August 2009
Dear Friend of Planned Parenthood,
Usually I end my Updates with a “thank you.” This time, I’m going to start with one.
Thank you so much – for your encouragement, your financial support, your responses to our calls for action. In all my years with Planned Parenthood, I have never been as proud as I am of what we have accomplished in the last two months.
Our Opening Doors, Changing Lives campaign was a success. We met the Kresge Foundation challenge – raising $776,000 since December – and earned their gift of $300,000 to complete our $5.8 million campaign.
Construction of the new Fayetteville health center is complete – by the time you read this, we will be open for business. And this community – the largest metropolitan area in North Carolina without a Planned Parenthood – will join the almost 900 other Planned Parenthood health centers in the country.
What’s more, after years and years of work, we now have age-appropriate, comprehensive sex education back in our public schools – finally teachers will be allowed to do more than shake their fingers at their students and tell them “just say no.”
And none of this would have been possible without your help. Thank you again!
#####
Thanks, PP for keeping my choices available. Today I now have hope again for my life. I could not have had another baby, this would have been devastating for my family. I truly thank the staff here for holding my hand and being that supportive person I needed right now. I will always choose to support freedom of choice for myself, my daughters and all women. Thank you. (From a patient, July 2009)
#####
We kicked off the Opening Doors, Changing Lives campaign in 2005. Our goal was to raise $5.8 million to support expansion of all our services. In addition to opening our third health center, in Fayetteville, the campaign provided funds to help us move into a new Durham facility and to increase our education programming. And, it provided a major investment - $1 million – to support our advocacy program.
The results have been stunning – but nowhere more so than in advocacy. In 2004, PPAN, our email alert system, was brand new. We had fewer than 3000 email activists – and not even 200 lived outside the Triangle. Today we have more than 14,000 activists, including almost 6000 outside the Triangle.
I remember the first time we tried our hand at identifying pro-choice supporters. We made hundreds of call to women we identified from North Carolina's voter files. At that point all we knew was their party affiliation, gender and age suggested they might be pro-choice. I participated in these calls and remember how painful the process was when our hunches didn’t prove to be correct.
Today we use the latest civic-engagement tool, Catalyst, to create an enhanced list with up-to-date contact information. Through our national office, we have use pro-choice model, which means we know the likelihood of a voter being pro-choice. This allows us to do micro-targeting. This means PPCNC can pull an enhanced list from Catalyst of likely pro-choice voters from any legislative district in the state.
We did this repeatedly during our fight for passage of the Healthy Youth Act, often calling women in some of NC’s most conservative districts --places where we'd never done pro-choice ID work before! And, thanks to Catalyst, much more often than not, the women we called were pro-choice!
In 2004, we claimed it as a victory when we defeated 14 anti-choice bills in the NC Legislature.
Today, we claim a true victory: age-appropriate, medically accurate sex education has been restored to our schools
for the first time since 1994!
This is not our victory alone – we worked with a powerful, well-organized coalition of activists who know and trust each other. We have come so far from the days when our “coalition” work was more about jockeying for press coverage than about effective advocacy. The strength of this coalition, combined with the power of our shared lists, our relationships with legislators, and thousands of grassroots activists made all the difference.
The coalition – including our sister affiliate based in Raleigh, NARAL-Pro-Choice NC, the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of NC, Equality NC, and the ACLU - worked tirelessly to restore sex education in our schools. We did not always agree on strategy, but we always disagreed respectfully. And we can all share the pride in our accomplishment.
Oh yes - we also defeated all 13 anti-choice bills that were introduced in the NC Legislature!
#####
I just wanted to say thank you for the services. I have NEVER been to a restaurant, clothing store, doctor’s office, no place where I have been treated as well as I have been treated today. I just want to say thank you!!!! (From a patient, February 2009)
#####
This morning I was in Fayetteville to join our new staff for a security training. The building looks better every time I see it. The building was serene today – but I know that soon it will be bustling. The need for our services in Fayetteville is tremendous – there are 17,000 women who need subsidized family planning services who are not being served by public health clinics!We rented a bus in mid-July and took our entire staff – educators, health care assistants, call center representatives, clinicians, human resources, finance, administration, and development staff – everyone – down to Fayetteville to see the new health center. It was a wonderful day!
There wasn’t a stick of furniture in the building and there were people washing windows, using jack hammers, installing vent covers, watering the new crepe myrtle trees. The mood of our staff was jubilant. It’s so easy for us to get bogged down in the day to day, the problems, the legislative battles, the worries about money. It was just wonderful to be together – 65 of us! – celebrating this tremendous accomplishment. After years of planning and fundraising, construction was virtually complete (you know how building projects go!) and we were just days away from the first Planned Parenthood patient in Fayetteville!
Over and over that day I heard people talk about how much it means to work at Planned Parenthood. Over and over I heard our new Fayetteville staff talk about how supportive and friendly people were. I am so proud of our staff – they are committed, energetic, funny, warm, talented and generous people. Every day they contribute to making lives better. And, in the last days of the campaign, they – like so many of you -- dug deep and contributed a total of $45,000 to the campaign.
#####
Hi my name is D---. I am 15 years of age. Just lost my mother, diagnosed with genital warts and gonorrhea. BE CAREFUL! The guy that you love always doesn’t mean well. I thought I would share the rest of my life with him but look I’m here getting a abortion and he’s nowhere to be found! I miss you mom! I did this for you. (From a patient, May 2009)
#####
The best jobs are the ones where you keep learning. And I have to say, our Opening Doors campaign taught me a lot – not the least of which is how to ask for money even when your knees are knocking!
But the true lessons for me were not about asking for money – they were about partnership, about the power of supporting something you believe in, and about the tremendous generosity of our donors. I know that people get tired of being “hit up” for money. But over and over I talked with donors who truly believe they are partners in our work – people who were happy to give because they knew that it would make a difference in someone else’s life.
We received the Kresge Challenge in December – in order to receive their gift of $300,000, we had to raise $776,000 by June 30. And we did it with three days to spare!
Despite the recession, despite our fears for the future, we were able to raise $776,000 in six months – including just over $273,000 in the month of June alone. This is not really about the money we raised, but about your commitment to our shared vision of changing lives for women, men, and young people throughout central North Carolina.
#####
My life is all over the place now and this was just not the right time. I have two beautiful boys, but my husband left me and then I find this out. I have back trouble, financial troubles, and depression. The staff has been wonderful. They made me feel welcome and such a smooth process. Thank you so much for the support from Planned Parenthood. (From a patient, February 2009)
Best wishes and thank you again!
Janet Colm
President & CEO
P.S. Over the past five years, you have helped us to move into our new home in Durham. To expand our education programs throughout central North Carolina . You have made us a political force in our state. And, thanks to you, we have now opened our third health center – in Fayetteville. I hope you share our pride!
May 2009
Dear Friend of Planned Parenthood,
Talk about dreams coming true!
We are on track to opening the doors to our Fayetteville health center this summer! For those of you who are not familiar with Fayetteville – it is in Cumberland County and is the home of Fort Bragg, the largest military base in the country. There is tremendous need for Planned Parenthood there. More than 16 teen girls get pregnantevery week. There are more than 17,000 women who need subsidized family planning services who are not being served by public health agencies. Our health center will provide affordable, high quality reproductive health care, including family planning, abortion, and contraception.
Funds for this project are part of our $5.8 million “Opening Doors, Changing Lives” expansion fundraising campaign. In addition to the Fayettevillehealth center, the campaign includes several other components – including relocating the Durham health center to better serve that community and expanding our education and advocacy programs throughout our 25 county service region.
So far, we have raised more than $5 million. And now the Kresge Foundation has made a challenge grant towards the new health center. We have until June 30 to raise the final $368,000 and earn a gift of $300,000 to complete the campaign!
#####
PPCNC is not immune to the challenges facing our country - donors who’ve had to withdraw pledges, government contracts that have been cut, increasing numbers of patients who need help paying for their care. Like most businesses, we’re tightening our belts – reducing staff travel and training, freezing management salaries, negotiating new agreements with vendors. Unfortunately, the combination of the economic crisis and the impact of our Opening Doors campaign means that our annual fund is stretched thin.
If you’ve already given, thank you! If you haven’t – or if you can give again - I hope that you’ll think about two gifts this spring. Along with a gift to the annual fund, please consider a special gift to help us meet the Kresge Challenge for our Fayetteville health center. We can count 3-5 year pledges towards the challenge so, if you can, please help with a multi-year gift or pledge. Thank you!
to give: www.plannedparenthood.org/presidentsupdate
#####
Do you send email instead of writing letters? Make your own airline reservations on line?
Maybe you use Twitter or watch videos on YouTube.Our board took a huge step forward when it approved a new digital initiative as a primary goal of our new strategic plan. Clearly digital technologies and media are changing the way we interact with each other, redefining what we mean by "community", and changing the ways people identify and engage with the issues they care about. Thanks in part to a recent grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, we are using these powerful new tools to develop innovative ways to meet our mission in the 21st century.In April we “went live” with a new medical management system. The new system, funded through the Opening Doors campaign, will make the lives of our staff easier and, more importantly, it will help us serve our patients better. The system will allow patients to actually schedule their appointments online – making it even easier for people to receive the services they need at Planned Parenthood. This is also a big step towards a national Planned Parenthood system – so that a Planned Parenthood patient can be seen anywhere in the country – and her medical record will be right there with her.Also this spring, we are participating in a major “redesign” of our national website. The site (http://www.plannedparenthood.org/) gets 1 million hits every month – including 5000 for PPCNC. The vast majority of visitors are looking for Planned Parenthood health services – there is an easy-to-use clinic locator function where you can just type in your zip code and find the health center nearest you. Other visitors want to make donations, look for jobs or volunteer opportunities, or get information about reproductive health.I’m very excited about a new suite of tools coming to the website this spring. As the mother of a teenager, I know how much time young people spend on-line answering quizzes (like those we used to answer in Seventeen and Glamour magazine). How likeable are you? Which super-hero are you most like? Should you dump your boyfriend?The new tools - Planned Parenthood All Access - don’t just help you figure out how likeable you are – they help you assess your risk of sexually transmitted infections and identify the best form of birth control for you. We plan to take this one step further soon, when we’ll add live chat with a trained Planned Parenthood educator who can answer questions and make referrals – anonymously and in the comfort of your own home.Even better – we are entering into exciting new partnerships with some of the largest national teen- and health-oriented websites. They will feature All Access on their websites – allowing millions of visitors to their sites to find the clinic closest to them, assess their risk, find the best method of birth control, and “talk” with a Planned Parenthood educator.#####
Our “digital” efforts are going beyond new software and our national website. We’re also building on the advocacy work we’ve been doing for the past ten years. Thousands of you receive our email alerts with opportunities to take action to support choice. You’ll notice we’re utilizing more online tools than ever before - video, surveys, petitions. You can “follow” our Vice President of Public Affairs (and chief lobbyist), Paige Johnson, on Twitter – and find out what she is doing right now in the legislature. It’s easy to undo if you don’t want to continue, doesn’t cost anything, and you don’t get bombarded with emails – but you will get a glimpse of what a day is like in the life of our lobbyist. Just go to http://www.twitter.com/, sign up, and ask to follow “PPCNC”.We’re exploring ways for our peer educators to provide information to teens with a “chat” function on our website. We plan to experiment with discussion boards for people who think they might be the only pro-choice person in their community or for parents who are trying to figure out how to talk about sex with their children. YouTube could be a valuable tool for training parents to talk with their local school boards. We could even give prospective patients a “virtual” tour of the health center (we often hear from young people that our health centers are much nicer and less scary than they had anticipated.)You get the idea! And, if you have others, please let us know.
#####
Of course, there is a downside to this new technology. It’s also being used against us. All you have to do is go to http://www.youtube.com/ and search for Planned Parenthood. You’ll see video after video after video accusing Planned Parenthood of all kinds of things.Some are videos taken by a person calling herself “Lila Rose”. This young woman calls or visits Planned Parenthood health centers, claiming to be a teenager who is pregnant by a much older boyfriend. She secretly tapes the interactions using her cell phone. Unfortunately, in a couple of instances, she has caught Planned Parenthood staffers who did not follow the law about reporting child abuse. In other cases, the tapes were edited to suggest that laws were broken.The truth is Planned Parenthood follows the law. In those cases in which Planned Parenthood staffers did not follow the law, the affiliates involved (thankfully not PPCNC) took immediate action – including firing staff. In fact, here at PPCNC we have reported several incidents of sexual abuse to local Social Services – including most recently a participant at one of our education programs who had been abused by a relative.There are other videos that claim that our founder, Margaret Sanger, was racist or that Planned Parenthood accepts racist donations, or that our goal is African American genocide. Here again, Lila Rose has been at work. Several months ago, she and a colleague, James O’Keefe, called Planned Parenthood offices and offered donations to pay for “black babies to be aborted.” The conversations were taped and are also on YouTube. Unfortunately, again, there were a few situations in which the staff member taking the call did not respond appropriately while other taped conversations were heavily edited.I’m proud to say that when PPCNC received one of these calls, the response, in no uncertain terms, was that we would not accept such a donation and, if one was sent, the check would be destroyed. Of course, that’s not the recording that’s on YouTube.As for Margaret Sanger – a group of our board and staff members spent several months reviewing her writings and examining the claims that she was a racist. It is true that she was involved – for a short time – with eugenicists who were focused on curbing untreatable ailments. But, it’s a distortion to label her a racist. In fact, she advocated for equal access to reproductive health care and was a vocal opponent of racial stereotyping.It’s simply unfounded to suggest that Planned Parenthood supports genocide in any way. African Americans – in fact, minorities of many races - are more likely to be uninsured, to lack access to health care, and to experience unintended pregnancy than are whites. Planned Parenthood works hard to address the disparities in health care and ensure equal access.
#####
As a supporter of Planned Parenthood, you know the truth about our organization. All kinds of people turn to us for compassionate care – one quarter of American women have been a Planned Parenthood patient at some point in their lives.Thanks to your help we are moving forward. In the months and years ahead, thousands of women and men will visit our health centers. And even more activists, parents, peer educators, college students, clients, and donors will be able to come to us on the web and be engaged in ways that are meaningful to them, make sense in the 21st century, and advance our mission.Best wishes and see you on YouTube!
Janet ColmPresident & CEO
P.S. Thanks again for your help. We appreciate your help – in good times and in bad.
February 2009
Dear Friend of Planned Parenthood,
I am writing this letter just a week after the inauguration of our new president – the first pro-choice president of the century as one of our board members said! Just a few days ago, President Obama signed an executive order overturning the global gag-rule, restoring US family planning funds to international organizations that serve millions of poor women across the world.
It really does feel like a new day. Even the weather feels different today – it’s one of those January days that is warm and sunny. You can see daffodils sprouting and little sprigs of green popping up, hinting at grass.
z z z
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, though. Sunday’s paper was full of story after story about the economy – people losing their jobs; people losing their health care after losing their jobs; is the stimulus package big enough; should we have more tax cuts; what about extending unemployment benefits …..
Here at Planned Parenthood, we don’t need to read the paper to know that the world has shifted under the feet of many people. We can tell everyday by the increased numbers of patients seeking affordable health care at our health centers.
In the first six months of this fiscal year, we saw 34% more family planning patients and 31% more abortion patients than the same period a year ago. I cannot say enough about the people who work in our health centers. We get hundreds of letters and comments from patients – and almost without exception they are glowing:
You all have the greatest staff members I have ever seen at a health care center. Every question was answered promptly. I did not have to wait very long at all. Everyone I talked to was excellent and very kiind. This was my first experience coming here and I was treated very well. Thank you very much. Please let the staff know.
z z z
Many of you have asked how we are doing in this economic climate. Certainly, PPCNC is not immune to the challenges facing our country - foundations unable to make grants right now, donors who’ve had to withdraw pledges, government contracts that have been cut, increasing numbers of patients who need help paying for their care.
Fortunately, we also have a strong base of support. When our national organization looks at the financial health of Planned Parenthood affiliates, we are proud that we are consistently in the top quarter of affiliates in virtually every measure. That financial strength means that, at least for the time being, we have been able to avoid serious cutbacks.
However, we are tightening our belts – reducing staff travel and training, freezing management salaries, negotiating new agreements with vendors. We hope that by taking these steps now, we can avoid more painful changes in the future – for our patients and our staff.
We recognize that you – like others – may be feeling the impact of the economy. Regardless of how passionately you feel about Planned Parenthood, you may want a different way to support our work right now. Perhaps you can become one of our sustaining partners and make a smaller gift every month. Or it may work better for you to make a pledge rather than an outright gift.
However you choose to give – even if all you can do right now is give your moral support – thank you!
z z z
As the new year and the new administration take hold, another big change is becoming a reality – it’s a new day for Planned Parenthood too.
Our Cumberland County health center is really taking shape! Talk about dreams coming true - a couple of weeks ago, I walked around the new building. It was wonderful to see this project – one that we’ve been working on for five years – actually becoming real. The day I was there, they were going to start putting the shingles on. If all goes well, we will be providing affordable family planning services, abortion services, and contraception in Fayettevillethis summer!
There is tremendous need for Planned Parenthood in Cumberland County. Of the seven largest counties in our state, CumberlandCountyis the only one that does not have a Planned Parenthood health center. Of the seven largest counties in our state, Cumberland has the highest teen pregnancy rate (more than 16 girls get pregnant every week.)
What’s more, 17,000 Cumberland County women are in need of subsidized family planning services – these are women who are not being served by the health department. Just to put these numbers in context, in Orangeand Durham Counties combined there are 9200 women in need of subsidized family planning services who are not being served by the local health departments or Planned Parenthood.
Funds for this project are part of our $5.8 million “Opening Doors, Changing Lives” expansion fundraising campaign. In addition to the Fayettevillehealth center, the campaign includes several other components – including relocating the Durham health center to better serve that community and expanding our education and advocacy programs throughout our 25 county region.
