News from Planned Parenthood Mar Monte - Spring 2012
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Since When is Contraception Controversial?- read now.
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Comic Relief at the PPMM Peninsula Breakfast- read now.
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Gearing Up for California's Capitol Day- read now.
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Planned Giving: Making PPMM Part of Your Legacy- read now.
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PPMM Helps Win Major Environmental Victory- read now.
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A Special Thanks to Supporters of Our Breast-Health Services- read now.
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PPMM CEO Linda Williams was Honored to be This Year's Recipient of Planned Parenthood Federation of America's Ruth Green Award- read now.
- Since When is Contraception Controversial?
To listen to stump speeches on the presidential campaign trail, pronouncements at Congressional hearings and diatribes on talk-radio, it sounds like women nationwide are about to be hurled into a time warp where birth control is not widely available and isn’t even considered a basic necessity in women’s health care.
Does the anti-contraception group realize that women vote? A recent spate of national polls shows that across party lines more than two-thirds of those surveyed agree that contraception should be available to everyone.
As Dorothy Parker said decades ago, “What fresh hell is this?”
At PPMM, we have been spreading the word that maintaining and ensuring affordable access to contraceptives is essential to the health of women and their families. It is a fundamental part of preventive health care and has been for half a century.
The attack on contraception-access gained momentum in February when a group of Catholic bishops confronted the Obama administration over the issue of religiously affiliated hospitals and universities being required to cover contraception for all employees when the health care reform law is enacted in 2014. The administration made a compromise that allows for these institutions to decline paying for contraceptive coverage while employees can still request coverage and insurance companies will pay for it without raising premiums.
However, this didn't satisfy the most vociferous opponents. Almost immediately, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) proposed an amendment to a highway funding bill that would have allowed all employers to deny health care coverage for any service they objected to. Contraceptives were at the top of that list.
Planned Parenthood was able to partner with many other highly respected organizations - including the American Academy of Pediatrics, March of Dimes and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network - to speak out against the dangers and inequities of the Blunt amendment. California Senators Boxer and Feinstein spoke on the floor to denounce the amendment, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rejected it as well. The Blunt amendment was defeated by a vote of 51-48.
Although this was a significant victory for women and families, the bizarre political war on contraception has not ended. At this writing, Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH) has introduced another version of the amendment in the House of Representatives. Chabot's bill has more than 200 co-sponsors. In March, the House Judiciary Committee and the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee held much-publicized hearings attacking women's access to contraceptives. The photo of five middle-aged men “testifying” at the hearing on women’s health was the subject of outrage on Facebook pages and Twitter accounts across the nation. Meanwhile, presidential candidates continue to talk as though birth control is dangerous and controversial.
Comic Relief at the PPMM Peninsula Breakfast
In poll after poll, it is clear that opponents of birth control are out of step with the majority of the American people on this issue. Ninety-nine percent of sexually experienced women, including 98 percent of Catholic women, use “artificial” contraception during the span of their fertility.
We must still fight to make our voices heard and send a strong message that birth control is here to stay. It must be available to every woman in every community.
Comedian and co-creator of “The Daily Show” Lizz Winstead was the featured attraction at our March breakfast fundraiser, a smashing success that brought in nearly $300,000 from the more than 400 loyal PPMM supporters who gathered at Atherton’s Menlo Circus Club. There was a waiting list for the sold-out event, Winstead’s 18th benefit since last April when she began her nationwide “Planned Parenthood: I Am Here For You" fundraising tour."I don't know why my uterus is the focus of political debate right now, instead of creating jobs," Winstead told the crowd as she went on to roast politicians who are way out of the mainstream on issues ranging from contraception-access to affordable cancer screening. “Why can't we just go to Walgreen's for a breast exam, right?” she asked. “Hey, sure, and maybe we'll team with Apple to come up with the 'App Smear!'"
Later this year, Winstead will have a memoir published that includes a chapter about why she is devoted to Planned Parenthood. She read an excerpt from her book, describing the terror and bewilderment she felt almost 35 years ago when she found herself pregnant at 17. She recounted how she had gone to a "pregnancy counseling" center where a woman in a lab coat told her that her choices were "mommy or murder."
Several days later, she sought help at a Planned Parenthood health center and spoke to a counselor who compassionately discussed all the options. Winstead said she knew she was not prepared to raise a child, and she chose to end the pregnancy.
Her story had special resonance for the audience, following remarks by PPMM Board Chair Elect Karen Grove, who implored attendees to send the message to "keep politics out of women's health care," and PPMM CEO Linda Williams, who described the "gale force winds" blowing in Washington that threaten to dismantle Planned Parenthood services.
Williams closed by reading a letter from a former PPMM client whose sentiments echoed Winstead's:
"I hope you all know what a difference you make, and I hope you know what an important role you play in so many lives," the letter read. "I can't thank you enough, and I'm sure there are many other women who feel the same way. Sincerely, Forever Grateful."
Gearing Up for California's Capitol Day
The theme for this year’s Capitol Day in Sacramento on May 1 is simple and direct: Access. It will highlight the services that Planned Parenthood affiliates provide throughout the state for all women and families, regardless of where they live or work.
In a year that has ratcheted up threats to affordable access for basic health care services - ranging from birth control to cancer screening - it is crucial to remind legislators that many of their constituents rely on Planned Parenthood to provide them with health care that they would otherwise go without.
