Archive for the ‘Planned Parenthood’ Category

This past Friday, the Obama administration rejected lobbying efforts to limit women’s access to free birth control. According to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, providing women with a means to control the amount of children they have is a “direct attack on religion,” and is a violation of the clergy’s religious freedoms.

Should President Obama have accommodated the Draconian requests of the bishops, then employees of Catholic Churches, along with employees and students at Catholic universities, would have been out of luck. One protester, a student at a Catholic university, explained why she opposes the idea of a religious exemption on a Change.org petition: “I spend $25 a month on my birth control pill through a non-profit clinic. If I filled my prescription through CVS the cost would be almost $40 a month. I’m a college student with rent and bills to pay and food to buy. I can’t afford to keep doing this. And I certainly can’t afford to have a child right now!” 

The exemption the bishops were calling for would also violate the separation of church and state clause of the US Constitution. In truth, it is simply not up to the Catholic Church, or any religious organization, to influence government in such a way that would limit a person’s access to medical care. This should be obvious. However, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops would like us to believe that they have the religious freedom to deny women their reproductive freedoms. It’s like saying that, should the Catholic Church one day deem it necessary to corral tithe through robbery of local grocery stores, clerics should be allowed to do so on the grounds that … they’re religious and they want to. It may be a stretch, but it is a useful parallel when thinking about how “religious exemption” is used to argue that certain groups of people should have the right to ignore the law, just because. Plus, it’s funny to imagine the Pope running out of Harris Teeter carrying sacs of money. Just saying.

Ultimately, President Obama has required that all insurance policies, regardless of whether or not they are provided by religious institutions, fully cover medical contraceptives for female bodied people.

Though this decision is marked as a success for the pro-choice community, this is not the only religious battle to have been fought over women’s bodies recently. The “Women’s Right to Know Act,” passed right here in North Carolina[read our previous blog on this], is a clear example of how Christian ideology has infiltrated the law books. One aspect of the act, passed in October, requires that abortion providers state the following religious phrase to the person having an abortion: “The life of each human being begins at conception. Abortion will terminate the life of a separate, unique living human being.” If suggesting that a woman is a murderer for exercising her reproductive freedoms is not a direct attack on women, I don’t know what is.

Happy New Year Choice 2.0 readers!  We wish you all a healthy, happy, and overall wonderful New Year!

As we ready ourselves to say goodbye to 2011, let’s review some of our top stories this year

# 1 Banned, Not Cut: NC Republicans attempt to defund Planned Parenthood.  We then  sued the State and won an Injunction, which restores funding for preventative health care until the matter is decided in court.

#2 1984: NC Republicans create the most onerous abortion restrictions in state’s history and have the nerve to call it a “Woman’s Right to Know.” Rep McElrath, one of the main sponsors, has a not intended as a factual statement moment while arguing on the House floor for the bill’s passage.  We then sued the State and won an Injunction.

#3 Lovin the Governor:  Democratic Governor Bev Perdue vetoes both the budget and the insulting ultrasound bill.  Governor Perdue is the thin blue line protecting NC citizens from the new legislative leadership.

#4 Pink Flash Mob: Truth Tour comes to NC, Pro-Choice supporters Stand with Planned Parenthood at the State House every week.  Hundreds of supporters flood Raleigh for a Day of Action for Women’s Health.
 

#5 Lily Ledbetter of the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act comes to Women’s Advocacy Day.  Hundreds of women from across the state join us as we lobby our elected officials.  “Concentrate on what you can do for women, instead of what you can deny them!”

I knew it couldn’t just be my imagination that 2011 has brought the rhetoric around reproductive health and rights to an all new level. It couldn’t just be me that thinks that the “dialogue” this year has been more aggressive, more extreme, and surely the most downright crazy it’s ever been.

Reading Amanda Marcotte’s most recent piece on RH Reality Check (one of my favorite writers on this fantastic blog) totally validated that it’s not just me.

