Explaining Planned Parenthood to an ESL person

[dvduval]

I have a friend who is Vietnamese/Chinese and 69 years old. Since coming to the US many years ago she was quite successful, but her English is very limited. She then sent her daughter to school and paid all of the expenses. Her daughter recently graduated as a nurse practitioner (and speaks English, not Chinese like her mother). Her daughter recently mentioned to her that she was helping Planned Parenthood.

So her mother looked up Planned Parenthood on the Internet and found all these crazy stories. It really freaked her out and her and her daughter have been arguing. This lady has not been able to sleep and doesn’t understand very well about Planned Parenthood.

I can speak Chinese so I have been communicating with her, and she has asked me if I can help with communication. I have already told her that was her daughter is doing can be helpful to many people, and that the stories are Matt to make her upset.

I have convinced her that maybe she can’t change her daughter today, even though that is what she expressed to me. She wanted her daughter to immediately stop working with Planned Parenthood. And rather than try to have the whole abortion argument with her, I told her that it is most important that she maintains a positive mind herself, and does not allow anger to control her.

She wanted her daughter to immediately stop working with Planned Parenthood. And rather then try to have the whole abortion argument with her, I told her that it is most important that she maintains a positive mind herself, and does not allow anger to control her.

Actually she is not Christian, but Buddhist. And after seeing the horrible pictures and stories about Planned Parenthood, she just felt like it was all about bringing harm to living beings.

She has asked me to help write a message to her daughter to help mend the argument they are having. It is an interesting assignment for me. I have already somewhat convinced her that Planned Parenthood is not the terrible thing that she read about, and I have also convinced her that she is a good person and that I know she raised a good daughter.

And now she wants me to help her write a message to her daughter. Of course I must use simple words that she will understand. I thought I would post here and see if anyone had any thing that might be helpful for me before I start writing.

[PdxSean]

1. Her local Planned Parenthood office likely has Chinese interpreters available.

Planned Parenthood would be best at explaining what they do and don't do. Indeed, there is a LOT of misinformation online re Planned Parenthood.

[virgogal]

2. This is a family matter IMHO. Let them work it out.

[Hekate]

3. Cool story. I think you will find that DUers, as a group, support the mission of PP, which is to ...

...provide the full range of health care to women.

There is no need to parse it out here. You will find all the information you need (in simple language) at the main Planned Parenthood website. You can also google for PP's translations into various non-English languages.

Accept no substitutes for the PP site. It is a well-known fact that there are groups out there who wll tell any lie, post any gruesome photoshopped picture, to bring Planned Parenthood down.

Now go to it.

PS: In the past I made a study of the response of various religions to the issue of abortion. That's really where you're going with this, isn't it?

What set me on this study was a comment made by my late mother in law, a Jewish lady born in 1914 in Vienna. She essentially wanted to know what Randall Terry and his ilk thought they were doing poking their noses into the lives of women and claiming it was for religious reasons. She said, as best I remember, that in her religion "you would never cut down the tree to save the branch."

What I found out about Buddhism is that it very much depends on your country of origin. Japan has a long history of legal abortion and religious accomodations to it. The Dalai Lama (Tibetan), Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese), and Sogyal Rinpoche (also Tibetan) have all commented on the issue of abortion versus ahimsa (doing no harm). Their conclusion is that consideration of harm to the mother outweighs considerations of harm to the fetus.

[Hekate]

4. Didn't get the response you expected?