Such crap

From Planned Parenthood:

This is not what we worked for. This is not what we fought for. 

You and I, and millions of Planned Parenthood supporters, fought for a year to make sure that health care reform would provide comprehensive coverage to every woman, man, and child in America. We achieved some tremendous victories, including defeating the Stupak amendment that would have banned private insurance coverage of abortion for millions of women. 

Now, a Stupak-like rule is back — and it came from the Obama administration.Tell the Obama administration to reverse this decision and allow women to secure the coverage they need.

The final health care reform bill included extensive restrictions on using federal funds to pay for abortion coverage, but the decision announced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services yesterday goes beyond even these restrictions. 

The Obama administration has decided that no woman in the new high-risk insurance pools will be allowed to obtain abortion coverage beyond limited cases (rape, incest, endangering the life of the woman). Not even if she pays for that coverage with her own money. 

We need to make sure the Obama administration knows this is unacceptable. Click here to do your part and tell the Obama administration to reverse this decision.

The high-risk insurance pools are for some of the most medically vulnerable women in the country — those with pre-existing conditions such as breast and ovarian cancer, AIDS, diabetes, and other conditions that may make pregnancy extraordinarily dangerous. These women will be locked out from abortion coverage, even if they pay for it out of their own pockets. 

Tell the Obama administration to reverse this decision immediately.

The president committed his administration to preventing any federal funds from being spent on abortion care. But the fact is, this announcement from HHS goes well beyond that. Nothing in the new health care reform law requires a ban on abortion coverage in the high-risk pools. No law passed by Congress forced this decision. The Obama administration has chosen to place a new burden on ill and medically vulnerable women seeking abortion coverage. 

After all the amazing work and the unyielding dedication from Planned Parenthood supporters like you that helped get us this far, I can't just let that happen. This is not what we fought for — which means it's time to fight back against the Obama administration's abortion coverage ban now. Click here to take action.

Thank you so very much for standing with us and the women, men, and teens who rely on Planned Parenthood.

For the love of...

From Planned Parenthood:

Yesterday, Judy Blume — a beloved writer and icon to generations of women — graciously wrote a letter about Mother's Day for Planned Parenthood. Now, anti-choice extremists are inundating her with hate mail and phone calls. We rarely respond to these outrageous attacks, but when it comes to Judy Blume ... well, I can't stand by and do nothing. I just can't.

Please, let her know how much we appreciate her courage!
Say thanks and send her a note of support. Click here.
Spread the word. Please send an e-mail to friends, and post this message on your social network, blog, and twitter.
Nothing — NOTHING — would make Judy happier than to know that the backlash has resulted in more support for Planned Parenthood and the women we serve.

I love Judy Blume. That is all.

Secretary of Health and Human Services UPDATED

UPDATE: She's been confirmed. Yay!

--------------
Believe it or not, 100+ days into the Obama Administartion and we are without a Secretary of Health and Human Services. And, we are now faced with a possible pandemic. WTH?

From Planned Parenthood:

President Obama's nominee for secretary of health and human services, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, is under attack from anti-choice extremists. They want to block her confirmation, and they're doing everything they can to convince their allies in the Senate to play along.

Gov. Sebelius is a leading health policy expert, a popular governor, and a strong advocate for increased health care access. With countless women and their families struggling to afford quality health care during these difficult times, she is exactly the kind of leader we need to create true health care reform.

Perhaps Secretary Clinton needs to have a word with them...

Click here to take action.

Quickie: Public Comment Period

From Planned Parenthood:

President Obama began the process of overturning the Bush administration rule that limits the rights of patients to receive complete and accurate reproductive health information and services. This is huge — as you might know, we've been fighting the rule for months, and I'm just about ready to breathe one heck of a sigh of relief.

But it's not over yet. We still need your help!