The debate around abortion has been pretty static but 2011 moved a different battlefield to the frontlines. Unfortunately it was one we thought we’d already won. Looking at the events of 2011, you would never know that 98% of women will use some form of birth control in her lifetime. If you were a total outsider looking in, you would almost certainly think that birth control was something extremely controversial, probably only used by a very small minority and perhaps even dangerous. Of course it is neither of the latter and is uncontroversial for the vast majority of Americans. Unfortunately those that DO find it controversial have all seemed to find themselves elected to public office.

2011 marked the year of the War on Contraception. If you need proof check out Marcotte’s RH Reality article for an itemized list but be warned you might want to pour yourself a drink beforehand. Starting first thing this year we saw Congress go to great lengths (almost resulting in a government shutdown) to try to defund Planned Parenthood such that low-income women and men couldn’t access preventive health care services like lifesaving cancer screenings, STI testing and, yes, birth control through their trusted health care provider.

Once Congress failed, state legislatures across the country decided to pick up right where they left off by defunding Planned Parenthood on a state-by-state basis. Of course that happened right here in North Carolina resulting in our current lawsuit against the state. And don’t forget there was that extreme personhood amendment in Mississippi that would have outlawed abortion, IVF, and many forms of birth control that was thankfully defeated although nothing was certain until the absolute eleventh hour.

Then there are the two most recent fights at the federal level over insurance coverage for abortion starting when the Obama administration decided to add birth control to the list of preventive women health care services that will be covered without a co-pay by insurance companies. As we’ve written before, this caused a fight with anti-choice activists who are now trying desperately to find loopholes in the law since they generally make it their top priority to punish women for having sex, thinking of having sex, being capable of having sex, etc.

And finally the big stink around Plan B. This is probably the most bitter pill for me to swallow (pun intended) perhaps because the wound is still fresh and perhaps because it was an insult delivered by our own “pro-choice” President who claimed on the campaign trail that he would be making such decisions based on sound medical science. And then proceeded to refuse to allow Plan B to go over the counter without age restriction, a decision which doesn’t only keep it out of the hands of young women under the age of 17 who may desperately need it but also denies access to women of all ages whether they lack identification, can’t make it to the pharmacy during the appropriate hours or, most likely, who are just too ashamed to ask for it.

And at the end of the day, wasn’t that the point all along?

I would say that 2011 went a long way toward putting women exactly where the anti’s want us. Let’s hope that 2012 brings a renewed sense of purpose for all of us as we stand up and fight back… and a prayer for a small dose of common sense to be delivered to our opposition wouldn’t hurt either.

Proposed NC "Choose Life" plate

First it was blatant discrimination against Planned Parenthood and the thousands of patients who rely on us for preventative health care services. Then it was a horrifying law requiring a woman seeking abortion care to be subjected to detailed descriptions of fetal development with no regard for her personal circumstances or objections.

And on Monday a federal judge issued a temporary injunction to block North Carolina from producing the “Choose Life” license plates approved by the General Assembly this year. This new DMV produced plate would have created a state sponsored funding stream for so-called crisis pregnancy centers which offer biased and even coercive “counseling” surrounding women’s reproductive options.

It’s a good lesson in politics that also applies to other facets of life— people given too much power too quickly begin feeling invincible and in no time at all they’ve overstepped their bounds without seeing the potential consequences. (Lesson for life and you heard it here. Make sure to thank me in your memoirs.)

“Choose Life” license plates represents the perfect example of bypassing all rationality and logic to get a politically motivated end goal. Rabidly anti-choice legislators refused time and time again to allow amendments to the omnibus license plate bill which would have created a “Trust Women, Respect Choice” or (later on) a simple “Respect Choice” plate with proceeds from plate sales going to Planned Parenthood.

To be clear, this wasn’t our ideal scenario by any means. Our view is that government should stay out of the business of “choosing sides” in the abortion debate, but if there were going to be state-sponsored anti-choice license plates on North Carolina’s highways, drivers who hold an opposing view should be permitted to express their opinions as well.

