An Open Letter To The Pro-Life Women Who Want To Defund Planned Parenthood

[babylonsister]

https://www.bustle.com/p/open-letter-to-the-pro-life-women-who-want-to-defund-planned-parenthood-47663?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=partnerships&utm_campaign=huffpostwomen

An Open Letter To The Pro-Life Women Who Want To Defund Planned Parenthood
ByLani Seelinger
4 days ago

I get it. You don't like abortions. You don't want me, or anyone else, to be able to get one. You don't want them to happen in the country, or anywhere. However. To the pro-life women who want to defund Planned Parenthood: Why do you value the lives of aborted fetuses more than the lives of women in need of care?

Because, really, that's what you're saying. That's the inherent value judgement that you're expressing, whether you admit it yourself or not. Many have noted how the pro-life movement seems to abruptly stop caring about life after a baby is out of the womb, but this case is less theoretical. You're literally trying to make it difficult, if not impossible, for millions of vulnerable women to receive necessary care — just because you don't approve of one procedure that Planned Parenthood provides. Does that not bother your conscience?

If a woman ends up with advanced-stage breast cancer because she couldn't get in to get a breast exam and then doesn't survive it, was her life worth your opposition? What if another woman puts off getting her pap smear because her local Planned Parenthood clinic had to shut down? What about the thousands of women who go there for pre-natal care? Are they and their unborn children not deserving of high quality health care, just because of your misguided belief that Planned Parenthood uses your tax dollars for abortion services?

It doesn't, by the way. Abortions are a tiny portion of the services that Planned Parenthood provides, and their contraceptive services in particular are estimated to prevent well over 200,000 abortions a year. Is that not what you want?

But I reckon I'm wasting my time spouting out numbers and statistics about what Planned Parenthood does and doesn't do. They're all readily available, just not from sources you trust. You've already decided which sources you trust, and it's the Paul Ryans and the Mike Pences of the world. But then ask yourself — why do you trust them so much more than the women who have actually benefitted from Planned Parenthood? You can find their testimonials all over the place — here, or here, or here.

If you read through them — which I recommend that you do — you'll find that the grand majority of women go there for something besides having an abortion. Maybe it's birth control, which they can then use to prevent an abortion in the future. Maybe it's mental health counseling after a sexual assault. Maybe it's screenings for ovarian cancer. Men also benefit from Planned Parenthood — do you think they're going there for abortions?

[Initech]

1. Religious bullshit trumps human decency. Every time.

[Different Drummer]

10. Sad but true. n/t

[LOL Lib]

2. If you really want these dullards to read it, stick the letter in a book and tell them jesus wrote

the letter. Sure it's a lie, but it's the only way to reach them.

[Solly Mack]

3. They don't care. Know plenty, they just don't care.

They don't care about the child after it is born either.

Poverty? Drugs? Abuse? Well, that's the fault of the parents, and abortion is just blaming the child for the bad decisions of the mother/parents.

I have been told that by women whose faces looked as if they were imparting great wisdom.

Almost always the mother though. They really enjoy blaming "those" other women. More than a bit of the bad things don't happen to good girls thinking going on with them.

Not a one of them have adoptive children or foster kids. Not a one of them give to food banks. They all want social services cut or stopped period.

[sharedvalues]

5. They don't know - pastors and Fox and conserva-hate radio all lie to them.

[Solly Mack]

6. By "know plenty" I meant I knew a lot of women who think that way.

But, yes, they don't know or care that they have been lied to over the years.

Though I think that's being charitable. How do you not know after a while?

You know?

[sharedvalues]

7. Brainwashing works, though - if all you ever read/hear is Fox it becomes brainwashing

[Solly Mack]

8. I agree. Brainwashing is effective and easily achieved.

A lot easier than many think it is.

[sharedvalues]

25. It requires information control, but if you only watch Fox

Then they control your information.

[Permanut]

4. I just want to get on my soapbox for a minute..

The term "pro-life" is well understood and commonly used, but it is a bible thumper invention. I have never met anyone who is "anti-life", and I have never met anyone who was "pro-abortion".