So far, we have raised almost $4.8 million. I’m very happy to report that last month we received word that the Kresge Foundation has made a $300,000 challenge grant towards the new health center. This means that we are just $726,000 away from meeting our campaign goal! In the coming months you will here more about this excellent challenge opportunity and how you may be able to help.
z z z
There is more good news. The Z. Smith Reynolds foundation has provided a grant to fund the first phase of an initiative that will help us use new technologies to drive all parts of our mission. Over the past few years, we have developed a strong electronic alert system, the Planned Parenthood Action Network (PPAN) that now numbers more than 12,000 email activists. Our peer educators and college chapters use social networking sites like facebook to stay in touch and to connect with PPCNC. Our website, coordinated through our national organization links us with clients, activists, and donors.
This project will help us to go further – including things like appointments on line, and on line “chat” with health care professionals. Turning pro-choice activists into partners who connect with each other and with PPCNC both on- and off-line. “Meeting” with parents and young people who “come to us” over the internet. Engaging a new generation of donors, including giving them opportunities to connect with each other in addition to making financial contributions to PPCNC. And, we will share what we learn with our coalition partners in the progressive community in our state.
z z z
Everywhere I go, people are talking about the odd mixture of hope and fear that we are all feeling. President Obama’s inaugural speech summed it up well:
“Homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered. Our health care is
too costly, our schools fail too many, and each day brings further evidence
that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.”
And yet, as he put it, “We gather because we have chosen hope over fear.”
That feeling of a “new day” goes beyond what our country and our organizations are experiencing. People feel it on a personal level too – especially the people who come to us every day, many of them full of fear and looking for hope.
It’s hard to imagine – or perhaps remember – how terrifying it is to be pregnant when you don’t want to be. For those of us who have choices, it’s hard to imagine what it is really like not to have choices.
I will never forget the letter we got from one young woman who came to Planned Parenthood after having been raped. She did not talk with anyone about her experience because she truly believed that it would destroy her family. In her letter to us after her abortion, she wrote, “Thank you for giving me my life back.”
We can read the letter, but we will never really understand what that woman went through when she made her decision. We will ever really understand what a difference Planned Parenthood made in her life – and in her family’s life.
Planned Parenthood gives people hope and new choices every day. President Obama’s words reminded me of the Planned Parenthood promise we developed years ago – it’s eerie how closely it echoes President Obama’s words:
Creating hope for humanity: The freedom to dream, to make choices,
and to live in peace with our planet.
Thank you very much for all your support over the years. I look forward to continuing to work with you in the days ahead to accomplish our mission.
Best wishes,
Janet Colm
President and CEO
P.S. I am often told that PPCNC has the reputation of doing a great job with fundraising. I believe that one reason we are successful is that we truly believe our donors are our partners. As one person said, “You don’t seem to think of me as an ATM machine like so many other organizations do.” I hope you think of PPCNC not just as a charity, but as your partner – an organization that helps you make the difference that you want to see in the world. We appreciate your help – in good times and in bad.
November 2008
Dear Friend of Planned Parenthood,
Usually at this time of year, I write about the political challenges facing Planned Parenthood. This letter is a little different.
For one thing, as you read this, you know how the election turned out - something I don’t know as I write. (Or maybe I should say, “Most likely you know ….”) You may also know a little more than I do today about how the government’s efforts to stabilize the economy are working.
I hope that on both counts the news is good – that the outcome of the election means we don’t need to worry quite so much about the Supreme Court. And that the economy is doing better.
But, I suspect the economy is still a concern. A weak economy always impacts our patients. This time is no different. We are facing a double whammy. More and more women and families need our help. And, without a doubt, our fundraising will be especially challenging this year.
Because you are a Planned Parenthood supporter, you know that the need for our services increases when people are out of work. You know that when times are tough, people must decide whether to pay for contraception or put food on the table. It’s during times like these that our affordable health care services become even more important.
I know that many of you will dig a little deeper and do all you can to help us – and our patients - weather this difficult time. Whether you make an outright gift, become a monthly sustainer, make a pledge, or give a gift of stock (especially appreciated stock), your help will make a tremendous difference. So, in advance, let me thank you.
z z z
I just got back from a Planned Parenthood meeting in Houston. Of course, the airport televisions were full of stories about the election, the stock market, the mortgage crisis, the debates.
We talked about all of that in Houston too. However, our real focus was on the business challenges facing our organizations. These are issues I think about often. Sitting in a meeting thinking about them for two days was different. It really brought home to me the crisis that our entire health care system is facing.
We’ve all heard the facts and figures:
· We spend almost twice as much as any other country on health care - $2 trillion a year. Yet millions of people cannot access the health care services they need.
· 46 million Americans are not covered by any health insurance, including Medicaid.
· One-fifth of Americans spend more than 10% of their after tax income on health care.
But for me the facts and figures never really hit home until I heard this story:
In Houston, one of the speakers was a woman who had recently been diagnosed with cancer. “If I didn’t have health insurance, there is no way I would have gone to the doctor as early as I did. I would have waited to see if my symptoms cleared up.” Instead, without a second thought, she made an appointment with her doctor and her cancer was caught early. How many others delay and hope things will clear up – simply because they cannot afford to go to the doctor? How many people do not have the “luxury” of an early diagnosis?
Soon, though, she was surprised to find out that her insurance was not all that she thought. It’s true, the vast majority of her bills were covered. But, because of her deductible and co-insurance, she was hit with $3000 in medical bills.
Then her husband needed a colonoscopy. His deductible was also $1000. So, even with “good” health insurance, they had $4000 in medical bills – not including the cost of the medication she takes for her cancer and he takes for his high blood pressure. Her policy is up for renewal this fall. With her medical history, she worries what the increased cost of her coverage will be. And, in January, the deductible and co-insurance start all over again.
In fact, most outpatient services fall below the patient’s health plan deductible. That means that even people with health insurance are effectively uninsured.
Nearly one-third of Americans - 97 million people – are completely uninsured or the insurance they have does not cover most primary care. These are the people that Planned Parenthood helps every day.
z z z
There are signs that we will finally begin to reform the system. At the beginning of 2008, thirty-nine states had already enacted legislation to reform parts of their health care systems, including three that enacted comprehensive reform. More than half of the states expanded coverage for children and/or adults; and many states moved to make private insurance more affordable.
In North Carolina these changes mean that about 50,000 children and adults will be able to access more affordable health coverage. When you consider that more than 1.3 million North Carolinians are uninsured – including as many as 240,000 children – this is just a drop in the bucket.
Although the answer to this crisis is not at all clear, it may be worthwhile for policy makers to consider the values of Planned Parenthood and our supporters.
- We believe that health care should be affordable. That’s why we keep our fees as low as possible. A typical year of care at PPCNC for an adult patient – including the visit charge and a year of contraception – is about half of what a woman would pay in the private sector; teens receive an additional 50% discount. And now, thanks to an extraordinary gift to national Planned Parenthood, we can give financial assistance to many more women who need help paying for abortion services – more than 1400 women since January.
- We believe that health care should be accessible. That’s why patients can be seen at our health centers without an appointment – at the time that is best for them. Today the 4000 people who call our health centers every month never get a busy signal, thanks to our partnership with the American Social Health Association and their state-of-the-art equipment. And by this time next year, our Fayetteville health center will be open – increasing access to affordable, high quality reproductive health services for thousands of women, men, and teens throughout the Sandhills area.
- We believe that health care should be of the highest quality. That’s why we are so proud to be at the cutting edge of reproductive health care, offering the newest methods of birth control - methods like Essure, a safe, effective non-surgical form of sterilization for women. And now we are training residents from the UNC Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology – including training them to provide compassionate, safe abortions in an outpatient environment.
- We believe that health care should be culturally appropriate. That’s why we have Spanish-speaking staff and materials in our health centers and our call center. In fact, with advance notice, we can provide translators for virtually any language. We are now partnering with the Episcopal Farm Workers’ Ministry, based in Sampson County, to expand our Latino peer education programs into new parts of our service area. And we are proud that today 40% of our board and 50% of our staff are people of color, reflecting the diversity of the communities we serve.
Our values are reflected in the vital work we do every day. Every day, we help women, men, and young people take control of their health by making responsible decisions about whether to be sexually active, how to best protect themselves from disease and unintended pregnancy, and whether and when to become parents – regardless of their economic circumstance.
z z z
Planned Parenthood has a special role to play as we reform our health care system. We are the nation’s most trusted provider of reproductive health care. One in four American women has visited a Planned Parenthood health center. We are an integral part of America’s health care safety net. We are the nation’s largest network of professional sex educators, providing education programs to more than 1.2 million people every year.
On behalf of the thousands of women, men, young people, and families who depend on Planned Parenthood – thank you for your support!
Best wishes,
Janet Colm
President & CEO
P.S. So many people depend on us to be here to help them meet day-to-day needs – and at times of personal crisis. I hope you will consider a special gift today to help us meet the economic challenges we face and provide services to the people who need us now more than ever.
If you would like to talk with us about the options for making a gift to PPCNC, please call Joyce Mitchell-Antoine, our Chief Development Officer, at 919-929-5402, ext. 234.
August 2008
Dear Friend of Planned Parenthood,
It started like so many mornings – I was drinking my coffee and my husband looked up from his newspaper, a look of disbelief on his face. “These people are crazy.” It wasn’t Iraq or global warming or the economy this time.
It was the 43rd anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that gave married people the right to use contraception. To mark the day, anti-choice activists were picketing outside women’s health centers. Not to protest abortion, to protest contraception.
As their website (http://www.thepillkills.com/) says:
Pill Kills Day began Saturday, June 7, in front of the Napa, California, Planned Parenthood office at 11 AM. About two dozen prayerful witnesses testified to the facts of death about the pill. For one hour the prayers were offered for the many uninformed patrons who come asking the staff of Planned Parenthood to provide chemicals, hormones, and sex-education as an answer to their problems with the natural consequences of abuse of sex. Attractive literature detailed the devastating effects of the pill, the shot, and the IUD on women who will be chemically altered mothers even though they don't "Plan" to be and don't even know it. They will be mothers of dead babies. The hormones, chemicals and sharp I.U. devises will starve and kill in the secret warmth of their sterilized wombs.
Did you notice? They weren’t just protesting contraception, they were protesting sex education! Not sex education in the schools. Sex education in a Planned Parenthood health center!
z z z
Despite challenges (surely there is a better way to describe these people!) like this, Planned Parenthood continues to move forward in our efforts to broaden access to reproductive health care.
In May we entered into an exciting partnership with the American Social Health Association (ASHA). ASHA is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to educate the public to understand, prevent, and de-stigmatize sexually transmitted
infections. They operate a number of call centers. For many years they operated the national HIV/AIDS hotline, which was one of the largest hotline services in the world at the time.
The customer service center - our call center - is now located at ASHA. The Planned Parenthood call center grew out of the Dial EC emergency contraception hotline we operated for many years. We answer questions, make appointments, and provide referrals to callers from around the state.
The partnership with ASHA means that we have access to state-of-the-art technology and expert assistance in training and monitoring our staff. As a result, callers to PPCNC no longer ever get a busy signal.
With this new technology, we also have access to excellent reporting. We had no idea how many people were calling us for help – 4000 calls a month! We are quickly hiring and training more staff so that these calls can all be answered promptly and professionally. Our goal is to have the call center fully staffed by late August so that no caller has to be on hold for more than a few minutes. In the meantime, if you call one of our health centers for an appointment (866-942-7762) please be patient – we will get to your call as quickly as possible.
z z z
Some other highlights of the past few months:
Ø PPCNC has always been on the forefront of new reproductive health services. This summer we will add the newest method of permanent birth control for women – Essure. Unlike traditional methods of sterilization, this is a non-surgical method and can be performed without general anesthesia. Adding Essure means that we now provide permanent birth control for both women and men. Vasectomy services have been available at PPCNC since last fall.
Ø We received a three year grant to develop a Latino peer education program in collaboration with the Episcopal Farm Workers’ Ministry (EFW), based in Sampson County. Sampson County is right next door to Cumberland County, where Fayetteville is located. Sampson County has one of the highest Latino populations in the state - more than 11% of the population is Latino. EFW has worked in Sampson County for 26 years and is a well-respected provider of support services for farm workers. It was EFW who identified peer education as a need we could address in the community.
Ø Since 1982, the number of abortion providers in the US has fallen by 37%. That’s one reason we are partnering with the UNC School of Medicine to provide training for residents in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. This program is an excellent opportunity for future physicians to be trained in community-based family planning and abortion services. The program is funded with a grant from the Kenneth J. Ryan Foundation.
Ø Thanks to our “behind the scenes” work, “abstinence only” groups are no longer eligible for state adolescent pregnancy prevention grants. Instead, grant-funded programs are required to provide comprehensive sex education and refer young people for family planning services if they cannot provide the services a teenager needs.
Ø More than a quarter of students (boys and girls) who drop out of high school do so because they become a parent. Despite this fact, the Legislative Commission on Dropout Prevention did not include anything about teen pregnancy prevention in their initial recommendations to the Legislature. We lobbied hard, stressing prevention and were successful in getting the recommendations amended to recognize the problem of teenage pregnancy and the need for comprehensive sex education. The Legislative Short Session was focused primarily on the budget so these recommendations were never heard. We succeeded in getting the issue of teenage pregnancy and sex education on the table. Next session, we'll succeed in getting it heard.
Ø Our national organization, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, hosts “Planned Parenthood On-Line” (PPOL), our national website. Significant changes are being made to PPOL – all designed to do a better job of reaching people who go to our website looking for information and services. Visitors to the site can now request an appointment on-line and, soon, will be able to use “live chat” to ask a Planned Parenthood health educator questions.
Ø We’ve hit the $4.7 million mark on our Opening Doors, Changing Lives expansion fundraising campaign. Thanks to all of you who have given to support expansion of our education, advocacy, and medical programs – including opening our Fayetteville health center. If you would like more information about the campaign, please feel free to contact our Chief Development Officer, Joyce Mitchell-Antoine at joyce.mitchell-antoine@ppcentralnc.org.
Ø Almost 300 people attended our six fabulous Choice Affairs events this year, raising more than $20,000 for PPCNC. Choice Affairs, now in its 12th year, is a series of parties generously supported by hosts and sponsors so that all proceeds go to support PPCNC’s programs. I have to confess the highlight for me was watching my son’s band perform at Spence’s Farm while I ate hotdogs and ice cream! If you are interested in helping next year, contact Mitchell Price at mitchell.price@ppcentralnc.org.
Ø In order to maintain our affiliation with Planned Parenthood, we are required to go through a rigorous accreditation process every four years. In May a three-person accreditation team visited our affiliate. They observed patient education sessions and medical procedures, reviewed board minutes, audited patient charts, and interviewed staff and board members. We passed with flying colors!
Ø And, finally, I have to brag about the progress we’ve made in diversifying our organization. This first hit me at an all-staff retreat earlier this year. When our 40+ staff members gathered together in one room, I was so proud of the work we have done. Our staff is young and old (or should I say “older”), male and female, gay and straight, white, African-American, Latino, Asian. Today 42% of our board and 50% of our staff are people of color. For those of you who, like me, first knew Planned Parenthood in the 1960’s – this is not your mother’s Planned Parenthood!
z z z
July is the beginning of a new fiscal year for PPCNC. This year we also mark the beginning of a new strategic plan. Work on the plan started a year ago with a board retreat. The foundation of our plan is four bold vision statements that describe where we want to be in five years:
* North Carolina is the pro-choice beacon of the South, ensuring access and the right to make informed choices about reproductive freedom, sex education, and reproductive health care.
* PPCNC is the number-one resource for honest, up-to-date, factual information on reproductive and sexual health.
* PPCNC is an inclusive organization that respectfully serves diverse communities and responds to changing needs.
* PPCNC has a flexible and diversified business strategy to ensure financial health and enable the achievement of our vision.
With your help, I know we will look back in five years, proud of how far we’ve come in making those visions a reality. In the meantime, watch your mail for our annual report where we’ll sum up how well we met the visions of our last strategic plan.
Best wishes,
Janet Colm
President and CEO
P.S. Here’s a note from one of our first vasectomy patients: “To the doctor: You probably don’t get many of these, but I wanted to let you know I really appreciate all that you did. Your time, patience, sensitivity and thoroughness in the great job you did. Once again, thanks.” Your support means so much to our work. Thank you for your help.
May 2008
Dear Friend of Planned Parenthood,
I’ve given many of you tours of our Chapel Hill health center since we built it ten years ago and started providing abortion services. I love showing off this facility, introducing people to our wonderful staff, and talking about all the services we provide.
At the end of the tour, we usually end up in the recovery room – where women rest for an hour or so after their abortion procedure so we can make sure everything is OK before they go home. Sometimes while they rest, they write in special journals that we have there. Those journals are very powerful – that is why I like to end a tour there. It gives people a glimpse of the real women we help and the real lives we touch.
Many of you share your personal story with me as we look over these journals. We talk about the mixed feelings our patients – and we – have about pregnancy, parenting, and abortion.
And I share my conviction that abortion can be a life changing event – a maturing experience. For many young women it is their first experience successfully coping with a major personal crisis – the first time they have made a decision that cannot be changed.
Of course, an event this significant can bring up many feelings. Research indicates that emotional problems resulting from abortion are rare and that for most women the response is relief. And that is borne out by what women say to us and what they write in our journals. They write:
• I feel like I got my life back.
• This was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, but I know it was right for me.
• Thanks for giving me a second chance. I’ll never forget this.
• I know I made the right decision for my family.
This is what we tell our patients: abortion is a common life event similar to having a baby, getting a divorce, getting married, or losing a loved one. A range of emotions is normal. Most women do fine. We know that women have abortions because they care about themselves, their families, and their future families.
I have to say that I think the pro-choice movement has been too reluctant to acknowledge the mixed feelings and ambivalence that many women – and men – feel about abortion. I think we’ve almost bought into the opposition’s message that if you feel bad about abortion it’s because abortion is immoral. Just because you have mixed feelings – or even feel bad – that doesn’t mean you’ve made the wrong decision.
There are women who have difficulty coping after abortion. One big factor is whether the woman made her own choice or if she was pressured into the decision by a partner or parent. That is why we are so careful to make sure that our clients are not being coerced.