The General Assembly refused to approve "Trust Women, Respect Choice" plates (like this one in Viriginia) six different times.

Yet six different times as this bill moved through the General Assembly amendments that would have created a Respect Choice plate were defeated. (At times these amendments were also accompanied by no small amount of foot stomping and references to “MY bill” by primary sponsor Representative Mitch Gillespie.) Monday Judge James Fox sided with the ACLU who filed the lawsuit and issued a temporary injunction that prevents the DMV from issuing plates.

I think the Jezebel articleis the best summary of the judge’s decision and the most amusing besides but the gist is that the government can’t limit the speech of some citizens by refusing them a license plate (pro-choice drivers) while promoting the speech of others (anti-choicers who would buy this plate).

 It’s worth noting that none of these court battles have reached a final judgment yet. That will likely happen next year. Still, it’s a big step in the right direction on all three accounts that the federal courts are not blind to the illogical and short-sighted missteps of this General Assembly.

As the editors at Jezebel helpfully point out, all we can do is hope the issue will be settled sooner rather than later. Because until then North Carolinians who make all of their personal medical decisions based on stuff they read on passing cars will be terribly lost.

Last night I read a really great article written by Laurie Abraham in the NY Times, Teaching Good Sex.  The piece weaves in history and data on sex education as it follows a group of high school students at a private school inPhiladelphia.  These students are in the minority, in that they receive truly comprehensive sex education at their school.

photo by Olivia Bee for the NYT.

English teacher turned sex educator, Al Vernacchio, teaches a senior level elective entitled, Sexuality and Society.  It begins in the fall with a discussion of how to recognize and form your own values, then moves through topics like sexual orientation; safer sex; relationships; sexual health; and the emotional and physical terrain of sexual activity.

Vernacchio also teaches a mandatory six-session sexuality course for ninth graders. “What if our kids really believed we wanted them to have great sex?” Vernacchio asked near the end of an evening talk he gave for parents of ninth graders who would attend his sex-ed minicourse. “ What if they really believed we want them to know their own bodies?”

Sounds a bit provactive, doesn’t it?  One of the protests perennially lodged against even basic sex ed  is that it encourages teens to have sex , this is firmly disproved by research.  Vernacchio’s goal is for young people to know their own minds, be clear about what they do and don’t want and use their self-knowledge to make choices.  Sex education, he and others point out, is one of the few classes where it’s not understood that young people are being prepared for the future.

It is refreshing to hear other adults and educators talk like this, to recognize that sexuality is an essential part of being a human. This article also makes me very proud to work at Planned Parenthood.  To know that in some small way, I am contributing to healthy discussions about sex and sexuality.

It makes me proud of and thankful to our educators, Vanessa, Monika, and Chris. Every Spring and Fall, they bring in a new group of teens to undergo twelve weeks of training on issues ranging from healthy communication to prevention of sexually transmitted infections.  These teens become peer educators who in turn teach their friends, relatives, and neighbors about how to make responsible decisions.

I’ve been lucky enough to be invited to meet these classes and peer educators numerous times over the last ten years.  A couple years ago, one of the peer ed classes made a Public Service Announcement about STI’s – view it here .  Last year, our educators recorded a video thanking the donors who support the program- check it out.

This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for people like Al, Vanessa, Monika, and Chris, who help our young people navigate sexuality – respectfully, honestly, and responsibly.

It’s been a headline making year for reproductive freedom and not in a good way. Power shifts in Congress and in state legislatures across the country made for a perfect storm of the most aggressive legislative attacks on women’s health and rights in recent memory.

But as the year slowly winds to a close, there have certainly been some high points including a resounding defeat of the Mississippi personhood ballot initiative last week proving that there is such a thing as too extreme even in the most conservative state in the country.

And then there was the good news of the summer (when, let’s face it, there was a dearth of reasons to celebrate in the reproductive health realm) when the Department of Health and Human Services announced its recommendation in August that all private insurance plans be required to cover birth control as a preventative service with no cost sharing (aka co-pays) for patients.

