Signal Boost: Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project - Bowl-A-Thon
This note came in from a tumblr we follow. If you can help by either signal boosting or making a pledge, it will be much appreciated. ~sgb
Hey tumblr friend, how are you? I’m sooo over this semester even though there are only a few more weeks. GAH! I wanted to tell you about something really exciting I’m doing next week, and I need your help.
The Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project (RRFP.net) is one of the only active abortion funds in the state of Virginia. They assist people in need of abortion services by providing guidance and financial support. They are filling a vital health care gap by helping people with uteri pay for abortion care, emergency contraception, options counseling, child care during abortion procedures, and transportation costs to clinics. Since May of 2012, RRFP has been able to help 10-20 folks per month with a monthly budget of $2,000 per month! This budget is possible through our Bowl-a-thon fundraiser.
More people than ever are asking for help and RRFP is finding themselves in the terrible position of turning down folks who have few, if any, other options for help.
Add to that the fact that TRAP laws just passed in Virginia, which will close all abortion clinics in Virginia within the next couple years. RRFP and the people they help need our support now more than ever.
This is where you come in. To raise much needed funds, RRFP is hosting a Bowl-A-Thon between now and April 23rd, 2013 and 100% of the money raised will go directly to the RRFP to support people in need. There are only 8 more days to raise as much money as possible.
I’m on a team with some fabulous people in the Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies department at my school (we’re Team GSEXXXY). My personal fundraising goal is now at $400, and every dollar counts. RRFP estimates that, each month, up to $2,000 is needed to assist their clients. By donating to this event, your gift will make an immediate difference in the lives of people in Virginia.
If you can, please make a tax deductible donation online at my personalized page here: http://bit.ly/sprklbowl. Even $5 would help so much.
And if you can’t donate, you can help me out by passing this message along to friends and family you think would be interested!
Thanks so much!
yeas :-)
BREAKING: The Ohio House Health Committee votes to DEFUND Planned Parenthood, 11-9. #HearUsOH
So many people are gonna suffer because of this.
(Source: keepyourbsoutofmyuterus)
Does Ignoring Trans People Make Your Point Look Bigger?
This past year access to hormonal birth control has become a major political issue. Many insurance companies exclude birth control from their plans and a large political movement has been fighting to make such discriminatory practices illegal.
Those same insurance companies also discriminatorily exclude access to hormone replacement therapy for trans people, but unfortunately there has been comparatively very little movement to end that discrimination.
As conservatives push towards making hormonal birth control illegal, you can bet such an outcome would impact trans women as well, as the hormone pills we take are made from the same synthesized hormones, just in different doses.
As conservatives seek to defund Planned Parenthood and shut down clinics that offer abortion in the struggle over reproductive rights, it increasingly puts access to basic services at risk. Just as cis women seek services at these clinics unrelated to abortion, so do trans women. In fact, in some areas Planned Parenthood is one of the only service providers willing to prescribe hormones and related care for trans people. (In other areas Planned Parenthood refuses services to us for being trans, but that’s another issue).
So it is true that I will never have personal need for an abortion. However, I have relied on Planned Parenthood and other women’s clinics. I have lobbied my state legislature for insurance coverage of birth control. I have lobbied city governments to adopt insurance plans for their own employees that cover hormones for trans people. I have personally been sterilized because the government demanded it (a requirement my birth state of California rescinded just this last year). And I continue to fight for access to women’s health care - both cis women and trans women.
Inclusion is important. #thatisall
meteorshowersaftermidnight submitted:
I am a first generation American and first generation college student. Because of financial aid I am able to stay in school and therefor be on my university’s health plan. While exploring my options for birth control I was asked by my doctor to take a pregnancy test for safe measure before I started on any anti contraceptives.
This pregnancy test revealed that I had a high amount of protein in my urine which is a red flag for kidney problems. Many tests later it is revealed that my kidneys are in fact not healthy and the tissue is not in the shape it should be, luckily we have caught it early before it became kidney disease.
I am twenty years old. Twenty. If it weren’t for birth control I would not know about this condition and I would be well on my way to an early death.
If I hadn’t gone to my the health center I would have gone to a planned parenthood clinic and we would have caught it there. Either way exploring my options for women’s health saved my life.
Californians, email your State Senator in support of the Access to Birth Control Bill!
