Planned Parenthood - Why is This Organization So Misunderstood?
(Could National Right to Life Be Any More Uninformed?)

Monday August 27, 2007

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains plans to break ground on a new headquarters and clinic in northeast Denver in November of this year. The organization just recently confirmed this information as it bought the property last year with the original intention to complete the building in secrecy. To me, this is a sad state of affairs that any organization with the mission of helping and educating the public would have to resort to such measures in an effort to avoid the kind of protests and delays that Planned Parenthood's building projects have ignited in other parts of our country.

What I find to be even sadder is the degree of ignorance that people have when it comes to Planned Parenthood. According to Leslie Hanks, vice president of Colorado Right to Life, her organization will continue its opposition to Planned Parenthood and will likely fight efforts to build this clinic. The construction of Planned Parenthood sites in other cities have run into similar problems. In 2003, work being done on a new clinic in Austin, came to a stop after anti-abortion activists convinced contractors to walk off the job or face future boycotts. Hanks has been reported as saying “we might think along the lines of trying to do something like that, companies in the business of trying to build a death camp need to be exposed."

What about companies like hers? It seems somewhat hypocritical to speak of exposing the true nature of companies when you belong to an organization that relies almost solely on propaganda and scare tactics (for example, by providing grossly exaggerated photos) to convince people of your cause. In fact, this same woman, who is out to “expose" Planned Parenthood willingly chose to expose her complete ignorance to the world by saying, “let's face it, they're [Planned Parenthood] in the business to kill babies for profit ….First and foremost, they get young girls hooked on their birth control pills, which don't work.” Part of being a spokesperson for an organization should be to take the responsibility of providing accurate information to the public. I wonder why the National Right to Life organization would allow their group to be represented by somebody as uninformed as Leslie Hanks. Maybe nobody else was willing to do her job? As consumers, it is important to not be swayed by such ignorance, and more importantly, to not put our trust into organizations that are too busy preaching theology to actually be informed of factual information.

To date, there has never been a research to prove or even suggest that a woman can become “hooked” on birth control pills. They contain no addictive ingredients and do not produce withdrawal symptoms. Obviously, Ms. Hanks must have somehow missed all the documented evidence about the 92 – 99.7% effectiveness rates of birth control pills. The pill and tubal ligation have been the two leading contraceptive methods in the United States since 1982 (Guttmacher Institute). Hmm, maybe Ms. Hanks could provide us all with an equally compelling (and uneducated) response as to why this would be the case, considering her claim that birth control pills don’t work?

As far as Planned Parenthood goes, it is offensive to me when good, honest organizations get a bad and inaccurate reputation because of the need for other people to preach their personal ideology to others. I had the privilege of working at Planned Parenthood, and it saddens me that people do not "get" what this organization is all about. My job included pregnancy testing and counseling (based on the results). I was fully trained in and was strongly encouraged to provide pregnancy options counseling that EQUALLY covered all available options that a woman with a positive pregnancy test could choose. Never once was I told to push abortion on any woman. It is the goal and mission of Planned Parenthood to provide accurate and complete information regarding reproductive and sexual health choices (unlike organizations like National Right to Life), because people cannot make informed decisions if they are not presented with all of the facts. Some falsely assume that Planned Parenthood is so quick to suggest abortion. This cannot be farther from the truth. Just because an agency is Pro-Choice doesn't mean that it wants to see and actively pushes abortions to take place. Planned Parenthood works off the principle of respect to the public; this organization believes that people are intelligent and are capable of making an informed choice; one that is right for that particular individual, and in order to make the best choice, a person needs to have all the correct and relevant information.