The DHHS decision was based on recommendations made by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in July. Unfortunately, as we noted at the time, this recommendation attracted controversy.  “As reported by NPR the Conference of Catholic Bishops (widely noted as medical experts on women’s health…) stated that ‘to prevent pregnancy is not to prevent a disease.’”

While this claim was flatly rejected by the IOM, unfortunately they don’t get the final say. That responsibility falls to the Obama Administration. The President is now under intense pressure from anti-choice and anti-birth control groups (including the Catholic Bishops) and members of Congress to undermine the birth control without co-pays recommendation of the IOM and DHHS by expanding the refusal clause.

Doing so would take this important benefit away from millions of people (and their dependents) who work at religiously affiliated institutions including hospitals and schools, including more than two million students who attend religiously affiliated universities. As reported by RH Reality Check, all this in spite of the fact that 99 percent of women will use birth control in her lifetime… as will 98 percent of sexually active Catholic women. For more, Catholics for Choice President, Jon O’Brian, as an in-depth discussion of the issue here.

The Obama Administration must hear from us NOW that he must protect women’s health and refuse to cave into these demands! Fortunately Planned Parenthood makes it easy. Just follow these steps:

1. Call 202-456-1414, or text BCREFUSAL to 69866. (You’ll receive a call back on your phone to connect you to the White House.)

2. When you’re connected to the White House Switchboard, tell them you support access for all women to birth control without copays. (See the sample script below.)

SAMPLE SCRIPT

“Hello, my name is [full name] calling from [city, state]. I support access for all women to birth control without co-pays, and hope that the President will resist any pressures to restrict access.”

It would be great if you could add one or two sentences to explain why this issue is important to you!

If the line is busy please try again! This is a good sign that means we’re flooding the White House with our calls. The President is under mounting pressure he must hear from us that birth control is absolutely primary health care for women!

Once upon a time, there was a land where women were believed to be nothing more than a vehicle to bear children and were therefore unworthy of having the same rights as fully human beings. Women who were raped or whose lives were threatened by pregnancy could not access legal abortion. In vitro fertilization for couples who desperately wanted children was outlawed. The most effective forms of birth control, while completely safe, were deemed illegal. Women suffering miscarriages were unable to access medical care without being investigated for possible homicide….

It sounds like a horrible situation in an underdeveloped country but in fact this scary scenario is taking place right here in the United States. On November 8, voters in Mississippi will go to the polls to determine if a fertilized egg should be considered a person under state law.

Nevermind that fertilization does not even meet the medical definition of an established pregnancy (that would be implantation). Nevermind that this law would outlaw not uncommon safe procedures including in vitro fertilization and abortion in all circumstances, not to mention widely hormonal birth control methods like the Pill. And nevermind that this law would have completely ridiculous consequences like permitting pregnant women to drive alone in the carpool lane and allowing zygotes to inherit property.

The “personhood movement” is not concerned with these small details but the rest of us absolutely should be. When you give a fertilized egg the same rights as a living, breathing, thinking person, you get all the ridiculous consequences… and the incredibly scary ones, too.

These ballot initiatives are nothing new but the Mississippi measure’s chances for success are. Similar measures have been defeated soundly in Colorado where Personhood USA, the group pushing this particular anti-choice agenda, is based. Such a measure was even defeated in South Dakota in 2006. But now it seems the “personhood” movement has wised up and brought their extremist agenda to the state where it seems to have the best chance of success—Mississippi.

To all those who would roll their eyes as if to say, oh Mississippi, it’s practically lawless anyway, that would never happen here– Not so fast. These ballot measures have been defeated in other states but consider what a momentum shift this would be to the “personhood” movement whose worldview represents a significant shift away from prioritizing the life and health of women in favor of giving all the rights the state can offer to a fertilized egg that she may or may not be carrying.

Furthermore, if you think that this Mississippi situation is occurring in a vacuum, check out Jessica Valenti’s fascinating (in a can’t-look-away-from-the-train-wreck kind of way) piece in the Washington Post late last week. She outlines the multitude of state laws that prioritize the rights of the fetus before those of the mother resulting in extreme cases of life endangerment and, in at least one instance, the death of the woman. 