With the Access to Birth Control Bill (AB 2348), registered nurses would be able to dispense hormonal birth control through a standardised procedure. It is supported by Planned Parenthood, the California Family Health Council, American Nurses Association - California, and California Primary Care Association.
The Senate vote is coming up soon, so show your support today!
Abortion - Myths and Reality
Abortion has become an increasingly controversial topic. The anti choice movement has created a plethora of misinformation and flat-out lies. If you google information about abortion, a lot of scary, untrue “information” can come up, and this can be dangerous. I’m here to debunk some common myths about abortion.
MYTH: If you have an abortion, you won’t be able to have any kids in the future.
REALITY: Abortion is an extremely safe procedure. It’s 10 times safer than giving birth if performed before the 18th week of pregnancy, and about twice as safe as having your tonsils removed. A safe, uncomplicated abortion procedure should not affect future fertility. An abortion does not make miscarriage more likely, increase the risk of ectopic pregnancy, cause birth defects, cause premature birth, or increase the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
MYTH: Abortion causes breast cancer.
REALITY: A link between abortion and breast cancer has never been found. This myth has been promoted by people and groups that are against abortion; they use this idea to frighten people away from obtaining an abortion.
MYTH: If I have an abortion, I will become depressed and get “post-abortion stress syndrome.”
REALITY: The American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association do not recognize the existence of “post-abortion stress syndrome.” They have found the anti-choice studies and research flawed. Most scientific studies found that the long-term reactions to having an abortion are positive. Those at high-risk for depression and other psychological issues after abortion are people who already had emotional and psychological issues before the procedure.
MYTH: Plan B/emergency contraception causes abortion.
REALITY: Emergency contraception, also called Plan B and the morning after pill, is not the abortion pill. Emergency contraception stops a pregnancy from happening, while the abortion pill (RU-486 or mifepristone) terminates an already existing pregnancy.
MYTH: Only irresponsible people want abortions.
REALITY: According to the Guttmacher Institute, one in three people will have an abortion before age 45. Roughly two-thirds of those people will already have children and families. Mistakes happen. In a perfect world, birth control would be 100% effective, easy to use, and free or low cost. Everyone would have fact-based comprehensive sex education and access to sexual health services. There would be no rape or incest. Birth complications and birth defects would no longer exist. But, unfortunately, the world is not like that. Until that happens, abortion needs to be kept safe, legal, and accessible.
Can we take a second to say THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts, to all of you, for making our first couple of weeks here in the Tumblr-sphere so fun? We’re loving the comments, reblogs, and questions from you guys, so keep ‘em coming! We also appreciate the feedback you’ve been giving us about how to make our Tumblr even better. We’ve heard from a lot of you about the importance of making our Tumblr a safe space for folks across gender and sexual identities. To help make that happen, we’re going to be using some gender inclusive terms here. Here’s a quick rundown:
Gender refers to society’s expectations about how we should look, think, and act as girls and boys, women and men. It’s different from our sex, which is biological, and includes stuff like our genetic makeup, our hormones, and our physical parts (like our genitals). Gender identity is how we feel about our gender and gender expression is how we convey those feelings in the ways we dress, behave, speak, express ourselves, and more.
Transgender is a gender identity that differs from conventional expectations based on a person’s biological sex. Transgender is a big term that can include lots of different bodies and identities. Some transgender folks have surgery and/or take hormones to alter their physical bodies to match their gender identity, and this process is often called transitioning. Transitioning can also mean changing your gender expression, using different pronouns, etc.
Cisgender is a gender identity that is consistent with conventional expectations about a person’s sex. Cisgender refers to people who identify and present as the gender they were assigned at birth.
If you haven’t thought about gender much, some of these ideas might seem really new and maybe a little confusing. We came across The Genderbread Person, a visual tool that helps explain some of these concepts. It’s just one of many gender models, and while it’s probably not perfect (some might say it’s a little too binary. I mean what if you feel like you don’t fit anywhere on some of the spectrums?), it’s a good starting point in helping folks understand that people aren’t always just male or female.
Thanks to all of you for making us better and smarter. We know this is just the beginning.
- Your friends at Planned Parenthood Tumblr
1. Recognizing and addressing wage discrimination 2. Significantly increased funding for the Violence against Women Act 3. Reproductive freedom including reversing the global gag rule that once prohibited international organizations from receiving aid 4. Access to birth control 5. Improved affordability and access to health care for women under the Affordable Care Act 6. Increased opportunities to women who own businesses 7. Creation of the White House Council on Women and Girls
Seven Reasons Why Obama Is the Obvious Choice for Women
2011 Lies Of The Year Include HPV/Abortion Lies
Polifact has just released its “2011 lies of the year” nomination list, and two of the ten nominees are political whoppers told about reproductive health.
