Annnnddd...we're back!

To everyone who reads our little blog, we are so sorry for the absence recently! We had a crazy week a little while ago that left us tapped for energy and ideas. It is a lame excuse, we know it, we apologize. Truly, we are recommitted to bringing you the whats what of western Pennsylvania reproductive health news. In January, we will have great reporting from a new super secret contributor to boot! Exciting stuff.

For now, here is an excellent and incredibly funny video from Nellie McKay. I saw it this morning on Feministing.com and had to share. Back before I joined up with Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania, I worked for a small nonprofit in D.C. called FAIRFund.org. Nellie was on our board. We worked on ending human trafficking in the U.S. and Eastern Europe. It was an honor to have her on our team. So, without further jabbering...

Ladies and Gentlemen...NELLIE MCKAY!

Road Trip!

As many of you know Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania, in coalition with many local organizations, is planning a trip to Washington DC on December 2nd. We need to bring thousands of supporters from across the country to the nation's capital to show the overwhelming support for women's health! To do this, we need your help.

Join us in Washington, DC on Wednesday December 2nd for a day of lobbying and visibility to pass a health care reform bill that protects women and comprehensive reproductive health services. The tentative agenda is as follows:

6 a.m.: Leave Pittsburgh. We will be renting passenger vans and providing breakfast to those joining us. If anyone remembers the ride to March for Women's Lives a few years back, the ride down is fun and inspiring! There is nothing like rejuvenating our resolve with like minded supporters. We will also host a mini-briefing once the coffee kicks in :)

10 a.m. to 12 p.m.: Lobby with members of house. We will be asking for meetings with Congressman Doyle and Altmire. We will make additional meetings based on the constituents that participate in the event. If you are a constituent of a different congressperson, please let me know! We are happy (excited, even) to make additional meetings.

12 p.m to 2 p.m.: Coalition press conference in Upper Senate Park with Members of Congress where we will present the petition signatures we have collected against Stupak-Pitts language in the health care bill. If you would like to sign the online petition visit http://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/healthreform/index.htm. If you would like a hard copy of the petition, contact me and I will send it right over to you.

2 p.m. to 4 p.m.: Additional meetings with members of the house and visits to Senators Specter and Casey.

4 p.m to 8 p.m.: Drive back to Pittsburgh

Aftermath of the Stupak Attack

So, let's start by calling it what it is. Saying that what Rep. Bart Stupak attached to the health care reform bill was an 'amendment' is misleading. He did not just propose amending the bill, he dramatically reduced the impact of the bill for a certain class of Americans. As is typical, the ladies got the shaft. Let's agree right now not call it the "Stupak Amendment" and go with the "Stupak Attack". I think that more accurately names the atrocity that he delivered to American women on Saturday night.

Now that we have that out of the way, on to the impact of the Stupak Attack on women's health care. Primarily, the attack violates one of the underlying principle of health care reform. That no one will lose the benefits they currently have. The truth is that under the attack, millions of women would lose the private coverage for abortion services that they already have and millions more would be prohibited from buying it even with their own money if the insurance carrier is part of the new exchange. Charming.

EMERGENCY!!! We need your phone call right now!

What follows is an urgent message from Cecile Richards, CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Please, please, please pick up your phone right now and call your representative. A handful of bishops should not determine the fate of women in the US. Let your representatives know that we elected them, they answer to us! Let us know if you make the call! I know its Saturday morning and as alarmist and extreme as this is going to sound, its true...THE FATE OF WOMEN'S ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE RESTS IN YOUR HANDS!!! Pick up the phone.

-----

I’m writing to you with an urgent request.

Late yesterday, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops met with leaders in the House of Representatives in their bid to eliminate women’s access to abortion care under health care reform.

Pittsburgh Medical Safety Zone Ordinance Modified

It has been a rough week for us here at PPWP.We have had a lot of questions about the Third Circuit's ruling concerning our buffer zone ordinance. It has not been "struck down" as was implied in the Post-Gazette and Associated Press articles but modified so that we must choose either the 15 ft buffer zone or the 8 ft bubble zone. We aren't happy with that either but at least both halves of the ordinance were deemed to be constitutional. Just not together unfortunately. I will never understand why the right to harass and intimidate is more important than the right of patient access to health care. Below, is PPWP's press release concerning the matter. We will be updating as we get more information.

PITTSBURGH, PA – Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania responds to court ruling striking down city ordinance designed to protect the safety and privacy of patients.

Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania is troubled and disappointed by the recent ruling of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit which effectively reduced the protection of women seeking out medical care at family planning centers in Pittsburgh. While pleased that the court approved a modified version of the original ordinance, Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania is concerned with the reduced protections this rule offers patients and others impacted by protesters at medical facilities.

Pro Choice Halloween courtesy of PPNYC!

Halloween is just around the corner and I couldn't resist posting PPNYC's piece on pro choice Halloween costumes! Check out their blog at http://www.unratedunfiltered.com/! Happy Halloween!!!

Nothing to wear on Halloween? Go as one of these pro-choice costumes!

If you’re anything like me, you still don’t have your Halloween costume down. What with all the atrocious costumes out there, we here at PPNYC asked some of our favorite writers for their pro-choice Halloween costume ideas. Check out the list below, or add your own in your comments. And if you end up going as any of these, send in your picture!

From Megan Carpentier, Editor, News & Politics at Air America Media:

VOTE!

As I am sure some of you are aware, November 3rd is election day this year. Now, historically in an off year election turn out is horrendous. Beyond horrendous: ABYSMAL. I hate to say it, but abysmal turn out means your vote counts that much more. Your piece of the pie is bigger. Your voice is louder and the echo, much greater. This year is no different.

Here in Pittsburgh, we have the opportunity to elect some excellent judicial candidates and, finally, a pro-choice mayor. Now, I'm not going to try and tell you who to vote for. But I am going to point you in the direction of the Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates website and ask you, kindly, to check it out.

www.pppavotes.org

Click on the voter guide. Tons of great information, right at your fingertips.

Pittsburgh Foundation's Match Day is TOMORROW!

A message from our Development Department! Tomorrow is a great day to give to Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania!

Here is why:

Make a gift of $50 or more to Planned Parenthood of Western PA through PittsburghGives and The Pittsburgh Foundation will give Planned Parenthood of Western PA $.50 for each dollar you give. Your $100 contribution will become a $150 gift! There are $300,000 in matching funds available -- and more than 300 organizations ready to share in the generosity of Pittsburgh donors.

In order to qualify for the match, you must make your gift online via credit card at www.pittsburghgives.org. Matching dollars will be exhausted quickly, so you must be ready to make your gift at 10 am tomorrow. When you are completing your donation at "checkout," you will be notified whether matching funds are still available for your gift.

Demand for health care services is up 34% in our downtown Pittsburgh office! Our mission is to provide everyone with the services they need to control their fertility and protect their reproductive health. Tomorrow you can help to ensure that access to quality reproductive health care that includes complete gynecological care and cancer screening services is available to those most in need.

Gleecap: Mashup!

Ok kids, we have a lot to cover here. Sue Sylvester in love? Rachel and Puck making out?! The Thong Song?! Really???

Mashup was all about in-congruency. This was summed up best by adorable Emma when she told Will that the two wedding songs Will was trying to mashup would never ever go together even though they are "both great songs." This was a not so veiled allusion to her doomed engagement and Emma and Will made googly eyes at each other while they processed the weight of that statement.

In Glee-kid land, the tables were turned as well. McKinley High's self-proclaimed "It" couple were welcomed to the "new world order" with a slushie facial courtesy of hockey player Karofsky signaling their descent into unpopularity. Desperate to regain their status, they turn to the world's most prim guidance counselor for advice resulting in the pair wearing sunglasses for the rest of the episode in an attempt to look cool. Turns out, the popular kids don't care about their sunglasses. They outcast Quinn and Finn for their association with Glee and Quinn's unplanned pregnancy. Will popularity and Glee ever go together? Not quite yet it seems.

Ken spots Emma and Will in a tangled embrace after Will's spirited performance of the "Thong Song". (What exactly was he doing there? Wasn't he supposed to be teaching her how to dance? Oh, I love the contrived situations they create to show off Matt Morrisson's dance skills. Priceless.) Ken gets back at Mr. Schue by scheduling a mandatory football practice during Glee rehearsal. That's cold Ken! All of the Glee footballers choose Glee except *shocker!*, our hero Finn. He just can't handle being uncool. Ultimately, he gets Ken to relent by performing his own version of the "I have a dream..." speech. Finn has a dream that someday he will live in a world where a guy can play football and sing and dance too. For now, he does.

Health Care Reform Day of Action!

Yesterday, PPWP participated in a national Health Care Reform Day of Action. In the morning Tiffany, Libbi, and I went to University of Pittsburgh and Chatham University campuses to talk to students about there feelings on health care reform. Check out the videos below to see what real folks have to say about Health Care Reform.