The good news is that November 8 is a week away and there is still time to defeat the Mississippi amendment. Join Planned Parenthood tomorrow evening (November 1) from 6:30-9:00pm for a special adopt-a-state phone bank to educate MS voters on the far-reaching effects of this measure. RSVP to Alison at alison.kiser@ppcentralnc.org to participate or for more information. Then check out http://www.votenoon26.org/ to learn more about this amendment and how you can help!

Originally posted as a facebook note, republished here with permission from the author, Elizabeth Waugh-Stewart, a great supporter and friend.  Links in the post added by PPCNC.

I am going to share something very personal. You might ask why I feel the need to tell anyone about something that happened when I was 19 years old, SO long ago (!). Well, when I woke up yesterday and read about the proposed law in Mississippi [read about this on Huffington Post and in the New York Times] that would consider any fertilized egg a “person”, and then when I woke up today and read about the law just passed in Utah [read about this on alternet blog] that would criminalize miscarriage, I got really, really scared. And really, really angry. You should be, too. If you are a girl or a woman who is sexually active or who will be at some point in your life–be outraged. If you are a boy or a man who loves the girls and women in your life, and who believes their bodies are sacred–be outraged.

Unintended pregnancies happen every day. They happen for lots of reasons. Maybe you and your partner just had an ‘oops’ even though you are usually careful. Maybe your birth control method failed for some reason. Maybe you are a teenager and it’s hard to say ‘no’, and even harder to access condoms or the pill. Maybe you were raped.

When I was 19, a sophomore in college, I became unexpectedly pregnant. I thought I was doing everything ‘right’. I took my pill every day. I was monogamous with my boyfriend. But a little round of antibiotics for a sinus infection made my life suddenly messy. The antibiotics reduced the effectiveness of my birth control pills. Unfortunately I was not warned by the college health center to use “back-up” birth control while taking the antibiotics. So I found myself pregnant. It was an awful, awful time. I couldn’t imagine having an abortion. I couldn’t imagine carrying the baby to term and giving it up for adoption. I couldn’t imagine parenting a newborn while attending college hundreds of miles away from my family. There were no good choices, no easy answers. My boyfriend wanted me to terminate the pregnancy. I didn’t want to. We fought back and forth for a few weeks. And then, at around ten weeks, I had a miscarriage.

I was relieved. I was sad. I felt lucky. I felt guilty for feeling relieved and lucky. I felt I would always wonder who that little baby would have become. I felt so many conflicting emotions.

These situations happen every day. And they are intensely private, intensely personal. They are NOT THE STATE’S BUSINESS. These crazy laws may seem sort of funny to some people–oh, look at those crazy hicks in Mississippi, look at those silly Mormons out in Utah, that would never happen HERE. Well, it could. Easily. Here in North Carolina we have a legislature who has already passed the vile “Woman’s Right to Know” act, which forces women considering abortion to see a sonogram of their fetus.  We have a legislature that is doing everything in its power to control women’s bodies, through restricting abortion, allowing pharmacists to refuse to dispense birth control due to “conscience”, gutting family planning programs, defunding Planned Parenthood. They are trying to make us afraid–afraid to be our full sexual selves, afraid of our bodies and what they might do, afraid that our every personal choice could lead to judgment, shame–and even prosecution.

I will always remember getting pregnant in college, and the terrible choices I was faced with. I will always wonder who that child might have been. I will always feel relieved that my body made the decision for me, ultimately, by terminating a pregnancy itself–probably because there was something wrong with that particular fetus. Did you know that, according to the NIH, “It is estimated that up to half of all fertilized eggs die and are lost (aborted) spontaneously, usually before the woman knows she is pregnant. Among those women who know they are pregnant, the miscarriage rate is about 15-20%.”? This law in Utah could penalize a woman who got drunk or smoked pot before she knew she was pregnant, and then miscarried. Were the drinking, or the weed, and the miscarriage related? Highly doubtful. Could Utah authorities use this new law to charge this woman with ‘murder’? YES.

