Planned Parenthood doesn't want my stinkin' help.

[Seth]

Hades, What was Warren's question that you passed along?

You might have a point about being pregnant and that being in some way -I don't know of oppressive is the right word- maybe intimidating or emotionally distressing to women who are already facing emotional stress.

And i love Planned Parenthood. I used to get condoms from them occasionally when I was broke.

Thanks for pointing out that last bit-- might help shut Seth up. Well, probably not.

And I would totally understand if PP decided I might upset abortion clients (though when I went there, one of my doctors was heavily showing-- and my interviewer pointed out something similar in our meeting.) After all, that concern was why I brought up my pregnancy in the interview in the first place-- I wasn't showing then. I could have just kept my mouth shut. It'd be nice if they said so, though.

I wonder if the reason they haven't is because telling me they're turning me down because of pregnancy might open them up to a discrimination suit. (I wouldn't sue-- but they might not believe that.)

But I don't see how my pregnancy would cause a problem if I was working at a computer or preparing mailings in the offices next door.

Warren wanted to know if it was possible to donate directly to his local clinic, instead of making a donation to the national organization.

If they hire you while you're pregnant, they become obligated to provide you with, I believe, six weeks of unpaid family medical leave when you deliver, which means they lose your work capacity for a time, and have to find a replacement temporarily and train that person, and they have to keep your job open for you until you return.

In France, you have a right by law to get your old job back for up to THREE YEARS after you have had a child, and you get paid by the government to have the child to boot. I have acquaintances who are French citizens, and the woman was a high-level bank executive. She got pregnant and left her job to raise her child, and then got pregnant THREE MORE TIMES within 3 years of the last birth, which means that she was able to get paid and return to her job FIFTEEN YEARS after she left it, and they were required by law to put her back in her old position, at her old pay scale, which meant firing the person they had replaced her with after 15 years of service. And she was 15 years behind the power curve in banking and has had to be massively reeducated, at company expense, not to mention the waste of money associated with firing her stand-in. It probably cost the bank more than a million dollars over 15 years to obey French maternity leave laws. That's hardly good business practice.

The only reason she's not still sucking at the French public teat is that she failed to get pregnant in time after the birth of her last child, although she tried very hard to do so. She intended to milk the system for the rest of her life if she'd been able to do so.

Totally fucked up, the French, and they deserve what they get, which is economic bankruptcy.

[Seth]

I wouldn't blame Planned Parenthood as a whole, just that particular one's HR department. You get odd folks in every organization and it seems you had the misfortune to find them in this one.

Yeah, it's not like I don't support PP in general. I'm just frustrated by these guys, because I really would like to help. I wonder if they think I'm some secret right-to-lifer trying to sneak into their administration.

Sad to say, it wouldn't be the first time it had happened. Right-to-lifers have no qualms about lying and dirty tricks.

You mean "subterfuge and undercover operations" that reveal the truth about Planned Parenthood and it's genocidal, corrupt lawbreaking and RICO violations, don't you?

If Planned Parenthood were what it purports to be, it wouldn't matter how many undercover videos "right-to-lifers" made, there would be no controversy to be had.

You think it's "dirty tricks" only because the undercover operations have been repeatedly successful in exposing the deep corruption and evil of the organization.

Ah, such dramatics Seth, it's making your devil's advocate position way too obvious. How fun is that?

If only it were "dramatics" instead of verifiable truth...

[Seth]

I had to look up PP (though it's clear from your posts what they do).

All those kinds of services are provided free by the state over here (including free condoms).

It'd be nice to live in a country that had health care that works.

When you find one, anywhere on the planet, please let me know.

[FBM]

I had to look up PP (though it's clear from your posts what they do).

All those kinds of services are provided free by the state over here (including free condoms).

It'd be nice to live in a country that had health care that works.

When you find one, anywhere on the planet, please let me know.

S. Korea. It's worked flawlessly for me on a number of occasions over the past 15 years. Guaranteed universal coverage, regardless of pre-existing conditions, and treatments that aren't covered 100% are shockingly cheap. And the overall tax burden on Korean workers is less per capita than in the US. I just had a wrist tendon transplant following an initial surgical attempt to solve the problem with a less drastic procedure. I paid about $120/night for a private room, which insurance (reasonably) doesn't cover and $100/day for optional painkillers. With all the x-rays, bloodwork, meds, 2 platelet transfusions, 2 surgeries, blah blah, I'm still out less than $2,500 out-of-pocket. And get this, this was an elective procedure. The initial injury happened over 20 years ago when I was in the US. They didn't even care about that. My point is that good systems do exist. The US just needs to decouple insurance companies and the gov't before there's a chance the US population will ever be able to experience one.

