Thank Abortion Providers by Taking Action to Protect Family Planning Funding

by Alex DiBranco · 2011-03-10 14:23:00 UTC
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Today, March 11th, is the National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers. Despite threats of violence by anti-choice extremists and the cold-blooded murder of Dr. George Tiller, these brave individuals put themselves at risk to protect a woman's health and her right to make decisions about her own body. To say, hey, thank you, sincerely, you can take a stand for women and pro-choice doctors by standing up against concerted attacks on vital funding.

As I wrote last month, House Republicans have taken aim at family planning in order to strip Planned Parenthood of its funding. Never mind that the majority of services provided by Planned Parenthood are things such as HIV testing, birth control, and cancer screenings. Members of Congress opposed to women's bodily integrity believe the simple fact that an organization provides abortions amongst its many offering means that it should be ground into the dirt. (On the state level, a bill introduced just yesterday in Kansas would strip the nonprofit status of any medical facility that opted to provide abortions, a shocking new form of attack.)

To their everlasting credit, Planned Parenthood stays strong and continues to offer all comprehensive reproductive health services, from prenatal care to adoption counseling to abortion procedures. But they need your help. The Senate has rejected the House's decision to strip Planned Parenthood of funding, which means the two bodies of Congress will have to hash out their differences. Your voice asking Congress to stop efforts to eliminate family planning funding could tip things in the right direction.

Physicians for Reproductive Health and Choice, an organization whose name says it all, has compiled a number of quotes from abortion providers saying just why they do what they do. Dr. Linda Prine shares, "All I can say is that I've been there, at the other end of the exam table -- pregnant and distraught." Dr. Curtis Boyd states, "When a woman acts in a responsible way, doing what she believes is in her best interests and the interests of her family, she's being moral." Many abortion providers cite seeing women suffer and die when abortions are illegal as reason for taking pride in their work. And the late Dr. Tiller explains in the video below how the women in his practice brought him to become a late-term abortion provider.

Photo credit: badlyricpolice

Alex DiBranco is a Change.org Editor who has worked for the Nation, Political Research Associates, and the Center for American Progress. She is now based in New York City.
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