South Dakota Planned Parenthood Advocate

Statement of Sarah Stoesz, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, on Politically Motivated Attack Against Planned Parenthood Affiliates Nationwide

September 27th, 2011 – “We are outraged that U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is putting politics before women’s health with a politically motivated Congressional investigation of Planned Parenthood affiliates nationwide. This attack is intended to undermine Planned Parenthood’s ability to provide essential health care services to the women, men and teens who rely on them. 

Across the nation, unemployment and poverty rates are rising and homes are in foreclosure. Instead of attending to the most pressing needs of families and working to create jobs, this congressional committee is using tax-payer dollars to target a non-profit health care provider whose mission is to serve the most vulnerable in this economy.   

Planned Parenthood is a trusted health care provider that provides professional, reliable and quality health care across the state. For over 20 years, South Dakota’s families have relied on Planned Parenthood for primary and preventive care such as annual exams, birth control, lifesaving cancer screenings, and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections and HIV. 

As a trusted health care provider, Planned Parenthood routinely works with government regulators, nonprofit foundation donors, and independent auditors to ensure compliance with all rules and regulations regarding any funding it receives. In the rare instance when an irregularity is discovered, it is taken seriously and handled swiftly and appropriately.

Last year, Planned Parenthood provided basic health care to nearly 64,000 women, men and teens in the region, the vast majority of whom live at or below the federal poverty level and are without health insurance. Politically motivated attacks such as these will only increase the burden for those who can least afford it.”

CONTACT: Jen Aulwes
651.755.9557

No Woman, No Cry

In her new documentary, No Woman, No Cry, Christy Turlington Burns shares the very personal story of how unexpected hemorrhaging after the birth of her first child nearly led to her death. The life-threatening experience led Turlington Burns to investigate the medical conditions faced by women with similar pregnancy complications around the world.

No Woman, No Cry contrasts Turlington Burns’ own ready access to emergency medical care with the deadly consequences faced by 358,000 women who die annually from pregnancy-related causes in countries with less developed health systems. The film features the work of Dr. Linda Valencia in the prevention of unsafe abortion and the treatment of its consequences in Guatemala. Dr. Valencia directs Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s (PPFA’s) support for programs in Guatemala.

Abortion is illegal in Guatemala, except to preserve the life of a woman. These legal restrictions do not prevent it from taking place, but rather drive women to seek black market procedures under unsanitary conditions. Each year, 65,000 unsafe abortions are performed in the country, resulting in the hospitalization of over 20,000 Guatemalan women.

Dr. Valencia leads PPFA’s efforts to improve access to reproductive health care for women and their families in Guatemala. Click here to view a film trailer featuring Dr. Valencia.

~ Carmen, Public Affairs Manager, Planned Parenthood Advocate

"Personhood" Fight Comes to Mississippi

On September 8, the Mississippi Supreme Court allowed Initiative 26 to be placed on the 2011 general election ballot.

Initiative 26 is known as the “personhood amendment” – a proposed constitutional amendment that establishes the “personhood” of each citizen as being “from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or equivalent thereof.” If this amendment is passed, it could potentially ban commonly used forms of contraception like birth control, assisted reproductive technology like In vitro fertilization, and abortion.

It could lead to more government intrusion into personal lives, such as getting into medical records to investigate miscarriages, dictating what kind of birth control can be used, and interfering with medical decisions in treating women for fertility problems.

This will mean more unintended pregnancies for Mississippi women, putting families at risk, and forcing women to face unhealthy and dangerous options. Colorado battled and defeated a Personhood ballot measures in 2008 and 2010. North Dakota has defeated Personhood legislation three times at the Capital and national buzz is there will be an attempt to place it on the ballot in 2012. Personhood is dangerous legislation sweeping the nation. And we will stop it if we have to do it state by state by state.

~Carmen, Public Affairs Manager, Planned Parenthood Advocate

Global Gag Rule- Sign Our Petition Today!

The global gag rule, or sometimes referred to as the “Mexico City Policy” forbids overseas family planning agencies that receive U.S. aid to even mention abortion as an option for women or advocate for legalized abortion in their own countries. Sign our letter to Rep Krisi Noem here.

Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush all adopted this policy via executive orders. And when Democrats Bill Clinton and Barack Obama took office, they both rescinded the rule. It has no place in a world where 215 million women lack access to modern contraception, and where 350,000 women die each year in pregnancy or childbirth.

It undermines freedom of speech for health workers. It leads to more unintended pregnancies and more unsafe abortions. It hurts efforts to stop the spread of AIDS and forces women to make health care decisions without being fully informed about their options.

