Planned Parenthood Responds, Poorly.

As promised, here’s the form letter I got back from Planned Parenthood.  If I had to sum it up it would go something like, “we trust women, blah, blah, blah, bad legislation, blah, blah, trust women, blah, blah, blah, we’re cool, blah, blah, blah, neener.”  I don’t expect you to read the whole thing, but here it is if you want to:

Do you know what the main difference is between Planned Parenthood and our opponents? We trust women.

Really, it’s that simple: we believe in and trust women. And we believe that every woman should be able to make decisions about her own body and health care.

And it’s clear that the anti-choice, anti-women’s health lawmakers pushing dangerous legislation in state after state don’t feel the same. They think they can chip away at women’s right to make their own medical decisions and slash funding for women’s health — and as long as it’s happening somewhere else, to someone else, they can get away with it.

Show them they’re wrong. Tell them you stand with Planned Parenthood because you trust women to make decisions about their bodies and their health care.
In Arizona, Governor Jan Brewer is set to sign legislation that could ban federal funding for Planned Parenthood health centers. This comes just weeks after she signed a law that places severe limits on when women can get abortions — and means that many women will lose the right to end a pregnancy before they receive important information about their own health and the health of their pregnancy.

And it’s not just Arizona. Lawmakers in Wisconsin, Texas, Indiana, Kansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee have eliminated funding for Planned Parenthood health centers — and Ohio may be next. Six other states, including Idaho, Nebraska, and Kansas, have enacted abortion time limits similar to those in Arizona, and a bill in Georgia is awaiting the governor’s signature. In Virginia and Texas, women seeking abortions are now forced by law to undergo ultrasounds.The state legislators pushing these laws don’t trust women to make decisions about their own bodies and health. They think they know better than the women themselves what’s good for them. Tell them they’re wrong — and it’s time to start trusting women.

Women who rely on Planned Parenthood health centers in states across the country are being targeted by reckless lawmakers who will cut them off from their own source of health care. These women don’t come to Planned Parenthood to make a political statement — they come because they need care, and often have no place else to go. These women matter — and the politicians threatening their access to basic health services need to back off. They need to hear from you.

When you stand with Planned Parenthood, you stand for something pretty critical: trusting women. You stand for the right of every woman to make her own personal, private medical decisions. You stand with the women, men, and young people who rely on Planned Parenthood health centers for everything from contraception to blood pressure tests to cancer screenings. You stand with millions of us who just, simply and truly, trust women.

Johnny, tell the lawmakers who are trying to push their narrow-minded ideology on the rest of us exactly where you stand.

Thank you for everything you do for Planned Parenthood and for the women, men, and young people who rely on us to protect their access to care.

Sincerely,

Cecile Richards, President

Planned Parenthood Federation of America

I don’t know you guys.  It seems to me that this whole issue has nothing to do with trust.  Don’t you think the bad guys trust women to take birth control and get abortions just as much as PP trusts us to make our own decisions? Isn’t the issue more about access to health care?  I mean, why make it about trust?  That assumes that I’m going to do the right thing with services provided, and that opens up a barrel of monkeys because it acknowledges that there is a MORAL component to me choosing what I do about birth control.  WHAT? 

LET ME BREAK THIS DOWN FOR YOU: THIS IS NOT A MORAL ISSUE.  IF HUMAN BEINGS NEED AFFORDABLE ACCESS TO REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE, THE EXISTENCE OF PLANNED PARENTHOOD IS JUSTIFIED.  This has nothing to do with good/bad, right/wrong dichotomies. This whole schmoozy bullshit letter is offensive because it’s a bunch of suck-up sloganeering.  “We trust you,” WHINE,
They don’t.” MINGE.  Fuck that.

And, by the way, I’ve been to Planned Parenthood and filled out their form where upon they ask you about your sex toy habits.  They don’t trust us for shit. 

I suppose not everyone at Planned Parenthood is a moron, and they do good things for people.  People they trust.  Assholes.

Stay tuned for: my letter back to Cecile Richards, RCS Movie Texting (wherein I destroy movies for Kelly pretty much forever), and our new Thanks, FEMA! series.