donate $1,000. You don’t have to donate $25. If all you can spare is five bucks or ten bucks or twenty bucks, go donate it. Go make that donation. Because Planned Parenthood cannot only point to the amount of money it raises from the public as evidence of it’s support, it’s broad support, but the number of donors is another figure that really matters. Another data point that really matters in defending Planned Parenthood, in Planned Parenthood defending itself, and supporters of Planned Parenthood defending Planned Parenthood. Both those numbers have equal weight, equal value. The amount raised from the public and the number of donors, private donors, out their in the public who support Planned Parenthood.
So, even if you can’t inflate the numbers of dollars that they’ve raised, you can inflate the number of donors that they have, the number of supporters that they have who are motivated enough to donate. So, even if you can only spare five bucks, MAKE. THAT. DONATION. Stand with Planned Parenthood. Now. Now is when it really matters most.
Terry and I are going to make a donation today to Planned Parenthood and we’d like you to join us. PlannedParenthood.org, click “Donate“.
If you’re in Michigan, make your donation HERE.
I’ll finish with this hilarious but sober reminder from the folks at Funny or Die about how ludicrous the lies being told about Planned Parenthood are:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8yEntVb7PM
As Dan said, “Stand with Planned Parenthood. Now. Now is when it really matters most.”
