Planned Parenthood donations?

[Aparallaxia]

I am a long-time supporter of PP both nationally and locally. Recently, however, I checked their website to see what they have to say about sex and gender, and I was, predictably I suppose, gobsmacked. Not just by the obvious stuff—the confusion of sex and gender—but by the shallowness of the notion of "gender identity" that is being described (or do I mean prescribed), by the failure to recognize homophobia amongst trans people, by their simply ignoring the problem of what happens when people with male bodies decide to "come out" and identify as female... as they say, 'A transgender person can be gay, lesbian, straight, or bisexual, just like someone who’s cisgender. A simple way to think about it is: Sexual orientation is about who you want to be with. Gender identity is about who you are.'

e.g. 'Sex is a label — male or female — that you’re assigned by a doctor at birth based on the genitals you’re born with and the chromosomes you have. It goes on your birth certificate.
'
'Gender identity is how you feel inside and how you express your gender through clothing, behavior, and personal appearance. It’s a feeling that begins very early in life.'

This despite the fact that they say this about gender, which is pretty much correct apart from the 'assigned sex' bit:
'Gender is much bigger and more complicated than assigned sex. Gender includes gender roles, which are expectations society and people have about behaviors, thoughts, and characteristics that go along with a person’s assigned sex.'

And this gem:
'Coming out as transgender may mean that you tell people about your preferred onouns (if you wish to be referred to as he/him, she/her, they/them, etc.). It may also mean that you ask people to call you by a new name and to think of you by the gender identity that you’re comfortable with.'
i.e. it's all about language.

So the question I have for Mumsnetters is: Should I continue to donate to PP because of all the good work they do for women? Or should I stop donating because of all the harm they are doing to women by adopting these positions? Abortion rights are under such threat always in the US, today more than ever with a rigged Supreme Court. I don't know what to do. Advice please!

Ouch. Tough one. Do you have other charities who haven't drunk the kool aid that you could support?

Do you know that all that gender nonsense on their website is there because they're now in the business of prescribing wrong sex hormones? On the first visit? No therapy needed? A person only needs to be 18? And willing to sign a form absolving PP of all blame if or when it all goes horribly wrong?

I told them why I no longer donate. They thought sending me some propaganda would change my mind. It didn't.

WoLF gets their donation now.

Yeah all that bullshit would have me cancelling my DD and explaining why. But I'm firmly off the fence already!

^ Direct Debit not Dear Daughter bless her soul

I'm afraid to say, I've got bad news and worse news, OP.

The bad news is I don't have any advice because I'm not sure what I'd do in your situation, myself.

The worse news is this: abigailshrier.substack.com/p/inside-planned-parenthoods-gender

Thank you, Inspiral, that story made up my mind for me. I am going to write to them to present their website and their reckless provision of medication to teens as my reasons for not giving them any more money. Much good it will do me. But I can't just let it go.

So the whole ‘planned’ bit. How do they know who to give condoms to, and who to fit with the coil?

"Sex is a label assigned by a doctor..." would be enough to do it for me, tbh. That idiotic terminology - especially from public health orgs and the like - rankles a bit more every time.

@KittenKong

So the whole ‘planned’ bit. How do they know who to give condoms to, and who to fit with the coil?

Well exactly.

The constant guff about 'sex being assigned based on your genitals' is starting to annoy me far more than it used to.
Here's a tip: If label 'A' is assigned to someone 100% in correlation of, and because of, presence of 'thing X' and absence of 'thing Y' then BY DEFAULT label A is a DEFINITION of someone having 'thing X'.

'The colour green is assigned to grass based on whether that grass reflects light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495–570 nm'

@Radiatore

Do you know that all that gender nonsense on their website is there because they're now in the business of prescribing wrong sex hormones? On the first visit? No therapy needed? A person only needs to be 18? And willing to sign a form absolving PP of all blame if or when it all goes horribly wrong?

I told them why I no longer donate. They thought sending me some propaganda would change my mind. It didn't.

WoLF gets their donation now.

👆🏻👆🏻 This Are you in the UK? If so, look for a women’s refuge that is single sex and donate to them.

You could get together with other like minded people and set up a trust.
The trust would donate to PP, and specify that the money is only to be used for abortion access and contraception.

I'm in the US so I'm not sure what shelters there are locally. I'll have to do some research about that, besides donating to a feminist organization.