/rant

[charlou]

The words "I think" and "should" get used a lot in this kind of thread.

[rachelbean]

Well, that's would be because "Planned Parenthood" is not really about family planning, it's about genocide and killing children. That's how Planned Parenthood makes it's money, by providing abortions to low-income minority women. That's why it locates the majority of its clinics in low-income minority neighborhoods, so they can encourage irresponsible sexual behavior and profit from giving ignorant poor (mostly) black women abortions, which assists with the eugenics agenda of the organization's founder, Margaret Sanger. You do indeed set a bad example for them by wishing to create life rather than destroy it.

Here's an experiment for you to try, and I'm perfectly serious. Go to another clinic and tell them that you really want to work for Planned Parenthood in any capacity, and that you want to abort your child, but you need a job of some sort right away to help pay for it. Get back to us on how quickly they offer you a job.

Seriously.

Seth, Seth, Seth.

I used PP as my source for annual GYN exams, birth control pills, and STD screenings for, oh, over a decade at least. Thanks to services like theirs, I never needed an abortion, and I got at least a base level of medical care even without health insurance (I went through most of my twenties without.)

Plus, PP allows people to pay for abortions and other services based on income. If I needed an abortion and could show them I couldn't pay for it, they'd find a way to get me that abortion-- no job necessary.

A friend of mine got pregnant and decided to give her child up for adoption because she could not bring herself to have an abortion but knew that she was not capable or ready to be a parent (I won't go into the details, but she was completely right about that). Planned Parenthood helped her every step of the way in having a healthy pregnancy, finding a couple to adopt the baby, and giving birth, all without charging a cent and definitely without suggesting abortion.

When my sister was out of work and they were the only place she could go she went for a check-up and they found pre-cancerous cells which she had to have a procedure to remove. Again, done completely free. I also was able to get check-ups and free birth control when I did not have insurance, so when I did have a job and good insurance I was happy to donate money to them.

[Seth]

I had to look up PP (though it's clear from your posts what they do).

All those kinds of services are provided free by the state over here (including free condoms).

It'd be nice to live in a country that had health care that works.

When you find one, anywhere on the planet, please let me know.

S. Korea. It's worked flawlessly for me on a number of occasions over the past 15 years. Guaranteed universal coverage, regardless of pre-existing conditions, and treatments that aren't covered 100% are shockingly cheap. And the overall tax burden on Korean workers is less per capita than in the US. I just had a wrist tendon transplant following an initial surgical attempt to solve the problem with a less drastic procedure. I paid about $120/night for a private room, which insurance (reasonably) doesn't cover and $100/day for optional painkillers. With all the x-rays, bloodwork, meds, 2 platelet transfusions, 2 surgeries, blah blah, I'm still out less than $2,500 out-of-pocket. And get this, this was an elective procedure. The initial injury happened over 20 years ago when I was in the US. They didn't even care about that. My point is that good systems do exist. The US just needs to decouple insurance companies and the gov't before there's a chance the US population will ever be able to experience one.

/rant

Yup, like all socialist systems, it works great till the OPM runs out, then it all collapses. You're getting low-cost health care by stealing bread from the mouths of children, quite literally. Every dollar you didn't pay came out of SOMEONE ELSE'S pocket, and it's unlikely that they forked it over voluntarily to serve your selfish needs. Why should some peasant in rural South Korea have to pay for your wrist surgery, pray tell?

[Seth]

Well, that's would be because "Planned Parenthood" is not really about family planning, it's about genocide and killing children. That's how Planned Parenthood makes it's money, by providing abortions to low-income minority women. That's why it locates the majority of its clinics in low-income minority neighborhoods, so they can encourage irresponsible sexual behavior and profit from giving ignorant poor (mostly) black women abortions, which assists with the eugenics agenda of the organization's founder, Margaret Sanger. You do indeed set a bad example for them by wishing to create life rather than destroy it.

Here's an experiment for you to try, and I'm perfectly serious. Go to another clinic and tell them that you really want to work for Planned Parenthood in any capacity, and that you want to abort your child, but you need a job of some sort right away to help pay for it. Get back to us on how quickly they offer you a job.

Seriously.

Seth, Seth, Seth.

I used PP as my source for annual GYN exams, birth control pills, and STD screenings for, oh, over a decade at least. Thanks to services like theirs, I never needed an abortion, and I got at least a base level of medical care even without health insurance (I went through most of my twenties without.)