Whatever your thoughts are about abortion–and I personally believe that a soul is lost when abortion happens, that there is a death involved–these kinds of laws have no place in a country that purportedly cares about freedom. The irony is that many of these laws are being pushed by the same right wing “Tea Party” types who are so enraged about being asked to pay taxes for our roads and schools. To them I say, on behalf of all girls and women who may become unintentionally pregnant in their lives: DON’T TREAD ON ME.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 25, 2011

Middle District Court Issues Preliminary Injunction Preventing Key Measures of Intrusive and Biased Law from Going into Effect Tomorrow; Court Says Plaintiffs ‘Are Likely to Succeed on the Merits of the First Amendment Challenge’

GREENSBORO, NC – U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles granted in part a preliminary injunction today that will block enforcement of intrusive measures in the new North Carolina law requiring abortion providers to show women an ultrasound and describe the images in detail four hours before having an abortion, even if the woman objects.

Civil liberties advocates, including the ACLU of North Carolina Legal Foundation, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the Middle District of North Carolina on September 29 challenging the constitutionality of the law, arguing that it violates the rights of health care providers and women seeking abortion care.

“We are extremely pleased that the court has blocked this clear attack on the fundamental rights of health care providers providing abortions in North Carolina,” said Bebe Anderson, senior counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “The part of the law that the court blocked not only forces doctors to go against their medical judgment to deliver an ideological message to their patients, but also forces women to lie down and just take it. It’s hard to imagine a more extreme example of government intrusion into the private matters of individual citizens.”

After hearing arguments from both sides on October 17, Judge Eagles issued her order to ensure that key provisions of the law would not go into effect as scheduled on October 26 during ongoing litigation of the underlying constitutional questions. In granting the preliminary injunction, Judge Eagles concluded that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their First Amendment claims that key provisions of the law violate doctors’ free speech rights and that allowing the law to go into effect would inflict irreparable harm on health care providers.

“If the ultrasound requirements were put into effect, this law would place doctors in a murky legal situation and inflict unnecessary harm on women,” said Katy Parker, Legal Director for the ACLU of North Carolina Legal Foundation. “The state should not be using women’s bodies as political pawns, as this law clearly seeks to do. We look forward to continuing our arguments and hope that the court sides with the rights of women and their doctors over the ideological agenda of lawmakers.”

The new law, which the North Carolina General Assembly passed in July over the veto of Governor Bev Perdue, would require abortion providers to perform an ultrasound and place the image in the woman’s line of sight. The provider would then be required to describe the embryo or fetus in detail and to offer the woman the opportunity to hear the “fetal heart tone.” While the law would allow the woman to avert her eyes and to “refuse to hear,” the provider would still be required to place the images in front of her and describe them in detail. The measure would make no exceptions for women under any circumstances, including cases of rape, incest, or those who receive a tragic diagnosis during pregnancy.

“The bottom line is, this law would prevent licensed health care providers from providing patients with the highest quality and most compassionate health care based on their individual needs,” said Melissa Reed, Vice President for Public Policy at Planned Parenthood Health Systems, Inc., one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “Today the court stood on the side of women and health care providers who are faced with personal, private and very complicated medical decisions every day.”

The court’s ruling is available online at www.acluofnc.org and www.reproductiverights.org.

Planned Parenthood of Central NC’s statement on today’s injunction:

“We are deeply gratified that the court has granted a temporary injunction to stop enforcement of key provisions of a law that treats all women seeking abortion care as if their circumstances were the same and undermines our physicians’ ability to provide care based on the individual needs of our patients.

Women rely on Planned Parenthood to provide care based on their needs, not based on the whims of politicians who oppose abortion under all circumstances. We will continue providing compassionate, high quality reproductive health care while this matter is ultimately settled in court.” 

—Janet Colm, CEO & President, Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina