Planned Parenthood Pledge-a-Picket

[denny]

This has got to be one of the funniest fundraising campaigns I've ever seen. Shame they're in Pennsylvania - I don't really feel like I'm part of their 'community' personally - but it's a damn good idea anyway, and well worth propogating...


From the site:
Every time protesters gather outside of our Locust Street health center, our patients face verbal attacks from them. They see graphic signs meant to confuse and intimidate. They are sometimes blocked from entering the building and occasionally they are videotaped. They are offered anti-choice propaganda and free rides to the closest "crisis pregnancy center."

Staff and volunteers are also seen as targets. We are all called murderers, are lectured to about committing sins, and are told we will pay the "ultimate price" for our actions.

You can stand with others in the community against these acts of intimidation and harassment

Here's how it works: You decide on the amount you would like to pledge for each protester (minimum 10 cents). When protesters show up on our sidewalks, Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania will count and record their number each day from October 1 through November 30, 2005. We will place a sign outside the health center that tracks pledges and makes protesters fully aware that their actions are benefiting PPSP. At the end of the two-month campaign, we will send you an update on protest activities and a pledge reminder.

Example:
If you pledge 30 cents per protester, and PPSP has 100 protesters in October and 160 protesters in November, your donation would be 78 dollars for the entire two-month campaign.

Similar to sponsoring a runner in a charity marathon, your pledge total can be capped at a pre-set amount, if desired.


http://www.ppsp.org/PledgePicket-index.asp if you're interested.

(yoinked from arachne)

Comments

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

That's a marvellous idea!

[synthclarion.livejournal.com]

fan-fucking-tastic :D

[bluecassandra.livejournal.com]

Fucking brilliant!

[world-of-skin.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha :D

[dreamfracture.livejournal.com]

Neat idea.

Also: "Locust Street"?

[fellcat.livejournal.com]

It won't stop the abusive religious nutcases, they'll just be angrier. It'll be the quiet calm ones who don't talk about their sky fairy − assuming that there are any at this particular clinic − and who are genuinely trying to offer an alternative to abortion who will get driven away; this is daft because they're trying to increase the realistic available choices and last time I looked, PP were calling themselves pro-choice not pro-abortion, and so should be in favour of more choices.

They are offered anti-choice propaganda and free rides to the closest crisis pregnancy center.

This situation, where the free ride to the pro-life CPC is deemed harassment is absurd. How is trying to offer another choice harassment?

Even though I don't like abortion, I can see that dogma is getting in the way of supporting women. I would like to see pro-choice CPCs, where all options are supported equally, although I can see that finding staff could be hard. ATM, a woman who is considering giving birth to her child but has compelling circumstantial reasons not to, has no-one to go to who won't either tell her only about abortion or only about birth options. The abortion wars leave these women as casualties. Irrespective of the differences in how pro-lifers and pro-choicers view the unborn, we can surely all agree that, where born women are being denied the option to give birth to their unplanned but wanted children because of poverty, university studies, or similar, this is wrong; it is a consequence of living in a patriarchy, and it should be changed.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

This situation, where the free ride to the pro-life CPC is deemed harassment is absurd. How is trying to offer another choice harassment?

I would imagine that if you were one of the women approaching that clinic, it would be fairly clear to you whether the offer was helpful or harassment - I can certainly believe that it could be either depending on how it was offered.

It would be interesting to know how many of those free rides are accepted.

where born women are being denied the option to give birth to their unplanned but wanted children because of poverty, university studies, or similar, this is wrong; it is a consequence of living in a patriarchy

I think blaming poverty on patriarchy might be a bit of a logical leap, but feel free to correct me.

[fellcat.livejournal.com]

I think blaming poverty on patriarchy might be a bit of a logical leap

Yes, but that's not what I meant. Only in a patriarchy would we treat women's abilities to give birth and breastfeed as handicaps, which largely we do. The four fundamental differences between men and women are:

• that only woman can be pregnant,
• that only women can give birth,
• that only women can express human milk and hence breastfeed, and
• that only women can be forced to take the risk of pregnancy, through being raped.

To succeed in the workplace or in education, which almost everywhere is still masculist at its core, one has to effectively be a man. For a woman, this involves not doing any of the first three items on the list, because realistically she'll either end up taking stupid amounts of new-parent leave (which the father, of course, will not take) or end up leaving work or her studies for a number of years (notice how rarely fathers do that), both of which will damage or slow her career or education. In other words, her abilities to give birth and breastfeed are de facto handicaps, as I said above.

Abortion offers a woman a way of getting rid of a child that she would give birth to if only she hadn't just had that promotion which she worked for three years to get, or if only she wasn't going to be sitting her finals a month after the birth, and hence enables the continued existence of patriarchal attitudes towards parenthood. In this respect, I think that mainstream feminism is barking up the wrong tree by demanding greater access to abortion. I would prefer to see feminists demanding more egalitarian attitudes in the workplace and in education, starting with mandatory new-parent leave for men and women alike, as fathers are just as responsible for their children as mothers are.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Most fathers I've known would have welcomed the opportunity to take time out of work to be with their new children. It sounds to me like you want to campaign for could actually be described as father's rights :)

Of course, this runs fairly heavily into the brick wall of capitalism and corporate shafting - no matter what gender you are. Nice idea though.

she'll either end up taking stupid amounts of new-parent leave (which the father, of course, will not take) or end up leaving work or her studies for a number of years (notice how rarely fathers do that)

I think your 'of course' is rather rash, and the 'rarely' is much more reasonable.

[fellcat.livejournal.com]

I concede that my choice of wording was unreasonable when describing father's attitudes to new-parent leave..

