Published: 02.21.10| Updated: 02.21.10
Everyone deserves access to medically accurate education
On 2/21, PPNEO Mansfield Health Center Manager Trish Malko’s letter to the editor titled, “Everyone deserves access to medically accurate education,” was published in the Mansield News Journal and on its website in response to an anti-choice Opinion Shapers column that claimed Planned Parenthood has a ‘just say yes’ mentality regarding sex and called on elected officials to defund Planned Parenthood.
Editor:
I was taken aback by John Dannemiller's opinion piece attacking Planned Parenthood (Opinion Shaper: "'Just say no" to Planned Parenthood," Feb. 1). I'm writing to set the record straight.
Comparing sex to drugs and alcohol, and Planned Parenthood to a drug pusher, is ridiculous and insulting. Sex and sexuality are natural. Most people will have sex at some point in their lives, whether or not they are given any instruction in the matter. Telling teens and young adults to "just say no" to sex without giving them the tools and resources to build healthy relationships and make informed decisions throughout life is dangerous. These same teens and young adults often end up at a health center like Planned Parenthood with an infection or an unplanned pregnancy because they were never taught about their bodies or how to protect themselves when "just saying no" fails.
Planned Parenthood of Northeast Ohio is a nonprofit organization that provides essential reproductive health care, family planning services and medically-accurate sexuality education to more than 50,000 women, men and families. We do not profit from providing these services. We serve as a critical entry point into our health care system, and this basic health care is essential. For a lot of our clients, many of whom are uninsured or underinsured, we are their primary health care provider, the only doctor or nurse they see regularly.
Our role as is to make sure individuals and families have access to the information, resources and services they need to make health care decisions that are right for them without fear of judgment or bias. All people deserve access to essential health care and medically accurate health information so they can make "intelligent choices based on reason," to quote Mr. Dannemiller. Telling people to "just say no" to sex is dangerous and a disservice to reasonable, intelligent people everywhere.
Trish Malko, Mansfield
Trish Malko is PPNEO's Mansfield Health Center Manager.