Plus, PP allows people to pay for abortions and other services based on income. If I needed an abortion and could show them I couldn't pay for it, they'd find a way to get me that abortion-- no job necessary.

A friend of mine got pregnant and decided to give her child up for adoption because she could not bring herself to have an abortion but knew that she was not capable or ready to be a parent (I won't go into the details, but she was completely right about that). Planned Parenthood helped her every step of the way in having a healthy pregnancy, finding a couple to adopt the baby, and giving birth, all without charging a cent and definitely without suggesting abortion.

When my sister was out of work and they were the only place she could go she went for a check-up and they found pre-cancerous cells which she had to have a procedure to remove. Again, done completely free. I also was able to get check-ups and free birth control when I did not have insurance, so when I did have a job and good insurance I was happy to donate money to them.

How nice of them. Al Capone spread money around like toilet paper to try to buy off juries, and the Mafia never shits where it eats and takes good care of the people in their communities. That doesn't mean they aren't criminals engaged in crimes that hurt people, and Planned Parenthood does exactly that when it facilitates child-rape by refusing to obey mandatory reporting laws and when it advises pimps how to evade the law so their underage child-sex slaves can get easy abortions and get right back to work. That one fact destroys any and all good Planned Parenthood might do, all of which can be done by some other, more ethical and moral organization that doesn't trade in sex slavery and facilitate prostitution.

[Gallstones]

Well, that's would be because "Planned Parenthood" is not really about family planning, it's about genocide and killing children. That's how Planned Parenthood makes it's money, by providing abortions to low-income minority women. That's why it locates the majority of its clinics in low-income minority neighborhoods, so they can encourage irresponsible sexual behavior and profit from giving ignorant poor (mostly) black women abortions, which assists with the eugenics agenda of the organization's founder, Margaret Sanger. You do indeed set a bad example for them by wishing to create life rather than destroy it.

Here's an experiment for you to try, and I'm perfectly serious. Go to another clinic and tell them that you really want to work for Planned Parenthood in any capacity, and that you want to abort your child, but you need a job of some sort right away to help pay for it. Get back to us on how quickly they offer you a job.

Seriously.

Seth, Seth, Seth.

I used PP as my source for annual GYN exams, birth control pills, and STD screenings for, oh, over a decade at least. Thanks to services like theirs, I never needed an abortion, and I got at least a base level of medical care even without health insurance (I went through most of my twenties without.)

Plus, PP allows people to pay for abortions and other services based on income. If I needed an abortion and could show them I couldn't pay for it, they'd find a way to get me that abortion-- no job necessary.

A friend of mine got pregnant and decided to give her child up for adoption because she could not bring herself to have an abortion but knew that she was not capable or ready to be a parent (I won't go into the details, but she was completely right about that). Planned Parenthood helped her every step of the way in having a healthy pregnancy, finding a couple to adopt the baby, and giving birth, all without charging a cent and definitely without suggesting abortion.

When my sister was out of work and they were the only place she could go she went for a check-up and they found pre-cancerous cells which she had to have a procedure to remove. Again, done completely free. I also was able to get check-ups and free birth control when I did not have insurance, so when I did have a job and good insurance I was happy to donate money to them.

How nice of them. Al Capone spread money around like toilet paper to try to buy off juries, and the Mafia never shits where it eats and takes good care of the people in their communities. That doesn't mean they aren't criminals engaged in crimes that hurt people, and Planned Parenthood does exactly that when it facilitates child-rape by refusing to obey mandatory reporting laws and when it advises pimps how to evade the law so their underage child-sex slaves can get easy abortions and get right back to work. That one fact destroys any and all good Planned Parenthood might do, all of which can be done by some other, more ethical and moral organization that doesn't trade in sex slavery and facilitate prostitution.

Oh come on!

Seth, please substantiate these outrageous claims.

[Seth]

Well, that's would be because "Planned Parenthood" is not really about family planning, it's about genocide and killing children. That's how Planned Parenthood makes it's money, by providing abortions to low-income minority women. That's why it locates the majority of its clinics in low-income minority neighborhoods, so they can encourage irresponsible sexual behavior and profit from giving ignorant poor (mostly) black women abortions, which assists with the eugenics agenda of the organization's founder, Margaret Sanger. You do indeed set a bad example for them by wishing to create life rather than destroy it.

Here's an experiment for you to try, and I'm perfectly serious. Go to another clinic and tell them that you really want to work for Planned Parenthood in any capacity, and that you want to abort your child, but you need a job of some sort right away to help pay for it. Get back to us on how quickly they offer you a job.