The two sides are more accurately characterized as "pro-choice" and "anti-abortion". I'm not trying to be a word nazi here, just seeing for the millionth time that the right wingers have defined the narrative.

And just parenthetically, banning Planned Parenthood will do nothing to prevent abortions, except among the less affluent.

[oldcynic]

13. You are soooo right.

I've been preaching about fascist control of the language we use forever...sad.
I want to describe how a backstreet abortion goes. Sorry, I don't speak from experience but my best friend in high school did. She was told to lie down an a kitchen table facing a picture of Jesus on the wall. The woman took an unwound wire coathanger from a nail, not bothering to wash it off. My friend ended up in hospital stuffed to the eyeballs with gauze to stop the bleeding. She was lucky.

Remember, the pro-life people's brains function differently. We've got to figure out how to get around that.

[murielm99]

21. I tell people that quite often.

They are anti-abortion.

[drmeow]

26. I like to call them

pro-forced childbirth but it doesn't roll off the tongue!

[AgadorSparticus]

37. Well said!

[Martin Eden]

9. "Why do you value the lives of aborted fetuses more than the lives of women in need of care?"

I think the premise of that question is a mistake.

Without Planned Parenthood there would be more unwanted pregnancies and more abortions, due to lack of access to health services which include contraception. Throw in the the religious right agenda to eliminate sex education in public schools, and the abortion rate goes up.

Even if a "conservative" Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, that would merely send the issue back to the states. The procedure would remain safe and legal in many places. Anti-abortion laws in other states would mostly affect women who can't afford to travel, leading to more unsafe illegal abortions.

IMO it is essential not to cede this point in the larger debate. Defunding Planned Parenthood and/or overturning Roe would NOT reduce the number of abortions or have any result which could be termed "Pro Life."

[Leith]

11. The Letter Is Much Nicer Than I Will Be

The women being addressed don't really give two shits about abortion. They may not even realize it themselves, but all they want to do is punish women for enjoying sex.

Think about it: if someone is against abortion because "every baby deserves to live," then what was this thread about? How was a baby saved in this instance? Why would they deny even the contraceptives they approve of? To punish a sexually active woman with an unwanted child. Why don't they ever call for the father to be forced to provide for medical treatment, the support of the pregnant woman, or to provide for the child?

Their every action is to deride a woman who had sex. They never have anything to say about the quality of life after a child is born. They are not putting any time or money towards helping anyone caught in a bad situation. All they do is insult and demean the women for needing care.

[davsand]

38. Yeah, my response is actually even more succinct.

Go F**K yourselves. Seriously. It is none of your business.

My fondest wish for all of you religiously lobotomized cows is that you never have to face the fear and panic of an un-chosen pregnancy like so many other women do. I sincerely pray that you never find yourself bleeding out someplace from an unsafe attempt to end a pregnancy that you never wanted and have no safe way to terminate. THAT is what you are doing to other women with your actions.


I admit it. I'm not a very nice person sometimes.


Laura

[japple]

12. The "pro-life" folks just see dead babies--nothing else. You cannot present anything to them that

will make them see past the dead babies.

[synergie]

17. Given that the "dead babies' they see are figments of their imaginations

and they don't actually care about real dead babies, we should keep trying to educate them in the hopes that dead women and actual babies that die horrible deaths shortly after birth due to pregnancies that went horrible wrong, might filter through their hallucinations and delusions.

Reality is less fun than fiction, and you can't do much about willful stupidity, but we can at least try, in case it's a case of simple ignorance. Ignorance is treatable, after all.

[japple]

20. Are figments of their fundamentalism...I admire you for being so hopeful about

trying to educate those who have given up everything to follow a dead savior.

[synergie]

36. They're not necessarily Xtian.

Some are just brainwashed by all the abortion porn and the propaganda that the anti-choice industry pushes.

[Nwgirl503]

14. My fav example of this

Was an ex-client who told me the reason she knew abortion was wrong, was because she'd had one and had found God afterwards. I asked if she felt hypocritical in that stance...she said no. She felt as if her experience having had one had given her the wisdom to make the decision for other women who weren't as enlightened as her.