Marie Stopes International could be an alternative but this is a global org and not a US specific group (goodness know what can be done about planned parenthood).

www.msichoices.org/who-we-serve/women/

The 'gender equality' page is a bit concerning, with 'non binary' mentioned but they do recognise that only women get pregnant so only women will be in need of an abortion.

I read it as they are partly-woke so on the fence but recognise biology whilst aiming to please young woke staff. I'm off to check their Twitter...

@Aparallaxia

I am a long-time supporter of PP both nationally and locally. Recently, however, I checked their website to see what they have to say about sex and gender, and I was, predictably I suppose, gobsmacked. Not just by the obvious stuff—the confusion of sex and gender—but by the shallowness of the notion of "gender identity" that is being described (or do I mean prescribed), by the failure to recognize homophobia amongst trans people, by their simply ignoring the problem of what happens when people with male bodies decide to "come out" and identify as female... as they say, 'A transgender person can be gay, lesbian, straight, or bisexual, just like someone who’s cisgender. A simple way to think about it is: Sexual orientation is about who you want to be with. Gender identity is about who you are.'

e.g. 'Sex is a label — male or female — that you’re assigned by a doctor at birth based on the genitals you’re born with and the chromosomes you have. It goes on your birth certificate.
'
'Gender identity is how you feel inside and how you express your gender through clothing, behavior, and personal appearance. It’s a feeling that begins very early in life.'

This despite the fact that they say this about gender, which is pretty much correct apart from the 'assigned sex' bit:
'Gender is much bigger and more complicated than assigned sex. Gender includes gender roles, which are expectations society and people have about behaviors, thoughts, and characteristics that go along with a person’s assigned sex.'

And this gem:
'Coming out as transgender may mean that you tell people about your preferred onouns (if you wish to be referred to as he/him, she/her, they/them, etc.). It may also mean that you ask people to call you by a new name and to think of you by the gender identity that you’re comfortable with.'
i.e. it's all about language.

So the question I have for Mumsnetters is: Should I continue to donate to PP because of all the good work they do for women? Or should I stop donating because of all the harm they are doing to women by adopting these positions? Abortion rights are under such threat always in the US, today more than ever with a rigged Supreme Court. I don't know what to do. Advice please!

Well if even a quarter of this is true/accurate then it should be a solid no. www.newsweek.com/university-pittsburgh-wont-explain-its-planned-parenthood-ties-opinion-1594564

I should add that PP don't seem to have sued him for defamation in their efforts against him regarding a secretly recorded video which confirmed some of these accusations. PP sued and won on on technicalities regarding breaches of confidentiality and wiretapping etc.

Hard to get to the bottom of things in stories like this but something definitely smells at the very least.

Experimentation on aborted fetuses is a difficult one. If we believe a woman has a right to an abortion because it is her body, why should we think aborted fetuses should be treated with the same respect as if they were babies? This is not meant to be provocative, it is a genuine question, one I find very difficult to answer (I am not religious, BTW).

I have heard this accusation against PP before, but I cannot remember whether it proved well-founded. I will do some more digging.

Many people aren't aware just how toxic and politicised Planned Parenthood have become over the last 20 years.

I, and others, have been blocked from their Facebook page for trying to rationally discuss this issue, and our comments (with links to information and research) deleted.

I was also blocked from the NARAL Pro Choice Facebook page as well. And Marie Stopes.

It makes me feel so helpless and so depressed.

@Aparallaxia

Experimentation on aborted fetuses is a difficult one. If we believe a woman has a right to an abortion because it is her body, why should we think aborted fetuses should be treated with the same respect as if they were babies? This is not meant to be provocative, it is a genuine question, one I find very difficult to answer (I am not religious, BTW).

I have heard this accusation against PP before, but I cannot remember whether it proved well-founded. I will do some more digging.

If you're not going to be upset then I would read the article and some of the links that are within it. It's not clear (I'm being polite) what 'state' the foetus is in.

I'm totally on the fence with abortion btw. I think both sides have perfectly valid arguments. One thing I would love to get a straight answer to is why an abortion supporting vegan doesn't eat chicken eggs. Hey ho.

The US Planned Parenthood glossary tells us that feminism has the goal that 'all genders' are treated equally. Because all neogenders probably have female-bodied people in them, banning abortion, say would not affect that 'equal' treatment. In other words, when sex is tossed out of window as a variable, Planned Parenthood stops being feminist or caring about issues having to do with the reproductive rights of 98% or more of those who seek their services.