Planned Parenthood: It's not just about the abortions, y'know.

Part of what infuriates me about the whole Komen Foundation/Planned Parenthood debacle is that it is based on a misconception.  That being, that Planned Parenthood is all about the abortions and little else.

A fallacy if I ever knew one.

Seriously, check out their own website and see the different services they offer.  Abortion is one of them, yes.  But there's also:

• Birth Control
• Body Image
• General Health Care
• Men's Sexual Health
• Morning-After Pill (Emergency Contraception)
• Pregnancy
• Relationships
• Sex & Sexuality
• Sexual Orientation & Gender
• Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs)
• Women's Health

Seriously, PP is a one-stop shop for those that are uninsured or underinsured - both men AND women, regardless of whether pregnancy even enters into the mix.  And since Americans still worship the Almighty Dollar and refuse to truly entertain the idea of socialized medicine, it is a godsend for some people - probably more than you might think.  Hell, I used to work for one of the largest (at the time anyway; I have no idea if they still are) insurance companies in the US, when I still lived there.  Guess what?  If I wanted birth control, I'd still have to make use of places like Planned Parenthood in order to get it, because my employer and insurer refused to pay for it.

(How much sense does that make?  They'd pay up over $10,000 for me to give birth, not to mention all the prenatal, postnatal, and continuing care for my children, but they wouldn't fork over $30/month for some pills in order to prevent pregnancy.  Sense.  It makes none.)

I realize that Planned Parenthood has this image of being nothing but an abortion clinic, but honestly, you know whose fault that is?  The religious nutjobs that made it their mission in life to kill pro-choice advocates. Talk about hypocritical.  "You're pro-choice, I'm 'pro-life', so I'm going to kill you because you don't agree with me."  But if it hadn't been for those religious nutjobs, Planned Parenthood might not (probably wouldn't, honestly) have the reputation it has today.  A false reputation, at that.

It just irks me.  Ignorance - and in this case, willful ignorance - is one of my biggest pet peeves.  And this whole thing has "IGNORANT" written all over it, in neon red letters.

Susan G. Komen foundation, you fail.

I once thought the Susan G. Komen foundation was a wonderful charity, one that deserved all the publicity and funding it could get.  But after a re-post of a picture (shown above) from a former co-worker of mine, and being curious about the group that posted that picture, I found out some things.  Things that frighten and disgust me.

Paraphrased from the Jezebel run-down on the whole debacle:

On Tuesday (January 31), the Komen foundation announced that it would no longer be giving support to Planned Parenthood - one of the few places that disadvantaged women can go to for their sexual and reproductive health needs.  They cited a policy that

"barred them from funneling money to organizations that were under investigation at the local, state, or federal level."

However...

It seemed a little TOO coincidental, as less than a year ago a woman who ran a failed campaign for governor of Georgia in 2010 under a platform of anti-choice was hired as Senior Vice President of Public Policy.

Could the defunding of Planned Parenthood have been a political move forced by external anti-choice voices as well as Komen's own personnel?

The next day, Komen foundation had to run a damage-control operation, deleting unattractive Facebook posts and a tweet sent by none other than the above anti-choice advocate, which told naysayers to "Cry [her] a freaking river." It all culminated in Komen's website being hacked.

On Thursday, corroboration was given that it was indeed Handel (Ms. Anti-Choice) who was behind the whole idea. Quel suprise. Not.

A bunch of people resigned or threatened to resign because of the whole thing.

Thursday and Friday were chock-full of backtracks, empty apologies, and attempted damage control.

Ironically enough, the group that came out on top was Planned Parenthood itself. In one week they received over $3 Million in donations - including $250,000 from Mayor Bloomberg and $100,000 from LIVESTRONG. And Planned Parenthood's president has said that all of that money would be going towards PP's breast health programs. (/sisfist!)

So basically, what we're down to is this: one of the most powerful people in the Komen foundation apparently doesn't like women, and doesn't believe that they should have the right to choose what they do with their own bodies. So she wants to make it so that only the few women that agree with her get the benefit of her foundation's money. Only she doesn't have the ovaries to stand up and actually say that, so she hides behind non-existent "policies" and when that doesn't work, resorts to out-and-out lying.

Now I don't even live in the US anymore*, but if I did? NO WAY IN HELL WOULD THE KOMEN FOUNDATION GET SO MUCH AS A PENNY FROM ME OR ANYONE I KNOW.

I'd like to leave you all with this lady, who is as brave as she is articulate, and has even more right to have a say on the subject than I do:

(* - I AM an American, but one that has lived in the UK for the last 9 years.)

Facebook: Translation... you're doing it wrong.

Need I say more?  Yeah... didn't think so.

1 Million Moms? 1 Million Hatemongers, more like.

So I'm checking my FailBook feed, and I see this, posted by Wipeout Homophobia On Facebook (WHOF).

(First, let me just clarify some things.  1) No, I'm not gay.  I am one half of a "traditional" couple.  2) I AM a mother, so I feel I have at least some right to have a say on the subject.  3) I know I'll get some things wrong in my attempt to be an advocate, but please remember that it's not from a lack of trying.)

As a mother, this disgusts me.  I find it absolutely abhorrent, and if these are the things they're teaching their children, I honestly see it as a form of mental abuse.

Teaching your children that it's not only okay to hate, but to do so publicly, and to incite others to hate as well? With all that is going on in the world today, is this REALLY what we want our children to be?  So many countries and groups of people waging war against each other, and these "moms" want to teach their children the very values that are at the root of all these troubles?

I just don't get it, truthfully.  I really do not understand why these people are so threatened by the idea that there are people out there that are different to them.  And that's really what it boils down to.  They are different, therefore they must be hated, shunned, have their basic human rights taken away, treated as sub-human, etc., etc., etc.  Do they really think that JC Penney choosing Ellen Degeneres as a spokesperson is going to turn one of their children gay?  Are they really that stupid?

What is so wrong with acceptance?  And let's be honest: accepting people as they are - LGBT people in this case - is not the same as advocating for them.  One can accept a person without liking who/what they are.  I don't like religious nutjobs that attempt to turn every conversation into a Bible lesson, but I don't go around preaching hate to anyone who'll listen.  No, instead I accept them as they are and let them go about their business, as long as it doesn't directly affect me or my family in any way.

Now, taking that last sentence into account: how is having Ellen as a spokesperson going to directly affect anyone's family other than her own?  Answer: it isn't.  It really, really isn't.

It's funny: so many people say they wish for world peace, yet when it comes down to it, those same people continue to perpetrate hate and bigotry against people who have absolutely no bearing on their own lives.  They just happen to be different.  Until people learn to be accepting and tolerant of people - ALL people - we're  never going to come even remotely close to peaceful.

Way to teach your children to hate, 1 Million Moms.  Hope you're proud of yourselves.  Nobody else is.