Planned Parenthood Valentine's Day Prep Night
On Tuesday night, I went to the Planned Parenthood Office to help make FIFTEEN HUNDRED Valentine's Day bags.
We needed a lot of condoms.
We got into an assembly line and started packing! I helped with ribbon duty.
Here is part of the finished product. All of the bags have six condoms and some candy.
Liz and me after stuffing Vday bags for 4 hours.
I met the President of the Texas State Vox group, Feminists United, at this event, too! We really look forward to collaborating with her because.... UT'S VOICES FOR REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE JUST GOT APPROVED AS A REGISTERED STUDENT ORGANIZATION!
Coming back to help finish the Valentine's Day Bags/ Opportunity to work with Dyana
While we finished stuffing all of the bags Tuesday, we did not finish tying all of them. I went back to volunteer on Thursday.
This + a gigantic trash bag needed to be completed.
But we finished in about 2.5 hours!
The PP Volunteer Coordinator, Dru, introduced me to Dyana Limon-Mercado while I was there. Dyana is the Planned Parenthood Statewide Public Affairs Coordinator. Her job is to figure out what new Texas legislation means for the clinics, and also to research legislative districts. She asked me to send her my resume, and I am really looking forward to volunteering under her! As a Social Work major, it would be a great opportunity, and sounds really fun.
Tabling at Planned Parenthood
I tabled for the first time at the North Austin clinic this week. It wasn't quite what I expected. I think a lot of the patients there thought we were patients. We didn't have Planned Parenthood shirts on, and the table wasn't placed where we could sit behind it (so we sat next to it). Next time, I'll try to get the morning shift so I can help organize how the table is set up, and I need to get my hands on a shirt.
Aren't these Proper Attire condom wrappers the bomb?
First Stab at an Op-Ed
I was required to write an Op-Ed for my Social Justice class. I've never written anything like this, but here is my first try. I wrote about the Texas' new sonogram law.
Texas
Further Complicates Abortion With A New Sonogram Law
The
new sonogram law that requires women to listen to the fetal heartbeat and a
description of the fetus by their doctor is shaming, demeaning, and most
importantly, medically unnecessary.
Texas
House Bill Number 325 was written to interfere with a woman’s decision to
terminate her pregnancy, while lengthening the process. (And it is a process
due to the new 2-day waiting period that was enforced starting October 1, 2011.)
Doctors
(not ultra sound technicians) must now verbally explain ultrasound images: the
dimensions of the fetus, if it has arms, legs, or internal organs, and must
describe heartbeats if audible. But don’t worry, the woman can “choose to look
away from the images.” Directions were not explicit on if she could plug her
ears, too.
An
exclusion offered in the bill states that if the fetus has an irreversible
medical condition, or in cases of rape or incest, that women can opt out of the
fetal images and their descriptions.
When
the Center for Reproductive Rights challenged the sonogram law on the basis
that it infringed on doctors’ free speech rights, the 5th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals overturned the temporary order against enforcing the law.
Chief Judge Edith Jones wrote in her statement, “The point of informed consent
laws is to allow the patient to evaluate her condition and render he best
decision under difficult circumstances. Denying her up-to-date medical information
is more of an abuse to her ability to decide than providing the information.”
Then
why the exclusion for certain cases? While I’m glad that victims may opt-out,
the exclusion is a contradiction to the reasoning of upholding this law that
assumes women don’t understand what being pregnant means, and that there is a
good chance it will change her mind. (Although it may be too early to tell, Amy
Hagstrom Miller, the owner of five Whole Woman’s Health clinics, has confirmed
that the same percentage of women come back after their sonogram since the
enforcement of this law.)
Advocates
against abortion claim that women believe that their fetus is just a “blob of
cells,” and that hearing and seeing the fetus will be so dramatic that she will
actually reverse her decision to terminate her pregnancy. 65% of women who have
abortions already have at least one child. They know a fetus is not a “blob of
cells.”
That
opinion is condescending of women’s mental capabilities. As Hagstrom Miller
puts it, “We haven’t had a woman say, ‘Oh, my goodness, I didn’t expect to see
a fetus,’ and then change her mind. She knows she’s pregnant.”
Imagine
if restrictions of this sort were passed for different services. Let’s take
getting your driver’s license for example.
Cars
are death machines on wheels. In 1998, nearly 42,000 people were killed in
traffic crashes, and another 3.2 million were injured, according to the
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Now
imagine you have to make two trips to the DMV. (Waiting times at abortion
clinics are much longer and obviously more traumatic than waiting at the DMV,
but many Americans can relate to the dread they feel at even the mention of the
DMV.) You wait and you wait and you wait, just to get to the front desk, and
the friendly DMV associate tells you, “here’s some information about driving a
motor vehicle, now wait 24 hours and come back.”
America
would have a fit. But since this law only causes undue burden on pregnant women
(not men, the second party involved in unwanted pregnancies), it’s okay.
Let
me be clear. Women don’t waltz into abortion clinics. Women don’t come to an
abortion clinic before they have heavily considered all of their options.
Abortion isn’t fun. Women don’t become pregnant just so they can have an
abortion. No one expects or wants to have an abortion.
Women
will wait for 24 hours after their sonogram to have an abortion. They will sign
extra forms, even listen to belittling details of the fetus they carry. This unnecessary
medical information was passed to deter women from pregnancy, but it’s not the
right tactic.
Passing
legislation that addresses outcomes of an undesirable behavior is not the way
to resolve the behavior. The right tactic is trying to reduce unintended
pregnancies before they happen. But even if every sexually active woman has
access to birth control, and used it consistently and correctly (assuming
that’s the route you would take to prevent unintended pregnancies) the need for
safe abortion will never be eliminated.
Adding
petty restrictions such as medically unnecessary information and waiting
periods is a disgrace to women’s intelligence, their will, and their ability to
make choices for their family.
Volunteer at Inside Books Project
Don't forget to come volunteer with Social Work Council tonight at Inside Books Project! Contact me at katywaters@utexas.edu for more info, or if you would like to carpool with us!
Nicholas Kristof Lecture
Nicholas Kristof, one of the authors of Half the Sky, will be speaking tomorrow evening at the LBJ Library.
Cecile Richards Speaking at Planned Parenthood Rally Friday
Just a heads up! Cecile Richards, the President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, will be speaking on the LBJ Lawn at 2pm on Friday. Here is a short blurb about the event:
Birth control opponents in Congress are trying to take health care benefits away from working women and students. Come stand up for women’s health-- show Congress that birth control matters to you!
Virtually all women use birth control. It’s preventive health care, as well as an economic issue, helping women plan and space their families.
Join us on Friday, February 17th from 2 to 3 pm for a rally in support of making birth control affordable -- All women deserve access to contraception, without a co-pay, and no matter where they work. Birth control is the single most common prescription that young and middle-age women require. Birth control use is nearly universal in the United States with nearly Ninety-nine percent of women using birth control at some point in their lives.
Stand up for women’s health! Join St. Edward’s Student Activist Shelby Alexander and special guest, Planned Parenthood Federation of America CEO Cecile Richards at 2pm on the LBJ Lawn to let our elected officials know that birth control matters to us!
Here is a link to the event on Facebook.
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