Consider some of the other risk factors for problems with coping – stigma and social disapproval from others, secrecy and silence, lack of support from significant others. I believe the current climate – and the continuous assault on abortion and women who have abortions – feeds into all of these risk factors, making these decisions even more difficult.
Fear of being judged (or worse) keeps some women from talking with the very people they usually go to for emotional support – their parents, minister, friends. The picture that has been painted by our opposition and the media leaves many of our patients terribly afraid of what they will experience and pleasantly surprised at how clean our facility is, how understanding our staff is, how comfortable they were during the procedure.
We saw in the days before Roe that fear and isolation do not prevent women from having abortions. But fear and isolation do prevent women from having the experience they deserve. Both before and after the procedure.
* * *
Recently I read The Girls Who Went Away by Ann Fessler. This is a powerful collection of interviews with women who surrendered children for adoption (often unwillingly) in the years before Roe v. Wade. One woman says:
A few years after I was married I became pregnant and had an abortion. . . . Every time I hear stories or articles or essays about the recurring trauma of abortion, I want to say, “you don’t have a clue.” I’ve experienced both and I’d have an abortion any day of the week before I would ever have another adoption – or lose a kid in the woods, which is basically what it is.
This is not to say that adoption is not a good option for some women. But remember, in the days before Roe, many young women really did not have a choice. As another woman in the book said, “If I could have stayed home and had the baby and it had all been out in the open, or just had a choice of whether or not I wanted to surrender this baby ….”
The point is that a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy needs to make her own decision. She needs to know that her feelings – all of them – are normal. She needs to know that many other women have made the same decision – she is not alone. And she needs to know that the people around her believe that whatever she decides, she does so because she cares about herself and her family.
* * *
Despite the research, anti-choice activists continue to circulate claims that a majority of women who have abortions suffer trauma as a result. They’ve even made up a name – “post-abortion syndrome (PAS).”
Anti-abortion groups have invented this condition to further their cause. All of the studies that purport to prove PAS contain flaws – and all of them studied women who already self-identified as having problems after abortion.
Almost a third of US women have had abortions. If severe emotional reactions were common, it would be an epidemic and not a debate!
Twenty years ago, President Reagan – who was opposed to abortion – asked Surgeon General C. Everett Koop – also opposed to abortion – to produce a report on the health outcomes of abortion. The report said that there was “insufficient evidence” to determine the psychological effects. In closed meetings, Koop told representatives of several anti-choice groups that the risk of significant emotional problems after abortion was “miniscule.”
And now politicians are getting into the act again – portraying abortion as harmful to women and abortion opponents as protectors of women. All designed to shift the view of women from moral decision makers to victims who need to be protected from themselves.
A year ago, Supreme Court Justice Kennedy unveiled the new strategy when the Court upheld the federal ban on some abortion procedures. He asserted that the ban was justified to protect women from the regret and emotional consequences he suggests they are likely to feel after having an abortion – essentially saying the law is necessary to protect the woman from making her own choice. This, although he admits he could find “no reliable data” supporting his point of view.
In South Dakota this tactic has reached a new level. Despite the fact that voters rejected an abortion ban just over a year ago, Planned Parenthood is fighting another law that passed in 2005. This law would require doctors to tell women seeking abortions that the procedure would “terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being.” This has to be done in writing and includes a variety of other statements – including descriptions of the supposed increased risk of depression and suicide after abortion.
There are times in life when we have to make complicated decisions. Those decisions can sometimes be irreversible – like deciding to become a parent, to place a baby for adoption, or to have an abortion. Who better to make a complicated, irreversible decision like this than the woman involved?
It seems ironic – or maybe I should say cruel – that politicians who pretend to be so concerned about women insist on telling lies or exaggerating the truth in the name of “protecting” them.
If these politicians really cared about women, they would work with us to ensure that women get accurate information and the services they need, rather than resorting to fear tactics and degradation. Their monolithic focus on stopping abortion has not just isolated women who have abortions, but abortion providers as well. The result is fewer providers, higher cost, and less availability of affordable family planning services for the women who need it the most – women having abortions.
If these politicians really cared about women, they would do everything possible to eliminate the real reasons that women have abortions – including lack of access to affordable birth control and real sex education in our schools. More than that, we need a social safety net that assures that no woman has an abortion because she is afraid that her children will go hungry, or because she can’t afford child care, or because she doesn’t have health insurance.
* * *
Ten years ago, PPCNC began offering abortion services because it was the only way we could guarantee that women could get the kind of abortion care they deserve – including both emotional and physical care.
And the feedback we get – including the journals in our recovery room – tells me that we are succeeding – despite the opposition and lack of support our patients face outside Planned Parenthood:
I came in expecting something horrific and was truly floored. The staff, the procedure – I know this is a bit strange, but it was one of the most comforting experiences of my life. I was really scared when I came in here – I have to say thank you and bless you all. I have to say it again, Bless You All.
On behalf of all the women who have turned to PPCNC for the respectful and safe abortion care they deserve, thank you for your help.
Best wishes,
Janet Colm
President & CEO
P.S. I know many of you have already sent in support this year and I thank you, but if not, please donate now and support local services. Your support allows us to provide women with safe, compassionate, and confidential care.
February 2008
Dear Friend of Planned Parenthood,
Where did you first hear the facts of life?
I was one of the lucky ones who got “the talk” from my mother. Recently, though, I was talking with one of my sisters and she said that Mom never talked with her. Years later when my sister asked her why, she said, “You never asked.”
Fortunately, the schools were there for my sister and she got accurate information in her health class – including information about birth control. She got better information in school 40 years ago than the vast majority of students in NC schools today!
I’ve been thinking about sex education a lot lately. Not just because it’s my job and not just because I have a 15 year old (although I’m sure that enters into it!) Our national president Cecile Richards brought this issue home to me when she spoke at our 25th anniversary gala last fall:
The US government has now spent more than $1 billion on abstinence-
only programs in our public schools!
It’s shocking when you think about all the good programs that are under-funded to think that we’ve now wasted $1 billion on wishful thinking.
What’s the wish? That if we just tell today’s teens to wait to have sex until they are married, we can protect them from pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
Study after study has shown that abstinence-only programs do not work. They do not persuade teens to abstain from sex. They do not reduce the number of sex partners. They do not protect our young people from pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases. They don’t work.
* * * *
It’s hard to believe, but abstinence-only programs really are just that. They either don’t talk about contraception or only talk about failure rates of the various birth control methods.
Think about it: the message we are giving students in these classes is birth control doesn’t work!
Is it any wonder that we have the highest teen pregnancy rate in the developed world? Is it any wonder that for the first time in years, the teen birth rate in our county is actually going up?
Teen parents are less likely to graduate from high school and more likely to live in poverty. Their children are often at low birth weight, have health and developmental programs, and are frequently poor, abused and/or neglected.
Abstinence-only programs are not just a waste of money. They are dangerous.
Almost two-thirds of high school seniors have had sex. In North Carolina, 1 in 9 births is to a teenager. Is there any other public health problem of this magnitude that we try to prevent with silence?
The Fayetteville Observer put it best in a recent editorial urging the Governor to reject federal abstinence-only funding:
“Just say no” is a bumper sticker, not a curriculum.
* * * *
Improving our state’s sex education program is one of the highest priorities on our legislative agenda. Two years ago we made some progress in “cleaning up” the language in the abstinence-until-marriage law. And last year we got further than ever before in completely re-writing the sex education law.
The vast majority of Americans – and North Carolinians – support real sex education in our schools. Real sex education is “abstinence plus” and includes information about birth control.
Yet North Carolina legislators are reluctant to change our laws. That’s one reason that we’ve urged Governor Easley to join 15 other governors and reject federal abstinence-only funding. Governors from Montana to Virginia have turned back this funding.
As of this writing, roughly 35% of all abstinence-only funding has been rejected. Our goal is to send a strong message to Congress: this program should be amended to allow states to use the funding to support real sex education, including information about abstinence as well as contraception.
* * * *
It probably goes without saying that teen pregnancy has many causes. It’s unrealistic to think that any one program is going make a serious dent in this problem. The best solution would be a combination of community programs – including everything from good sex education to programs that keep teens in school to providing low cost contraception for young people.
There are some programs that have been shown to delay sexual activity and improve contraceptive use among sexually active teens. These are programs that talk about abstinence and contraception -- along with peer pressure and communication skills. The best programs are taught over several sessions by trained educators. And they reflect the age, sexual experience, and culture of the participants.
These are the qualities that PPCNC has built into our sex education programs. For example, our peer educators receive 40 hours of training about a wide variety of issues facing young people today – from communication skills to body image to peer pressure to sexuality and contraception.
And if you ever want to see a group of fully-engaged young people, you should see peer educators share their views about the real-life situations teens face as they make their decisions about whether to be sexually active. What a contrast to a lecture that “sexual activity outside of the context of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects”, as required by the federal guidelines for abstinence-only programs!
* * * *
If Congress and the Administration are serious about preventing teen pregnancy, another place they could invest that $1 billion is in the federal family planning program.
Late last year President Bush vetoed an appropriations bill that included the largest increase in family planning funding in 35 years. This increase would have provided services for an additional 139,000 women – 73% of them under the age of 20. The bill, which passed Congress by a wide margin, included $311 million for family planning programs – one third of what’s been wasted.
The family planning program is under constant attack. Congress regularly considers proposals to require parental consent or notification before a teenager can get birth control at federally funded clinics – arguing that allowing teens to have access to birth control encourages teen sexual activity. Fortunately, none of these proposals have passed.
The truth is that the average teen waits more than a year after becoming sexually active before she visits a family planning clinic. One study found that 20% of adolescent girls visiting family planning clinics for birth control would have unsafe sex if parental notification was required. Only 1% said they would remain abstinent if their parents had to be notified.
* * * *
And now older teens – college students – are facing still another problem.
For 20 years, drug companies have made it possible for college health clinics and safety-net providers to purchase birth control at low prices in order to pass along the savings to the college students and low-income women who rely on them.
Last fall, college women returned to campus to discover that the birth control that previously cost them $5–10 for a monthly supply now costs them $40–50 per pack, making it far more difficult to afford.
Due to a provision included in the Deficit Reduction Act, every college health center, along with hundreds of safety-net providers, was unintentionally cut off from accessing low-cost birth control. The result has been an increase in the average price of birth control on college campuses, often to 10 times the previous cost.
Skyrocketing prices are putting birth control out of reach for the college students and low-income women in need of family planning services. This crisis affects the estimated three million college women who take oral contraception, and hundreds of thousands of low-income women who obtain birth control through safety-net providers.
We are working with sister Planned Parenthoods across the country – along with our student chapters on local college campuses – to fix this issue in Congress.The bipartisan Prevention Through Affordable Access Act, would bring down the cost of birth control at college health clinics and safety-net providers. This legislation will not cost the taxpayers a single dime, and will restore affordable birth control. The bill stalled in 2007. We are determined to get it passed in 2008.
* * * *
Planned Parenthood is unique. We are a service provider and a political advocate. We provide sex education when the schools will not. We provide low cost contraception for those who need it most. We advocate for public policy that guarantees reproductive health care – from real sex education to family planning to access to abortion.
We are also unique is the deep, trusting relationships that we have with young people. And in the life-changing - and even life-saving - impact those relationships can have.
Thanks for your help.
Best wishes,
Janet Colm
President & CEO
P.S. All this is possible because of your support and the support of people like you. People who believe that everyone, regardless of age, deserves the information and services they need so that they become parents when they are ready – and not before.
Thanks again.
November 2007
Dear Friend of Planned Parenthood,
If I asked why you support Planned Parenthood, what would you say? Would you talk about women’s rights? About teen pregnancy? Basic health care for the uninsured? The environment?
Maybe you would tell your own story. Here is the story one of our donors shared with me recently. These are her own words:
I was in college and got pregnant. It was the summer before I was to head off to study abroad for the summer. I did not want to get married and I did not want to have a child. It was a really hard decision to make. Luckily I had a very good experience, as far as those experiences can go, because they are difficult decisions.
My life would just have been drastically, drastically different. I’m so grateful. At the time I didn’t know that I would later decide never to have children. In fact, I guess my biggest fear was that something would get botched and I wouldn’t be able to.
When I think of that summer abroad, it turned into two years and then it turned into a graduate degree in international studies and that turned into a career. I mean, that took me to the other side of the globe and if that hadn’t happened …. That’s really from the heart.
I feel like it saved my life. The right to choose saved my life. I feel like someone gave me my life back when I had the abortion.
******
Of course, the work of Planned Parenthood is about much more than just abortion. We believe in prevention first. In the last two years alone more than 25,000 women, men, and young people received preventive services from PPCNC – everything from honest sex education to birth control and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.
******
For 25 years we have had a dynamic board, committed staff, and tremendous support from our community. We are proud of our progress, but our work is far
from over. Unless we expand our reach and impact into new parts of our state, we are certain to see more pregnant teenagers; more young people with sexually transmitted diseases; more government restrictions on abortion, sex education and family planning.
We believe that our organization has never been stronger and that the time is right for us to take on these challenges and vigorously expand our reach and impact.
Our 25-county service area has some of the highest teen pregnancy and STD rates in the state. The need for Planned Parenthood is clear. Our expansion plan centers around two strategic priorities - expanding medical and educational services into new parts of the region and increasing our political clout.
In 2005, our board approved the “Opening Doors, Changing Lives” fundraising campaign to provide the financial support we need to expand our services.
Our goal is to raise $5 million by the end of 2008. I am extremely happy to report to you that during the “silent” phase of this campaign, we have raised more than $4 million!
******
Opening Doors, Changing Lives has four key components:
A larger, more visible Durham health center that reflects the excellence that is the hallmark of Planned Parenthood;
A major investment in our advocacy work to identify and mobilize thousands of new pro-choice supporters, especially young people and those in new parts of the state;
Expansion of teen pregnancy prevention programs – including peer education - into new parts of central North Carolina;
And, finally, a new Planned Parenthood health center in Cumberland County, home of Fayetteville - the largest metropolitan area in our state that does not have a Planned Parenthood health center.
******
We have already made major strides in accomplishing our expansion plan.
Almost two years ago, we moved into our new home on Roxboro Street in Durham. Our new location offers the convenience of “open access” care – no appointments are necessary. There is ample on-site parking. It is accessible by public transportation. And it has a wonderful combination of security and privacy.
In the face of dwindling government support for our services, our goal was to have a facility that will attract more paying patients and those with insurance – to help subsidize our patients who cannot pay. We’ve always worked hard to provide the highest quality services while keeping our fees as low as possible. The balance of meeting our mission and our bottom line is always challenging.
Today it is clear: our strategy is working. In the last 12 months alone, the number of patients who can pay for their care has increased by 11%! These paying patients help provide the financial stability that we need in order to keep our fees as low as possible for low-income, uninsured, and teen patients.
******
Our intensified advocacy work is also beginning to pay off. Today we have 12,000 activists on our electronic alert list. We have new coalition partners and are working with them more effectively than ever before. We have organized VOX: Voices for Planned Parenthood groups on college campuses throughout the region – including the nation’s first VOX chapters on historically black college campuses. The Planned Parenthood Leadership Institute is training young people in the skills they need to become the next generation of pro-choice leaders – including a group of 10 students at UNC-Pembroke we are training this fall.
Our activists sent more than 30,000 pro-choice emails to North Carolina legislators in the last two years and helped stop every anti-choice bill that was introduced. And, for the first time in more than 10 years, we’ve been able to pass bills that actually advance reproductive health – including increased state funding for family planning programs, improvements in sex education, and a cervical cancer awareness bill.
******
In central North Carolina, more than 4300 teenagers get pregnant every year. Yet, North Carolina law makes it exceedingly difficult for local public schools to go beyond the “abstinence until marriage” message to young people. As a result, young people in only a handful of counties receive real sex education that includes information about contraception along with abstinence.
In the face of these challenges, we are expanding our prevention programs to reach young people outside of the public schools. Our peer education program trains “guerrilla” sex educators – teens who provide accurate information and referrals to other teens. And we are working with new partners – including charter schools and churches. Despite the fact that the doors to our schools are closed to Planned Parenthood, are now providing real sex education to young people in places like Northampton, Cumberland, Chatham, and Alamance Counties, in addition to the work we’ve been doing for years in Orange and Durham Counties.
******
Cumberland County, home of Fayetteville, is the fifth largest county in the state. The need for Planned Parenthood services in Cumberland County is tremendous. Of the largest metropolitan areas of our state, Cumberland County is the only one that does not have a Planned Parenthood health center; it also has the highest teen pregnancy rate, (more than 16 girls get pregnant every week) and the second highest abortion rate (more than 1500 women receive abortions each year.)
The health department provides family planning services, but is not open evenings or weekends and a new patient must wait 6 -12 weeks for an appointment for birth control. An estimated 17,000 Cumberland County women who need subsidized family services are not currently served by publicly funded health care providers.
We started laying the groundwork for our new health center four years ago when we launched our peer education program in Fayetteville. Today we have three staff members and more than 100 peer educators working there. We have programs on the campuses of local universities and partnerships with community groups – including the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Coalition that we helped revive. We have board members from the community and volunteers who are helping open doors and raise money. And we have identified 5000 pro-choice activists who are members of our electronic alert list.
We are ready to take the next step: opening a Planned Parenthood health center in Fayetteville. If all goes well, we should be providing birth control, cancer screening, abortion services, and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases for the women and men of Fayetteville and the surrounding area late next year.
******
On behalf of the thousands of women, men, young people, and families who depend on Planned Parenthood – thank you for your support!
Best wishes,
Janet Colm
President & CEO
P.S. When people ask me why I work at Planned Parenthood, this is what I tell them.
No other organization can fulfill Planned Parenthood’s role as a service provider and a political advocate. I believe in the Planned Parenthood vision – a world in which everyone is able to make life’s most profound decisions about sexuality, about relationships, and about whether and when to become a parent.
August 2007
Dear Friend of Planned Parenthood,
It must have been almost exactly 25 years ago that I interviewed for the job as Executive Director of a new Planned Parenthood affiliate – Planned Parenthood of Orange County.
Things got off to a rocky beginning – the morning of the interview, I couldn’t get my car started! Fortunately, it was not too far to walk to the office where our founding mothers were interviewing candidates and I made it on time (although, being August, it was hot!)
I was very excited about this opportunity. As a college student just a few years earlier, I read a collection of letters written to Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood. What an eye-opener for a young woman in college during the sexual revolution!
I am 25 years old, have been married seven years and I am the mother of five children. When my first child was a year and six months old I had another, when that was a year and five months old I had another, when that was a year and four months old I had another, when it was six months old I started with another but miscarried at three months and three months from then I started with another and miscarried that at eight months, so by rights I am the mother of six.
These letters really drove home to me what my life would be like without access to reliable, affordable birth control. To think that I could be involved with an organization like Planned Parenthood – one that I knew would make a genuine difference in the lives of all kinds of women – that would be a dream job!
Just a month after I started work, I attended my first Planned Parenthood annual conference. Most of that conference is long-forgotten, but there are a few things I will never forget. Being confronted by angry anti-choice picketers. Being in a room with hundreds of other people who agreed with me about the critical importance of a woman’s right to contraception and abortion. Trying to figure out what to say when people said, “North Carolina? What are you going to do about Jesse Helms?” That meeting was the first time I thought, “Maybe this will be the job I keep for the rest of my career.”
z z z
Earlier this summer, I was interviewed by a young woman who is compiling 25 profiles for our 25th anniversary celebration (which you can see at our website.) She asked me what the biggest changes were in the last 25 years. I didn’t know where to begin.
The entire world has changed so much. AIDS was a disease that we thought affected only a few gay men in California. In North Carolina, Spanish was a language spoken only in classrooms. And the idea that a woman who did not want surgery could chose to end an unwanted pregnancy with a pill was revolutionary.
Sexually transmitted infections were called VD and the most common STI’s today - chlamydia, HIV, herpes, HPV - were unheard of 25 years ago. Birth control was the pill, diaphragm, and a new method – the contraceptive sponge. Condoms were old fashioned; after the Dalkon Shield disaster, IUD’s were almost never being used. The “morning after pill”, which we now know as emergency contraception, was a rumor on college campuses.
z z z
In some ways things were actually better 25 years ago. In North Carolina, we had an actively pro-choice governor who supported our state abortion fund - $1.5 million that helped poor women in NC pay for abortion services. Today the Fund is $50,000 and it is so tied up in legislative red-tape that no woman has been able to use it in the last 8 years.
Twenty-five years ago, NC had a model sex education program so that children in kindergarten through high school received age-appropriate, honest information about human sexuality – including (for older students) birth control. Today, teachers are censored by the state – making it extremely difficult for them to do much more than shake their fingers and say “don’t do ‘it’.”
And, 25 years ago, the Supreme Court had six pro-choice Justices and just two anti-choice Justices. The ninth Justice – Sandra Day O’Connor – had yet to vote on an abortion case. Today, as we found out just this past spring, we have an anti-choice majority on the Supreme Court. And, today, for the first time since Roe, states can now restrict abortion without an exception to protect the woman’s health.
z z z
Our first health center opened in a tiny, dingy office in Hillsborough the following October. My first report to the board after we opened proudly announced that we had seen 14 patients in the first month of services! Today each of our health centers helps many more clients than that every day!
We presented “How to be an Askable Parent” programs in local libraries and churches. These programs probably were not the most effective – participating parents were already highly motivated to provide good information in a responsible way to their children. On the other hand, programs like this were a great way for us to introduce Planned Parenthood to the community. Similarly, as we work towards opening our new health center in Fayetteville, we have used our award-winning peer education program as a way to build support for our organization, and to establish relationships with other human service agencies there.
Twenty-five years ago, our alert list consisted of a hand-written list of thirty board members. Today, we have an electronic list of 24,000 pro-choice supporters throughout central North Carolina – half of them outside the Triangle. We have pro-choice activists in Gates, Warren, Robeson, Sampson, and Johnston Counties. In fact, we have pro-choice activists in every legislative district in our service area. And they are making their voices heard! For the first time in years, our pro-active Prevention First legislative agenda is moving forward!
z z z
What’s ahead for Planned Parenthood in the next 25 years? Well, first things first – our Fayetteville health center. We are in the early stages of designing a new Planned Parenthood health center. We have a lot of work to do – finishing up our fundraising, construction, buying equipment and furnishings, hiring and training staff. Our goal is to be open for business in early 2009.
Fayetteville is the capital of Cumberland County – the home of Fort Bragg, the largest army base in the country. Of the seven largest counties in our state, Cumberland County is the only one that does not have a Planned Parenthood health center. Of the seven largest counties in our state, Cumberland also has the highest teen pregnancy rate, with over 16 girls getting pregnant every week. The Alan Guttmacher Institute estimates that 17,000 Cumberland County women need subsidized family planning services and are not presently being served. Cumberland has the highest abortion rate of the metropolitan counties in our state – with more than 1500 Cumberland County women receiving abortions each year. It also has significant problems with sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
People from all over the Sandhills area come to Fayetteville for health care. In the eight neighboring counties, the Guttmacher Institute estimates there are an additional 16,000 women in need of subsidized family planning services who are not presently being served. There is no abortion provider in any of these counties – and a total of 1500 women from this area had abortions in 2004 (the last year for which data is available.) This area also has some of the state’s highest teen pregnancy rates – five counties are in the worst third, including Robeson with the 4th highest and Richmond with the 8th highest teen pregnancy rates.
Clearly there is unmet need and a place for Planned Parenthood.
z z z
When that young woman asked me what I wanted the world to be like in 25 years, it brought me up short. I thought about where I will be in 25 years – probably retired! I thought about my son – and possibly my grandchildren (he is 14, after all ….). I thought about the Supreme Court. Is 25 years long enough for the Court to change back to a pro-choice position? What damage can happen in the meantime? I thought about the sad state of health care in our country – and wondered whether we can ever move to a system that guarantees health care for everyone – including excellent reproductive health care that is not up for debate every four years.
Because you are a supporter of Planned Parenthood, I suspect that we share many of the same dreams. We are committed to respectful and affordable health care. We believe in honest, accurate, unbiased information that empowers people of all ages to make their own responsible choices. And we know the power of political action to achieve our mission.
Our vision is a world in which everyone is able to make life’s most profound choices about sexuality, about relationships, and about whether and when to become a parent. Fully informed. Free from government intrusion. Regardless of age, gender, race, sexual orientation, or economic circumstance.
I’m not sure if that is possible in the next 25 years. But it’s sure worth working towards.
Best wishes,
Janet Colm
President & CEO
P.S. Our 25th anniversary celebration is October 22. Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, is the featured speaker. Look for more details soon. I look forward to seeing you then!
April 2007
Dear Friend of Planned Parenthood,
I have to admit that sometimes it’s hard for me to see the progress we are making. It’s so easy to get consumed by all the struggles – from the halls of our local schools to the Supreme Court. That’s one reason why I love the letters our patients send us.
Recently, though, it has felt different to me. It seems like every day I become aware of another breakthrough – a small advance – another victory!
z z z
In our health services, for example.
Last fall, the FDA finally approved “behind-the-counter” status for emergency contraception. “EC” is not the abortion pill – it is a high dose of the same hormones in the regular birth control pill. It can actually prevent pregnancy if taken within 72 hours after unprotected intercourse.
Planned Parenthood worked hard for this victory. We know first hand how important this method of birth control is for women whose birth control failed or who didn’t use birth control for some other reason. Here at PPCNC, we operated a statewide EC hotline for many years. We provided telephone screening and prescriptions for EC for as many as 400 women a month.
Now, any woman over the age of 18 who has a picture ID, can go into a pharmacy or Planned Parenthood health center and ask the pharmacist for EC. There are still barriers, to be sure – especially for teens and women who want more privacy than talking with their pharmacist. None-the-less – we have a breakthrough!
z z z
And there is more. The new HPV vaccine that can actually prevent uterine cancer. Considering that as many as 25% of all women have HPV (not all strains of the virus cause cancer), this is a tremendous advance in women’s health. HPV is a sexually transmitted infection and the vaccine is recommended for girls before they become sexually active.
It’s not perfect – the vaccine can cost more than $300 for the full regimen. And, hard as it is to believe, some extremists are opposed because they believe the vaccine will promote irresponsible sexual behavior! Still, this is the first vaccine against a form of cancer and it could save thousands of lives every year.
In the last few weeks, PPCNC has added two other important services. We now offer the rapid HIV test which makes it possible for clients to get their results within minutes. And, we are one of the first providers in the state to offer Implanon, the newest form of birth control. Implanon is a hormonal contraceptive that is implanted in the woman’s arm. It is effective for up to three years. We are proud once again to be at the forefront of reproductive health care in our community!
z z z
Perhaps the arena where I feel this sense of “breakthrough” the most is in our advocacy work. For years we have called our political work a victory because we have been able to stop every anti-choice bill that was introduced in the General Assembly. That is a major accomplishment – no anti-choice legislation has passed our state since 1994!
On the other hand, we have not been able to pass any legislation that actually makes things better – in fact, we often haven’t even been able to even find sponsors to introduce pro-active legislation.
Now - for the first time in years - we are not just fighting off bad bills. We are actually advancing proactive legislation.
Legislation that will give our young people real sex education. Legislation that provides more funding for family planning for low income women. Legislation that requires hospital emergency rooms to provide emergency contraception to women who’ve been raped.
We don’t know if these bills will pass, but the new level of support for reproductive health is a breakthrough. Best of all, we aren’t just fighting off threats to abortion, we are advancing our prevention package!
For the past 13 years, it has been virtually impossible for young people to get good sex education in our public schools. Last year, the Legislature tinkered with the “abstinence until marriage” sex education law, resulting in some modest improvements. This year, Rep. Susan Fisher has introduced a complete overhaul of the curriculum – to make sure our young people get sensible sex education that includes abstinence and contraception.
There isn’t just one sponsor or five or even 15 for the bill that requires hospitals to provide EC for women who’ve been raped. There are almost 50 members of the House who have signed on to this bill. It is no coincidence that Planned Parenthood activists targeted 47 legislators asking them to sign on to this bill. We don’t know if these bills will pass, but the new level of support for reproductive health is a breakthrough. Best of all, we aren’t just fighting off threats to abortion, we are advancing our prevention package!
And when Sen. Katie Dorsett (D-Guilford) introduced a bill to provide parents with educational materials about cervical cancer, HPV, and the new vaccines, it passed the Senate unanimously!
z z z
For years we have known that we need to do more in the rural parts of our service area. Teens in these areas have extremely high rates of pregnancy. Women who need family planning and abortion care have few options. Pro-choice supporters feel isolated and powerless.
Here too, we see breakthroughs. We are expanding our peer education program. We’ve conducted this program for years in Durham, Fayetteville, and Orange County. We’ve trained hundreds of young people to provide accurate information and referrals to their friends and family. Now we are working in collaboration with other community groups to train peer educators in places like Siler City in Chatham County and Gray’s Creek in Cumberland County.
The breakthrough is not only the expansion of our education. It is also a tremendous accomplishment that these schools and community groups understand the value of good sex education, trust Planned Parenthood as the best sex educators, and are eager to collaborate with us.
What a long way we’ve come since the days when a local middle school cancelled our puberty education programs for sixth-graders because a parent complained that she wanted “the other side” represented!
z z z
We’ve always worked hard to provide the highest quality services while keeping our fees as low as possible. The balance of meeting our mission and our bottom line is always challenging.
For more than 15 years, our Durham health center operated out of a renovated mill house on Broad Street. The number of women coming to us for care – especially low income and uninsured women – has increased dramatically over the past few years. In fact, between 2003 and 2006, we served 50% more patients!
A year ago, we moved into a new facility. Our goal was to provide a more comfortable and private facility for our existing patients.
And, in the face of dwindling government support for our services, we need to have a facility that will attract more paying patients and those with insurance – to help subsidize our patients who cannot pay.
Now, slightly more than a year after moving, we are seeing results! In the last six months, we served 13% more paying patients in Durham than during the same period the previous year! These paying patients help provide the financial stability that we need in order so that we can keep our fees as low as possible for low-income, uninsured, and teen patients.
z z z
There are more than 120 local Planned Parenthood affiliates in the country. In a recent report, we were ranked second in the country in the proportion of our budget which is provided by people like you – our community supporters.
Fundraising supports programs like education, outreach, advocacy – programs that do not generate revenue. Fundraising makes it possible for us to expand services to new parts of our service area.
Over the past three years, the support of people like you has helped us to move into our new home in Durham. To expand our education programs into Cumberland County and then into Chatham, Alamance, and Northampton Counties. It is the support of people like you that has made us a political force in our state.
And, thanks to people like you, we are making real progress towards our goal of opening our third health center – in Fayetteville.
We are one of the youngest (if not the youngest) Planned Parenthood in the country. Yet we are able provide more education, more advocacy, more outreach than many other Planned Parenthoods – thanks to you!
Best wishes,
Janet Colm
President & CEO
P.S. I know there will always be challenges ahead. With the help of Planned Parenthood supporters like you, we will always have breakthroughs!
February 2007
Dear Friend of Planned Parenthood,
As I prepared to write this update, I looked back through January updates from years past. In odd-numbered years, I invariable reflect on the election of the previous fall:
January 2003: “For those of us who care about reproductive freedom, this may be the most challenging time we have seen in the 30 years since the Supreme Court legalized abortion. For the first time since the Roe v. Wade decision, the US Senate, House, and White House rest in the hands of anti-choice forces. ”
January 2005: “Since November, we have been subjected to what feels like unending debate about the lessons of the election . . . . Chief Justice Rehnquist officiated at the inauguration of President Bush, providing a chilling reminder that the average age of the current U.S. Supreme Court justices is 70, and two are octogenarians.”
How different it is this year. Voters across the country gave a resounding message: politicians should not meddle with decisions better left to women, their families, and their doctors.
In South Dakota, one of the most conservative states in the country, voters rejected the state’s extreme abortion ban. In Congress, we picked up four pro-choice Senators and 18 pro-choice Representatives. Both the House and the Senate now have pro-choice leadership. In Kansas, fiercely anti-choice Attorney General Phil Kline was defeated in his re-election bid. Six states elected new governors with better positions on reproductive health than their predecessors, including four who are solidly pro-choice. All across the country state legislatures became more pro-choice.
It feels like a new day.
z z z
And here in North Carolina, 39 of the 43 candidates endorsed by the Planned Parenthood Political Action Committee (PAC) of Central North Carolina were elected.
In Wake County, the PAC endorsed challenger Ty Harrell for the NC House of Representatives. He defeated anti-choice zealot Rep. Russell Capps in what was considered to be an uphill battle to unseat a Republican incumbent in a district with a majority of registered Republicans.
This was an important victory for choice. Russell Capps was not just against women making their own decisions about abortion. He was also the only legislator in the NC House to vote against the repeal of our state’s involuntary sterilization law. This law, which was repealed in 2003, allowed more than 7600 women, some as young as 10 years old, to be sterilized against their will.
The Planned Parenthood PAC contributed financially to Rep. Harrell’s campaign. Our volunteers called and e-mailed hundreds of pro-choice voters asking them to vote for Ty Harrell. And, with help from Lt. Governor Bev Perdue, 1800 “robo calls” were made to pro-choice voters asking them to support increased prevention services, including birth control and family planning.
In Cumberland County, our PAC supported Rep. Rick Glazier. Rep. Glazier faced tough opposition from Alex Warner, who ran on a so-called “moral values” platform. The PAC contributed financially to Rep. Glazier’s campaign and our volunteers canvassed neighborhoods and worked the polls on Election Day asking undecided voters to cast their vote for Rep. Glazier.
Today, almost one-quarter (23%) of the NC House and Senate are legislators
who were endorsed by the Planned Parenthood PAC. This includes Rep. Joe Hackney who, at this writing, appears to be the next Speaker of the House.
Maybe it really is a new day!
z z z
But, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. We still face significant challenges.
Just one day after voters nationwide rallied in support of women's health, attorneys for Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), stood before the U.S. Supreme Court and urged the Justices to protect women’s health as they considered the case against the federal abortion ban – the so-called “Partial Birth Abortion Ban.”
"This ban puts women's health in danger by forbidding doctors from providing their patients with the care they believe is safest and best," said Eve Gartner, senior staff attorney for PPFA, who argued the case.
This case is not about late-term abortion. The ban was carefully written to strike at the heart of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. One of the key tenets of Roe is that any abortion restriction must include an exception to protect the life and health of the woman.
Every court that has examined the federal abortion ban has struck it down. They all agreed: the ban fails to protect women's health. Just six years ago, the Supreme Court itself struck down a very similar Nebraska abortion ban because it did not have a health exception. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor provided the critical vote that upheld protections for women’s health. Since then, she has retired and been replaced on the court by Justice Samuel Alito.
In addition, the ban is so broadly and vaguely written, it would outlaw abortions as early as 12 to 15 weeks in pregnancy even if the doctor says it is the best way to protect the woman’s health.
Make no mistake: this ban is part of a bigger agenda to chip away at the underpinnings of Roe and ultimately criminalize all abortions.
A decision in this case is expected this summer.
z z z
And then, just days later, President Bush appointed anti-birth control, anti-sex education Eric Keroack to oversee the federal family planning program – proof that the administration remains dramatically out of step with the nation’s priorities. The appointment did not require Senate confirmation.
Prior to this appointment, Keroack served as medical director for six so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” that oppose contraception, claiming it is “demeaning to women.”
In his new role, Keroack will oversee an annual budget of $283 million that supports the federal family planning program (Title X). This program was signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1970. It provides family planning services to 5 million low-income people a year. The program has never recovered from deep cuts in the 1980’s and is woefully under-funded. If funding had kept pace with medical inflation since 1980, the program would be more than two times its current level.
My concern about Title X is not just academic. Our Durham health center has received funding from this program since 2001. Last year we received $175,000 which helped provide family planning services for almost 1000 uninsured, low-income women, more than half of them Latina.