Seriously.

Seth, Seth, Seth.

I used PP as my source for annual GYN exams, birth control pills, and STD screenings for, oh, over a decade at least. Thanks to services like theirs, I never needed an abortion, and I got at least a base level of medical care even without health insurance (I went through most of my twenties without.)

Plus, PP allows people to pay for abortions and other services based on income. If I needed an abortion and could show them I couldn't pay for it, they'd find a way to get me that abortion-- no job necessary.

A friend of mine got pregnant and decided to give her child up for adoption because she could not bring herself to have an abortion but knew that she was not capable or ready to be a parent (I won't go into the details, but she was completely right about that). Planned Parenthood helped her every step of the way in having a healthy pregnancy, finding a couple to adopt the baby, and giving birth, all without charging a cent and definitely without suggesting abortion.

When my sister was out of work and they were the only place she could go she went for a check-up and they found pre-cancerous cells which she had to have a procedure to remove. Again, done completely free. I also was able to get check-ups and free birth control when I did not have insurance, so when I did have a job and good insurance I was happy to donate money to them.

How nice of them. Al Capone spread money around like toilet paper to try to buy off juries, and the Mafia never shits where it eats and takes good care of the people in their communities. That doesn't mean they aren't criminals engaged in crimes that hurt people, and Planned Parenthood does exactly that when it facilitates child-rape by refusing to obey mandatory reporting laws and when it advises pimps how to evade the law so their underage child-sex slaves can get easy abortions and get right back to work. That one fact destroys any and all good Planned Parenthood might do, all of which can be done by some other, more ethical and moral organization that doesn't trade in sex slavery and facilitate prostitution.

Oh come on!

Seth, please substantiate these outrageous claims.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9Zj9yx2 ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EatmoUdpoFs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abdvj7rP ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nhMPwyHt80

[floppit]

Hades, when I was pregnant I was volunteering in a homeless day centre. I had been working as a befriender and in the kitchens but once I started to show they asked me to stay in the kitchen area, basically away from the service users. To say I was miffed about this is an understatement!! First of all most (of the very little experienced) conflict was between kitchen staff and service users as there were limits to what was available and a strict closing time, outside the kitchen there was no such conflict. Secondly, the counter was easily jumpable (re their concerns over the mentally unstable!) and once in the kitchen it was chocka block with knives! Thirdly, the kitchen work involved boiling water, bubbling lasagne, wet tiled floors, greasy floors etc etc - hardly a safe place!

I stuck to my guns and asked that the incident/accident books be reviewed and IF they showed the majority of serious harm happening from clients I would stay in the kitchen but IF the majority stemmed from the kitchen I would work with the clients. Anyone who has ever spent any time in a commercial kitchen will know, as I did, what the results were after reviewing fact over feeling. I was released from the kitchen, positively discouraged from helping in the kitchen, I worked - very safely till 1 week post due date with the clients!

I was REALLY lucky. I had already been volunteering there long enough for them to be confident that I was very able to deal with things peacefully and they were open about their fears. had I applied pregnant I don't doubt the default setting would have been just to say no.

In reality, being heavily pregnant made life very easy for me across age groups. From the youngest teen males, the roughest women, to the insane and totally plastered it was easier for me to ask for things and get good results. In fact if I started clearing tables it would set off so much help that the tables cleared themselves! In the games/pool room once I complained someone randomly shouting out the window made me jump (past my due date!). The window was shut, young bloke apologetic, even sheepish!

There are positive and negative sides to how I got treated pregnant everywhere, not just where I volunteered. I found it interesting and informative but for the most part there wasn't much I could do to change it.

[maiforpeace]

You're kidding, Seth, Youtube videos? I smell people like James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles behind those.

Given how many enemies Planned Parenthood has, you can't provide one instance of actual criminal wrongdoing that has been prosecuted?

As a teenager, I first went to Planned Parenthood to get birth control. Then later on when that birth control failed, I received an abortion from them. (or, as you might put it Seth, became a bady killer) Without the help of Planned Parenthood, I can't imagine what my life would have been like if I had been forced to keep that child. Planned Parenthood gave me my life back, and added to the quality of it immeasurably. They get a nice donation from me every year.

Not all of us are built to care for, or pay for the care of six brats (ugh, what a nightmare!), much less one of them.

[hadespussercats]

Seth, Seth, Seth.

I used PP as my source for annual GYN exams, birth control pills, and STD screenings for, oh, over a decade at least. Thanks to services like theirs, I never needed an abortion, and I got at least a base level of medical care even without health insurance (I went through most of my twenties without.)

