As we continue to celebrate PPSNE’s centennial anniversary, I find myself reflecting on both how far we have come from where we started in 1923 and the reality that, generations later, we are continuing to fight for our most basic rights and freedoms.
At PPSNE we know that rights alone are not enough — those rights must be meaningfully accessible to all people. That’s why we are continuing to innovate and find new ways to connect people with information and resources so they can make their own decisions about their bodies, lives, and futures. In the latest issue of our Focus newsletter, we are proud to share details about a new program we are piloting this year designed to connect our patients with prenatal care services when they need them.
You’ll also read about decades of PPSNE history that have been carefully cataloged in archives that are available to the public. In looking back through these materials, I was particularly struck by this paragraph in a 1941 document describing the legislative strategy at that time to push for legalizing birth control:
An impressive majority of the citizens of Connecticut favor legislation legalizing every individual to decide whether or not she or he wishes to practice birth control. The minority opposition makes up in noise what it lacks in numbers. It makes up in money what strength it loses in arguing the undemocratic principle which would rule out self-determination. Thus our main purpose must be to awaken the majority. If the majority is awakened, those who represent the majority in the state legislature cannot forever oppose its will.*
In 2023, poll after poll shows that the public overwhelmingly supports legal abortion — 85% of Americans, regardless of political affiliation, want abortion to be legal nationwide. Yet despite the will of the majority, anti-abortion lawmakers and activists are now brazenly trying to weaponize the court system to impose a narrow ideology on the public and strip people of access to basic health care. They think these outrageous attacks will intimidate us. They are wrong.
We are here, just like we have been for the past 100 years. We are undaunted. We will speak the truth. We will say unequivocally and defiantly: I’m for Planned Parenthood. We will say proudly: I’m for abortion care. I’m for gender-affirming care. I’m for STI testing. I’m for wellness exams. I’m for sex education. We will say unwaveringly: I’m for the essential high-quality health care that Planned Parenthood safely and legally provides. And I will fight for the fundamental right to access that care
Now is the time to show up big for our patients, for our providers, for the people of Connecticut and Rhode Island, for the entire nation. It is time for us to once again “awaken the majority” and raise our voices in support of sexual and reproductive health care. Your support in this critical moment is as important as ever. Thank you for being a part of our powerful movement to protect and expand reproductive freedom for all people. Thank you for declaring, “I’m for Planned Parenthood.”
* Connecticut Committee to Make Birth Control Legal: Remarks concerning the legislative effort before the 1941 General Assembly, PPSNE Archive, New Haven Museum, New Haven, Connecticut.
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Amanda Skinner is the President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England.
Click here to read the full winter 2023 issue of our Focus newsletter.
Tags: Reproductive Rights, Centennial, planned parenthood history