Almost 120,000 Planned Parenthood supporters have already signed an on-line petition to protest this appointment and demand the appointment of someone who is committed to prevention and full funding of America’s family planning program. For more information, go to http://www.plannedparenthood.org/ or sign and return the enclosed card.
z z z
And, here in North Carolina we have the ninth highest teenage pregnancy rate of any state. Almost one out of every five pregnancies ends in abortion. Family planning clinics in our state serve fewer than half of all women in need of publicly funded contraceptive services.
Planned Parenthood believes people deserve medically accurate information and reliable, affordable contraceptive services. That’s the only way for us to see fewer unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.
While there will always be a need to monitor and organize against our opposition, we can do better. We need to move past playing defense and offer a common-sense, proactive legislative agenda that puts prevention first. That is the mission of Planned Parenthood and that is my New Year’s Resolution!
Thank you very much for all your support over the years. I look forward to continuing to work with you in the days ahead to accomplish our mission.
Sincerely,
Janet Colm
President & CEO
P.S. We have a new Senate, a new House, and a Legislature. It is a new day. With your help, we can seize this new day, move forward, and put prevention first.
November 2006
Dear Friend of Planned Parenthood,
For many years I have told people that there are four parts of PPCNC that give me a special sense of pride:
· Our relationship with the Latino community. Today, more than half of our program staff – our call center, health services and education staff – are bilingual. In fact, a Spanish speaking woman who goes to our Durham health center never has to use an interpreter from the time she calls for an appointment to when she checks out. Aside from the Latino community centers, I believe there is no other organization in the area that has this capability and track record.
· Our Dial EC program. We provide emergency contraception to more than 400 women all over the state every month. Trained EC specialists (including those fluent in Spanish) screen callers on the phone and then call in a prescription for them to the pharmacy they chose. We are one of a handful of programs like this across the country!
· Our abortion services. We provide more than 2000 women a year with high quality, confidential, and respectful abortion services. We were the first Planned Parenthood affiliate to offer the abortion pill after it was approved by the FDA. The PPCNC Justice Fund helps provide funding for women who need help paying for the service.
· Our growing political clout. Today we are leaders in the North Carolina pro-choice coalition and in the Planned Parenthood family. We lobby. We organize. Our PAC supports pro-choice candidates. In 2005, activists on our electronic alert list sent more than 12,000 pro-choice e-mails to North Carolina legislators – helping to stop every one of the 13 anti-choice bills that went before the General Assembly. And this year we were actually able to do more than just stop bad bills. We were successful in modifying the state’s sex education bill, increasing state funding for family planning, and improving eligibility for state assistance for AIDS drugs.
z z z
Recently, I have added a fifth item to my list: our extraordinary work with the next generation of pro-choice leaders. Through our education and outreach programs we are bringing both high school and college students into the pro-choice movement, and preparing them for leadership positions in the years ahead.
I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I didn’t really understand the impact of this work until the last few weeks.
I knew that we have trained almost 400 teen peer educators who, in turn, have provided accurate information about sexuality, contraception, and other teen health issues to thousands of their friends and classmates.
I knew that we have organized campus groups at Durham Tech, Fayetteville State, NC Central University, and UNC-CH. And I knew that we had trained college students to become pro-choice activists at the first-ever “Live Action Camp” for students at historically black colleges and universities (HBCU’s).
What I didn’t know is the life-changing impact this work is having on the young people who are involved. Then I met some of them and heard what they had to say.
z z z
Several weeks ago four graduates of our peer education program participated in a panel discussion about the impact of this program on their lives. George (I’ve changed the names) participated in the program several years ago and is a student at UNC-CH. Jason is a graduate of a local private high school. Alyse is a sophomore at Northern High School in Durham. Tanya is an amazingly confident and articulate senior from Durham’s Hillside High School. The panel reflected the diversity of the young people who've participated in the program.
Tanya said one of the best things about the program was that it helped improve her self confidence. She has her eyes set on running for public office - and talked about her experience as a speaker at our Youth Advocacy Day in the Legislature the past two years. It was exciting to get to know her - I feel certain that she will be representing the Planned Parenthood mission in the halls of the general assembly in years to come.
George told a couple of stories that showed how he continues to use the information he learned in peer education even today as a student at UNC. He helped a friend who had questions about a sexually transmitted disease. He told a story about another student who was having trouble getting emergency contraception on campus; he was able to give her information about our Dial EC program.
It was harder for Alyse to talk - she is shy and was probably suffering from stage fright. But, when someone in the audience asked what the schools were doing, she grabbed the microphone - she wanted us to know that she and her friends had gotten no information in school and that PPCNC was “the only people we can trust to tell us the truth.”
I was especially interested in what Jason said. His dad is a physician and his mother has a Ph.D. in public health and was on the PPCNC board for a couple of years. He was the first to say that he didn't especially need the information that we presented and that his friends didn't especially need it either since they come from families and a school where these issues are discussed openly. The value of the program to him, clearly, was in learning to listen and in being exposed to a wide range of people from other backgrounds. He talked, in particular, about becoming friends with a girl in his group and finding out that she was homophobic. After several intense conversations between the two of them, she moved to a more open position. One of the strengths of this program is that participants not only learn, they teach each other.
One member of the audience asked what kind of information they had gotten in school. None of them, with the exception of Jason, had received anything close to good sex education - even though they all attend (or attended) schools which supposedly are allowed to present information about contraception. Clearly, teachers either don't know what they can teach, are not trained to teach sex ed, or don't get the support they need in order to feel safe giving out this information.
Jason ended the discussion with a powerful statement. He said something along these lines: “In our world today, we need this information. We want to know about these things. We are going to find out one way or another. Whether we get it from adults or not.”
What an amazing group of young people! Thanks to our peer education program, I know that all four of these young people will be life-long advocates for accurate sex education, healthy sexuality, and responsible choices.
z z z
As wonderful as it was to hear these stories, I was equally impressed a few weeks later when I met Theresa Garrett and Maya Jackson, the two women who lead the VOX: Voices for Planned Parenthood chapter at NC Central University in Durham (Vox is Latin for “voice”).
Theresa and Maya, presented their work at the Planned Parenthood Eastern Region Conference in Charlotte in early October. I was especially proud that both our VOX chapters from NCCU and UNC-CH were able to come to the meeting.
There is no way I can do justice to the presentation that Theresa and Maya made – much less the work that they are doing at NCCU. These are two extraordinary women. Planned Parenthood is stronger for their work.
The group participated in “Herstory”, a mini-conference at NCCU focused on African American women, body image, and sexuality. They staged a production of Eve Ensler’s Obie Award-winning play, The Vagina Monologues – the first ever at a co-ed, historically black college campus – and raised $5000 for the NC Coalition on Domestic Violence. They are working with the group organizing the Women’s Center at NCCU – again, the first on a co-ed, historically black college campus.
And, when the Duke Lacrosse incident hit the press last spring, they helped organize a rally in support of the woman who was allegedly assaulted. More than 200 students attended. Maya and Theresa began to receive calls from other women on campus who had been sexually assaulted. They responded with workshops on sexual assault.
As these women presented their work, I was struck by their energy and commitment. I was even more impressed when they described the strategic planning process they are undertaking – including a leadership development effort to ensure that VOX continues after they graduate!
I am so proud to have been involved – albeit at the periphery – with this work. Here are two extraordinary women who just needed a vehicle for their passion. We did not tell them what to do. We did not tell them what the issues were or how to address them. All we did was help get them started.
And now I know that a new generation of leaders is joining the movement.
Best wishes,
Janet Colm
President & CEO
P.S. I often tell people that Planned Parenthood is unique. No other organization plays the role that we play. We are the most trusted provider of women’s health care in the country. And we are a political advocate for the right of everyone to make their own decisions about their lives and their health.
We are also unique in the deep, trusting relationships that we have with young people and in the impact those relationships can have. Not just for empowering them to take charge of their lives. But also in transforming them into passionate advocates for our mission.
Thank you for helping to make this possible.
August 2006
Dear Friend of Planned Parenthood,
I like to ask people how they first got interested in Planned Parenthood. Recently, one woman told me about being a flight attendant in the late sixties – when entire planes were full of women going to New York City to get abortions!
My own story is not quite that dramatic. My commitment to Planned Parenthood did not start with a story about abortion. It starts with birth control.
When I was in college in the early 1970’s, I came across a collection of letters that had been written to Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood. In the early 1900s, she heard from hundreds of women begging for information about birth control:
“I was married nine years ago and was seventeen years old at that time. My first baby, a boy, came eleven months later. A girl was born three years later. In nineteen months came another boy and it was my first unwelcome child. It died when two months. I never knew the cause. . . . The night I miscarried was an awful one and the doctor was with us twelve hours. . . . and here is the worst. I became pregnant again in three months. . . . My last baby is fifteen months old and now comes the most sorrowful part. I’m pregnant again – over two months.”
Reading these letters, many of them from women my own age, really brought home to me what life would be like without good contraception.
z z z
It’s almost impossible to believe that some people want us to go back to those days! You may have seen the New York Times Magazine story a couple of months ago entitled “Contra-Contraception” by Russell Shorto (you can see the complete article at www. plannedparenthood.org.)
Shorto quotes a number of leaders in the anti-contraception movement:
“The mind-set that invites a couple to use contraception is an
anti-child mind-set . . . . We oppose all forms of contraception.”
Judie Brown, president of the American Life League
“Sexual union in marriage ought to be a complete giving of each spouse
to the other, and when fertility (or potential fertility) is deliberately
excluded from that giving I am convinced that something valuable is lost.”
Dr. Joseph B. Stanford, appointed by President Bush to
the FDA’s Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee
I ask you: which couple is more likely to have an “antichild mind-set” – one with wanted and loved children or one who thinks of their last child as “the most sorrowful” ? And how can intercourse be a “complete giving of each spouse” when a woman is terrified that she may become pregnant again?
z z z
Despite the progress we have made since Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood, the situation is actually getting worse for poor women.
All kinds of women are affected by unintended pregnancy. Nearly half of all American women will face an unintended pregnancy at some point in their lives. A recent report by the Alan Guttmacher Institute says that between 1994 and 2001, the rate of unintended pregnancy among the wealthiest women declined. For poor women, the rate is actually going up.
Today a poor woman is almost four times as likely to experience an
unintended pregnancy as a higher income woman.
One major reason for this discrepancy is the lack of funding for the federal family planning program (Title X), which was signed into law by President Nixon in 1970. It provides birth control services for 4.7 million women who could not otherwise afford them. The program lost a significant amount of funding in the 1980s, and while appropriations increased during the Clinton years, the decreased purchasing power of the dollar means that the program operates today with 59% less than in 1980.
Ironically, former President George H.W. Bush was a supporter of Title X. In 1969 he said, “We need to make population and family planning household words. We need to take sensa-tionalism out of this topic so that it can no longer be used by militants who have no real knowledge of the voluntary nature of the program but, rather are using it as a political steppingstone.”
z z z
Despite the challenges, Planned Parenthood and our allies continue to move forward in our efforts to broaden access to reproductive health care. Some highlights of the past few months:
ü A four year grant from the state Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program will allow us to add a community educator in Fayetteville and expand our peer education program, Teen Connections. Teen Connections is designed to pick up where the schools leave off, reinforcing messages about delaying sexual activity and giving young people -- male and female -- medically accurate and age-appropriate sexuality information they need to protect themselves. The expanded program will use a curriculum that has proven successful in delaying initiation of sexual intercourse and increasing condom use in sexually active adolescents.
ü PPCNC is one of just two nonprofits that received increased funding from the Durham County Commissioners. Although the $20,000 County grant is a relatively small part of our operating budget, it is more than four times what we received in previous years and is an important source of funding to help subsidize low income clients in Durham. The News and Observer quoted Commissioner Chair Ellen Reckhow: “They are a major resource, especially for the Hispanic Community. There is a wait for an appointment at our Health Department, while you can be seen the same day at Planned Parenthood.” We are proud that 100% of our Durham staff speak Spanish.
ü In June we honored David Work with our Responsible Choices Award. Mr. Work recently retired as Executive Director of the NC Board of Pharmacy, where he was a strong advocate for emergency contraception (EC), a form of birth control that can prevent pregnancy after unprotected intercourse. Under his leadership, the Board clarified its position on the role of pharmacists in filling prescriptions for EC: “It is unacceptable . . . for pharmacists to impose their moral or ethical beliefs on the patients they serve.”
ü We recently increased hours of operation and accessibility in our Chapel Hill health center, moving to a walk-in model, rather than requiring patients to make appointments for family planning services. It’s clear that our patients appreciate the convenience of our new schedule – we’ve had an increase of more than 13% in the number of family planning patients seen in Chapel Hill since we expanded our schedule.
ü In our continuing efforts to increase access to emergency contraception, PPCNC and the Southern Regional AHEC sponsored a continuing education program on emergency contraception for local pharmacists in Fayetteville. More than 20 pharmacists attended the program. PPCNC operates a toll-free emergency contraception hotline 7 days a week and helps more women get EC than any other provider in North Carolina.
ü Earlier this summer, PPCNC provided leadership in organizing Women’s Advocacy Day 2006. Advocacy Day was sponsored by NC Women United, a coalition of more than 40 progressive organizations that lobby on issues that impact women’s lives. Thanks in part to our activists and the leadership of Representative Verla Insko of Orange County, the state budget included an increase of $200,000 for family planning services for low-income women who are not eligible for Medicaid.
ü We also participated in HIV/AIDS Lobby Day, focusing attention on strengthening the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which provides life-saving medicine to low-income people with HIV/AIDS. The new NC State budget doubled the eligibility for the Drug Assistance Program. Previously, we had the worst eligibility level in the country.
ü And, we had a major victory with the Democratic Party platform. A few weeks ago, we were told that the Democratic Party was going to "tweak" the party's pro-choice platform in response to pressure from a small group calling itself "Pro-Life Democrats". Our activists sent 1500 emails urging the party to stand strong in support of choice. To make a long story short, not only did the Party refrain from weakening the platform, it now has a stronger pro-choice platform - including language supporting emergency contraception and state funding to help low-income women get abortions! (Of course, PPCNC is non-partisan – and we would love to change the Republican Platform as well.)
I am especially happy to report the last three accomplishments. In these politically challenging times it is easy to lose sight of our victories. With your help, we will continue working to create a world where people are free to make their own choices about their sexuality, about their relationships, and about whether and when to become parents.
Best wishes,
Janet Colm
President and CEO
P.S. Here’s a note from one of our patients: “As soon as the woman answered the phone I felt comfortable. She was patient and understanding even though I had a million and one questions. I wish I could express how grateful I am to have these people around me.”
Your support means so much to our work. Thank you again for your help!
April 2006
Dear Friend of Planned Parenthood,
Recently I ran into Martha Spencer, who volunteered with us even before our first health center opened in 1983. She told me why she first got involved with Planned Parenthood:
My maternal grandmother died from a self-induced abortion in 1913 in
New York. I had always heard that Margaret Sanger started
Planned Parenthood after she tended to a woman who died on the lower
east side after an illegal abortion in 1913. I always wondered if that woman was my grandmother.
We recognized Martha with the Margaret Sanger Award in 1989. She told me later that she treasures the award as a memorial to her grandmother.
Her story really struck me – especially in light of the rash of states that are taking measures to criminalize abortion. It started most recently, of course, with South Dakota. There are now twelve states with pending abortion bans. Two more have “trigger” bills – bills that will outlaw abortion if the Roe decision is overturned.
The South Dakota law includes no exceptions except to save the life of the woman. Think about what “no exceptions” would mean for this woman who came to PPCNC for help:
I am divorced and raising five children ages 19, 17, 14, 7, and 4. I feel like I was finally getting my life in order and I have big plans for the future and then this happened.
I believe that when this woman came to PPCNC for an abortion, she felt that it was about saving her life. Somehow, I don’t think that’s what South Dakota legislators had in mind when they passed the ban!
z z z
Today I talked with a colleague who runs a Planned Parenthood affiliate in Ohio. In Ohio, a physician is required to meet face-to-face with a woman and provide her with state-mandated information 24 hours before she has an abortion.
One physician in her community has already stopped providing abortions – simply because it is too difficult and expensive to obey this law.
It made me realize how fortunate we have been here in North Carolina. Thanks to the work of Planned Parenthood, our coalition partners, and pro-choice legislators, we have been able to stop every anti-choice bill introduced in the Legislature since 1994!
In fact, when you take a look around the South, North Carolina is in relatively good shape. It’s true that 78 of our 100 counties don’t have an abortion provider and that 44% of women live in counties without an abortion provider. And it’s true that in the entire state we have only 55 abortion providers (2000 data) – a decrease of 7% since 1995.
Throughout the South, the situation is even worse. In West Virginia, there are only three abortion providers. In Georgia, 94% of counties have no abortion provider. In Virginia, abortions after 14 weeks have to be performed in a hospital – and there is only one hospital that will do these procedures. The fact is that around the country, many women are already living in a “post-Roe” environment.
I thought that abortions were for irresponsible college girls. Well, here I sit … a married 30 year old with two children. When I found out I was pregnant again, I was devastated. We just bought a house and are deeply in debt and I don’t work – not out of the home anyway! I just didn’t want another child. My family is already complete . . . (PPCNC patient)
z z z
Let’s be honest – you and I probably will probably never have to face the full impact of these restrictions. Even before Roe, women who had money – or who had friends or family who had money – had some recourse. It was young women and poor women whose only alternative was dangerous, illegal abortions.
In the 1960’s, a study of low income women in New York City found that almost one in ten had attempted to end a pregnancy by illegal abortion. Of the women in that study who had abortions, more than three-fourths said they had attempted a self-induced procedure. Only 2% said that a physician had been involved in any way.
Thousands of women who had relationships with private physicians were able to get approval for abortion – they could find doctors who would say their lives were endangered or that abortion was necessary to protect their mental health or that the pregnancy was the result of rape.
Thousands more simply left the country – 600 women flew to the United Kingdom for abortions during the last three months of 1969 alone. When New York liberalized its abortion law, over 100,000 women left their own state to obtain a legal abortion there in 1972, the year before Roe.
