The new front is old news

Bob Novak lauds Johnson County (Kansas) District Attorney Phill Kline for continuing to file charge after charge against Planned Parenthood DESPITE that charges keep getting dropped. Somehow the fact that a sympathetic judge hasn't dropped them yet means that Kline is on the right track and apparently blazing a new trail.

In fact, it's a well-worn trail, Bob.

Aurora knows this all too well. Anti-choice forces have used the judicial system for years filing lawsuit after lawsuit. The fact that the opposition has a district attorney who doesn't do much other than file charges against a clinic is just a new flavor of an old routine. Kinda like how each "American Pie" movie has one scene where Jason Biggs gets himself into an awkward position, it's a new position, but you know he's getting caught.

Kline's audacity has given the Concerned Women of America (only concerned with putting women back in the kitchen) an idea. They are petitioning Congress to pull Planned Parenthood's funding until the Kansas allegations are cleared up. Nice. Let's pull money from clinics that help to PREVENT unplanned pregnancies. Yeah, that will really help end abortions.

Yet I have to think that the only reason our opposition files charges or lawsuits is to waste our money and time fighting them. And that Bob is very old news.

technorati tags: Novak, Kline, Planned Parenthood, Congres

The Politics of the Melanie Stokes Act

See that woman? She was Melanie Stokes, a beautiful woman who would had been one hell of a mother.

What happened?

She developed postpartum psychosis, which is the most extreme version of postpartum depression. She eventually jumped to her death from a Chicago hotel.

Why should this blog talk about her? One, today is BlogHers Act Day in support of the Mothers Act, which is the Senate version of the Melanie Stokes Act which wants to increase funding for research into postpartum depression and create a public awareness campaign. In the House version an anti-choice representative tacked on an amendment that calls for some of the funding to go towards studying depression in women after an abortion.

I go into my personal feelings over at my blog, but here I want to say sometime more simple.

I know that the abortion debate is polarizing, but I just cannot fathom why those who oppose abortion must put this issue into other debates. Instead of rallying around an issue I think most of us (Tom Cruise & friends aside) can agree on, our opposition has to splinter us.

To take action on the Mothers Act bill, click here.

That's it.

technorati tages: depression, abortion, postpartum, Melanie Stokes, Blogher, BlogHers Act

Want to prevent breast cancer? Give up that Ph.D.

As we mark Breast Cancer Awareness month many of us consider prevention methods. Some of us tally up how many women in our family has been struck by this disease. We give thought to what we might do, as individuals, to keep the disease at bay. Well guess what? HT to the Feminist Peace Network for finding the cure in a conservative web community:

“It’s another instance of ideology trumping science. Emphasizing the benefits of early motherhood could—gasp!—encourage some young women to give marriage more priority, and postpone their demanding career. They might decide it’s a diamond they most want now, not a PhD.”

First let's take a moment to recover from our laughing fit. The right pulling the ideology over science card? I don't think any of us have time to go through all THEIR ideology stances (EC, HPV vaccine, evolution, on and on) so let's move on.

As the wonderful folks over at the Feminist Peace Network point out, yes, having kids younger & breast feeding them longer will lower your risk, but it's not the only way. And thankfully, our former National leader, Gloria Feldt weighs in on the issue:

“(Dr Grossman) neglected to mention that there are substantial life-threatening risks from pregnancy and childbearing, especially too-frequent or closely spaced pregnancies and childbearing. Those risks would at least balance out any elevated risk of breast cancer incurred from delaying childbearing. Further, when you weigh in the risks to women and children associated with increased stress and poverty when families have more children than they can afford to care for, it’s a slam dunk that women are better off being able to plan and space their childbearing based on a number of health and social factors. Oh, and did Dr. Grossman forget to mention that using the birth control pill lowers risk of breast cancer?

Thanks Dr. Grossman, but no thanks. Besides, I didn't have my daughter until I was 28 and fell short of the one year mark on breast feeding. Hmm...wonder if Dr. Grossman is on the front lines to protect women's right to pump at work AND provide us with clean & private lactation rooms?

Go ahead and have kids when you're 25, but don't do it just because you think you're going to save yourself from breast cancer. The 70-year-old with breast cancer today? I bet she had kids young because that's what happened 50 years ago. Take care of yourself and talk to a trusted health professional about what *you* can do to prevent breast cancer.

BTW, I know a fabulous woman who did have kids young and want back for that Ph.D. It's not a matter of choosing between, but choosing when.

technorati tags: breast cancer, prevention, Planned Parenthood, Gloria Feldt, breast feeding

Pro-life or Pro-Fetus?

The SCHIP veto override has failed.

