Emma

Many of you have asked what you can do for the clinic. The doors are open, we're seeing patients, and we're loving all the supportive notes. One thing you can do is join us for a presentation of Emma!


The TRAP DOOR THEATRE is graciously donating 100% of tickets proceeds on Friday, October 26, 8pm to PP/CA's effort to keep our Aurora Health Center open! Seats to this special event are limited and tickets are $30.

When: Friday, October 26 at 8pm

Where: Trap Door Theatre- 1655 West Cortland Ave. Chicago, IL 60622

For Information/Reservations: 773.384.044. To purchase tickets online visit: www.trapdoortheatre.com

Emma

Written by: Howard Zinn

Directed by: Kate Hendrickson

Howard Zinn (The Playwright): Historian, author, and a pivotal figure in the American Left, Howard Zinn has written over a dozen books. Among them are his now classic "A People’s History of the United States". He is professor emeritus at Boston University. Zinn has received the Lannan Foundation Literary Award for Non Fiction and the Eugene V Debbs award for writing and political activism. His plays Emma and Marx in Soho have been performed internationally.

Zinn's drama "Emma" is based on the life of American Anarchist Emma Goldman. Passionate, audacious, an notorious Emma was also a popularizer of the arts, a defender of civil liberties and a proponent of birth control and a free love advocate. Emma explores not only her political life but also the friendships and tumultuous love affairs that sustained and inspired her. "Emma" has been performed in New York, Boston, London and Tokyo. This is its Chicago premier.

Please join us for a fabulous night of local theater!

technorati tags: Emma, Planned Parenthood, Aurora, feminist, theater, Chicago, Howard Zinn

It's not just Aurora

With all the action happening over here in Aurora, you would think that the anti's would have other things to do with their free time. Nope. Joseph Scheidler has been spotted outside the Near North clinic in Chicago.

This is even more evidence that what is happening in Aurora is happening to you. Chicago is not immune to the anti's. Not all of so-called liberal viewpoints can keep the anti-abortion & anti-contraception forces away from our clinic.

I talked about fear in my first post and I'll do it again. Fear is a powerful tool. Even if not one more act of violence occurs outside or inside a women's health care clinic, that fear will remain. And that fear may keep a young woman, scared that she has a STD after her partner tested positive, from keeping her appointment for a screening. That fear may keep a low-income woman who found a lump in her breast from coming in to finally have an annual check-up after a decade of being without health insurance.

This man and his followers are outside the Near North clinic as part of "40 Days of Life." These 40 days will NOT be spent just outside of the Aurora clinic or just outside of Chicago area clinics. They are going to 89 cities in 33 different states. I think that reasonable people hold differing religious views on abortion, but gathering in prayer and protest in front of health centers has been used repeatedly as a tool to intimidate and harass patients and staff.

Least you think that those involved in these acts are only opposed to abortion. Scheidler and the PLAL are opposed to any artificial contraception devices. Yes, they want to outlaw abortion and birth control. I've met many anti-abortion people, especially women, who scoff at this idea. They know that to prevent abortions, women and men must have access and knowledge of birth control methods.

For more than 90 years, Planned Parenthood's high-quality health care services have helped women and couples prevent unintended pregnancy and plan strong, healthy families. Every year five million women, men and teens worldwide rely on Planned Parenthood for health care information, education, and services. The overwhelming majority of Planned Parenthood services focus on prevention.

And that is why Planned Parenthood is in Aurora, Chicago, and perhaps a town near you. To provide women with the health care they want and need. Now what's so scary about that?

Back to Court Tomorrow

Planned Parenthood will return to the courtroom tomorrow morning to present Judge Norgle with additional evidence as to why he should grant Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area an injunction to open our health center in Aurora.

We believe that City of Aurora has no legal basis for blocking the opening of the facility and that its revocation of a temporary operating permit is motivated solely by political opposition to the constitutionally protected right to abortion services.

Click here to read our legal briefs (1) (2) (3).

We will be liveblogging from Chicago Federal Court tomorrow morning. Stay tuned!