It sounds to me like you want to campaign for could actually be described as father's rights :)

1. I refer you to this poster ().
2. Not just rights, but obligations as well.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Parenting is indeed fairly heavily hung about with obligations, which one would hope both parents take very seriously. Although it's sometimes hard to believe either of them gave it much thought when you see some 'happy' families out shopping on a Saturday :)

Your link seems to be broken?

[fellcat.livejournal.com]

Try this (http://www.crimethinc.com/a/gender/poster.pdf).

Although it's sometimes hard to believe either of them gave it much thought when you see some 'happy' families out shopping on a Saturday :)

It sucks that it is so hard to adopt, and yet all you have to do to be a parent is fuck.

[fellcat.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry about the enormous amount of commenting I seem to have caused.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

It's all good. Other people's views on issues that I don't have well-informed views on myself are rarely unwelcome.

[bluecassandra.livejournal.com]

Totally with you on teh crapness of the current way we organise things and the impossibility of finding a good time to have children. However:
"Abortion offers a woman a way of getting rid of a child that she would give birth to if only she hadn't just had that promotion which she worked for three years to get, or if only she wasn't going to be sitting her finals a month after the birth,"

or getting rid of a foetus she doesn't want. A pregnancy is not equal to a child, alot of us have foetuses that abort before we ever realise we are pregnant, and then more spontaneously abort later or miscarry. Some of us just don't want a pregnancy or a child. I couldn't face having one at the moment. I'm not well enough to go through a pregancy, and I don't want a child, thank you. Other women never want a child.

Meanwhile, the idea that feminists are only campainging for abortion rights, and NOT for more fundamental changes, or for better contraception in the first place, is entirely misguided. The thrust of the governments stuff about parental leave and rights over the last few years has been brought about by pressure from womens groups and a focus on female voters.

[fellcat.livejournal.com]

A pregnancy is not equal to a child

This is where I agree to differ from you. (It should be noted at this point that I do not in any way seek to make abortions harder to obtain, but instead wish to make the alternatives − parenthood, adoption, and not getting pregnant in the first place − easier and hence more desirable.)

I'm not well enough to go through a pregancy,

All bar the most loony fundie would agree that, in the case of a pregnancy posing a serious risk to the mother's life or long-term health, an abortion would be a moral course of action; why risk two dying where one can certainly live?

and I don't want a child, thank you. Other women never want a child.

I am one of the ones who never intends to have a child, and if I ever change my mind I will adopt. I don't think that not wanting a child gives me the right to deliberately take what I consider to be a human life, but that's my opinion and you have the right to disagree with it.

Meanwhile, the idea that feminists are only campainging for abortion rights, and NOT for more fundamental changes, or for better contraception in the first place, is entirely misguided.

I didn't say, or at least didn't mean to say, that they ignored all other issues, just that I think that they try too hard for greater abortion access to the likely detriment of the other stuff − if not here then certainly in the States if the NOW website is anything to go by. Certainly, Abortion Rights seems to be a much bigger organisation than both Baby Milk Action and the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers are, and I would regard breastfeeding rights as a very serious issue as it concerns the rights and welfare of not one but two born people, the mother and the child.

[arachne.livejournal.com]

I would like to see pro-choice CPCs, where all options are supported equally

That's basically what Planned Parenthood *are*. They provide advice and options - it's not a case of go there, have abortion. The crisis pregnancy centres are the ones where they're shown misleading videos and literature, propagating lies about abortion itself and PP's motives - that you'll walk in there and before you can say D&C, they'll whip the 'baby' out.

[fellcat.livejournal.com]

I don't think that they will give you financial support if you keep the child though, simply because they can't afford fiscally to do so, just as they can't generally afford to perform no-cost abortions. I know that PP have women's best interests at heart, and that they will tell her that it is her choice, because legally it is. However, if a woman wants financial help to keep her baby, she has to go to a Catholic CPC, the Nurturing Network, or similar, which PP are unlikely to suggest to her because such organisations are the enemy, either by being organisationally pro-life, or, in the case of TNN, by the volunteers tending to be pro-life even though the organisation as a whole is intended to be non-directive.

[naath.livejournal.com]

It was my understanding the PP was capable of giving councling, if desired or mandatory, and would cheerfully advise on the subject of adoption or 'what benefits can I get to help me raise my child'. On the other hand, I think that it is the responsiblity of the pregnant woman to *make up her own mind* and to consult with the people she wishes to consult with based on her own thoughts on the matter - thus if she has thought about it and decided on an abortion she should not be harrassed by being offered alternatives outside the clinic, if you are right and PP only provides abortions and not counceling then the people going to the clinic have presumably for the most part *allready thought about it* as much as they want to.

[fellcat.livejournal.com]

It was my understanding the PP was capable of giving councling,

Yes, that was my mistake; it's funding that they can't give.

I see your point that the woman seeking an abortion is likely to have considered the issue in some depth, and will have sought advice from PP or another agency if she sees fit. However, PP are unlikely to have told her about services provided by pro-life charities, such as emergency accommodation for a woman who faces eviction if she gives birth, because PP (understandably) view pro-lifers as the enemy. The range of services available to a pregnant woman who is considering giving birth will undoubtably affect her decision, and therefore she should know about all of them, including the ones provided by pro-life charities. It is my understanding that the reason why some pro-lifers promote pro-life charities outside clinics is to ensure that women know about all of the services that those charities provide; unfortunately it is going to be very hard to differentiate between the people who hold aborted fœtus placards whilst shouting abuse and the people who give out leaflets about genuinely helpful services, when they are all on the same twenty feet of pavement.

I am aware that some of the CPCs use shock tactics − such as showing gory videos featuring twenty-year-out-of-date, late-term, abortion techniques − on pregnant women to try to influence their decisions; I do wish that they wouldn't do this as it does noone any favours.