What's new in health care: Gardasil for boys!

Women have been reaping the benefits of Gardasil, a Merck vaccine that protects against the 4 most common strains of HPV since its launch in 2006. It has long been thought that there would be no market for Gardasil amongst men as the cancers caused by HPV in men are extremely rare. But c'mon people, not only is the vaccine effective in preventing Genital Warts (the other nasty disease caused by HPV) but certainly men must be interested in the systemic change that would result from vaccination of both sexes! Men are usually silent carriers of HPV and can pass it along to their male and female partners without ever knowing. Can you imagine giving your partner a disease that results in cervical cancer 10 years later??? I would be harboring some serious guilt.

NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia gets the word out on McDonnel's anti-woman agenda

Virginia is my home state so I take this issue to heart. Though I long ago fled the gorgeous Shenandoah Valley of my birth, I certainly don't want a nut case like Robert McDonnell governing it!

Robert McDonnell landed on my radar when his Master's thesis leaked to the public. It's all kinds of wing-nut crazy but the part that has the feminist blogospere buzzing is his contention that working women and feminists are "detrimental" to the family. With this kind of anti-woman policy, he is not fit to govern any state and I hope his opponent R. Creigh Deeds takes him to task for it.

NARAL Pro-Choice VA is doing their part! Check out their clever you tube video!

Health Care Reform Day of Action is tomorrow!

Tomorrow, Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania will be joining the thousands of supporters of health care reform in a national day of action!

At 10 a.m. we will be heading to the University of Pittsburgh and Chatham University campuses to video students individual health care stories. These stories are one of the most valuable tools we have to show why it is so important that we address health care reform responsibly. We will also be doing a mobile phone bank into Senators Specter and Casey's offices so the folks we encounter can let their representative know that health care reform must not leave women worse off after health care then they were before!

Weekly Policy Recap

Amie Newman has an excellent post up about private insurers adverse treatment of women at RHRealityCheck.org.

Abortion and unintended pregnancy rates are declining as access to contraception becomes more available. Who would have thought?

Al Franken makes us proud yet again.

Certain conservative radio shows are pulling out all the stops to discredit independent thinking by republican women Senators Snowe and Collins. Surprise, surprise: they are using outright misogynistic messaging to make their point. Tsk, tsk gentlemen. Not that we were expecting anything different, but heck, it’s Friday. Give us a break already.

This week in progressive entertainment...

Everyone who lives here knows, there is no shortage of great progressive events in Pittsburgh. This weekend (and the upcoming week) is no exception. Today marks the opening of the 24th Annual Pittsburgh International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and despite its international title, there are several great films made locally about local issues.

Personally, I am so happy to see Out In The Silence on the schedule (and for free no less!).

Check out the synopsis here. The film will be playing this Tuesday, October 20th at CMU in the McConomy Auditorium.

PPWP loves Glee!

Glee is hands down my favorite show on TV right now. In fact, Rebecca and I have both been swept off our feet by this charming tale of show choir woes and triumphs. (I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that we were both choir nerds in high school.) Thursday mornings we usually chat about the previous evening's episode. Not only are we delighted by the awesome song and dance numbers but unexpectedly, by the super positive messaging. Planned Parenthood got a shoutout in "Preggers" and who can forget the episode when Kurt comes out to his dad AND in a rare occurrence said dad doesn't freak out. Word to the wise network executives: Not every high school coming out experience is traumatic because you know what, it's not the worst thing in the world to be gay!

Anyway, so as Rebecca and I were gushing over Glee we thought, "We really should blog about this!" So...we are! Check back here every Thursday for a re-cap of each new episode. Make sure to post your thoughts if you too can't get enough of Glee! In the meantime, enjoy these videos of "Somebody to Love" and "Single Ladies"!

Advocacy in the Sun: Summer Internship Re-Cap

Summer is the perfect time for advocacy! The weather is great which makes canvassing and outreach a breeze. There seem to be a plethora of festivals and health fairs to table at. The mood is positive and optimistic. Most importantly, students are looking for meaningful ways to spend their summers. Knowing this, Planned Parenthood of PA Advocates conducts a 10 week Grassroots Organizing internship every summer.

Planned Parenthood of PA Advocates is a force to be reckoned with in PA. It is made up of the public policy staffs of Pennsylvania’s five Planned Parenthood affiliates including mine: Planned Parenthood of Western PA. Together we recruit, hire, train and supervise our interns. We started recruiting in January, interviewed potential interns in February and March, made offers in April, and kicked it all off with a three day Action Camp in late May!

