A Modest Proposal for Roe Day

One comment didn’t get me up to the minimum amount, and that seems stingy, so I gave $50. I’ve been meaning to donate for a while but it’s one of those things that’s slipped my mind–thanks for the impetus! It’d be pretty amazing (ironically?) if that thread actually did turn into a sizable donation to PP.

(If anyone’s skittish due to the non-obvious domain of that link, yes, ppaction.org is linked to from the main Planned Parenthood page. Not that I expect Tedra to mislead, intentionally or not, but I’m always a bit hesitant before I enter my CC# on the internet.)

When I was between gender reassignment surgeries, the local Planned Parenthood was not helpful. They didn’t know what to do when a man wanted a pap smear and reconfirmed my hatred for institutions that fight so hard to maintain a gender binary. Perhaps Planned Parenthoods in other cities handle trans patients better. I have heard horror stories and pleasant ones.

But I will not donate $4 to Planned Parenthood. I will donate it to the local health organization that has made me feel like a whole human since the day I walked inside. They have a jar for donations up front. I’ll put in $5 this week. But Planned Parenthood will never get my money again.

‘A Modest Proposal for Roe Day’ should be something else. Something funny.

This is a geat idea, especially from my perspective since PP is under fire here in Wisconsin thanks to our crazed Teapublican governor and legislature. Put me down for $50.

Planned Parenthood was the ONLY practical source of birth control for most middle class, unmarried young women in the 1960’s and 1970’s. But most of their clientele were, overwhelmingly, not young middle class college students like me, but poor women. And I bet that’s still true. And not just for birth control (or abortions — a statistically small portion of their work). Women should get pap smears and breast exams regularly. And for poorer women especially (though for many women), an ob/gyn office also provides the only basic health checks they’ll ever get (e.g., taking blood pressure). PP is vital for women’s general health, not just reproductive.
I gave to PP last year for the first time in a long time and will give again this year. Not sure how many times I commented on the last post, but if length of comment were figured in, I owe PP a lot! (A owe PP a lot, period. We all do.)

Can I also add a link to Choice Ireland? http://www.choiceireland.org/

Wow, I’m glad I didn’t comment last time — I shudder to think what kind of bill I would have been unknowingly racking up. ;) But I consider myself pro-choice, and it’s a worthy cause. I contributed $25.

Tedra: Oh, I know. But the thing is, I’m happier with myself if I look ahead toward my next opportunity for some charity, and this is a darned good cause and occasion. So it’s in the plan.

I didn’t post in the previous thread, having nothing useful to add. I escaped from the US years ago, and am deeply grateful for the wonder, imperfect though it may be, that is the NHS. But people I love do live there, and you just never know what the future will bring, so I will send PP $15, and hope that the young ladies I know grow up to be as steadfast and sure of themselves as Tedra.

@27
Henri Vieuxtemps has a point. I also think that instead of charity (buying off our uneasiness) we need responsible governments.
But that is a theoretical concept (and sometimes tastes like dogma) and everyday life isn’t lived in theoretical concepts. So, I am a regular contributor to Amnesty International and from time to time I support — though being a Belgian — the fine American NGO Partners in Health. Honouring your fine gesture I’ll send them 50 €.

I had about five comments. I’m sending $25 to the local PP.

bq. I pay taxes, and the government is responsible for using this money to finance all the necessary social programs and public services. By sending my own money to under-financed services, I would be letting an incompetent (or malevolent) government off the hook and prolonging its reign, thus making myself complicit in its misdeeds.

And I am sure that the government has taken _full notice_ of your noble refusal, and will be promptly changing its policy forthwith. Or, alternatively, that those many people who are being let down by the government’s abject failure to “finance all the necessary social programs and public services” will be able to forget their conditions of misery and squalor, while they applaud you for your refusal to prolong this reign of iniquity!

This reminds me of that wonderful moment in _Small World_ where Fulvia Morgana justifies her self-indulgence in caviar, champagne and the like, by claiming that she is doing her little bit to “heighten the contradictions” (I don’t have a copy of the book by me, so may be slightly muddling the details).

Good video. It’s quite different, actually, but even with that, I see he did manage to convince Tim Roth.

It’s because Buscemi (or Tarantino, really) doesn’t explain it right. There is a good reason not to tip in restaurants in the States: employers should pay fair wages. But I do tip in restaurants. Only because of the personal interaction.

Brilliant idea. Just put in $25.

$10, with pleasure.

My comment’s in moderation. Shorter version: I gave $10.

I happen to think Henri has a point, but misses it. PP is not only a charitable organization – it is a political organization, fighting for exactly what Henri (and most of us I’d wager) demand. Giving to them is not the same as giving to a charity that’s designed to be just that and perpetuate charity over economic rights.

It’s been a while, but wasn’t everyone else at the table a member of the gang? The Buscemi character was an outside contractor.

