Standing with Planned Parenthood

We, the organizers, of this crazy project, are both women. I’ll let the shock settle in. I know it must be a hard concept to grasp that the two volunteers who bake hundreds of cookies and collect thousands of pads and tampons are women, but we are. As women, we both feel very strongly about a few inalienable facts:

• we are just as valuable and equal as men
• our health is just as important and valuable as a man’s
• our reproductive organs (whether we are using them to reproduce or not) deserve access to affordable, reliable, professional health care
• Planned Parenthood is a dedicated, trustworthy, professional provider of women’s health care and without them, many low-income women will lose their access to life saving care.

These facts, and countless other reasons are why we both stand with Planned Parenthood:

While there are many incredibly important and vital federal programs at risk of receiving devastating funding cuts (like Pell Grants, low-income heating assistance), we are both particularly concerned and disheartened by the Pence Amendment that would ban Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funding.

Through On the Spot, we have had the pleasure of working closely with Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania‘s staff and can tell you that it would be incredibly difficult to find any other organization (for-profit or non-profit) that has a staff that is so genuinely dedicated to providing the services that they do.

Planned Parenthood provides a plethora of services for men and women:

• STD/STI testing (for men too!)
• Gynecological exams
• Birth control services
• Counseling
• Abortion services
• Teen counseling and education (including a 24 hour ‘Facts of Life’ phone line)
• Education programming in local schools

It would be impossible to begin to describe how absolutely vital these services are. They save lives. Women are alive today because of the care they received at Planned Parenthood. Defunding Planned Parenthood and thereby denying low-income women of these services is unconscionable and despicable.

We will continue to Stand with Planned Parenthood. We will call and thank our local Congressmen (Mike Doyle: 202-225-2135; Jason Altmire: 202-225-2565) for voting against the Pence Amendment. We will call our Senators (Bob Casey: 202-224-6324; Pat Toomey: 202-224-4254) and ask them to support women and vote against the Pence Amendment. We will do all that we can to support Planned Parenthood, as tirelessly and passionately as they have supported the millions of women they have cared for and will continue to care for.

To find out more on how to Stand with Planned Parenthood, check out their Action Center here.

And in case you’re still wondering how dedicated we are, we both turned ourselves into sausage like hunchbacks to put Planned Parenthood t-shirts over our winter coats at a rally today!