She also said, when I asked what she'd say to a woman or subsequent children who suffered as a result of her "wise, enlightened" anti-abortion stance, that their time on earth is just a blink of an eye and suffering doesn't last for eternity and builds character.

She said this all with a straight face. She really believed this.

I fired her as a client the next day.

[Scruffy1]

15. I have never bought the "pro-life" nonsense.

The whole thing is just a cover for white nationalism, sexism, and authoritarian ideology. This allows them to vote for racists and misogynists and have a cover. Not too mention the majority voted for the most immoral man to ever be elected to a high office.
The next time one of these assholes uses pro-life as a cover just say "That's great". Now I know you will help to eliminate fossil fuel consumption that kills millions a year and is making the uninhabitable for man." Watch them dither away.

[synergie]

16. We really need to stop letting them frame the debate.

They're not pro-Life when they're actively advocating for policies that increase the maternal mortality rate, and seeks to interfere with women's access to medical care.

They are pro-LIE and Anti-choice. They care nothing about life, they care nothing about fetuses, babies, embryos, pregnancies, newborns or children. It is ALL about denying women basic autonomy, basic humanity and the ownership that even an executed male criminal has over his body after death.

Let's stop allowing them to pretend to be pro-life.

The ONLY pro-life position is the pro-choice one, since that is the only one that allows a doctor and a patient the freedom to make a personal medical decision that has been proven produce fewer dead women.

[babylonsister]

28. This has been a rethug wedge issue for years. Now it's

getting traction with the clowns in office.

I agree, it needs to be framed differently, but it was the rule of the land. Now I'm not so sure and that sucks bigly.

[synergie]

31. Yes, there is a lot of money in this anti-choice industry.

They've always had traction with this stuff. We need to push back on their lies. The primary one being what they call themselves, they are NOT pro-Life.

[NoMoreRepugs]

18. Pro-lifers love the fetus hate the baby....

If that wasnt true shouldnt most of them have an adopted child they were able to "save?"

[Bernardo de La Paz]

19. They also value fetuses over live children. Love the fetus, ignore the child.

[synergie]

32. If only they gave a damn about the fetus!

People who care about fetus do not cut off access to pre-natal care, make pregnancy a pre-existing condition, cut off food aid to pregnant women.

They don't try to delete regulations that keep corporations from selling dangerous or untested products, dumping teratogens into the environment or shut down the EPA, which keeps these types of chemicals out of the air, water, soil and food supply.

They don't love the fetus, they love robbing women of basic human rights, reducing them to level of livestock. That's why they push these bills in the Agricultural committees, and seem to mistake The Handmaid's Tale for a how to manual to achieve a utopian society, and are blind to the dystopian hell-scape it truly is.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

35. Excellent points. Makes me think of some new graphics, perhaps. Thx. . . nt

[samnsara]

22. and then they want to defund services to children....shameful!

[RobertDevereaux]

23. I never refer to them as pro-life . . .

. . . but always as anti-choice.

Lately, though, I think anti-women is stronger and more accurate.

[Stuart G]

24. k and r...for exposure..

[Bluepinky]

27. So what if someone doesn't want to fund abortions?

A taxpayer doesn't get to choose what his taxes pay for. As long as something is legal, taxes may be diverted to fund it. I was completely against invading Iraq in 2003, but my taxes were used to fund the war.

[Doreen]

29. How about this also, that a lot of people either forget or do not know.

The most important sex ( men ) use Planned Parenthood also. They test men for testicular cancer and other problems that men get that has to do with their precious manhood. Maybe if more men knew that Planned Parenthood helps keep their dicks safe they would not be so fast to defund them.

[StevieM]

33. I wonder if men will start using Planned Parenthood in larger numbers after RISUG/Vasalgel comes out

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversible_inhibition_of_sperm_under_guidance

[Doreen]

34. No, that means the men are taking responsibility to prevent pregnancy.

That is the woman's responsibility. Of course I am talking about repuke men.

[Mariana]

30. You can't argue the value of contraceptives with them.

A lot of them believe that most methods of contraception work by causing abortions. Seriously.