In order to overturn the Bush administration rule, President Obama has to allow the public to comment on what he plans to do. That is where YOU come in. It is important that we show the administration that we support the president's proposal. Will you take a moment right now and add your name to the list of people who support reversing Bush's dangerous rule? Thank you, once again.

For background on this issue, click here.

Planned Parenthood funding in jeopardy

From PP:

Planned Parenthood needs your help — right now. Anti-choice Sen. David Vitter has introduced an amendment to the Appropriations bill currently being debated in the Senate that would strip federal Title X family planning funding from Planned Parenthood. We need your help to protect Planned Parenthood and the women, men and teens our affiliate health centers serve.

Sen. Vitter's amendment is just the latest in a long string of attacks against Planned Parenthood — and potentially the most devastating. By attempting to deny Title X family planning funding to our health centers, he and his anti-choice allies are making themselves absolutely clear: their goal is to shut down every Planned Parenthood health center in America.

We can't let them do it. Click here to tell your senators to vote "NO" on the Vitter Amendment.

This is the worst possible time for these outrageous attacks. More and more people are losing their jobs and their health insurance — and that means that safety-net providers like Planned Parenthood affiliate health centers are more important than ever. It's unconscionable to try to strip our funding at time when so many people are relying on us — but that's exactly what Sen. Vitter and his allies are trying to do.

This battle is happening right now on the floor of the Senate, and we need your help. Tell your senators that you support Planned Parenthood. Tell them to stand up against this latest attack against our health centers. Tell them to vote "NO."

National Condom Week

From Planned Parenthood:

While a lot of us are enjoying Valentine's Day with loved ones this weekend, there's another annual event taking place that you might have missed: this week is National Condom Week!

Planned Parenthood is the nation's largest provider of contraceptive services, so we're pretty big fans of National Condom Week. It's a time to talk about important issues like contraceptive access and education, not to mention prevention of sexually transmitted infections. But mostly, it's a time to celebrate that simple, effective, wonderful invention known as the latex condom.

So we've pulled together a few of our favorite condom-related videos and put them all in one playlist. Want to see condoms used in high fashion? Or maybe it's time for a brief refresher on properly using a condom? And then there's my favorite, the Golden Girls shopping at the pharmacy, with Bea Arthur yelling, "Condoms, Rose! Condoms!"

Click here to watch our playlist. While you're there, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel — it's the best way to stay up-to-date on the sometimes fun, sometimes serious, but always engaging videos from Planned Parenthood.

From all of us at Planned Parenthood, Happy National Condom Week!

Click here to find out more about National Condom Week. Click here to learn about the amazing OWL program that many UU Churches offer. I was a chaperone for an overnight and the kids are really funny and engaged...they learned all about lovemaking (gay and straight) last night and will find out everything they need to know about contraception, abortion, family planning, the importance of making good decisions, etc. today. Can't wait for my children to be old enough to go through the program.

Not the change we need

Family planning has been stripped from the stimulus package. From Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood:

I'm stunned. We've just confirmed news reports that provisions to expand access to affordable family planning will be stripped from the economic stimulus bill. Removing this provision is a betrayal of millions of low-income women, and it will place an even greater burden on state budgets that are already strained to the breaking point.

I was frustrated when I saw a parade of legislators and talking heads on television this weekend spreading false information about this commonsense bill. House Minority Leader John Boehner even claimed that the provision would cost millions of dollars — when the fact is it would save the federal government $700 million over 10 years.

I was even more shocked to read today that congressional leaders have taken these false arguments seriously and will remove family planning provisions from the stimulus bill. It's time for Washington to hear from the millions of Americans who support commonsense policies that invest in health care and help ease the economic downturn.

Let me be clear. The Medicaid Family Planning State Option is a simple way to make health care affordable for millions of Americans. It would do two important things:

1. It would allow millions of women to obtain basic health care. It would extend safety-net health care coverage for millions who are losing their jobs and health insurance in the economic downturn. Studies estimate that 2.3 million low-income women would receive coverage under this provision by 2014, and 500,000 women would be able to avoid unintended pregnancies.
2. In these difficult times, this provision would save states money. State budgets are being squeezed by the economic downturn, just as millions are losing their jobs and health insurance. The Medicaid Family Planning State Option not only would help states extend their coverage, it would generate savings for states and the federal government by expanding access to preventive care.

What to do? Again from PP:

Call the White House at 202-456-1111 — it's a quick and easy way to make a big impact. Click here for more details on what to say, and to report back to Planned Parenthood on your call. (A phone call is the best way to make your voice heard, but if you can't make the call, you can send an email here.)
Please, take two minutes now to help us raise a public outcry.

Global Gag Rule & Fair Pay: It's a good day

From Planned Parenthood:

I had no doubt it was going to happen, but I'm going to celebrate anyway. As one of his first official acts in office, President Obama has overturned the global gag rule. Join me in sending him our thanks today.

By overturning the global gag rule, President Obama has taken a tremendous first step toward promoting women's health around the world. Overseas health care providers will now be able to offer counseling, referrals, and services for the full range of reproductive health options to women without fear that the U.S. government will strip them of their funding.

I'm sending our new president a message of thanks on behalf of these providers, the women they serve, and those of us here in the U.S. who have been protesting the global gag rule since the day President Ronald Reagan first implemented it.

Awesome. And, it gets even better: From MomsRising:

We have great news: Last night, the U.S. Senate passed, by a strong majority, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. Since this bill also recently passed the U.S. House, the bill will soon go to President Obama, who has promised to sign it into law.

Thank you -- you helped make this happen! Your nearly 100,000 messages to the U.S. House and Senate; nearly 9,000 resumes to Senator John McCain's office after he refused to support this legislation and said that women don't need fair pay, they need "more education and training"; tens of thousands of petition signatures; and work organizing more than 40 local, in-district meetings with your U.S. Senate offices last year was key to this success.

Take a moment to savor a job well done.

The Fair Pay Act will most likely be the very first bill President Obama signs into law.

Tell Bush to keep his word

From Planned Parenthood:

You just can't trust them.

This summer, the Bush administration tried to keep secret a proposed federal regulation that would allow health care providers to redefine abortion to include birth control. With your help, we forced Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt to make the plans public.

Then the administration submitted the proposed rule for public comments. More than 200,000 people — including more than 90,000 Planned Parenthood supporters like you, and more than 150 members of Congress — immediately called on the Bush administration to withdraw this damaging proposal that could keep millions of people from receiving basic health information and necessary medical care.

The Bush administration promised not to release any new regulations after November 1.

Well, it's now November 14, and guess what? President Bush is poised to implement this disastrous new policy as soon as next week. Tell the Bush administration: Keep your word. Stop the attack on women's health.

Click here for background on this issue. Click here to sign the petition telling Bush to keep his word and stop the attacks on women's health. It's the least he can do, but I have strong doubts he'll leave the White House with a shred of dignity or decency. So, the very least you should do is sign the petition.

Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio

Do you live in Southwest Ohio? If so, Planned Parenthood has a monthly volunteer night. Next Tuesday, November 11th from 5:30-7:00 pm just show up and help out with administrative tasks: mailings, compiling medical charts, information packets, etc. They'll even provide refreshments!

Location: Mt. Auburn Center
2314 Auburn Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45219

RSVP to volunteers@ppswo.org

Sing out the Vote

For those in Cincinnati and the surrounding area:

SING OUT THE VOTE

A Suite for Change

Musicians on tour through Ohio to get out the vote- Mobilizing Women Like Never Before- will generously present a free evening of powerful social change songs written by participating artists, including:

Holly Near

Laura Love

Wishing Chair

The Prince Myshkins

Anne Feeney

Tracy Walker



Monday, October 27, 2008 7:30-9:30pm

(Doors open at 7:00pm, no tickets necessary, limited seating!)

Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church

103 Wm. H. Taft Rd. Cincinnati, OH 45219

Mobilize the feminist voice and get out the vote!

"We come to inspire, heal, motivate, energize however we can be of use. We want to support the dedicated people of Ohio who are determined to see that there is a fair and representative election this time around." – organizer of Sing Out the Vote, Holly Near

*Call Francie for more information 513.824.7814

It's free! It's Holly Near (and friends)! It's going to be amazing!

Ohio Prevention First Act

Click here to sign a petition from Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Ohio:

For over three years now, the Ohio Prevention First Act has gone without a hearing in the Ohio House of Representatives. This critical piece of legislation was put on the back burner while teen pregnancy rates rose and sexually transmitted disease rates skyrocketed...
The chairman of the Ohio House Health Committee will schedule a hearing for the Ohio Prevention First Act later this year - late November or December...
Please invite your friends to sign the petition. Every voice brings us closer to passing this much needed legislation.

The Ohio Prevention First Act will reduce unintended pregnancies through:

• Realistic sexuality education and teen pregnancy prevention programs,
• Funding for family planning programs,
• Guaranteed access to birth control prescriptions,
• Contraceptive equity, and
• Emergency contraception access and education.

So, click and sign to urge Rep. Wacthmann to give the bill a hearing.

Open Letter to Sarah Palin

Planned Parenthood is sending a letter to Sarah Palin:

Dear Sarah Palin,

You are not our candidate.

You are not our candidate because you required women in Wasilla to pay for their own medical examinations after being raped.

You are not our candidate because you do not support a woman's right to choose, even in the case of rape or incest.

You are not our candidate because you've cut funding for teen moms, and for comprehensive sex education.

You are not our candidate because as vice president -- a heartbeat away from the presidency -- you would jeopardize health care for women everywhere.

We are teachers, doctors, athletes, programmers, artists, lawyers, secretaries, CEOs, students, designers, nurses, factory workers, mothers, and fathers. We are conservatives and liberals, Democrats and Republicans, country and city people. We are women and men. We are voters. We are the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

We believe in a woman's right to choose and the right of every person to have access to complete reproductive health care. We are hundreds of thousands strong, and we are doing everything we can to make sure you are not elected.

You are not our candidate.

Click here to send your own. I was number 19,754 to do so.

More on Palin

From Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood:

It was heartbreaking news, especially on the heels of such an inspiring week. Right now there is so much shameless rhetoric from the Republicans about breaking the glass ceiling, especially from McCain and his running mate. What good does it do to break a glass ceiling with a woman who wants government to control women's reproductive health? That isn't the world I want for my two daughters.

A day later, and I'm still having trouble expressing the depth of my anger about McCain's choice of a running mate. This shameless pandering to women — with a woman who doesn't trust other women to make their own decisions about childbearing — has really got me going.

Comments from my favorite blog, Mother Talkers:

This really shows McCain's faulty judgment... who would write a will in which upon your death you leave your children to someone you only met once and only know about through secondhand reports? That is what McCain did, he chose this inexperienced person to take care of the country if he dies. Isn't McCain the one that says the greatest threat we face is terrorism? Then why chose a successor that has zero foreign policy experience?

or,

I've found myself angrier about this selection the longer I think about it. Tokenism, anti-choice, anti-stem cell research, pro-creationism. And not ready to lead at this level. A heartbeat away from the Presidency. And this is McCain's decision-making? I don't understand how anyone can vote for him and I'm terrified that enough will...

and,

How can you pick for VP someone that no one in your party knows (see Kay Baliey Hutchison's quote!) and someone you've met ONCE and then talked on the phone with ONCE?!? What kind of decision-making judgement is THAT?

Lastly, Jane Smiley writes on HuffPo,

But what Sarah Palin shows is that once again, the right wing is adept at turning the women's movement upside down and offering us a woman who reinforces patriarchal power rather than challenges it. Palin is another Margaret Thatcher or Ann Coulter, a woman who attaches herself to men in power and then does them one better. She uses the freedom that the women's movement has brought her (to) quash the liberation of women with other views than hers.