(This data comes from the Alan Guttmacher Institute – you can see more details in their report “Lessons from Before Roe: Will Past be Prologue?” at http://www.guttmacher.org/.)
z z z
It’s hard for many of us to imagine – or to remember – the desperation that a woman feels when she thinks she might be pregnant and she doesn’t want to be. Imagine being a young woman, trying to self-induce an abortion. Think about it – in that 1960’s study, three-fourths of the women who had abortions had tried to do exactly that!
And, hard as it is for us to believe, that could happen again. There is already at least one website that publishes instructions so that “for under $2000, any person with the inclination to learn can create a fully functioning abortion setup . . . . “ The site goes on to say, “If you are careful and diligent, and have a good grasp of a woman's anatomy you will not put anyone's health or life in danger, even if you have not seen one of these procedures performed.”
As a health care provider and a woman, a chill ran through me when I read this. Women deserve better! No woman wants to have an abortion. Many of the women we see for abortion services tell us that they have agonized over this decision. When a woman makes a decision to end a pregnancy, she deserves to be treated with respect, not like a criminal. She deserves the safest procedure possible, not one that is conducted with directions printed off the web. She deserves the kind of care she can get at PPCNC:
When I took my home pregnancy test and received a positive result, I was completely lost and didn’t know who to turn to. I called Planned Parenthood for a pregnancy test. You were very helpful with everything and also very informative. You did not judge me. Planned Parenthood took a very difficult situation and made it better. I can’t even imagine what I would have done without you.
z z z
Because you are a Planned Parenthood supporter, I’m sure that you know that Planned Parenthood is about much more than just abortion. In fact, the vast majority of what we do is prevent abortion. It is very frustrating to all of us to have to put resources into fighting to keep abortion safe and legal – rather than putting those same resources into better sex education and more family planning services.
For me, fighting to keep abortion is a central part of our commitment to the health and safety of women and their families. I believe that if we lose safe abortion services, the next target will be contraception.
This is such a difficult time for those of us who support the right to choose. We have an administration completely opposed to abortion. Congress is intent on reducing access not just to abortion, but also to emergency contraception. With the appointment of two new Supreme Court justices, the balance on the Court is changing. And now, the Supreme Court has announced that it will consider, for the second time, a law that bans some types of abortion and that racketeering laws cannot be use to stop protests at abortion clinics.
Despite all that, we cannot afford to feel helpless! The good news is that Planned Parenthood has never been stronger. Here in North Carolina – and across the country – we have worked hard to develop a huge electronic alert network (PPAN). We have identified more than 30,000 pro-choice supporters in North Carolina alone, all of them new to Planned Parenthood. More than half have signed up to be members of PPAN. During the last legislative session, our activists sent more than 45,000 e-mails to North Carolina legislators. That is one reason we were able to stop all the anti-choice legislation that was introduced.
PPCNC has learned a lot about grassroots organizing, list building, mobilizing activists, and working with the new generation of activists on college campuses. We have built strong relationships with legislators and with coalition partners. Now we have decided to lend our expertise to neighboring states that are facing abortion bans.
We have “adopted” Louisiana – where three abortion bans have been introduced in the legislature. Over the next few months, our phonebank volunteers will help galvanize pro-choice supporters in Louisiana to fight these bans. We will share the expertise we’ve gained in grassroots organizing with Planned Parenthood staff in Louisiana, along with Alabama and Mississippi so that they can hold Live Action Camps to engage and mobilize pro-choice activists in their state. Our “Vox, Voices for Planned Parenthood”, college campus groups will reach across state lines to other southern colleges to help recruit and organize campus advocates for reproductive freedom.
If you want to help, I hope you will join the Planned Parenthood Action Alert Network so that we can keep you up-to-date on what’s happening across the country and let you know when we need help.
Join here: www.ppaction.org/network/join.html.
Best wishes,
Janet Colm
President & CEO
P.S. Thanks again for all your help. I hope you know that it really does make a difference in the lives of thousands of people. Your support in the months ahead is even more important. It will help provide services and protect reproductive rights – not just today, but for the next generation as well.
November 2005
Dear Friend of Planned Parenthood,
A few days ago, I was talking with our Fayetteville organizer, Monika Simmons, about what it's like to be the first person introducing Planned Parenthood to a community. You see, Monika and I share a bond - I was the first staff person for Planned Parenthood when we opened our first office more than 20 years ago.
Monika observed that many people in Fayetteville simply don't know what Planned Parenthood is. I told her the story of one woman I talked with in my early days. She not only had never heard of Planned Parenthood; she thought that I worked for an organization called "Plant Parenthood"!
When I introduce myself today in Chapel Hill or Durham, people almost never ask me what Planned Parenthood is. Still, most people only know a small slice of all that we do. Planned Parenthood is so much more than most people think.
Despite our assumptions that people associate Planned Parenthood only with abortion, I find that most people think of us as sex educators and counselors. Many in our community think of us as the place where young people go for health care. And, now that we are 23 years old, I meet more and more people who have been patients at PPCNC.
Many things have driven our growth over these years - the unmet needs for reproductive health, our belief that everyone has a right to make their own decisions about their sexual lives. And by our commitment to choice.
"Choice". There's a word that is thrown around a lot today. I even noticed that the apples I buy every week have a "Choice" label on them! For me, the word "choice" simply means that we acknowledge the complexity of life. We respect each individual and the decisions she - or he - makes. As one of our staff members put it, "we meet people where they are."
All of us have complex lives. For many people, the challenges of life can be overwhelming and can make it seem impossible to get health care. Sometimes the barrier is language. Other times it is cost, or transportation. Some people cannot get time off from work for a visit to the doctor. In our health centers we constantly look for ways to reduce barriers and make it easier for clients to get health care from Planned Parenthood - looking for ways to "meet people where they are."
Because language can be a huge barrier, we are very proud that a PPCNC client can make an appointment, get a prescription for birth control, or have abortion counseling in Spanish. In our Durham health center every staff member speaks fluent Spanish. That means that a Spanish-speaking client never has to speak through an interpreter. I don't know of any other health care provider who can say the same.
Clients can walk-in for services or make an appointment. They can be seen before work, at lunch time, in the evening, or on weekends. They can almost always be seen within 24 hours after calling for an appointment.
And now our Durham health center is moving to a new location - on Roxboro Road, just one block north of Durham Regional Hospital.
The number of patients served in the Durham health center has grown by 20% in just the last year alone. We simply need more space, more parking, and a more comfortable facility. Our new home is on a bus route, easy to find, and in a location that is safe and welcoming. Watch your mail for an invitation to our open house later this winter.
* * * *
Two years ago, we made a commitment to do a better job of mobilizing pro-choice support, especially among young people and in diverse communities. As a result, we have stepped up our work on college campuses, with African American and Latino communities, and with people of faith.
For example, in September we took our advocacy work to NC Central University in Durham - with a "Live Action Camp." Almost 30 college students representing seven of NC's historically black colleges and universities (HBCU's), plus UNC-Pembroke (our only historically Native American university) attended.
Planned Parenthood affiliates all over the country sponsor Live Action Camps to engage young people and train them to be pro-choice activists and leaders. This was the first ever Live Action Camp to bring together students from HBCU's.
The students mounted a petition drive in support of responsible sex education. They lined the streets of Durham in a "Burma Shave" encouraging motorists to support testing for sexually transmitted diseases. They talked with other young people about safe sex in a "club crawl" at local clubs catering to college students (talk about "meeting people where they are"!) There were panel discussions and workshops.
And, at the end of the weekend, representatives from NC Central University, Fayetteville State University, and Pembroke decided to begin VOX chapters. Vox is the Latin word for "voice". VOX: Voices for Planned Parenthood is a nationwide program to energize and mobilize the new generation of pro-choice Americans.
Congratulations to Shelisa Howard and Natalie Fixmer, our two staffers who organized and facilitated this fabulous event!
* * * *
Speaking of great staff members, Planned Parenthood now has two faces in Fayetteville. Tina Sherman has joined us to identify Planned Parenthood supporters and cultivate the community support that will sustain our work into the future.
Tina joins Monika Simmons, who has worked with us for the past two years. Monika has now trained almost 50 peer educators in Fayetteville. Peer educators are high school students who are outreach workers for Planned Parenthood. They've all gone through 40 hours of training on human sexuality, birth control, and other issues of concern to young people. Then, they go to work providing accurate information to their friends and classmates.
Monika has also spearheaded the formation of the Cumberland County Coalition on Pregnancy Prevention and Adolescent Parenting. The coalition includes more than 10 organizations working together to educate the community and teens on pregnancy prevention and adolescent parenting issues. Other groups involved range from the Cumberland County Health Department to local churches and a County Commissioner.
Monika and Tina are introducing Planned Parenthood to the community in a meaningful way and increasing grassroots support for our mission. They are laying the foundation for the next phase of our expansion into Fayetteville - opening our third health center.
* * * *
We developed our peer education program in response to the "Abstinence Until Marriage" law which makes it extremely difficult for NC teachers to provide good sex education in the public schools. We've been training young people in Orange and Durham Counties for years - and, "meeting people where they are" - we have trained peer educators from every public and most private high schools in the area.
We also have a Latino peer education program, Joven a Joven ("Youth to Youth"), which started in Durham and has now expanded into Orange County. Twenty Latino young people are participating in the program this fall.
Now we have found new partners in our efforts to provide good sex education to young people. A group of parents and students at River Mill Academy, a charter school in Alamance County, recognized the need for sex education and approached us about providing a weekly sex education program there. They came to Planned Parenthood because they believe that students will trust Planned Parenthood to provide honest and accurate answers to their questions ? both in and outside of the classroom.
* * * *
You may have heard about the FDA's recent decision not to approve over-the-counter status for emergency contraception (EC). Athough it's not as effective as regular birth control, EC has tremendous potential to prevent unwanted pregnancy and we are committed to increasing access to it. Estimates are that if EC was widely used, it could prevent 1.6 million unintended pregnancies every year. Ideally, EC should be used within 72 hours after unprotected intercourse. For many women, that is a huge barrier.
Dial EC, our emergency contraception hotline helps women get EC without making a doctor's appointment. We get 300-400 calls a month from women who live all over the state. We screen them over the telephone and call in a prescription for them to their local pharmacy or Planned Parenthood health center.
Despite the success of Dial EC, many women still have trouble getting EC. Some pharmacies do not carry it. In other cases, pharmacists don't know what EC is or confuse it with the abortion pill. Later this year, we will provide training about emergency contraception to pharmacists. Our partners in this effort are the UNC School of Pharmacy and Southern Regional AHEC. The training will be held in Fayetteville and is supported with a special grant from the Compton Foundation.
Even when the local pharmacy does carry EC, the complexity of women's lives can present other problems. Sometimes transportation is a barrier, especially for low-income women and in rural areas. In small communities, women may not want to go to the pharmacy because they know the pharmacist or have other concerns about confidentiality. In response to the difficulties that women face getting their prescription filled, we now offer overnight shipping to Dial EC callers.
* * * *
I hope this Update has given you a glimpse of what I mean when I tell people, "Planned Parenthood is more than you think." We are about so much more than abortion or even birth control. We know that life is complex. We?re committed to developing real solutions to the challenges facing real people. Thank you so much for your help!
Best wishes,
Janet Colm
President & CEO
P.S. Thanks to your support we can "meet people where they are" - whether it's a college activist, a recent immigrant, a pharmacist, or a high school student who wants honest answers. Your contribution makes a difference!
August 2005
Dear Friend of Planned Parenthood,
You are probably aware that President Bush has nominated Judge John Roberts to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the resignation of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. And, because you are a Planned Parenthood supporter, I am confident that you understand the impact this change in the make-up of the Supreme Court may have for reproductive justice.
But, more than the right to abortion is at stake.
The Roe v. Wade decision did not just legalize abortion. It also expanded the legal definition of the constitutional, fundamental, right of privacy. Roe is only one in a series of Supreme Court decisions, starting as far back as 1891, that recognized this right.
These decisions touch on issues around marriage, contraception, family relationships, child rearing and education. Just two years ago, the Supreme Court further extended the right of privacy when they struck down the Texas sodomy law.
One of these decisions, Casey (1992), eloquently explains the right of privacy:
These matters, involving the most intimate and personal choices a person may make in a lifetime, choices central to personal dignity and autonomy, are central to the liberty protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. At the heart of liberty is the right to define one?s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.
No potential nominee should be eligible to serve on the Supreme Court if he or she is not prepared to uphold constitutional rights - including the right of privacy and reproductive freedom. It's not just about abortion. It's about liberty.
* * * *
The Supreme Court announced earlier this year that it would hear Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood in the coming term. This case spotlights the urgency of the threat to reproductive freedom. Supreme Court decisions are complicated - and this one is likely to be no different. I don't believe that the Court will use this case to overturn Roe (although I could be wrong about that!) But there is a real possibility that the Court's decision will make it much more difficult to protect a woman's access to abortion services.
One of the issues the Court has been asked to examine is the "standard of review" to be used when courts evaluate challenges to abortion laws.
The crucial question here is, "How many women must be harmed by an abortion restriction before the Court finds it unconstitutional?"
The Court could also make new rulings about whether a law that regulates abortion must make an exception to protect the woman's health. The Supreme Court has consistently said that abortion restrictions are unconstitutional if they do not contain a health exception.
The health exception is a fundamental part of the original Roe decision. In that decision, the Court said that a state cannot regulate abortion in any way - at any point in pregnancy - unless an exception is made to save the life or health of the woman.
Only five years ago, Justice O'Connor cast the crucial vote in protecting women's health and maintaining access to abortion in the 5-4 decision in Stenberg v. Carhart.
When the Supreme Court hears Ayotte later this year, the outcome with a new justice could determine whether the high court believes the Constitution protects the health and safety of women - or just their lives.
* * * *
More than half of Americans agree: Judge Roberts should reveal his views about women's right to choose abortion before the Senate votes on this nomination.
Conservatives are using a false argument that Judge Roberts can refuse to answer questions aimed at determining his view on abortion rights. They claim that Ruth Bader Ginsburg refused to do so during her hearings. But that is far from true.
During Justice Ginsburg's confirmation hearing, she was very forthcoming about her position on abortion rights, while declining to respond to questions about specific cases. This is what she said in response to one question:
"(The right to an abortion) is something central to a woman's life, to her dignity. It's a decision that she must make for herself. And when government controls that decision for her, she's being treated as less than a fully adult human responsible for her own choices."
We expect Senators to hold Judge Roberts to the same standard. He should be required to disclose his position on reproductive health prior to a vote on his nomination. We must hold senators - including our own Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr - accountable to this standard.
* * * *
At Planned Parenthood, these issues are very real. Every day we touch the lives of women who will be impacted by these decisions.
Just as this nomination was being announced, we received a phone call from the mother of one of our patients. Her daughter had come to Planned Parenthood for an abortion and received financial assistance through our Justice Fund. Her voice was halting and shaky - she was on the verge of tears - when she left this message on our office voice mail system:
We came a few days ago and well, we're here today for her checkup. I would like to thank you, I mean really, really thank you for helping us out financial-wise. Umm, I don't really know exactly how to say, but thank you, thank you so very much for helping me and my daughter out. Thank you so much. Thank you so very much. God bless you. Thank you so very much . . . .
I'm sharing this message with you because your support makes it possible for us to help people like this every day. In the days ahead, your support - and your voice - will be more important than ever if we are to keep reproductive liberty a reality!
As I said at the beginning of this letter - this is not just about abortion. This is about changing - about saving - women's lives. It's about liberty.
Thanks for your help.
Janet Colm
President & CEO
May 2005
Dear Friend of Planned Parenthood,
I get so angry with political and religious leaders who are wrapping themselves in the phrase culture of life - implying that those of us who support reproductive rights don't value life.
You and I both know that just the opposite is true.
The Planned Parenthood we know embraces a culture of life. We value privacy, personal freedom, and the right to a unique path to happiness for every human being. We believe that individuals are responsible for making their own moral choices and living with the consequences of their choices. We know that children flourish best in families and communities where they are nurtured, honored, and loved.
It's time, I think, for those of us in the reproductive justice movement to reclaim the words culture of life. For me, the culture of life means providing health care for all, protecting the environment, ending war, eliminating the suffering that causes terrorism.
And ensuring that everyone can decide for themselves what should happen with their bodies - regardless of their gender, race, sexual orientation, age or economic circumstance.
* * * *
It never ceases to amaze me that those who are most ardently opposed to abortion are also those most opposed to the prevention of abortion.
Across the country, we are seeing increasing numbers of pharmacists who refuse to dispense birth control because of their personal religious views. It boggles my mind to think that there are health care providers who are so wrapped up in their opposition to a woman's right to choose that they would deny her health care that could prevent the need for abortion.
Birth control is basic, legal, health care for women. A pharmacist's role is to check dosage, make sure a patient's medications mix safely, provide information, and dispense drugs. There is no room for a pharmacist's moral or religious views on the job. If someone is uncomfortable filling prescriptions, they should go into a different profession!
* * * *
At Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina, we became acutely aware of this problem when our emergency contraception hotline first opened four years ago. Within a matter of days, we heard from a woman who had been raped. She went to the emergency room at her local hospital. They gave her a prescription for emergency contraception. She took it to a local pharmacy. They refused to fill it. She went to another pharmacy. They refused to fill it. It wasn't until her third try that she was able to get the prescription filled.
Emergency contraception (EC) is a safe and effective means of reducing the risk of pregnancy if used within 120 hours (five days) after unprotected intercourse. EC is not the abortion pill - it actually is just a high dose of the same hormones that are in birth control pills. It works best the sooner it is used and can reduce the risk of pregnancy by up to 95% if started within 24 hours.
If EC was widely known about and accessible, it could prevent an estimated 1.7 million unintended pregnancies and 800,000 abortions each year!
PPCNC is committed to increasing access to emergency contraception. That's why we are so proud of our bilingual (Spanish/English) emergency contraception hotline - Dial EC. Women can call a toll-free number (866-942-7762) seven days a week. A trained emergency contraception specialist screens them over the telephone and then calls in a prescription for EC to the pharmacy or Planned Parenthood health center of their choice. We receive between 300-400 calls every month from women all over the state.