Some of our most effective messengers on Capitol Day are the young women and men, including peer educators and mothers in PPMM's Teen Success parent support groups, who speak directly to legislators and their staff about why Planned Parenthood's services are crucial. An 18-year-old recounting how our education programs have prevented teen pregnancies at her high school or a 19-year-old mother describing how Teen Success helped her turn her life around are the best ambassadors for the work that PPMM does.In this election year, it is especially urgent to explain the importance of protecting access to our services. The PPMM informational booth at Capitol Day, which will be run by our Education team, will focus on prevention and treatment of STDs. This is especially relevant to clients in our region because of the sky-rocketing rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea in several of the counties we serve. In fact, Sacramento, Kern, Fresno and San Joaquin Counties have among the highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea in the entire state.
Using Capitol Day to spotlight the services we provide is a powerful way to remind Californians that Planned Parenthood believes everyone should have access to high-quality health care regardless of their ability to pay, even if they have lost their jobs or their homes. Since PPMM’s service region comprises several counties that rank highest in the nation for unemployment and mortgage-foreclosure, the issue of access to health care has special significance for our clients.
The day is also a great chance for health center staff, supporters, volunteers and clients - from San Diego to Humboldt - to come together, tell their own stories and stand with Planned Parenthood as a force to be reckoned with.
For more information about attending Capitol Day, email sanjosepa@ppmarmonte.org.Planned Giving: Making PPMM Part of Your Legacy
In the forty years that Martha Gould has been a donor to Planned Parenthood in Nevada, she has made a very personal commitment to supporting women's reproductive rights. She was instrumental in helping to pass a state referendum in 1990 which guaranteed reproductive freedom for all Nevada women, and she has continued to help steer PPMM's growth in Northern Nevada. So it makes perfect sense that she has also chosen to make a bequest to PPMM in her will.
"I have been a sustaining supporter and will continue to be one for the rest of my life," she said. "Providing a bequest to Planned Parenthood is one way to pay it forward."
Including PPMM in your estate plans is one of the most meaningful and generous gifts you can make to women and families in your community. By making a bequest, you are helping to ensure that access to birth control, family planning counseling, preventive health care, pre-natal care, cancer screenings and reproductive health education will remain available and affordable for generations to come.The freedom for women to make intelligent and necessary choices for their health and their families' health has come under harsh assault in recent months, so making a bequest to protect those rights in the future has never been more important. In fact, Martha Gould recently doubled her monthly contribution to PPMM. "We are facing attacks from political candidates who believe they have the right to attack the one organization that provides for basic health needs, and (they) impose their religious beliefs on our nation's women," she said.
"My generation fought for women's rights, for family planning and the right to access birth control," she added. "We now have the responsibility of setting an example for young women who will follow after us."Your gift for the future is not only a way to ensure that your children and grandchildren will benefit from the hard work we have done to protect affordable reproductive health care, it may also help a fearful teenager confused about sex, a young family needing birth control counseling, a divorced man wanting tests for STDs before dating again or a woman who has lost her job and health insurance and feels a lump in her breast.
PPMM would be honored and grateful to be remembered in your will or estate plans. Like Martha Gould, you can make your personal legacy a legacy of quality health care for those who count on Planned Parenthood.
If you would like information about bequests or other types of planned gifts, please email us at renodevelopment@ppmarmonte.org.
- PPMM Helps Win Major Environmental Victory
In a triumph for California agricultural workers and residents of the rural communities that PPMM serves, the manufacturer of the dangerous pesticide methyl iodide (Mel) announced in March that it will suspend sales of the product in the United States. This was the culmination of a months-long effort when PPMM joined forces with environmental and social justice coalitions to educate the residents and policy makers in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties about the serious health risks posed by Mel.
Representatives from PPMM got the word out to the community and testified at county hearings about reproductive-health risks associated with Mel. We helped pave the way for both counties - the largest strawberry-growing regions in California - to pass resolutions asking the state to revisit the use of the pesticide. The manufacturer of methyl iodide bowed to the pressure, and state officials have agreed to support research for safer agricultural alternatives.
This was a battle that some thought couldn’t be won. It’s another example of PPMM’s commitment to protecting the health of every family in every community we serve.
A Special Thanks to Supporters of Our Breast-Health Services
We were overwhelmed by the generosity of 3,399 supporters who sent us donations following the initial decision of the Susan G. Komen Foundation to stop funding breast-cancer screening at Planned Parenthood health centers. More than 4,000 supporters signed an open letter to the Komen foundation, championing Planned Parenthood's breast-health services and speaking out on behalf of our patients.
Without any urging from us, people went to their Facebook pages and flooded our website with donations. By the time Komen reversed its decision, we had received more than $125,000 in support of breast-cancer screening - and more than two thirds of those donations came from first-time supporters of PPMM. You took our breath away!
Please accept our heartfelt thanks on behalf of the more than 37,000 women who received PPMM breast-cancer screening last year alone – especially the 49 women, ages 31 to 70, who were diagnosed with cancer and whose lives we may have helped save as a result of your support.
PPMM CEO Linda Williams was Honored to be This Year's Recipient of Planned Parenthood Federation of America's Ruth Green Award.
The prestigious award celebrates the achievements of a "remarkable and talented woman" who has exemplified the mission of Planned Parenthood. - Since When is Contraception Controversial?