I got a ton of emails over it, asking me to call my representative to urge her to vote to override. Considering that my rep is Jan Schakowsky, I could save my phone call as I knew she'd vote the way I wanted. We all know the real targets were Republicans as all but two Democrats voted for SCHIP. Many of those emails were from organizations that lobby for women's rights, health care, children's rights, on and on. Ann at Feministing points out that not one email would be coming from pro-life organizations. Even AFTER the wording was changed so that SCHIP covered the fetus and NOT the woman carrying the fetus, the pro-life forces wouldn't support the bill. Because we all know that women don't need health care while pregnant. 10 anti-abortion Democrats even sent a letter asking them to support SCHIP.

In the NYTimes, Senator Harry Reid mentioned compromises that had already taken place to get Republicans to vote for SCHIP. One of those compromises was on abstinence-only education. Amanda Robb reports that:

To entice Republicans to support the bill, the House of Representatives agreed to increase money for abstinence-only sex education by $28 million, to a total of about $200 million a year. Abstinence-only courses, the only form of federally financed sex ed, teach that sexual activity outside of marriage is likely to cause psychological and physical harm.

They compromised on sex ed? Even after studies have come out that show it is a waste of money? It looks like the Democrats will try again and again, playing this out for all the political capital. But I have to wonder, if they are willing to compromise on sex ed, what else will they compromise on in the next version?

This leads me to believe that yes, our opposition only cares about the fetus. Not women or else we would be covered while pregnant. Not the child because once you're out, baby, you're on your own.

BTW - Here is a link to the final roll call.

technorati tags: pro-life, SCHIP, healthcare, roll call, Congress, veto

Religion & Abortion

Our opposition usually states that they aren't harassing women, but merely praying outside the clinics. They use pulpits to spread word that a clinic is opening up and protests will occur. They use the Bible as their justification for opposing not just abortion but birth control. But are they right?

Garry Wills asks this question in his book, Head and Heart: American Christianities. In Martin Marty's discussion of the book he states that:

Wills contends, "It is not demonstrable that killing fetuses is killing persons. Not even the Evangelicals act as if it were. In that case, the woman seeking the abortion…is killing her own child." If the fetus is regarded as a person, why would the murderous mother be exempt from the death penalty, in which most Evangelicals believe? And many Evangelicals allow abortion in the case of rape or incest. That won't work: "We do not kill people because they had a criminal parent." Some allow for abortion to save a life. Wills asks, "Why should the mother be preferred over the 'child' if both are, equally, persons?" Why opt for the "certitude" of murder over only the "danger of death?"

This question of 'punishment' is at the center of the movement to criminalize women's health care. If you haven't seen it, there is an excellent video made in Libertyville, Illinois asking anti-choice protesters what the sentence would be for illegal abortions. Most have no idea, many have never thought about the sentence for illegal abortions. As much as the opposition would like to think that women are forced or talked into abortions, we aren't. We are agents in our lives.

In September, Feministing reported that one anti-choicer DID come up with a sentence - 15 years to life. Of course, he does recognize that women are making this choice themselves. I guess that's a bit of progress.


technorati tages: religion, abortion, bible, Martin Marty, University of Chicago, Garry Wills

Extra Credit

Perhaps the biggest winners of the opening of our clinic are Catholic school kids. Why? Because Catholic schools award extra credit for school kids to come on out and rally against choice. A friend of the clinic sent us this email:

I understand why Catholic high school students protest abortion clinics, I did it too when I was 16. I screamed to stop abortion and I waved my fetus sign at passing cars...because I got extra credit.

At my Catholic high school in Illinois, students are awarded academic extra credit for participating in anti-abortion events. I stood on the street corner on Saturday morning, not because I was against abortion, not because I thought birth control was wrong- I was a passionate protester because I was awarded 10 extra points to my lowest test score.

My presence was not due to a religious fervor, or even a testament to my support - it was so I could get a higher GPA.

I grin when I see the kids at the center, because I was in their place only a few years ago - and I know what really brought them out to protest on a Saturday morning.

Yesterday our opposition held one of their so-called life chains outside the clinic. Their freedom of expression is honored. It is legal for them to stand on the sidewalk and oppose what the clinic does. Just as legal as all the activities in the clinic.

The funny thing is that in a few years or even days, clinic staff may see the same young women inside seeking birth control information. Why? Because Catholics have an abortion rate 1% higher than the national average. Far lower then those not practicing any religion, but still higher than church leaders would like to think. A friend who has escorted at Dr. Tiller's clinic (more on him in a future post) has said that it never fails. Once a year, she will hold the hand of a woman during an abortion procedure who was JUST protesting the day before. "But I'm not like those other women!" she will profess. And like clock work, my friend will see that woman on the protest line in a few days. It's good enough for her, but not for you.

