Planned Parenthood President Resigns

[truthpusher]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-4761515,00.html

Planned Parenthood President Resigns

Friday January 28, 2005 4:01 AM

By CHAKA FERGUSON

Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - Gloria Feldt, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America for the past eight years, has resigned, the abortion rights organization announced Thursday.

(snip)

A national search for a new president will begin immediately, Planned Parenthood chairwoman La Don Love said in a news release. Karen Pearl, chief executive of Planned Parenthood of Nassau County, N.Y., will serve as interim president.

(snip)

Planned Parenthood said that under Feldt, it helped protect medical privacy, introduce abortion pills and emergency contraception and win passage of laws in 22 states requiring insurance plans to cover prescription contraceptives. Feldt also was one of the lead organizers of the 2004 March for Women's Lives in Washington, D.C., which drew tens of thousands of abortion rights supporters.

During last year's presidential election, Planned Parenthood for the first time endorsed a candidate, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., because of what Feldt called ``the Bush administration's war on choice.''

more:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-4761515,00.html

[Liberty Belle]

1. Coincidence? Or was she pushed out at just the right time for REPS?

Odd that she would quit so suddenly, not talking to the press. Perhaps there's a serious medical problem...or perhaps the White House exerted pressure to get rid of its most vocal and visible opponent--just in time for Bush to ram through an anti-choice nominee for the Supreme Court.

[bliss_eternal]

3. probably not...

:(

Any thoughts on who may be asked to replace her?

[zann725]

7. I'll bet the Religious RIght pushed her out; and will replace her with

one of theirs. Watch...in a very short time, they will disband the entire organization...and convince all Americans how much better it is for all of us. It is SOOOO against all the Neo-Cons believe in. If they're going to be running continuous, multiple wars 'ad infinitum' they're going to need A LOT of poor white babies to grow up hungry and desparate enough to enlist in the Service for a 'way out.'

[intheflow]

9. Naw...

I'll bet she's just feeling burned out. It's been a brutal 4 years for repro rights under Shrub. PP doens't have any repug ties that I know of, so highly doubtful the religious right somehow pushed her out.

[Dookus]

17. What's REPS?

and what's the schedule is it on?

I don't find it odd at all that a high-profile resignation was not discussed and mediated publicly before it occurs. In fact, it would be very hard to find ANY such instance.

It is not odd that she resigned "suddenly". These things are not generally discussed in the media before they occur.

Also, the White House can't exactly exert any pressure on PP. It is an independent non-profit that takes orders from no-one beyond its own board of directors.

In short, republicans have absolutely nothing to do with this. Ms. Feldt has been an extraordinary leader, but all leaders leave at some point. PP will outlast this asshole in the White House and will continue to do its important work.

[gristy]

2. Since when is PP primarily an "abortion rights organization"?

www.plannedparenthood.org/pp2/portal/files/portal/aboutus/mission.xml

Mission Statement

A Reason for Being
Planned Parenthood believes in the fundamental right of each individual, throughout the world, to manage his or her fertility, regardless of the individual's income, marital status, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, national origin, or residence. We believe that respect and value for diversity in all aspects of our organization are essential to our well-being. We believe that reproductive self-determination must be voluntary and preserve the individual's right to privacy. We further believe that such self-determination will contribute to an enhancement of the quality of life, strong family relationships, and population stability.

Based on these beliefs, and reflecting the diverse communities within which we operate, the mission of Planned Parenthood is:

* to provide comprehensive reproductive and complementary health care services in settings which preserve and protect the essential privacy and rights of each individual;

* to advocate public policies which guarantee these rights and ensure access to such services;

* to provide educational programs which enhance understanding of individual and societal implications of human sexuality;

* to promote research and the advancement of technology in reproductive health care and encourage understanding of their inherent bioethical, behavioral, and social implications.

[Old and In the Way]

4. Nothing radical about that Mission Statement.

You'd have to be one of those kooky fringe people to have a problem with Planned Parenthood.

[DulceDecorum]

8. Google "Planned Parenthood" EUGENICS

and see what comes up.

I will NEVER EVER EVER trust those people.
http://www.abortionfacts.com/learn/sanger_address.asp

In November 1921 the review issued a clarion call: "Birth control, to create a race of thoroughbreds." Sanger suggested that parents should "apply for babies as immigrants have to apply for visas." By 1925, she was a true convert to eugenics, setting up birth control clinics in poor neighborhoods populated by "Latins" and "Slavs" (both groups heavily Catholic) and "Hebrews" - groups she had targeted as threats because of their increasing numbers. She spoke of those who were "irresponsible and reckless," among them those "whose religious scruples prevent their exercising control over their numbers."
http://swissnet.ai.mit.edu/~rauch/nvp/eugenics/star-tribune_eugenics.html

Life Magazine has ranked Sanger as one of the most important persons of this century. She is the founder of Planned Parenthood and an "outstanding" proponent of eugenics. In April of 1932 she advocated an option "to give certain dysgenic groups in our population their choice of segregation or sterilization." ("A Plan For Peace," Birth Control Review; see 'appendix' for this full unabridged semie with bad genes. She and others pioneered forced sterilization in the 20th century. The Swedish sterilization was in place by 1935. The German program began in January 1934, but the U.S. state of Indiana passed a forced sterilization law (for "mental defectives") in 1907 (when Adolf Hitler was only 18 years old). Before the German program began, at least seventeen U.S. states, including California, had forced sterilization laws. Before 1930 there were 200-600 forced sterilizations per year in the United States, but in the 1930s the rate jumped to 2,000-4,000 per year. (1)
http://www.lifeadvocate.org/1_98/feature.htm

Recognizing the need for more carefully structured laws, Laughlin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Laughlin
wrote the Model Eugenical Sterilization Law and printed it in 1914. (In 1933, it was to serve as a model for the racial cleansing laws of Nazi Germany.) Meanwhile, for Laughlin, it became merely a matter of finding the right test case to go before the Supreme Court.
http://hnn.us/articles/1662.html

As promised GW Bush has recruited competent and experienced advisors. Despite their seeming diversity however they have a common denominator. The America they reflect is the oil, pharmaceutical, armament, Wall Street and eugenics interests long associated with the Bush family.
http://www.georgewalkerbush.net/bushgang.htm

If opposing eugenics and Planned Parenthood
makes me a "kooky fringe person"
then so be it.

[Liberty Belle]

10. I didn't know that about Sanger. However, I haven't seen

any indications of eugenics in the modern-day Planned Parenthood.

They provide valuable services to women, especially the poor.
I've been in their clinics years ago, and never saw any literature along this line.

That said, an outfit with even a distant history of promoting eugenics would be a prime candidate for takeover by the right-wing, if they could pluck such a plum.

A friend of mine is a Planned Parenthood Director, but she was just transferred to another city. I'll have to see if I have an e-mail to contact her and see what she's heard about the leadership change.

[Dookus]

20. don't believe what you read in those links...

they're all anti-choice nutcase links.

[sherilocks]

12. That's a lot of bull spread by the rabid anti-choice

crowd.

Margaret Sanger died a in 1966 at age 86, so I doubt she has anything to do with the PP of today. Here's a brief biography, including all the good Sanger did during her lifetime.

http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/msbio.htm

Planned parenthood provides a remarkable number of services for women. I don't know of a single complaint from anyone that they encountered a eugenics program at a PP clinic.

[Dookus]

13. oh please...

Margaret Sanger is long dead and has nothing to do with PP these days. Also, your links are all right-wing anti-choice sites.

Margaret Sanger's views on "eugenics" are a little more nuanced than the right-wing will allow. She wasn't trying to create a breed of super-aryans. She was interested in eliminating suffering caused by genetic defects - which we are ALL still interested in doing today.

The radical right loves to ascribe nazi-like motivations to Sanger, but they are wrong. And so are you.

As to Bush, his grandfather and father (at one time) were huge supporters of Planned Parenthood.

So you oppose eugenics? Does that mean you oppose testing people for inheritable diseases so they can make reasoned decisions? Does it mean you oppose intra-uterine testing (sonograms, placental fluid tests, etc.)? Does it mean you oppose genetic tests that can determine whether one or both parents carry a gene for a fatal condition?

THOSE things are done routinely and regularly in the US today. Is that "eugenics"? Is it wrong?

You should read a biography of Margaret Sanger - one that's not written by a right-wing anti-abortion nut.

[phylny]

18. I think it's interesting that at least one group I know supposedly

checks the genetic make-up of both potential parents before marriage - Hasidic Jews in our area of New York.

Now, I'm not Hasidim, nor am I Jewish, and I have my own feelings about this group and how they treat women (the other day, I saw a woman struggling with a stroller along the side of the street in freezing temps - because she's not ALLOWED to drive, while I'm sure her husband drove to his job in a nice, warm car...but I digress).

From what I've read, potential couples (matches) go through genetic testing to see if the match would produce children with birth defects. Part of the reason there is this risk is because the genetic pool is limited.

I find this behavior to be very responsible.

[Dookus]

19. Yes...

Tay-Sachs disease is prevalent among the population, and it's perfectly reasonable to test people for it so they can make informed decisions about reproduction.

Tay-Sachs is a fatal and horrible disease that afflicts babies a few months into their lives - it causes nerve and brain tissue to be destroyed until all central nervous system function is destroyed. It must be a horrible way to die.

[sherilocks]

21. My son and his wife also had genetic

testing in NJ when his wife was pregnant to rule out any possible genetic birth defects. My son is Jewish, not hassidim, and his wife is a native Central American latina. However, they chose the option, no one forced it on them. I, too, regard this as a responsible decision and a choice.

[Dookus]

22. good for them...

Hasidism is not a requirement for Tay-Sachs, though. The gene is carried among many ashkenazi jews, who can range from strict hasidic to ultra-liberal.

[gottaB]

15. A suggestion on sources and perspective

It's unfortunate for the reproductive rights movement that Sanger's views have become primary reading material for its foes. I think it's important to see the issue from a feminist perspective before deciding to throw out the baby with bathwater, so to speak. See Sanger's Legacy is Reproductive Freedom and Racism, by Julianne Malveaux. Also, if you access to a decent library, see the discussion of Sanger in Angela Davis' Women, Race and Class.

[jdj]

26. And Byrd was once in the KKK.

please take a trip into the 21st century and stop with the right wing propaganda

[rinsd]

27. Search Planned Parenthood's website....

....they make mention that Sanger ascribed to some aspects of eugenics but that the modern PP rejects even those mild views on such.

[geniph]

29. Those myths about Sanger have been propagated

by the anti-family planning movement. Sanger entertained some ideas of her own time that are out of keeping with our thinking today. Finding it easier to undermine her character than to confront the message she conveyed, the anti-family planning movement has seized upon some of these ideas, taken them out of context, and exaggerated and distorted them in order to discredit Sanger and the organization she founded. It's easier to attack Sanger's character - she's dead, after all, and cannot defend herself - than PPFA.

Not content with exaggeration and distortion, anti-choice activists have also fabricated and attributed to Sanger points of view that she, in fact, found abhorrent.

Attempts to discredit the family planning movement because its early 20th-century founder was not a perfect model of early 21st-century values is like disavowing the Declaration of Independence because its author, Thomas Jefferson, bought and sold slaves.

[beam me up scottie]

5. They decided to become more "militant" if you will, back in

the 90's. The Federation sent letters to all of the members and asked for our opinion on the subject.

[KT2000]

6. They also don't turn you away

if you need medical help and do not have health insurance or have useless health insurance.
The war on Planned Parenthood is really a war on the medical care of women who do not have a lot of money. Our so-called main stream medical community is quite happy turning women away when they need medical care without having insurance.

[whatelseisnew]

11. Actually, that depends on the location

I have a friend who has been turned away from 2 PP Clinics in Florida (no insurance, little cash & told there was no option for a payment plan), but found the one she went to in San Francisco very helpful (and with a different sliding scale fee structure).

[Dookus]

14. I actually find that very hard to believe

I have volunteered as a clinic escort at two PP clinics, and I've never once heard of a woman being turned away for lack of funds. Their mission is to serve people (mostly women) who require their services. Are you sure your friend was at an actual PP clinic and not another "family planning" clinic?

[whatelseisnew]

25. I'm absolutely sure it was PP

I gave her a ride once and she said it had happened on another visit. They had a policy that she must pay at the time of her first visit. When she explained that she couldn't afford the full amount at once, but would be able to pay half now and half next month, the receptionist said they don't have payment plans. Also, she was charged over $75 in Florida for the same visit that cost her $15 in California.

[geniph]

28. When I was a teenager,

I had zero money. I went to PP for all my GYN checkups and to get prescriptions for birth control pills. If you couldn't pay, you weren't asked to, ever. I have NEVER, EVER heard of any PP chapter refusing to treat someone because they had no money. They do ask you to pay what you're able, on a sliding fee scale. My college roommate finally went to PP for her first GYN exam because I bugged her so much about it, and because it was the only place she could afford. They found a rapidly-growing tumor the size of a grapefruit on one ovary. They arranged for her to get the surgery she needed without charge.

[whatelseisnew]

30. I'm not knockin PP

In fact, I think they are the only resource for a lot of folks who have nowhere else to go.

I'm just sayin: PP clinics operate differently in different states. They have different fee structures, different policies about payments and yes, it may be a front line/receptionist issue, but their policies differ state by state. And some (not all) do not treat you if you can't pay.

I (or you) could look up some phone #s and ask.

[leftchick]

16. I agree! wtf is up with that?

That is such a bullshit statement. I went to Planned Parenthood for all of my GYN needs as a very young teenager who could not talk to her mother about such things. I don't know what I would have done without their counseling more than anything. I learned more from them than anyone else, including Private practice GYNs over the last 25 years. I hope they get another strong leader like Ms. Feldt.

[hyphenate]

23. It's not just an "abortion rights organization"

That's the right wing media's spin. The fact that PP is a PRO-CHOICE organization is what sticks in the craw of too many radical right wingnuts, and of course any chance they get to rip it, they use it as fodder unmercifully.

[The Backlash Cometh]

24. tens of thousands? Wasn't it closer to several hundred thousand?

Or a million that went to the 2004 march?