Action Camp is a crucial part of a major summer internship initiative. This year we gathered our 12 interns and 8 staff members under one roof for three days of training. It wasn’t all work though! We had plenty of time to include a reception/barbeque, a pool party, and a canvassing trial run. The time and effort to put on the Action Camp was well worth it. Our interns in their exit interviews said that they felt well prepared for the 10 weeks ahead of them after the training. They learned about our issues inside and out. They even lobbied to state representatives on the last day of the Action Camp!

Volunteer Spotlight: Why I chose PPWP for my internship...

As a senior Women ’s Studies major at Chatham University, PPWP seemed like an obvious internship choice for me.I didn’t want an internship that felt meaningless. I wanted to feel like I was doing something important. And believe me, PPWP is important.

We are currently living in a social climate where access to reproductive care is growing slimmer and slimmer by the minute. Oklahoma just passed a law that will collect personal details about every single abortion performed in the state and post them on a public website. Many women don’t have health insurance, and even if they do, most plans do not cover basic things like birth control. And it’s not just access to the actual reproductive care that is lacking. There is also a huge failure to educate young people about birth control options and STI care. Sometimes the questions I get asked when representing PPWP at events highlight the failure of our abstinence based sex ed programs.

The wheels on the bus!

Organizing for America's Reform NOW bus rolled into Pittsburgh today and parked on Flagstaff Hill in Schenley Park. It was the first health care event I've been to this summer that wasn't completely out of control so congrats OFA! There was a small congregation of dissenters outside the caution tape but they were pretty subdued. The real action was happening inside the caution tape! A diverse crowd of health care reform supporters waved their red white and blue OFA signs as impassioned voices boomed from the American flag draped podium. A clergyman explained how health care reform reflects the principles of all major religions. A physician assured the crowd that the AMA endorses reform. Congressman Doyle continued to extol the virtues of single payer health insurance which was refreshing to a crowd that is hoping for a "robust" public option at best. Finally, everyone joined in a throwback "Yes we can!" chant. As I looked around at the men and women, young and old who still proudly display their old Obama election t-shirts, I realized just how much hope we as a progressive community have left and how much is on the line if health care reform fails. We still have Obama's back. I hope he still has ours.

Anna in Ireland...

Submitted by Anna Donohoe, PPWP Grassroots Organizing Intern

“Don’t get your knickers in a twist over sex education” says Ireland’s Sunday Independent columnist Carol Hunt. This is not the attitude I expected before I got here, I must admit. I was imagining a very socially conservative and mostly Catholic society; and therefore I assumed everyone would be tight-lipped and prudish about sex education. Some background: I am in central Ireland visiting my relatives at the moment (all of my father’s family lives here), and that is why I decided to focus on sex ed in Ireland for this blog entry.

I asked two of my cousins about sex education (sex ed is called Relationship and Sexuality Education or RSE here) and what they were taught in school—one said that at his school it’s really up to the teacher’s discretion whether you get a comprehensive curriculum or an embarrassed abstinence-only approach. His sister agreed, saying her class at the same school got much less in-depth information than his. I’ve also been doing online research, and following day-to-day leads such as a television ad campaign.

Thinking globally, acting locally...

Grassroots Organizing intern Rachel Belieu had the opportunity to work around HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention in Vietnam during the Spring 09 semester. Here, she shares with us some of her experiences and how they relate to the need for comprehensive sex education domestically.

We were sitting in a stuffy classroom in Can Tho, the fifth-largest city in Vietnam, when we heard the statistic. We had been in Vietnam for over a month now, and that day we were fresh from the 1000-mile, 45-hour train journey that brought us from the cloudy streets of Hanoi to the sunny, humid Mekong Delta, a tangle of vegetation and waterways that sprawls over the southern-most quarter of Vietnam. The man before us, a professor of health at the local university, was trying to convince us that the Vietnamese were educated, informed, and prepared to handle the great public health challenges of our time.

"In the urban areas," he told us, "80% of the general population has 'good knowledge' about HIV/AIDS."

My friend Hannah and I glanced at each other, raising our eyebrows. We had been fed bogus statistics like this before ("100% of babies are born in the hospital") and before Hannah looked away, the seed of a project had germinated in my head, and I suddenly knew what I wanted to research during our two-week visit to Ho Chi Minh City.

Things I thought after you closed the door or hung up the phone...

This post comes to us courtesy of Grassroots Organizing Intern, Anna Donohoe. Anna has been doing amazing work all summer: canvassing and phone banking on behalf of statewide sex education and now on health care reform!