Plus, PP allows people to pay for abortions and other services based on income. If I needed an abortion and could show them I couldn't pay for it, they'd find a way to get me that abortion-- no job necessary.

As long as you recognize that PP is in the abortion BUSINESS, with the emphasis on generating profits from abortion, and that they are NOT an altruistic organization dedicated to women's health, I'm fine with your decision. The problem is that they violate the law every day of the week by providing abortions to underage victims of rape without informing the police as they are required to do by law, and in doing so they send the girl right back into the abusive relationship without any place to turn. The evidence of this sort of malfeasance is overwhelming, among other crimes and moral and ethical lapses.

I don't recognize that PP is an abortion business. I know many women who use or used PP for the same reasons I did-- getting birth control, gyn exams, and STD screening.

You haven't posted a source for your comment about underage rape victims, so I don't know if it's worth responding to. However, I don't see anything wrong with providing abortions for underage rape victims-- honestly, I think they are the people who should get to cut right to the front of the line at the clinic.

If this is the sort of behavior that's supposed to make me think ill of PP, well, you've missed your mark, by at least a mile.

[hadespussercats]

I don't think they're worried about corruption being exposed within their network. I think they're more worried about right-to-life wingnuts confronting vulnerable women and obstructing their care, or possibly getting in a good position to coordinate a violent attack on clinic workers or facilities.

Then explain why they have Lila Rose's picture posted in every clinic and why do they constantly warn their employees to be on the lookout for people trying to expose their corrupt practices, like the ones who videotaped the PP worker advising a pair of pseudo-pimps how to evade the law to facilitate human trafficking and sexual slavery and prostitution of under-age foreign girls?

And this has happened dozens of times in nearly every state in the Union. Each time PP throws the worker under the bus and tries to claim they are not adhering to policy, which is a lot like Al Capone claiming that he never killed anybody...he just had other people do it for him.

I'd say they are intensely worried about their corruption being revealed, in no small part because their federal funding is at stake as a result of these undercover videos.

Well, I lived in Boston when John Salvi killed two women who had the effrontery to work as receptionists at two clinics that provided abortions in nearby Brookline. Receptionists. Not even the so-called baby-murdering abortionists.

Salvi confessed to a similar attack in Norfolk, VA.

And he's only one of many vigilante lunatics who think it's okay to kill people because they are somehow connected to providing abortions-- because, in their view, abortions kill people, and killing people is wrong. So let's kill the people who kill people-- sounds rational, right?

Whenever I've gone to my local PP here in Manhattan, I have to offer up my bags for inspection and go through a metal detector.

I think it's clear PP is more worried about people at their clinics making it through the day alive, than they are about exposing so-called corruption-- which you assert, but have yet to substantiate in any way.

Edited to Add: Oh, I see you've posted links to YouTube. Impressive. See comment below.

[hadespussercats]

I didn't know you were pregnant, Hades. How did that happen?

Same old way, I imagine.

And congratulations to you for NOT wanting to kill your baby. I hope everything goes well. Is it your first?

You win for the oddest congratulations I've received, Seth. Thanks, I guess. And yes, it's my first pregnancy. I'm glad I had access to the services I needed so I could wait to become a parent until I was ready.

My sister has six boys from 2 to 16, and with all the trials and tribulations, each and every one has been a joy. I wish you all the best, and don't panic, you actually can do it, even when you think you can't. If I can give you one piece of advice out of everything I've learned from being an uncle, it's be firm and unshakable and absolutely consistent in your discipline, whatever level you decide upon. What does the most harm to kids is not to have boundaries that are firmly established and consistently enforced. Kids need structure and boundaries, and they need the comfort of knowing what the rules are and that they will not be arbitrarily enforced or not enforced, because that confuses the hell out of them.

Being consistent in discipline does not mean being abusive or unreasonable, it merely means enforcing whatever the rules are evenhandedly and the same each time, without fail, and most especially when you are worn-out, frazzled, tired, frustrated, angry and upset. It's as much a habit pattern for you as it is for the child. This is true even at a very young age, beginning even before the child is one. Kids are programmed by nature to try to manipulate their environment to maximum benefit for them, and you have to resist the urge to succumb to every cry or tantrum and set schedules and rules and enforce them. The kid will benefit from this consistency even from, and perhaps most importantly during, their early years.

All the best, and it gets better all the time.

Thanks again, Seth.

And don't worry-- even us liberals understand the need for consistent discipline. I'll make sure my kid knows I only hit him because he makes me.