Culture

Planned Parenthood rally features anti-Romney condoms and a slam on pro-lifers who “love women”

Cecile Richards and the eye of ever-watchful woman. Photo credit: Planned Parenthood of Northern New England

What do you get when you mix the eye of the watchful woman, a few too many pink shirts, a classless politician, and the world’s largest abortion chain? A Planned Parenthood rally, complete with anti-Romney condoms, lots of head-spinning, and misinformation run wild.

Yesterday, in conjunction with the Democratic National Convention, Planned Parenthood held a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, in support of President Obama. The rally featured speakers such as Newark’s Mayor Cory Booker, Cecile Richards, and the ever-present Sandra Fluke. Fox News reports:

It featured a fleet of women, and some men, donning pink shirts with the words ‘Yes We Plan’ on the front.

The year ’2012′ also appeared on the shirts, with the zero in the shape of a pack of birth control pills. The rally itself focused on women’s access to health care and abortion.

Volunteers at he event handed out colorful condoms in packages with the slogan ‘PROTECT YOURSELF FROM ROMNEY & RYAN IN THIS ELECTION.’ The package’s inside flap advised the user to ‘LEARN THE FACTS ABOUT ROMNEY & RYAN.’

I know I should no longer be surprised, but I can’t help being both amazed at and amused by Planned Parenthood’s never-ending focus on preventing children from existing and killing those who happen to get through the “lines of defense.” One would assume that an organization truly focused on “reproductive rights” might more often discuss prenatal care, maternity leave, or other pregnancy-related issues. You know, actual reproduction.

Since 82% of American women give birth at least once in their lives, I’d expect Planned Parenthood to give a little more thought, time, and attention to women’s pregnancies and births. Instead, when my friend went into Planned Parenthood for help during a wanted pregnancy, she was turned away and told they couldn’t help her if she wanted to keep the baby. Instead of recognizing that the vast majority of women need prenatal and maternity help at some point in their lives – 82%, in fact – Planned Parenthood would rather focus on the 28% who get abortions. Money is always a plausible explanation. Much more money is earned and much less time is spent in giving abortions to women instead of delivering their babies and/or providing ultrasounds, prenatal vitamins, and affordable health care during pregnancy.

But back to the rally. If you think the condoms lacked class, wait for Mayor Cory Booker’s speech. (As a side note, clearly there is nothing wrong with condoms or with responsible adults acquiring them. However, condoms have nothing to do with either Romney’s or Ryan’s policies and serve only to demonstrate Planned Parenthood’s obsession with all things sexual.)

Mayor Booker decided to rag on those silly pro-lifers who actually dare to claim that they “love women.” Pro-life women have already been referred to as mere “shiny packaging” by the chair of the Democrat Party. Apparently, pro-lifers cannot be true women, nor can they truly love women. National Review related Booker’s outlandish commentary:

‘Then I heard something that is one of the reflections, an echo of some of the most insulting things we’ve been hearing for a long time,’ Booker said, referring to watching the convention. ‘I heard people stand up and say, “I love women.” I heard people stand up: “I’ve got a sister. I’ve got a mother.”‘

‘That’s like saying you’re not a bigot ’cause you have a black friend,’ Booker retorted, drawing cheers and applause from the crowd. ‘That’s like saying I love Latinos, I go to Taco Bell every week. That is like saying that you are a person that is just and right because you know what, you like Jewish people.’

‘But I’ll tell you what you say, you say it with your words,’ he continued. ‘You say it with your lips. You preach it from on high. But when it comes to your actions, when it comes to your deeds, it comes to what you do every day, you are denigrating those very people you claim to love. And so I don’t understand how somebody can say they love women when they are denying women access to health care, when they are denying women strategies to protect their life, when they are implementing policies that undermine all the ground that we have gained,’ he concluded, saying he was speaking not only about women’s progress, but also about the country’s progress.

Now you’ve heard it from the country’s self-appointed mind-reader in chief, Cory Booker. Despite the claims that any pro-life person makes and despite how pro-life people live their lives, they are simply unable to love the women in their lives. In fact, unless a person supports all abortion for any reason whatsoever, he or she does not love women. Period. Such people are not allowed to make their own determinations on whether abortion actually might damage the women they love. Said people are not allowed to regret their own abortions and wish that no other woman might go through the horror they went through. They are not allowed to choose to protect their own children or their own wives, daughters, sisters, cousins, friends, or mothers through pro-life laws. No, in fact, if you are pro-life – according to Mayor Booker – it is essentially impossible for you to love women.

