New Project Offers Small Comforts to Abortion Patients 

On December 5 and January 10, PPCWNY volunteers gathered in Rochester and Syracuse, respectively, to take part in a new initiative: assembling care packages for abortion patients. On the inside, the kits include goodies such as snacks, fuzzy socks, stress squeeze balls, coloring pages and crayons, menstrual pads, and heating pads. On the outside, they’re adorned with notes of encouragement and support hand-written by our volunteers. 

Organized by Public Affairs’ Maddie D., Sara C., and Meredith O. and the Volunteer Program’s Kathy P., the goal of this project is to offer comfort and support to our in-clinic and medication abortion patients during their recovery, assuring them that Planned Parenthood stands with them, always. 

A “dry run” of the care package project kicked off in late November when the reception volunteers at Rochester’s University Ave. location assembled over 300 boxes in one week! About 1000 more were finished at the subsequent events in Rochester and Syracuse, thanks to the teamwork and efficiency of our amazing volunteers, and we’ve begun distributing the kits across the region. 

To everyone who has participated in the care package project – all the event attendees and the Rochester reception volunteers who got things started – thank you, thank you! Judging from our patients’ enthusiastic response, we think these boxes of small comforts are set to make a huge impact. 

We’ll be hosting another abortion care package assembly event in Buffalo in early February. If you are interested in participating, please email [email protected]!