'Nuff said. I say she'll be out of the race before long citing the need to be with her family. I'm having flashbacks to the Harriet Miers debacle, aren't you? Perhaps Rove and McCain have jumped the shark. Time will tell.

What to do? Send some money to somebody, anybody but the Republican party. McCain got a $7 million bump since the announcement. Ugh.

Obama/Biden 2008

Stupid and Juvenile

Planned Parenthood is sending condoms to delegates at the Republican National Convention. This is kind of stupid and juvenile and will probably alienate more people than anything, so it's right up my alley! It also makes a very serious point about Republican politics (from Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood's Action Fund):

And after spending the past few months dealing with some of the worst results of eight years of the Bush administration's backwards policies on health care and sex education ... well, they don't get it. Not one bit.

They don't get that young people need comprehensive, accurate sex education. They don't get that their politics do not belong in the exam room with a woman and her doctor. And they don't get that preventing sexually transmitted diseases starts with one simple item: a condom.

So, do your part and send a condom to a Republican delegate. You know I will!

Ugh

From Planned Parenthood:

For the past month, we have been aware that the Bush administration was planning to release a rule that would limit the rights of patients to receive complete and accurate birth control and other reproductive health information and services. With your help, we did all we could to stop the president from going through with the threat to release the new rule. But Bush was intent on delivering this "gift" to his extreme anti-choice supporters before he left office. Yesterday was their lucky day.

You can bet that anti-choice activists are thrilled that President Bush made good on his promise to them. This rule will allow them to (among other things - ed.)receive federal funds for so-called "crisis pregnancy centers" — anti-choice facilities whose purpose is to deceive and dissuade women from accessing birth control and abortion information and services.

We've got a fight on our hands — and it's a big one. We have 30 days to dispute the rule with everything we've got. That includes you. It is during crises like the one happening now when your support for Planned Parenthood and the people it serves is most needed. We need your emergency contribution. We're launching a massive campaign immediately. Click here to help.

Here is the actual text of the proposed rule change. Please read it and familiarize yourself with it in order to effectively combat it.

Also, leave a comment on Secretary Leavitt's blog (try to be respectful - I know it's hard!), sign an on-line petition at HillPac (Sens. Clinton and Murray have been fighting this thing tooth and nail), and head over to MoveOn.org to take action.

This is outrageous and pathetic and we must make our voices heard LOUD and CLEAR.

Birth control = Abortion?

If you've been reading this blog, you know that Bush is trying to ram through a Health and Human Services "rule change" that equates birth control with abortion. Please take a moment to sign the Moveon.Org and Planned Parenthood emergency petition to HHS Secretary Leavitt. This is outrageous and there needs to be a very strong, unequivocal public response. Send the message to Sec. Leavitt that women deserve better than this back door approach to limiting our health care options. Bastards.

Here's the petition link again. Sign it. Now. Please.

Quickie: Planned Parenthood Pledge

Click here to pledge to take back the White House in November. 

There is strength in numbers.

South Dakota Abortion Woes

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Planned Parenthood effectively forcing doctors to provide ideologically-driven, misleading, and inflammatory information to women seeking abortion.  That is,  the embryo or fetus is  a "whole, separate unique living human being."  Yup, women are so stupid and unable to make informed choices because apparently we don't know that we are pregnant with human beings. 

If it isn't bad enough in South Dakota (it has the most restrictive abortion laws in the country), it could get worse. That's right, worse than 

no abortion can be performed in the state without a 24-hour waiting period, mandatory education about a woman's options, parental notification in the case of a minor, and the review of a sonogram

and now this ridiculous statement about unique human being-ness, another abortion ban is slated for the ballot this November.  Goddess help us all.

Sign this pledge at Planned Parenthood to show your support for women and health care providers in South Dakota. Or this one at South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families. Or both.