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"Choices"
07/25/2003 Entry
I received an email from a reader on why they would prefer not to support Planned Parenthood via my Blogathon 2003 participation. The reader's comment made me think that perhaps people are not fully clear on what the organization does so I thought I'd say a few words about it. (This reader felt that although they are pro-choice, they did not feel comfortable enforcing that view on others.)
Sure, Planned Parenthood does work in the area of pro-choice advocacy regarding abortion rights. But I think it does much more than that. These are just my impressions, not an official statement of the organization, for that I point you to their extensive Web site.
Planned Parenthood is engaged in information dissemination about things like condom use. See, for example, this piece on The Truth About Condoms. If more people used condoms (especially if they used them correctly) there would likely be fewer unwanted pregnancies, which would likely lead to fewer abortions. But if people don't realize the importance of using condoms and thus don't use them they cannot help prevent unwanted pregnancies. Unfortunately, condom use is not something young people are taught much about in schools. So other organizations need to pitch in to disseminate information.
Even highly educated people are often misinformed about things like the "morning after pill". Why do I put it in quotes? Because it is a confusig way to refer to it. It turns out that some people think you can only use the "morning after pill" effectively if you wait until the morning after. Others think it's only effective if you take it the morning after but not later. In fact, it can be effective in a 72 hour window.. or some recent studies show effectiveness even in a 120 hour window. See this page for more information.
But unless people are educated about these issues, they cannot help prevent unwanted situations.
So a major reason why I think it is important to support Planned Parenthood is because of the education and advocacy in which it is engaged to disseminate information to those who would otherwise know much less about reproductive health and reproductive rights.
Replies: 1 Comment has been posted, click here to see it and add your own
This is probably the third time I've been to your site during this pre-Blogathon mania, and now I end up here again. If I had more money, you'd be the person I'd sponsor. As it is, I can only afford to sponsor two people, but now I'm asking if you're going to do guestpostings at your site? Would you be interested in changing blogs for that 30 minutes?
Posted by Jenni @ 07/26/2003 08:41 AM CST
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