Thank you, Mayor Booker, for being ever-present in my life, at every moment, and assuring me that my brothers, father, and husband do not truly love me. It takes quite a bit of audacity and a lot of nerve for one person to suggest that no one with opposing views can possibly love the people in his or her life. But we’ve come to expect this kind of misinformation and lack of class from Planned Parenthood.

Nothing’s new at all – other than more evidence of an old organization, losing its power and trying to go out with as much shock and awe as possible…

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  • http://twitter.com/withacondom Say It With A Condom

    These condoms are hilarious and go to showcase how important a woman’s right to choose is… We’ve created our own Romney Condoms (and Sarah Palin Condoms for that matter). The Romney Condoms are “Great For Any Position,” and the Palin Condoms are for “When Abortion Is Not An Option.” You can check them out at http://www.sayitwithacondom.com

    • Solntsye

      How trite and juvenile. Although I suppose it would be hilarious to anybody with an IQ equal to their shoe size.

      • Matthias

        Juvenile is the word. Seriously people.

    • Gail Finke

      You seriously made condoms with the slogan “when abortion is not an option”? So then as far as you are concerned, no need to use condoms when abortion IS an option? And you want people to think YOU are the responsible people? What a bunch of crap.

      • Chester Copperpot

        HUH?

  • SarMos

    There is an article over at National Review about this rally– the reporter who attended seemed to think the crowd was rather small.

    The pro-abortion lot hates it when “old white men” tell them what to do with their bodies– I don’t appreciate men of any age or color telling me what I should think. And what I should think about myself as a woman at that! If they can’t see how sexist Booker’s words are they’re thoroughly out of touch.

    • Kristiburtonbrown

      Yeah…Booker’s words are definitely sexist and out of touch. But somehow, Planned Parenthood seems to think that since he’s pro-abortion, these things don’t matter. Hypocrisy at its finest =)

  • Pingback: Video: Cecile Richards says Romney and Ryan equal bad episode of ‘Mad Men’ – Examiner.com

  • Kristiburtonbrown

    This article has nothing to do with Mitt Romney. Instead, it is focused on the classlessness of the people in charge of a Planned Parenthood rally and one of the speaker’s claims that, basically, no pro-lifer can actually love women. Do you have a comment on that?

  • Pingback: Women’s Issues Are Economic Issues, Says Planned Parenthood President – ABC News (blog)

  • http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thecrescat Katrina Fernandez

    Charlotte is in North Carolina, not South, in case you want to make an edit.

    • Kristiburtonbrown

      Lol, thanks. I’ll make the change.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/LauraAnn-Johnston/100000116650506 LauraAnn Johnston

    The pro-aborts talk about women’s health as if the female reproductive system is the only part of women’s health. There is more to women’s health than birth control and abortion I have Epilepsy and it is affected by female hormones. That makes it part of women’s health. When a woman is pregnant or has her monthly cycle seizure activity goes up. It also goes up once a woman has entered menopause. Obama wants women to have access to free birth control pills, free abortions and free voluntary sterilization. Where are the free anti-convulsants for women with Epilepsy?

    • Ashley

      I pray that more people will help women like you. I really hope your insurance covers it and people start realizing people need more help then birth control. Yes, there are medical reasons for birth control, in fact I’m on it for my period even though I’m a virgin, but the majority of women who want birth control want it so they can have sex. There’s more important stuff to cover, like your example, cancer, and many others. Birth control prices are cheap and not medically needed.

  • Guest

    It’s really sick that they are wearing shirts that say “yes we plan”
    considering most of the women who end up at “planned parenthood” end up there as a result of UNplanned (and unwanted) parenthood.

  • http://www.facebook.com/chipmunk14228 Amy Vesperman Igou

    It’s really sick that they are wearing shirts that say “yes we plan”
    considering most of the women who end up at “planned parenthood” end up there as a result of UNplanned (and unwanted) parenthood. Just shows how truly unintelligent they are.

    • Richard

      “most of the women who end up at “planned parenthood” end up there as a result of UNplanned (and unwanted) parenthood”.

