Pardon, but your tie is not symmetrical.

Hey, I've seen a lot of people saying that you should support smaller-scale abortion facilities instead of spending on Planned Parenthood because, according to them, PP already has plenty of money.

While I totally support donating to local abortion care facilities, I think it's really dangerous to be spreading around misinformation about Planned Parenthood, so here are a list of reasons that Planned Parenthood is a really worthwhile resource right about now:

If you do know of a smaller abortion facility that needs funding, by all means, donate! (Also if you go on PP's website you can choose a PP facility to fund directly, if you don't want your donation to go into their large legal fund.) But if you're supporting a smaller center, do make sure that they really are a legitimate abortion provider before you donate.

Let's not spread misinformation or be divisive, people! That will only hurt reproductive justice, in the end. If you want to support small-scale abortion care centers, absolutely do that. It will be very much needed in the coming months. But you can do that without dunking on Planned Parenthood and all that they do for reproductive rights, justice, and healthcare. It is entirely possible to be supportive of both.

planned parenthood hrt visit!

step by step process of my initial T appt because i was very worried and it was very simple and i feel stupid for worrying over nothing!

My mother had three pregnancies, and two children.  She had a miscarriage, between my brother and I, in that four year span between our births, there was another pregnancy, another child desperately wanted, who didn’t live to term.

My mother had her pre-natal care, and her post-miscarriage care, at Planned Parenthood.

Because it was the best place for her.  Because at the time, she had a two year old child and a bike and they were living just around that nice little sweet spot between ‘desperately poor’ and ‘almost have enough to consider a savings account.’  And when you are poor, and female, and need health services, Planned Parenthood is there.

And my mother walked past the protesters, walked past the people who screamed at her about not killing her baby, about how she was a whore, and she was going to hell.  My mother, in mourning for a child that she had lost, blaming herself, hating herself for failing at this most feminine of things, walked through that, to care for herself, to get the medical care she needed.  So that someday, two years later, she could have me.

I cannot speak to the courage that must have taken.  But that path is walked by thousands of women.  Every single day.

She donated to Planned Parenthood until her death.  And she said to me, that the people who screamed at her saw her only as a vessel for a baby.  They didn’t care about her, they didn’t care about her baby, either.  They were pro-birth, not pro-life, because none of them would be there after her baby was born, to offer help and support and care. 

The protesters didn’t care about her.  And the medical professionals inside did.  It is the right of every woman to have access to safe, affordable, quality health care, no matter where she comes from, what her income is, or what choices she makes with her life.  And that is what these kind of bills are attempting to take away. 

This is important.

For many, clinics like Planned Parenthood are one of the only options for free or low cost health care.

97% of Planned Parenthood services are health and wellness related, not abortion. (And legally, federal money cannot be used for abortion services).

Recently, I was tabling at the farmer’s market for PP and one of the (male) farmstand workers came up and told us how his new girlfriend had insisted that he get a STI test and recommended Planned Parenthood. While doing the basic medical screening they identified a health condition that could have been imminently fatal (he had been shrugging off symptoms for weeks thinking it was not serious). They treated him with medication to stabilize his immediate condition and found him follow-up care within his financial means, arranged for an immediate clinic appointment etc…

Because he went in for a simple STI test. They saved his life.