It's time to end the global gag rule once and for all. Sign the letter to tell Representative Noem to support the Global Democracy Promotion Act, which would permanently end the global gag rule.

~ Carmen, Public Affairs Manager, Planned Parenthood Advocate

Unofficial TTRT Book Club - Back Rooms

This month’s book club selection is a collection of stores complied in Back Rooms, Voices from the Illegal Abortion Era by Ellen Messer and Kathryn May. I read this book in 2008 while I was campaigning for Healthy Families (b/c there just wasn’t enough abortion in my day already.) Not surprisingly, the stories in the book were very similar to the experiences women were telling me over the phone.

The book breaks the interviews into categories of Back Alleys, Leaving the Country, Out of Wedlock, etc. There’s a particularly relevant story of a woman who had a miscarriage and she and her physician were worried about prosecution. This kind of criminalization would be back under any kind of Personhood legislation. Just another case of history repeating itself. – Carmen Toft

The Team Roe Times September Issue!

We are excited to present to you the FOURTH issue of The Team Roe Times, a joint project between Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and NARAL Pro Choice South Dakota! Packed inside this informative newsletter is the most up-to-date information on the PPMNS v  Rounds 2005 lawsuit, the SDANW lobbyist opportunity, Personhood coming to Mississippi, the latest book in our TTRT Unofficial Book Club and SO MUCH MORE.

Download Team Roe Vol 1 Issue 4

Obama’s Job Plan and Women’s Health

Last week, President Obama spoke to the Joint Session and to the American people and shared his plan for spurring job growth in the U.S. What does this have to do with women’s health? CEO and President of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota (PPMNS), Sarah Stoesz, explains:
 

“PPMNS’ health clinics are seeing firsthand the costs of today’s economic challenges. Many of our patients are seeking out Planned Parenthood for affordable, essential health services because they simply have nowhere else to turn after being laid off, losing insurance, or failing to find jobs with benefits.

“Women are coming in for critical preventive services, such as breast exams, birth control and Pap tests that cannot be put off, even if they don’t have insurance. “As a trusted provider who has seen one in five American women at some point in her life, we know that creating middle-class jobs will help increase access to health care.

“President Obama’s plan would mean that more women and families will have quality jobs with health insurance, and we hope that Congress will answer his call to act and get our economy moving again.”

Contact: Jen Aulwes, Director of Media Relations, 651.755.9557

Stay tuned for more. We will need your support to help this plan get passed and to make sure that women and families have access to good jobs and good health care.

-by Karina, Web Editor, Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota

Abortion Regulations in Virginia

Virginia has 22 facilities that provide first-trimester abortions, and all risk being shut down within the next two years as a result of recent new regulations.

The new rules for abortion clinics were borrowed from regulations for new hospital construction, and include specifications such as 5-foot wide hallways, 80 square foot pre-op rooms, and 250 square foot operating rooms. Several of the clinics in Virginia may not meet such rigorous requirements.

The regulations come after Virginia passed a law in February that reclassified abortion clinics as hospitals.

This is a very obvious attempt to ban abortions by making them as inaccessible as possible. First Kansas, now Virginia – let’s stand together and prevent these outrageous measures from going forward in South Dakota and other states!

by Kelly, Web Correspondent, Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund

Planned Parenthood wins a major victory in battle against South Dakota abortion law

Planned Parenthood won a major victory today in its ongoing court battle against South Dakota’s so-called “informed consent” law, which seeks to compel doctors to deliver ideological and medically inaccurate statements to their patients.

The South Dakota law – H.B. 1166, which was enacted in 2005 and challenged in court by Planned Parenthood – requires a doctor to tell a woman who is seeking an abortion that she faces an “increased risk of suicide ideation and suicide.”

“As the major medical organizations have found, and as the court agreed today, the scientific and medical evidence shows that women who choose abortion are not at increased risk for mental health problems,” said Sarah Stoesz, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota. “This law just one of many reprehensible barriers that South Dakota lawmakers have attempted to place between women and their access to safe, legal, reproductive health care.” 

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals further clarified that a provision in the law that requires doctors to tell a woman that she has a relationship with the fetus and that relationship is legally protected simply requires doctors to explain “that the woman seeking abortion is legally and constitutionally protected against being forced to have an abortion.” 

“Planned Parenthood has always stood for the right of women to make these decisions, and we are gratified by this result,” said Sarah Stoesz. “South Dakota voters twice have said at the polls that they do not want politicians interfering with these decisions, and we will continue to honor and defend their wishes.”

CONTACT: Sarah T. Williams, 612-821-6183