Planned Parenthood is for boys too, silly. On cash mobbing, protesting and more.

This morning I read that a cash mob to support Planned Parenthood today could likely lead to a clash with opponents of abortion just a half hour before I drove by said opposition, standing outside of the clinic with their macabre signs.

The Portland Press Herald wrote:

Nearly 90 people are expected to join the cash mob — in which people flock to a business to support it through purchases or donations — for the clinic on Congress Street near Monument Square.  

The event, organized by the city’s director of human resources, was planned after protests outside the clinic began drawing more people about six weeks ago, including a protest this month for which police were called.

The protestors would prefer onlookers believe that the Planned Parenthood is exclusively in the abortion business, when this could not be further from the truth.

Planned Parenthood has been there for me every step of my adult life and immediately beforehand as well. Many well-intended opponents of Planned Parenthood suggest that it should be parents, not educated third parties, who talk with their children about sex, but I grew up in a household where the topic was something my father didn’t address. Rather than going through my sexual awakening without any insight or help, Planned Parenthood was there to educate me when I went looking for answers. My father should have been there more for me in this arena, yes, but he was not, and in the world these protestors imagine, there would have been no institution for me to go to in order to straighten things out.

Nor would there have been an institution of caring professionals to offer regular—depending on my income at the time—sometimes free and sometimes totally inexpensive tests for sexually transmitted diseases. When I contracted HPV in my 20s, they were there to tell me that it wasn’t the end of the world, they helped me treat it, and they reiterated to me how to be a responsible sexual partner from that point forward and how to avoid spreading it further.

I have been fortunate to have this organization in my life and I hope for them to continue to exist to provide these essential services (and many more) to our community, to continue being there for my family, and, while my wife and I intend to be more hands-on with her education than my father was with mine, to be there for our daughter when she needs access to any of their services. Protestors-be-damned, our community is made better by the work of Planned Parenthood. I love and appreciate this organization, and the cash-mobsters (hilarious) for expressing these sentiments on behalf of all of us who feel the same way.

PHOTO CREDIT: Flickr user WeNews under Creative Commons 2.0

Alex Steed

About Alex Steed

Alex Steed has written about and engaged in politics since he was an insufferable teenager. He has run for the Statehouse and produced a successful web series. He now runs a content firm called Knack Factory with two guys who are a lot more talented than himself.