* * * *
Women who have been sexually assaulted have a particularly compelling need for quick and easy access to EC. More than 300,000 women are sexually assaulted each year in the US. Of these, an estimated 25,000 will become pregnant as a result. About 22,000 of these pregnancies could be prevented if all women who were raped used EC.
Alarmingly, there is mounting evidence that some hospitals, especially religiously affiliated hospitals, are not providing EC to women who've been sexually assaulted.
Over the past several months, PPCNC worked with coalition partners including the NC Coalition Against Sexual Assault, NC Women United, Planned Parenthood Health Systems (our sister affiliate based in Raleigh), and NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina to address this issue in North Carolina.
Together we distributed a survey to 115 hospitals with emergency departments; 89% responded with information regarding their policies in treating victims of sexual assault.
Sixty-seven hospitals qualified as "model hospitals." They reported that it was standard policy to dispense EC on-site. Nine hospitals reported exceptions to their policy based on the refusal of the provider on duty to dispense medication. Twenty-six hospitals (25%) reported that it was not standard policy to dispense EC.
We should expect every hospital to provide compassionate care for women who've been sexually assaulted. That includes emergency contraception. A woman who has been raped shouldn't have to go through the additional agony of facing an unwanted pregnancy.
* * * *
As I write this, the NC House is debating a bill that would allow pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions based on their "objection to abortion on moral, ethical, or religious grounds." Don't think that this bill will only affect women who've been raped or just access to emergency contraception. Increasingly, pharmacists - and physicians - are refusing to dispense even birth control pills or write prescriptions for contraception. Many are also refusing to refer women to another provider who will fill their prescription.
Refusal clauses like this one were initially established in the weeks following the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion. Later that year, Congress passed the Church Amendment to allow health care providers to cite religious reasons in order to refuse to provide abortion or sterilization. Within five years, the majority of states had adopted similar laws. Over time, these laws have been extended to include everything from contraception to stem cell research.
"Fill My Pills" is a special campaign addressing pharmacists' refusals to fill prescription. More than 80 Planned Parenthood activists have already signed on to help us survey pharmacists in North Carolina to see how they are respond to requests for contraception. If you'd like to help with this project, go to our website, plannedparenthood.org/ppcnc, or call our office.
* * * *
PPCNC is committed to expanding access to emergency contraception. But, that is only one piece of all that we do. Here are a few highlights from last year:
• 12,600 clients received reproductive health care and education services from PPCNC.
• Our bilingual staff provided family planning and abortion services to over 1100 Spanish-speaking clients; almost one-quarter of clients served in the Durham health center speak only Spanish.
• 79 peer educators received training about a wide variety of issues and provided at least 2300 other young people with accurate information and referrals.
• 21 Latina promotoras provided information about breast health and referrals for mammograms to 1000 other Latinas in Orange and Durham counties.
• Working with the Orange County Health Department and El Centro Latino, we helped train six Latino men as embajadores (ambassadors). They reached more than 300 others with accurate information about sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy prevention, substance abuse, mental health, and other issues.
• We started active VOX - Voices for Planned Parenthood - chapters on the campuses of UNC in Chapel Hill, NCCU in Durham, and Fayetteville State University.
• Working with our sister affiliate based in Raleigh, we recruited over 10,000 new Planned Parenthood activists across the state who receive e-mail legislative alerts.
• Along with our coalition partners and supportive legislators, we stopped every one of the 14 anti-reproductive health bills before the NC General Assembly.
To save paper and trees, we are not mailing out our full annual report this year. You can see it on line from our home page select annual report or call our office if you?d like a copy.
All of this is possible only because of your support. Thank you for your help.
Sincerely,
Janet Colm
President and CEO
P.S. What does it mean to be truly on the side of life? It's the values embodied in Planned Parenthood promise: Creating hope for humanity, the freedom to dream, to make choices and to live in peace with our planet. Thanks again for your help.
February 2005
Dear Friend of Planned Parenthood,
This is such a challenging time for pro-choice people.
Since November, we have been subjected to what feels like unending debate about the lessons of the election. Most recently, Hillary Clinton caused a national uproar with her suggestion that we should be able to find "common ground" with people who are opposed to abortion.
That same week, Chief Justice Rehnquist officiated at the inauguration of President Bush, providing a chilling reminder that the average age of the current U.S. Supreme Court Justice is 70, and two are octogenarians. It is almost certain that President Bush will get to appoint at least one new justice to the court. It is likely he'll appoint even more.
* * * *
Recently, I spent some time reading over Hillary Clinton's remarks. And, I must say, on almost every point, I heartily agree with her:
We should all be able to agree that we want every child born in this country and around the world to be wanted, cherished, and loved. The best way to get there is do more to educate the public about reproductive health, about how to prevent unsafe and unwanted pregnancies.
I read her comments about "common ground" as a challenge to abortion opponents to support sex education and family planning. She called for more public funding for family planning services. She spoke in favor of laws (like the one we have here in North Carolina) that would require insurance companies to cover contraception if they cover other kinds of prescription drugs. She called for the FDA to "come to its senses" and make emergency contraception available over-the-counter.
She did get it wrong on one point: she suggested that the recent decrease in the teen pregnancy rate was due to abstinence. Research has shown that the decrease is actually due to a combination of two factors: about 25% is due to young people waiting to have sex. Most of the decrease -- 75% -- is due to sexually experienced teens using contraception, especially condoms, more frequently and more effectively.
In other words, Planned Parenthood's message combining abstinence and information about birth control works!
* * * *
I don't think I ever seriously thought about sex education until my son was about three. As I was tucking him in one night, he told me very seriously, "When I grow up, I want to be a mommy just like you." Suddenly I understood how difficult talking about sex can be. The words "age-appropriate" had new meaning for me.
And, now that he is 12, I think about it even more. What is the real message to young people when teachers cannot talk about birth control or abortion, cannot even answer their questions?
The irony of it all is that the vast majority of Americans fully support real sex education - including information about abstinence and birth control - in the schools. A recent study done by the NC Department of Health and Human Services and the state Department of Public Instruction found that 80% of parents polled thought that students in North Carolina public schools should receive information on how to use birth control. Even polling done for the national anti-choice group, Focus on the Family, found that three-fourths of parents support teaching about contraception.
Many people simply don't understand that when the schools can teach "abstinence only" that means that they teach only abstinence. Right here, in North Carolina, our state law says that before teachers can talk about anything more than abstinence, the local school board has to go through a complicated and lengthy public hearing process. As a result, only a handful of the most committed school systems provide information about birth control in their sex education classes.
Since 1996, state and federal governments have spent almost $1 billion on abstinence-only programs.
And the result? Fewer than half of public schools in the country now offer information on how to obtain birth control. Only a third include discussion of abortion and sexual orientation. Our country has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the developed world. American teens have more sexual partners and higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases than adolescents in other countries. This all contributes to the somber fact that 20,000 American teens contract HIV each year.
Late last year, Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) released a report about the state of abstinence-only sex education. The report found that the curricula used by more than two-thirds of government-funded abstinence-only programs contain misleading or inaccurate information about abortion, contraception, and sexually transmitted diseases.
* * * *
While we strongly advocate for responsible sex education in the schools, we also believe that real sex education does not consist of a 50-minute lecture once a year. That's why we developed our award-winning peer education programs.
We have now trained more than 300 teens to provide honest information and referrals to their schoolmates and friends. Our peer educators receive 40 hours of training about a wide variety of issues facing young people today - healthy relationships, abstinence and contraceptive options, suicide prevention, body image and eating disorders, communication and decision-making skills, job skills and sexuality.
Today, more than 9000 young people have been touched by the work of the peer educators. The ripple effect as these informed young people share what they know with others cannot be calculated. Our peer education programs include Teen Talk in Orange County, Teen Voices in Durham, Joven a Joven ("youth to youth") for Latino youth in Durham, and Teen Connections in Fayetteville.
* * * *
Over the past several months, we have been engaged in a series of focus group discussions with Planned Parenthood supporters to talk about what the future holds for PPCNC. More than 200 of you gave us feedback about our plans for the next several years.
The feedback we heard formed the basis of a report that was presented to our board in January. The board has charged staff and board committees to look at three major issues that were identified during the focus groups:
• In the face of diminishing public support and increasing need, especially in Durham, how can we provide the highest quality medical care in the most cost-effective way? The total number of patient visits to our Durham health center increased by 19% over a year ago. More than a third of Durham patients have no insurance and more than half qualify for free services. Many of them are Latina and come to PPCNC because we have virtually 100% Spanish-speaking staff in our Durham health center. We need to find ways to attract more paying and insured patients to help subsidize care for increasing numbers of low income and uninsured patients.
•
•
•
• What will it take to build on our education and advocacy work in Cumberland County (Fayetteville) so that we can meet our goal of providing medical services there within the next 2-3 years. Of the seven largest counties in our state, Cumberland has the highest teen pregnancy rate (over 16 girls get pregnant every week) and the highest abortion rate (more than 1500 Cumberland County women have abortions each year). It also has significant problems with sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. We receive 4-5 calls a day from people seeking family planning services in Fayetteville. Clearly there is unmet need and a place for Planned Parenthood's medical services there.
•
•
•
• How can we convert the public's positive impression of Planned Parenthood into effective pro-choice activism? It is clear that we must do a better job of mobilizing pro-choice support, especially among young people, in diverse communities, and in new parts of the state. We believe that Planned Parenthood has a special role to play in reaching out and mobilizing pro-choice supporters. One in four American women has been a Planned Parenthood patient. Overwhelmingly, they trust Planned Parenthood and respect our education and outreach programs. A majority of North Carolinians are pro-choice. The challenge for Planned Parenthood is to move them from being quiet supporters of reproductive rights to being activists who we can count on when legislators need to hear from us.
Thanks again to all of you who participated in these discussions. As we look to the challenges ahead, it is gratifying to know how many of you consider yourselves our partners in this important work. If you?d like to learn more about our plans for the future, or if you have suggestions, please let me know. You can reach me at janet.colm@ppfa.org
* * * *
By now you may have heard that our national President, Gloria Feldt, has resigned from Planned Parenthood.
Gloria made such a contribution to our movement in her nine years as head of our organization. It's hard to imagine Planned Parenthood without her at the helm. As she said in an interview shortly after her announcement, "The great thing about Planned Parenthood is that there is so much strength and so much leadership all throughout this organization. This is not a sprint. It is not even a marathon. This is a relay race. You do your lap and you pass on the baton to the next person. That's the way it works."
As we run this race, I want to thank you for your support. With your continued help, we will not fail!
Sincerely,
Janet Colm
President & CEO
P.S. Here's a note from one of our patients: "As soon as the woman answered the phone I felt comfortable. She was patient and understanding even though I had a million and one questions. I wish I could express how grateful I am to have these people around me." On behalf of people who depend on us every day - thank you for your help!
November 2004
Dear Friend of Planned Parenthood,
Shortly after the election, I got an e-mail from a colleague who works in another reproductive health organization. She said, "How do you go on? I feel like I'm hitting my head against a wall."
I've thought about her statement for several days now. It's more clear to me than ever that one of the strengths of Planned Parenthood is that we are both a service provider and a political advocate. Even the day after the election, we knew that we were making a difference.
I saw proof of that when I came into work and the waiting room was full of women who depend on Planned Parenthood for their health care. Here's what one woman who came to us for an abortion wrote us just four days after the election:
This was one of the most difficult decisions of my life. I chose this option for two reasons - my son and my daughter. Thank you to the staff, from the receptionist all the way to the doctor. I believe you have helped me to remain a good mother to my two children. You provide wonderful service not only with this but with the birth control teaching you do. May you continue to help women and families in need in the kind and professional manner that you do.
* * * *
My response to the election was very different from that of most of the other people I know. As I write this, many of them are still wearing black - literally. I found myself wearing bright orange, consciously trying to cheer myself up. On the way to work the next day, I gave myself a pep talk - one day to be sad, then we have to get back to work!
Of all the conversations I knew I would face that day, the one that I dreaded the most was with the members of our staff who work in the political sphere - Paige Johnson, our Director of Public Affairs, and Natalie Fixmer, our Field Coordinator.
But, when I finally did get a chance to talk with Paige, her mood matched my own. Sad, but not despairing. Later in the week when I read an e-mail with her thoughts on the election, I got goose-bumps. Not because of what we did not accomplish - but because of what we did accomplish. And because Planned Parenthood has come so far in the last four years.
Many of you know that several years ago PPCNC started a separate organization, the Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina Action Fund. The Action Fund has a special tax status that allows it to engage in electoral work. This year, for the first time, we also started a Political Action Committee. The Planned Parenthood PAC raised funds all over the state and contributed to the campaigns of 29 pro-choice candidates for state offices.
This is what Paige wrote in her e-mail to me:
I spent the weekend and much of Tuesday with an incredible cadre of committed activists. We had so many volunteers working on our get-out- the-vote phonebank that we ran out of phone lines. People volunteered to use their cell phones and waited patiently for a line to open between calls.
Volunteers signed up to hand out endorsement guides at polling places in Durham and Orange Counties on Tuesday, wearing their red Stand Up for Choice t-shirts--a first for the Action Fund. I had people calling late Monday night to volunteer to work their polling place and on Tuesday as well.
Our work put us in touch with voters who were truly grateful that the Planned Parenthood Action Fund was there to let them know which candidates would stand up for choice. On Friday night, one volunteer actually called a voter who was standing in line to vote. The voter said that she needed help in deciding whom to vote for. Voters, just like Planned Parenthood's patients and supporters, trust us to provide honest and accurate information.
As results were declared, I began to see how well we fared in the NC legislature: 34 of the 35 candidates we endorsed won their election, including 4 state senators and 6 representatives elected for the first time.
Three years ago a group of Planned Parenthood people were gathered in Washington, DC. Someone posed this question: "If there were a U.S. Supreme Court resignation today, would you be ready?"
My answer three years ago was a startling, "I don't know." Today, after all that we've been through together, all of the commitment and energy that I've seen from our volunteers, my answer is resoundingly, "Yes. We are ready."
I truly wish that the federal elections had gone differently, but we have never been stronger and our commitment to reproductive freedom has never been more important.
* * * * *
I've just returned from the national Planned Parenthood post-election summit in Seattle. And I am glad to tell you that Paige and I are not alone - there was a strong sense at the summit that Planned Parenthood will weather the days ahead and come out stronger. We know that the administration will challenge our work. We also know that the majority of Americans support Planned Parenthood and our work - national polling shows that 55% of those who voted are pro-choice!
There is no doubt that the next few years will be difficult ones for those of us who believe in choice, honesty, and equality. Just look at what we could face in the next congressional term:
• efforts to limit access to mifepristone - the abortion pill. Mifepristone is a highly effective way for women to end unwanted pregnancies early. It is even more safe than surgical abortion.
• increased funding for 'abstinence only' sex education programs - including requirements that one-third of the international HIV/AIDS funding be reserved for programs that stress abstinence until marriage.
• 'reinvention' of the federal family planning program - which thousands of low income women depend on - as pregnancy preparedness rather than pregnancy prevention.
In the face of these challenges, it is important for us to remember our strength. Across the country, Planned Parenthood has an 80-year history. A quarter of American women has been a Planned Parenthood patient. The strength of our grassroots support was clearly evident last April when the largest political demonstration our nation has ever seen marched on Washington. The Planned Parenthood Action Network - our activist alert network - has grown to 16,000 here in North Carolina, and across the country we have identified 700,000 pro-choice supporters in the last year alone. Those of you who support our work here in central North Carolina are part of a strong and growing national movement.
* * * * *
I am not one of those who thinks that "moral values" were the deciding factor in this election. I think the election was the triumph of fear over values.
I do think that Planned Parenthood and other progressive groups have some work to do in clarifying our values and articulating our vision. On the way back from Seattle, I read "Don't Think of an Elephant" by George Lakoff. Lakoff makes the point that conservatives have figured out "how to bring their people together" by developing a "consistent conservative moral perspective."
I am convinced that one of the challenges before Planned Parenthood and our allies is, as Lakoff says, to develop a "clearly articulated moral vision."
I believe that Planned Parenthood has a head start on this work. The people who work with us and support our work can articulate our values - compassion, honesty, courage, endurance, and above all, respect for other people and their decisions.
Furthermore, Planned Parenthood has developed a statement of 13 beliefs that embody the world we want to create in the 21st century.
I want to share five of the Planned Parenthood beliefs that mean the most to me:
• We believe in trusting people and providing them with the information they need to make well-informed decisions.
• We believe that women should be respected as moral decision makers.
• We believe in action - to make things happen and to improve people's lives.
• We believe in acting courageously, especially as allies with those who have little or no voice and little or no power.
• We believe that every right is tied to responsibility, and that the fulfillment of responsibility is itself a source of joy.
(If you want to read more about Planned Parenthood's vision for 2025, check out the link to your right.)
* * * * *
These beliefs are reflected in the vital work we do every day. Every day, we help women, men, and young people take control of their health by making responsible decisions about whether to be sexually active, how to best protect themselves from disease and unintended pregnancy, and whether and when to become parents. We support giving young people access to honest health information based on science, not ideology.
We care deeply about life and about the quality of life. We believe that children flourish in families and communities where they are nurtured, honored, and loved. We want all women to be able to plan their families and their lives without government intrusion into their most personal reproductive decisions.
Because you support Planned Parenthood, I know that you share many of our values. We share a vision:
A world in which people are able to make life's most profound choices about childbearing, sexuality, and relationships. Free from government intrusion. Regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, or economic circumstance.
With your continued support, we will not fail!
Best wishes,
Janet Colm
President & CEO
P.S. Many of you have given generously over the past few months. If you have not given recently, please consider doing so now. Your gift will help us meet the political challenges we face and provide services to the people who need us the most.