Both Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s claim that the HPV vaccination can cause “mental retardation,” and Senator Jon Kyle’s statement that abortion services are “well over 90 percent” of what Planned Parenthood does have made the cut, sandwiched in with claims about global warming, taxes and job creation.
To vote for the biggest, click here.
******
The PolitiFact article about Michele Bachmann’s lie about HPV.
The PolitiFact article about Jon Kyl’s lie about Planned Parenthood.
Fake “Clinic” Cons 17-Year-Old Girl
An Indiana mother recently accompanied her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend to one of Indiana’s Planned Parenthood clinics, but they unwittingly walked into a so-called “crisis pregnancy center” run by an anti-abortion group, one that shared a parking lot with the real Planned Parenthood clinic and was designed expressly to lure Planned Parenthood patients and deceive them.
The group took down the girl’s confidential personal information and told her to come back for her appointment, which they said would be in their “other office” (the real Planned Parenthood office nearby). When she arrived for her appointment, not only did the Planned Parenthood staff have no record of her, but the police were there. The “crisis pregnancy center” had called them, claiming that a minor was being forced to have an abortion against her will.
The “crisis pregnancy center” staff then proceeded to wage a campaign of intimidation and harassment over the following days, showing up at the girl’s home and calling her father’s workplace. Planned Parenthood’s clinic director reports that the girl was “scared to death to leave her house.” They even went to her school and urged classmates to pressure her not to have an abortion.
The anti-choice movement is setting up these “crisis pregnancy centers” across the country. Some of them have neutral-sounding names and run ads that falsely promise the full range of reproductive health services, but they dispense anti-choice propaganda and intimidation instead. And according to a recent article in The New York Times, there are currently more of these centers in the U.S. than there are actual abortion providers. What’s more, these centers have received $60 million in government grants. They’re being funded by our tax dollars.
http://www.ppaction.org/
Planned Parenthood Action Fund, 24 April 2006[Emphasis mine. Hear that folks? We are funding terrorists with our tax dollars. The fact that this is legal is absolutely mind-blowing. And when we dare complain, they cry about how they’re being persecuted and censored unfairly, and we’re infringing on their freedom of speech. No, just no. This should not be fucking allowed.]
ETA: Some people in the notes were wondering about the veracity of this story so I found the original source (the citation above was all that was given at the website I got this from). Here’s some more quotes from the original story:
We [Planned Parenthood] have obtained permission to share some of the remarks the patient and her family wrote soon after their encounter with the CPC.
“I have been getting phone calls [from the CPC volunteer] at home and on my cell phone, and they came to my work… saying ‘we will come get you and throw you in a car and take you to a place that is safe.’ I made my decision [to have an abortion]. Even though I had talked to [the CPC person] before, she has no right to be giving out information about me [and my family]. They need to quit harassing me and my family and loved ones. They have come to my home banging on my door and non-stop calling me. I have heard racial comments about my boyfriend [and me]. They keep yelling my name, my mother’s, and my boyfriend’s. They have no right giving out my information, and they need to respect my and my boyfriend’s decision. … They are trying to trap me but this is my decision and no person has forced me and I would like them to stop harassing me, my family, my boyfriend, and my work.”Her mother added:
“These people have given [our personal contact] information to someone at [my daughter’s] school. Now it seems even the students know certain things and are giving my daughter and her boyfriend a hard time as well. Also, the faculty has heard things, too. These people [the CPC personnel] have been standing outside Planned Parenthood yelling obscenities at all who enter. My daughter’s, her boyfriend’s, and my name have been yelled out for all to hear.”ETA #2: You might also be interested in this post I did awhile ago on more recent investigations of CPCs and their deceptive tactics.
Victory in North Carolina: Judge issues injunction to allow Planned Parenthood to continue to receive funding. http://bit.ly/qvcpLa
Human Nature : The Pro-life Case for Planned Parenthood (via becauseiamawoman)
I will always reblog this.
* This last sentence should read: “If you wait til someone is already unhappily pregnant, you’re too late.”
(via mylifeasafeminista)