      Do you have any facts so support this? Or by “most” do you mean 3%?

      Most, actually “almost all” women go to Planned Parenthood for contraception (36%), STD testing & treatment (31%) or cancer screening (17%) = 97%.

      Only 3% go for abortions and those are ones who could have benefited from contraception were it not for the throng of anti-abortion protesters demonstrating in front of Planned Parenthood in the first place.

      If you want to prevent abortions, support Planned Parenthood. It’s that simple.

      • Sarah

        “if you want to prevent abortions, support planned parenthood. It’s that simple.” Thats the most Hypocrtical thing I’ve ever read.

  • rbogdan12

    I’d rather have a president who spends his own money rather then our current president who spends hundreds of millions in tax-payer dollars everytime he wants to vacation I’m Hawaii.

  • http://www.facebook.com/isaiah.zepf Isaiah Zepf

    “…I don’t understand how somebody can say they love women when they are…when they are denying women strategies to protect their life…” Who is this guy?! He talks about the gift of a child as though it is a plague, a potentially fatal parasite! What I don’t understand is how he can talk about loving women and protecting them, when he is a proponent of taking the life of an infant. As far as my opinion on this matter, I’d have to agree with Dr. Seuss, when he said, “A person is a person, no matter how small.”

  • Laura

    I agree with everything you wrote except “As a side note, clearly there is nothing wrong with condoms or with responsible adults acquiring them.” That is actually very very wrong. Condoms take out the purpose of procreation in sex, reducing it to a mere act of pleasure. Condoms inhibit the couple from giving fully of themselves to each other because clearly, they believe there’s something wrong with a man’s siemen. That rejection of a man’s nature shows nonacceptance. Condoms are wrong and they cause the exact same issues as birth control pills.

    • Kristiburtonbrown

      I’d have to disagree with you there, Laura. I appreciate your input, but there is a difference in condoms and the pill – one simply prevents pregnancy but can never prevent implantation; the other can indeed prevent an already created child from implanting/surviving. I know pro-life people have different views on this, but I believe that as long as birth control does not actually take a human life, couples should be free to use it. There is nothing in the Bible (assuming you’re speaking from a religious perspective) that states that procreation is an absolute requirement of sex. If it was, I don’t believe God would have made anyone infertile or able to have sex during infertile times. Obviously, this is simply my opinion as your writing is your opinion. Good pro-lifers can disagree on this issue – and good Christians =) I’m an evangelical, personally, What matters, I think, is that we agree that no innocent human life should ever be taken through birth control or abortion.

      • Mitch Behna

        You’re right that you don’t have to procreate or try to get pregnant every time an act of sex takes place. But condoms, like pills, doesn’t make the end justify the means. But yes, I’m glad we’re all still pro-lifers and christians :)

  • Woah-man

    I get a kick out of the woman are watching slogan. Yes, woman ARE watching and seeing how foolish Obama is for being in bed with PP.

  • Richard

    Planned parenthood (with a small “p”) is the best defense against abortions–clearly one cannot abort if one is not pregnant and it is planned parenthood that is the goal of Planned Parenthood so I’m baffled as to the the anti-abortionists’ attack on Planned Parenthood–wait a minute, it is also the nation’s largest abortion provider, my bad.

    Too bad abortions are safe and legal and women can’t be forced to be incubators for rapists’ fetuses or forced into back alleys for a date with a coat hanger or made to drink lye or throw oneself down a flight of stairs or simply commit suicide because the strain of another mouth to feed is too much to bear.

    Deciding to raise a child is a beautiful, self-sacrificing, noble, life-affirming blessing that represents the greatest achievement a person could strive for, in my opinion.

    Deciding that *someone else* must raise a child is shear hatred and wickedness. Only that person, and her god, have that choice. Stop pretending to make it for her. You don’t know who she is or what her circumstances are. Trust that if she decides that she doesn’t want to have a child, that you’re not making the world a better place by forcing her to do so.

    For what it’s worth 3% of Planned Parenthood’s services are abortions representing 15% of its revenue: http://mediamatters.org/research/2011/02/18/laura-ingraham-grossly-misrepresents-planned-pa/176611

  • Bridget O’Malley

    If Planned Parenthood really did care about women, than they’d stop lying.