“It’s been a while, but wasn’t everyone else at the table a member of the gang? The Buscemi character was an outside contractor.”

From how I remember it they were all independents gathered to do one job. That is why they all had code names i.e., Mr Pink, Mr. White. etc.

Anyway I am sorry for causing this thread to go so off topic. My grandfather passes away 2 weeks ago and the funeral expenses/travel costs associated with that ate up most of my disposable income for the next while. However I will be donating to Planned Parenthood next time I have some free money.

10$ – that’s all I got, so I’ll claim a student discount.

But how can the first part be true, when over 90% of what PP does is abortion? A pursuit that makes them a hefty profit as well, …

Well said, Jon Kyl, well said.

Thank you, Tedra, for that post. When my wife (and I.. I was there) became pregnant with our third child and discovered she would be a Down Syndrome baby, we discussed the possibility of an abortion but she decided to move ahead. When we discovered, in the 7th month that the baby had a not uncommon heart valve problem, she wanted to have the baby knowing the baby would need an operation soon after birth.
There were few good choices to make and things did not go well but I learned a lot from those months but mostly learned that we each make our own choices or should and I use that experience to respond to my wife’s co- religionists at this time of year that when (as others have said) they start showing as much concern for women as they do for foetuses, I might listen to them.

I sent $100 just because.

shah8, take care of thy teeth (and you should! really!). Only to say, (pro)life is a balancing act.

I decided to donate $66.50 which will able them to designate 2$ to Roe vs Wade day as per your great suggestion.
People seem to lose track of the fact that “abortion services” account for only 3% of the total services provided by Planned Parenthood.
Patient care provided is broken down as follows:
Cancer Screenings and Prevention 16%
Contraception and testing 35%
STD testing 35%
Other women’s Health Services 10%
Abortion Services 3%
Other Services 1%
(with 11.4 Million total services in 2009)
It would be nice if government transfers covered everything so Henri could sleep better. They sadly do not and without this agency the poor and uninsured would suffer.
Why someone would believe the poor are not entitled to contraception, HIV screening, or Pap tests is beyond comprehension. That would keep me up at night.

Since according to Tedra’s “do you trust women” post, Roe is based on sexist assumptions (since it allows some statutory restrictions on abortion after a certain point), I’m not sure why her celebration of Roe Day is completely unqualified (or maybe it isn’t, I don’t know).

P.s. I support PP, but my money for donations pretty much spoken for at the moment.

> who is this B. person?

Oh, just some pseudonymous academic with an attitude, whose writings on Unfogged (and on another now-defunct blog) often pleased me, and (more important) occasionally made me intensely uncomfortable in that special way that I’ve come to recognize as the signal that I need to shut up and listen, because my preconceptions are being challenged.

What, am I the one who sounds sanctimonious here? Oh well.

In that case: sorry about my sanctimonious public display of non-charity. I hope it’s not too offensive; I didn’t just bring it up, I responded to an inquiry.

$50. Because shah8 has reminded me (no dig intended) that I need to go and enrich some local dentist sooner rather than later, and so should contribute here while I still have money, or indeed teeth.

Physical confrontation and constant vigilance are the only things that will save us.

I suspect your “physical confrontation” did more harm than good. What ended those clinic blockades was the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, and similar state and local laws, not being “as ruthless and vicious as [your] opponents.”

Stumbled upon this article during my daily reading. I wish I’d had this a week ago.

I wish I hadn’t needed to fix a tractor and could have followed out the conversation. This would have given me opportunity to fine-tune my comments, and practice at public conversation – it’s immeasurably more difficult than it looks. I wish I could write with greater fidelity what I actually mean when I first write it.

Slightly off topic but this thread is at an end and I’m not obviously interrupting anything. I go out of my way to read “feminist” literature (and I wish that word wasn’t starting to feel as estranged as the term “liberal”). You have my vote as the most engaging and thought-provoking and accessible feminist of your generation. You probably feel the burden of your wisdom (I can feel you cringe but it’s the right word). Any form of wealth is less an entitlement than it is an obligation and I suspect you hear the clamor out here (and within you) for a book. You have a unique voice.

I’m heartened you’re writing here, that you can pace yourself with other writers and choose your battles at your leisure in what remains a long slog.

The blog is an interesting medium and I suspect we will discover one of its strengths is its capacity to mix the impersonal with the personal, the abstract conversations about life with the direct experience of it. As commenters, we will learn how weak the anecdote is as argument, how useless anger and despair and ad hominem attack.

I think public conversations are about citizenship and participation in community, so even though I’m horrible at it, I feel some obligation to try. It’s an ironic progression. At one time we had to read a lot of print to be informed citizens. Now we have to comment at blogs to learn how to have public voices as participating citizens. And we end up starting to wonder, “If I can’t persuade someone else, how did I manage to persuade myself?”

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The Economics of Second Trimester Abortions

http://bigthink.com/ideas/42097