September 2004
Dear Friend of Planned Parenthood,
Monday was my first day back in the office after a week-long conference with other Planned Parenthood CEO?s from around the country. I was feeling energized and looking forward to the day. When I turned into our parking lot, I was reminded that at PPCNC you can?t always count on the day going the way you planned.
A police car was parked in our lot. Two uniformed police officers stood near the employee entrance, cautiously eyeing a white plastic bag that was hanging from the doorknob.
The first staff member who arrived that morning saw the bag and followed our protocol for ?unusual? situations ? she called the police. As it turned out, the bag contained a bill that had been left by one of our vendors.
Once again I was reminded that those of us who work at Planned Parenthood have unusual jobs. We talk about sex and politics every day. We deal with anti-choice violence. And we have the opportunity to work with other staff members, donors, and volunteers who agree with us on our most passionately held beliefs.
We are honored to have people share their lives with us. And we know that we make a difference every single day. These are some of the people I?ve heard about in the last four days:
* * * * *
• A woman who drove from Charlotte to get family planning services. She drove two hours in a borrowed car with her three children because she had heard that our staff speaks Spanish.
• A woman whose doctor told her years ago that she was infertile and she didn?t need to worry about birth control. She came to us, at age 47, thinking she was going through menopause. Instead she was pregnant.
• A mother who wanted to know how to talk with her 12 year old son about puberty and HIV.
• One of our peer educators, now in college, who wants to help organize a pro-choice group on her campus.
• A disabled woman with a 6 year old. Desperate to end an unwanted pregnancy, she found that Medicaid will help her if she carries the pregnancy to term, but will not help her get an abortion.
I tell people that the reason I work at Planned Parenthood is that I truly believe that the work we do is life changing, even life-saving. How many people can say that about their jobs?
* * * * *
Another way in which we are unique is that Planned Parenthood is both a service provider and a political organization. Because we help thousands of people every year, our politics are based in reality ? the real stories of the people we serve.
Planned Parenthood knows that the right to reproductive freedom is empty without accurate information and access to services. And our ability to
provide accurate information and low-cost services depends in large part
on laws that support reproductive freedom.
A year ago, our board adopted a strategic plan which centers around the goal of increasing PPCNC?s political clout. I am glad to tell you that we are making important strides in doing just that.
North Carolina has been identified by our national organization as one of 15 target states for a major public policy initiative ? the Mobilizing to Win campaign. Working with our sister Planned Parenthood based in Raleigh, we have developed a statewide plan for advocacy over the next five years. Best of all, we have been given significant funding from national Planned Parenthood to help support our efforts. In addition, the Education Foundation of America has just given us a two-year grant to help fund our advocacy and education work in Fayetteville.
Over the past several months, we?ve undertaken a major telemarketing and direct mail effort to identify and mobilize new pro-choice supporters across the state. We have identified 10,000 pro-choice North Carolinians, including 6000 new supporters in central North Carolina! These are all people new to Planned Parenthood.
Many of these supporters have taken the next step and agreed to become members of the Planned Parenthood Action Network (PPAN), our electronic alert system. We now have 16,000 activists on the Planned Parenthood alert system!
The first indication of the clout of this group came when we were working
to keep the State Abortion Fund in the state budget this year. 7000 people
sent pro-choice e-mails to their state representatives!
If you are a member of PPAN, you?ve seen our ?Take Two? initiative. Every two weeks activists receive a short (two-minute) e-mail that provides information and action steps on two issues. Issues range from the state abortion fund to international family planning to sex education. Activists are invited to forward the e-mail to two friends. We?ve added 500 people to PPAN since this project started. If you?re not on PPAN and would like to join, you can sign up at c.
* * * * *
Planned Parenthood in our state is politically stronger than ever before in our history. The pro-choice coalition is also stronger than it has been in years ? as evidenced by the fact that of the 14 anti-choice bills introduced during the last legislative session, not one passed.
On the other hand, there is much more to do. Virtually all the pro-choice mobilization work in North Carolina is centered in the Triangle and the Triad. We simply must do a better job of reaching pro-choice supporters across the state.
Furthermore, the anti-choice message seems to be gaining new strength, especially among women of color. A recent national poll found that pro-choice support among African American women has eroded over the past several years. Another poll found that a majority of African Americans are anti-choice.
That poll also found that African-Americans have an extremely positive impression of Planned Parenthood ? associating us with education, counseling, medical services, and pregnancy prevention. This has special significance in our state where legislators elected by African-Americans have been among the strongest supporters of reproductive choice.
That is why I am so proud to be able to announce that we have received a two-year grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation to implement our ?Diverse Advocates? program. The goal of the program is to increase Planned Parenthood?s visibility and support for our mission in African American communities throughout central North Carolina ? particularly in Durham, Cumberland, Alamance, and Chatham Counties.
Over the next two years, we will build and strengthen ties with other organizations, work in coalitions, and build relationships with new partners, particularly in African American communities. In places where we already have strong ties with other services providers, we will extend our reach, focusing on developing relationships with political and social justice groups and others that represent and serve members of diverse communities.
We?ll keep you posted. In the meantime, if you have suggestions for us on this project ? or on any other issue ? I hope you?ll feel free to call or e-mail me janet.colm@ppfa.org.
* * * * *
Finally, I am very pleased to be able to report to you that we have just received another full, four-year accreditation from our national organization, Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA). Every Planned Parenthood affiliate undergoes regular evaluation from PPFA to ensure that we are living up to the Planned Parenthood standards. The evaluation includes both an off-site review of materials and an on-site visit by three accreditation surveyors. Needless to say, this is a nerve-wracking process and takes months of preparation.
I am very proud to let you know that the review team praised PPCNC for ?excellence in leadership, high-quality medical services and innovative service delivery models?. The final report says:
"The board and staff of PPCNC are to be commended for their many accomplishments, sound business practices, innovations, quality services
and unwavering commitment to the mission. All aspects of this affiliate are based on the highest standards of care and excellence."
I'm sharing this note with you because your support helps make all this possible. Without it, we could not be there for the thousands of people we help every year and the thousands more who we will help. I look forward to continuing to work with you in the days ahead to accomplish our mission.
Thanks for your help.
Sincerely,
Janet Colm,
President & CEO
P.S. In this election season, I know that many of you are giving as much as you can to political candidates. As you think about your financial contributions in the next few months, I hope you will remember Planned Parenthood and the important political and service work we do every day. Thanks again for your help.
May 2004
Dear Friend of Planned Parenthood,
Were you there? Did you see us on TV? Hear about us on the radio? The March for Women?s Lives was just fabulous!
I?ve taken a few days to think about the March because I knew that I wanted to talk about it in this President?s Update, but I didn?t know what to say. Usually I talk a little about my family in these letters to you ? and I?m proud that both my husband and son went with me to the March. But that?s not the real story here.
I think the real story is what happened at the March and what has happened since then. I spent some time the last few days talking to people who attended the March. I asked them to tell me about the March. This is what they said.
* * * * *
I had an illegal abortion before Roe. I survived, but other women did not. I want to make sure we never go back to those days.
When we walked by the anti-choicers my passion came out. It confirmed why we were there. When they compared Planned Parenthood to lynchings and the holocaust it really made me mad.
It was so powerful to chant ?My body, my choice? in unison with thousands of other people. It is so powerful to claim your own body.
I realized what a difference I make daily in the lives of women (from a PPCNC staffer). I felt connected with the bigger movement.
I went to the March because I feel so lucky to have had a family who supported my choices, even if they didn?t agree with them. When I was a teenager and my mother found out I was sexually active, she helped me get on birth control. I think that?s what choice is about.
There were so many of us and we moved so slowly. I was really impressed with the organization behind the March. It was just a massive number of people and it worked so well.
My favorite marchers were the ?Raging Grannies.? I just wanted to hug them. There was a bus full of ?Belly Dancers for Choice.?
From another PPCNC staffer: It was so great to see how many people really support what we?re doing. I can look back on that on bad days, when there are protestors outside, when people look at me funny when I tell them where I work.
It was great to see so many young people. I?ve heard so many people say that young women just don?t care. It seemed to me that the average age of the crowd was in the 20?s.
My favorite group was Latinos for Choice. They were all decked out in hats, streamers, slogans on their slacks.
I came out of the metro at 9:00 ? three hours before The March was supposed to start -- into all the hubbub. I started crying. People thought I was lost. I was just overwhelmed. All those people. I thought, ?I have to find North Carolina.? I just wanted to share it with people I knew.
I felt like I was witnessing history. I hope the next March is a victory celebration!
I?m a breast cancer survivor. It infuriates me that the anti-abortion folks are lying about a link between abortion and breast cancer. That?s why I went to The March ? to stand up for the truth.
I?m a Republican. Twenty years ago my wife and I had a wanted pregnancy that went wrong. It was very hard for us, but we made the decision to have an abortion. How dare the government try to tell us what to do in a situation like that? That?s why I marched.
I saw an obviously pregnant woman with a t-shirt with an arrow pointing to her stomach and the slogan ?She?s pro-choice too.?
The diversity of the crowd was amazing. There were people in wheelchairs. Young men. There were whole families. There were people of color, all ages, Republicans for Choice, lesbians and gays. Everyone smiled at you. The energy was wonderful.
It was powerful to ride the metro back after The March with so many people who had shared the same experience.
My friend said he was struck with the richness of what we believe in. We were marching for so many different reasons. All the anti?s care about is controlling women.
Even though women in my family have had abortions it?s not something we talk about. I had two aunts who self-induced abortions before Roe. I was thinking about all the women in my family who would not admit it publicly, but who were privately applauding me.
From a man: Those anti-abortion men with the bullhorns just made me so angry. I wanted to go over and shout at them. But I didn?t because I wanted to shield my son from what they were saying.
I marched because years ago I left the country to get an abortion. I was married, with four children and my whole family was already overwhelmed. When I came back, my doctor asked me why I hadn?t come to him. I said I was afraid that he would judge me. That?s what Roe did ? it lifted the shame and fear.
It?s sad that the anti-choice people associate choice with abortion and killing babies. To me choice is more than that. It?s about choosing my life.
It wasn?t until the next day that I really started to understand how extremely important the right to choice is. It made me start verbalizing why I marched. It was because of my family?s story, not just because of slogans.
I saw Gloria Steinem marching past the protestors. She just smiled and waved at them. I think it?s because she knows she?s more enlightened than them.
The plane returning home was filled with supporters and several "three generationers" who traveled to D.C. to raise their voices for Choice. And even our pilot and flight attendants extended their thanks for carrying this important message to Washington. I am proud, humbled and energized!!!!
When I returned to work, my boss thanked me for our efforts. She explained that it took The March to make her 20 year-old daughter, who saw the news, finally realize the potential of losing Roe and other rights for women! I asked her to commit to getting at least 10 people to go out to vote, which she did.
* * * * *
Obviously, those of us who were at The March were deeply affected by it. If you were there, you know the impact. On the way home, I knew that we had done something wonderful ? but it wasn?t until a few days later that I began to really understand what we accomplished.
It first hit me just a few days later, back at work, when I saw a PPCNC staffer who?d had a hard day. She looked tired and a little slumped. I asked her if she?d seen the picture in the Washington Post. When I showed it to her, she stood up straight and tears were in her eyes. ?It was just so amazing,? she said. The March energized us.
At the gym that afternoon, I was on the treadmill. The two older men next to me were talking about The March and why they are pro-choice. The March got all kinds of people talking about the importance of choice.
The March mobilized and inspired young people, many of them for the first time. They helped organize. They sold bus tickets. They were bus captains. They marched. Those of us who remember before Roe are passing the torch.
Over 1 million people were there. The March spanned political party and religious affiliation. It showed the diversity of age and race of people who believe in reproductive freedom -- that family planning decisions are best left to a woman, her family, her doctor and that government has no place in that equation.
* * * * *
What?s next?
Go to candidate forums and ask questions. Call or visit your elected officials; get to know them; let them know what you think. Wear your t-shirt and tell everyone why you are wearing it. Send an e-mail to five friends and tell them to register to vote.
Talk to your kids? teachers and school administrators about your support for sex education. Write a letter to the editor. Bring up reproductive rights with your friends. Be ?loud and proud? in your perspective. Tell your story.
If you see anti-choice injustice, speak up. Ask your health care provider whether she or he is pro-choice; patronize only pro-choice providers. Add a pro-choice message to your business card. Send pro-choice greeting cards for holidays, birthdays, Mother?s Day. Complain about anti-choice bias when you see it in the media. Call in to talk shows.
Vote. Live your convictions and turn them into action.
That?s the real story of the March.
For choice,
Janet Colm
President & CEO
P.S. Many of you have given generously over the past few months. If you have not given recently, please consider doing so now. Your gift will help us stand up for those whose voices cannot be heard.
February 2004
Dear Friend of Planned Parenthood,
I am not a football fan, but the emotion and controversy of this year's Superbowl game has permeated even my consciousness. It took me quite a while to realize that Triangle residents had more than a passing interest in this years game. And then, of course, there was the controversy about the half-time show and "the breast" incident (all of which has special meaning to me now that my son is 11). I could go on about that, especially given the recent decision by the Wake County school board to back down on real sex education.
But in all of this, the one item that struck me the most was the report on NPR about the 1 million people who celebrated their team's victory in the streets of Boston. The reason is simple: our goal is to have 1 million pro-choice Americans attend the March for Freedom of Choice in Washington, DC on April 25.
I must admit, this seemed like an extremely ambitious goal to me. Until I heard that report on NPR. If a million football fans can gather in Boston in January, surely we can get a million people to march on our nation's capital in April to show our commitment to reproductive choice!
The March for Freedom of Choice will show Congress, the president, and other elected officials that their assault on women's health is opposed by a strong, united majority of America.
* * * * *
For me, the march is also about passing the torch, motivating and mobilizing thousands of young people - the next generation of pro-choice activists and leaders that we will need in the years ahead.
It was fascinating to me several months ago when I heard many of the young women who work at PPCNC describe their lives, beliefs, and values at our staff diversity retreat.
As I heard them talk it struck me that these are the women that my generation raised. They have never known a world where abortion, much less birth control, was illegal or unavailable. The pill has always been there for them and their older sisters. They are naturally empowered to an extent that the women of my generation struggled to reach. And, unlike women of my generation, they have so much to lose if the anti-choice hardliners have their way. These young women will be at risk of unintended pregnancy for years and years to come.
Fundamentally all of what women have achieved and all our aspirations - for work, education, and self determination - rest on our ability to control when and whether we will have children. Turning the clock back on abortion, on birth control, on sex education is much more than that - it is turning the clock back on the fundamental rights of women to control their own destinies by controlling their reproductive and sexual lives.
* * * * *
I think that is one reason why it was so exciting to be in the crowd at our "Rock for Roe" celebration this year. We always commemorate the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision on January 22, usually with a breakfast meeting attended by local elected officials and long-time supporters. The conversation often turns to how gray all the heads in the crowd are.
This year we decided to do something different and use the anniversary of Roe as a vehicle to mobilize young people for the March. Six local bands donated their talents. Cat's Cradle provided the venue. And VOX, our pro-choice student group at UNC, helped spread the word. Over 200 people attended and the energy there was palpable. What really struck me was the diversity of the crowd - those born after Roe far outnumbered those of us born before. Best of all, ever since then, the number of people calling our office and visiting our website for information about the March has really taken off!
Many many thanks to Cat's Cradle and to the bands: Regina Hexaphone, Ameliorate, Destroyed by Kittens, Shannon O'Connor, Lise Uyanik and the Mobile City Band, and Glory Fountain. And, special thanks to Natalie Fixmer, our march coordinator. Natalie was the organizing force behind this wonderful event.
* * * * *
The March is about much more than just abortion. Simply put, the stakes have never been higher. As our national President, Gloria Feldt, puts it, "there is a hidden war on women being waged across America and the right wing's most radical zealots are winning." Here are just a few examples she cites to show what the Bush administration is doing:
• Stripping contraceptive coverage for federal employees from the budget the President proposed to Congress (Congress later restored the coverage);
• Appointing "abstinence only" hardliners to oversee federal family planning programs;
• Censoring words and information related to homosexuality, abortion, and condoms from government web sites;
• Targeting organizations that go against the abstinence-only message of the government for financial audits;
• De-funding the UN Population Fund even after Congress passed legislation appropriating these funds.
This is why we march on April 25. I hope you will join us!
* * * * *
Even while we are organizing for the March, we do see progress on many fronts. On December 16, a FDA panel recommended that emergency contraception should be made available over-the-counter without any restrictions. Victories like this too often get ignored in our daily battles. Of course the FDA has yet to make a final ruling, but they usually take the advice of their advisory committees. If this comes to pass, it is a major step forward: universal access to emergency contraception could prevent half of all unintended pregnancies and abortions.
PPCNC is committed to increasing access to emergency contraception. For three years we have operated "Dial EC", our emergency contraception hotline. Over 11,000 women have called the hotline from all over the state. Callers are screened over the phone and a prescription for EC is called in to the pharmacy or Planned Parenthood health center of their choice. PPCNC is proud to be the largest provider of emergency contraception in the state. We are also a site for a EC research study being conducted by Family Health International.
* * * * *
Another step forward: We are expanding our award-winning peer education program to include a special focus on Latino youth in Durham. Jessica Rubio, who has worked in our health centers for two years (and is a member of the above-mentioned Destroyed by Kittens band) has accepted the position as coordinator of the program. Over the next twelve months we will train 24 Latino youth to work as peer educators for PPCNC. These 24 trained educators will join over 200 others who have graduated from our programs in Durham, Orange County, and now in Fayetteville.
* * * * *
Finally, I want to share a special note that we recently received from one of our clients:
This wasn't a "crisis" pregnancy because from the moment I found out I was pregnant, I knew I had you to count on. I can't imagine going through this before Planned Parenthood. I can't thank you enough. You treated me with such respect and kindness - you're awesome. Keep up the great work and know it's more important to give women safe options than anything. Thanks so much.
I'm sharing this note with you because without your support we could not have been there for this woman and for the thousands of others that we have helped - and will help. I look forward to continuing to work with you in the days ahead to accomplish our mission.
Thanks for your help.
Sincerely,
Janet Colm
President & CEO