When you said “Keep the faith, baby! Don’t let them take your rights away!” you made me examine my assumption that an older man like you would not be supportive. When you rode up to me on your too-large bike and asked “Hey, whatcha doin’?” you re-affirmed the importance of dialogue with everyone, even though you’re only 9 years old. You brightened my mood after an exhausting day of walking when you warned me that so-and-so next door was certainly not supportive, and refilled my bottle with ice-cold water on that 87 degree Friday. When (so proud of your peach-fuzz mustache) you slyly said I should call the number you wrote on my petition, it made me smile for the rest of the day. After you said “Honey, you’ve got the wrong house—we don’t want Planned Parenthood here” I was surprised how pleasantly our conversation ended when I admired the nasturtiums by your porch. Your enthusiasm was contagious when you answered “No, she’s not here... but tell me more, what are you calling about?” and the rest of that phone bank went very well. And I could hardly believe my ears when you tapped me on the shoulder and said “Are you Anna? My wife said I had to get in the car and find you so’s I can sign your petition….”

The Rising Value of Volunteers

Volunteers are valuable, right? We all know that but volunteers and the organizations they work for don’t often think of their value in dollars. However, a new study by Independent Sector in Washington is doing just that. In an economy where the bottom line means more now than ever, this study may hold the key to garnering volunteers and interns the long awaited recognition they deserve.

The Independent Sector study finds that the average value of a volunteer hour was $20.25 in 2008. This is an astounding 39% increase in 10 years. In 1998, the average value was only $14.56 per hour.

The study further breaks the statistics down by state and territory. The District of Columbia claims the most monetarily valuable volunteers with a worth of $31.55 per hour. In comparison, the biggest bargain for non-profit organizations can be found in Puerto Rico where the volunteer hour is valued at $10.56.

Congratulations to all our volunteers on your "pay raise!" Even in today's economy, volunteering still proves to be the best bang for your buck!

Details of this study can be found at

http://www.independentsector.org/programs/research/volunteer_time.html.

Anti-Choice Extremists By the Numbers

Here at PPWP we have a marketing device called "Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania: By the Numbers". Essentially, it tells the story of what PPWP does every year though numerical data. It is a handy little tool for getting the word out about all of our great services. The content is something like this:

79: Number of years PPWP has provided women, men, and adolescents with the information and services needed to make responsible choice about sex and reproduction.

 6: Number of PPWP health centers: downtown Pittsburgh (2), Bridgeville, Moon, Johnstown, and Somerset.



37,500 Number of women, men, and adolescents served by PPWP each year.



12: Number of counties served by PPWP: Allegheny, Beaver, Bedfored, Blair, Butler, Cambria, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Somerset, Washington, and Westmoreland.



75%: Percentage of PPWP clients age 20 or older.



17,000: Number of teens, parents, and professionals reached each year by PPWP's responsible sex education programs.



70% Percentage of PPWP health care clients with annual incomes below 150% of the federal Poverty level (an annual income less than $15,600 per single person household).

PPWP Advocates for Equal Access to Contraceptives in Low Income Neighborhoods

Hooray for Tiffany!
This past Thursday, PPWP was invited to speak at a Cure CVS rally to the need for access to contraceptives for all communities. Cure CVS survey results show that condoms where observed under lock and key in one-fifth of the Pittsburgh area CVS stores visited (6 of 30 stores). These stores are located in areas with the largest proportions of residents of color in the Pittsburgh area. For more information visit the Cure CVS website and WATCH OUR VIDEO!

Planned Parenthood Federation of America's Offical Response to Obama's SCOTUS Nomination

STATEMENT FROM CECILE RICHARDS, PRESIDENT OF PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA, ON NOMINATION OF JUDGE SONIA SOTOMAYOR TO THE U.S. SUPREME COURT

"This historic nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court sends a strong signal that President Obama understands the importance of ensuring that our Supreme Court justices respect precedent while also protecting our civil liberties.

"Jugde Sotomayor has vast experience in nearly every aspect of the law, having served as a big-city prosecutor and a corporate litigator, a federal trial judge on the U.S. District Court, and an appellate judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. What our nation needs from our Supreme Court justices is a deep understanding of the law, an appreciation of the impact of the court's decisions on everyday Americans, and a commitment to the protection of our individual liberties. Judge Sotomayor will bring this dedication and commitment with her to the bench.

"There is no doubt that Judge Sotomayor's story is an inspiration to all. Her nomination as the first Hispanic woman justice reminds us that, with hard work and commitment, all things are truly possible in America."