In March, Cecile Richards told the Huffington Post that there are some states where “it’s not safe to be a woman”, citing laws recently passed in North Dakota. “It’s almost like the November elections didn’t happen”, she claimed.
I said in my previous post that Planned Parenthood is unique because their business drives the need. For other businesses, the reverse is true. They may offer special deals and sales to increase profits, but they don’t intentionally sell defective products or encourage maintenance practices that actually won’t keep the product clean, functional, etc. If a product is defective, they replace it at little to no cost to the customer. If they don’t, the customer doesn’t return. They don’t thrive on customer exploitation. Planned Parenthood relies on exactly that.
A few years ago, I heard a talk from a woman who’d had two abortions, one of which terminated a pregnancy that resulted from her cheating on her husband (they’re still together). There were several other women at Planned Parenthood when she went for her first abortion. They had a counseling session which consisted simply of going around the room and saying why they were there. In most, if not all cases, someone else wanted them there. They weren’t there on their own.
“It’s Not Safe To Be A Woman.” Really?
After reading Richards’ statement, I got to thinking…
1. When you think of pornography, what most often comes to mind? Women, right? In pornography, women are treated as objects that only have sexual value. What specifically, if anything, does the pro-choice side do to fight internet or printed porn and protect the dignity and beauty of women? Do they actively encourage young single men to treat women with dignity and respect the way that the Catholic Church does? Have they read Love and Responsibility, specifically pages 200-208 (“Tenderness and Sensuality”) of the 1981 English Edition? If not, they should.
2. Piggy-backing off of that, does Planned Parenthood support anti-prostitution laws? Do they condemn the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which supports the decriminalization of prostitution? Do they support charities that aid victims of rape and abuse?
3. Do they give financial or moral support to Project Rachel? It might seem ironic that I ask this, but given that they routinely tell guys like me to shove it because I supposedly don’t understand the difficulties that their customers face, I couldn’t help but wonder. I only ask because the United States has been at war for almost twelve years and the military has invested millions in research and treatment for those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
4. Do they educate women on which contraceptive products they should avoid because of pending lawsuits filed for failure or injury to or death of some users?
5. Why does Planned Parenthood condemn ultrasounds as “invasive” when there are abdominal ultrasounds available? I know they are because that’s how I first saw my youngest sister when I was five years old in 1993.
6. Why they don’t provide mammograms on-site, but instead simply give referrals as if women couldn’t easily find them any other way?
7. Planned Parenthood acts as if guys like me aren’t concerned about women’s health. If they went out of business tomorrow, do they think that the Catholic Church, the Knights of Columbus, political conservatives, and other such “anti-choice extremists” would sit back and watch things happen? We already spend great deals of time and effort now making these resources available.
8. Since abortion is such a high-pressure decision, do they have contact information for pregnancy resource centers readily available should a woman decide not to go through with an abortion?
9. Finally, did Planned Parenthood support the recently-passed bill allowing sex-selective abortions? Better yet, will they perform them? We’re not going to cover that one in-depth…yet (stay tuned for a later post on this issue).
Who’s Really Looking Out For Women?
The bottom line? What is Planned Parenthood doing to make themselves unnecessary? Every year, March for Life founder Nellie Gray (God rest her soul) would say that she hoped there wouldn’t be a March for Life the following year. She wished that society didn’t need her efforts. Does Cecile Richards wish that women didn’t “need” Planned Parenthood?
Women’s health and safety are the exact opposite of abortion and contraception. Providing for the health and safety of women means protecting their value and dignity AND that of human sexuality. It means healing and counseling those who have been wronged. Most importantly, however, it means that you DON’T expose them to danger just so that you can rescue them.