Fixation on Glass

It is really creepy how anti-choice bloggers are fixated on the bullet-proof glass in our health center. If you search Google’s blogsearch for “planned parenthood” and “bulletproof glass” there’s over 50 self-righteous blog posts accusing us of “hiding behind” this glass.

And in regards to our health center Eric Scheilder has even gone so far as to claim:

Every brick, every sheet of “bullet proof glass,” [emphasis added] every blade of grass being protected by that dangerous fencing erected along the sidewalk was placed in violation of the law.

It’s an obsession of theirs. It's ironic since anti-choice extremists themselves forced us install to bullet-proof glass and other extreme safety measures in our health centers. (see here and here). In the past twenty years abortion providers have been harassed, beaten and killed by anti-choice groups. These same groups have also targeted clinics that provide abortions, committing arson, bombings, anthrax scares, and even attacking health centers with butyric acid. Is it any wonder that Planned Parenthood has taken drastic measures to protect our staff, volunteers and patients?

While the anti-choice demonstrations in Aurora have been peaceful, the movement is not above stooping to drastic tactics. Indeed, check out this well-researched post by ArchPundit on Joseph Scheilder, Eric’s father and one of the ringleaders here in Aurora.

Given all of that, their obsession with our glass is even more disquieting.

Deception, Lies and Misinformation

Yet again the anti-choice side is stooping to outright lies and misinformation in a last-ditch attempt to prevent Planned Parenthood from opening our clinic.

As several of our supporters have reported (here and here) one of the antis' major talking points at Tuesday’s meeting was a supposed permit non-profit organizations need in order to operate a health center in Aurora. This false claim was put forward by anti-choice lawyer Vince Tessitore. Upon this the entire anti-choice argument staked their claim. Anti-choice rabble-rouser Eric Scheilder even went so far as to claim:

Every brick, every sheet of “bullet proof glass,” every blade of grass being protected by that dangerous fencing erected along the sidewalk was placed in violation of the law.

Trying a little hard eh? This is outright misinformation specifically crafted to confuse and muddle the issue. The Aurora Beacon News reported on this false claim today and quoted the response of city officials to Tessitore’s claim:

…city officials on Wednesday said that since the Planned Parenthood health center is in a planned development district, those codes don't apply.

The center occupies land that was part of a 4,000-acre annexation in August 1973, the same one that brought the Westfield Fox Valley mall into Aurora. This area has its own zoning laws, through planned development district rules, and those laws don't require a special-use permit for medical centers, said Carie Anne Ergo, the city's public information officer.

So there you go. Just to reiterate because it bears repeating: there was no need for special non-profit permitting for the Aurora Health Center. Like the multiple reviews by the City Council, this is yet another red herring tossed in by the anti-choice side who’s trying desperately to keep our center from opening.

This is the Opposition?

In the Tribune this morning, Eric Zorn has a piece that does a good job of getting into the mindset of Joe Scheidler, one of the principle anti-choice leaders who has been fighting to keep our clinic closed. The most telling quote:

"We don't play footsie,…[w]e use whatever legal means we can to stop abortion."

Zorn goes on to discuss some of the underhanded tactics that Scheidler’s group has used, such as demonstrating in front of our contractors’ homes, and photographing their license plates. Scheidler is shameless in his explanation of these intimidation tactics. In responding to the allegations he said:

“And one way to discourage them from working there is to find out where they live, then go into their neighborhoods with a protest to let their neighbors know what they do for a living.”

This is the rational, peaceful demonstration leader that the press have made him out to be up to this point? Click here to read the full story. Here’s some more actual quote from Scheidler:

For instance, several years ago we tracked down a twelve-year-old girl who was going to have an abortion so that we could talk her out of it. Talking a woman out of having an abortion is not news. But tracking her down by using a private detective is.
Joseph Schiedler, The Director Pro Life Action League, Closed: 99 Ways to Stop Abortion, 1985

They want abortion. It is necessary to their filthy lifestyle. We've got a cesspool instead of morality. If we don't start imposing our morality, we are going to drown in their immorality.

MAN WITH A MISSION JOE SCHEIDLER PULLS NO PUNCHES IN HIS CRUSADE AGAINST ABORTION, interview with Linda Witt, Chicago Tribune, August 11, 1985 Sunday

These are the people that have been trying to paint us as an extremist organization?! If you want to know what the average Planned Parenthood support looks like in contrast, you need go no further than our interviews from last week.

This is why we’re asking you to come to our rally tonight at 5:00 in front of the Aurora City Hall. Show the city of Aurora that we are the mainstream, rational ones, out looking to improve health care in our communities. If you live out-of-state, click here for more info on how you can become involved.