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.