HANDS OFF PLANNED PARENTHOOD

Hello, all.

I imagine many of you have already heard- Edited video clips of Planned Parenthood employees discussing reimbursement for transporting donated organs have been released in a targeted smear campaign by members of Operation Rescue, the terrorist organization responsible for assassinating Dr. George Tiller and bombing several women's clinics in the 1990s and 1980s. They claim that the reimbursement for transporting delicate tissue samples is evidence that Pro-Choicers sell fetuses or something.  Coming as it does from a band of violent misogynists with a shared messiah complex, these attacks are being believed without question by the entirety of the Republican Party and many casual news audiences.

Planned Parenthood provides vital health services for 2.7 million patients a year: STI treatment and prevention, mammograms, birth control, sex education, counseling and a small number of abortions

We all know what this is really about- for much of human history, if a woman became pregnant, she had two options: fundamentally alter (and in many, many cases, risk and sacrifice) her life to care for the fetus and later the child, or risk stigma, bodily harm or violence by trying to secretly end her pregnancy. Safe abortion is a huge threat to a philosophy that women must forever be defined by our fertility and our ability (or lack thereof) to produce children (variously as heirs to the manor, slave laborers and everything in between) for men. The presence of safe, legal and accessible abortion means that women, rather than men, get to decide how, when and for whom female bodies are used.

Genosse Friedrich Engels called this as far back as the 1890s, and most Socialist movements since then have recognized the need for women to control our bodies and have fought for a full spectrum of social policies to ensure that women have more choices than dependent domesticity or solitude.

To anyone who depends on her right to decide her own destiny, to pursue opportunities in the workplace or escape from danger at home, this is an attack on YOU!

Please do what you can, I'll be in touch with information about any defensive phonebanks or rallies in the near future in St. Louis

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/donate, and call the Capitol Switchboard at 202 224-3121 to tell your representative and senators- have your zipcode ready for swift connections.

Hands off Planned Parenthood!  Resist all efforts to cut funding for women's health!  Abortions (access to which is a vital human right) make up less then 5% of what Planned Parenthood does for its patients, and no federal money supports it as it is.  Stand with Planned Parenthood!

The women's health movement has survived the fall of friendly governments, bans, repression, terrorism, baseless investigations, and bombings. We will not be broken down by a few videos from scum like this. Margaret Sanger persevered and won, Rosa Luxembourg led a revolution from her prison cell, Women on Waves is sailing from country to country, extending the hand of freedom to women living in anti-choice countries, and this hideous attack will not stop us.  NO PASARAN!

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen

Elise