Defunding Planned Parenthood

Dear Neighbors:

I realize that I haven't been posting as frequently and I apologize for that. My work as a teacher keeps me pretty busy and lately, uninspired. As it happens, there are plenty of things going on in the world that have nothing to do with being single. One matter of particular importance to me is the freedom that I have as a woman to make my own decisions regarding my reproductive system. As I'm sure you know, we didn't always have that freedom in the United States. At one time, a woman was forced to produce as many children as she could conceive before menopause. Birth control was almost unheard of and discouraged. And abortion...if one could find a doctor to perform this service, one could never be sure of the outcome. Most of this changed with Margaret Sanger, who was willing to spend time in jail in order to promote birth control rather than see her friends and family suffer through pregnancy after pregnancy during the Depression. Planned Parenthood began in 1942 in order to provide health care, cancer screenings, birth control and, of course, abortions. 

Congress has recently voted to "defund" Planned Parenthood. In other words, they don't care:

• that birth control requests are 35% of all PP services;
• that STD/AIDS testing and treatment take up another 34% of services;
• that cancer testing and screening is another 17% of services;
• women's health services (pregnancy tests, infertility, etc) were 10%;
• that only 2% to 4% of visits involve abortions.

The narrow-minded individuals who want to take funding away from Planned Parenthood are far too ignorant to recognize that PP provides so many valuable services to the communities. Where else can one get free condoms? If that free condom is the only thing standing in between college and teenage motherhood, why would anyone want to shut this service down? The reason is that too many people have forgotten that a woman's body is her right and her domain. No one has the right to force her to do anything with it. Most people have different views on abortion. Mine is simple: A baby is a baby when it's born and no sooner. Until it's born, it's under the protection and control of its mother. That's it. If she wants to abort, that's her right. Don't try to convince me that life is sacred. There are billions of people on the planet. Life is anything but sacred. There are billions of ants on the planet -- are they sacred? How about roaches? 

It isn't just the attack on Planned Parenthood that should have you worried. There are have been small chips made in Roe v Wade over the years, just enough so that women find it difficult, but not impossible, to secure an abortion. Twelve states are passing legislation that requires a woman seeking an abortion to view an ultrasound and then wait 24 hours for the procedure. The ultrasound has nothing to do with the woman's health -- it's merely a ploy to force her to look at her fetus. In South Dakota, there is only one functioning abortion clinic due to the violence towards abortion providers in the state. There is a law up for consideration in SD that would consider the murder of an abortion provider to be justifiable homicide. 

Regardless of your view on abortion, remember that a woman's body is no one else's property. A woman's pregnancy is her business and no one else's. The decision to have, or not have, an abortion should be made by the mother and only the mother.  Sorry, men, you have no rights either -- but you don't have to carry or give birth to the baby. You abdicated your control over the situation when you decided not to use a condom.

The next time you're faced with a reproductive decision, who should make it? You, or some legislators who don't know you and won't help you when the baby arrives? If you would like to take action, you can follow this link to Planned Parenthood: 

Planned Parenthood

Mine, mine, mine.

D