Support The New "Talk To A Friend" Outreach!

Imagine being a young woman, about twenty-two years old, struggling on your own, making under $12,000 a year. Your get pregnant and your boyfriend either abandons you or pressures you to get an abortion. 

42% of women fall into this sort of profile. They earn under 100% of the poverty line. They are aged between 20 and 24. And they are overwhelmed. Most were barely making ends meet before they got the news about pregnancy. For a few hundred dollars and in just a couple of hours time, this woman could be free of the "problem" forever (so she feels) and just get on with her life.

What could help a woman in this scenario? I've been researching this demographic of women to find out what they want and need. The result is a new online outreach idea: Talk To A Friend. 

"Talk To A Friend" now has a facebook page and a blog. We've reserved talktoafriend.org and info@talktoafriend.org is a working email address now. Although it will take a while to get all the components running and polished, it is okay to link to the Facebook page and blog now.

Sponsored by 1st Way, "Talk To A Friend" websites  have no direct mention of abortion, 1st way or any other crisis pregnancy center, although some do have a link. These sites are designed to be warm, friendly and comfortable places for women to go to get support. Some of our former clients will be volunteer peer support workers. An extended list of resources will be kept, so that the women can get the help they need to keep their child. Through this resource, women will be referred to 1st Way, but reason for this effort is to make the experience more appealing and welcoming to them.

Please subscribe to http://talktoanewfriend.blogspot.com and "like" http://www.facebook.com/Talktoafriend?ref=hl. Share both links. Pass them on in emails. Please do all you can to help and support "Talk To A Friend."

Thank you!

New Outreach Needs Support: Talk to A Friend

We're launching a new Facebook page today as an outreach to women in crisis pregnancy. The new page is called, simply, "talktoafriend." It links to 1st Way only in the about section. We'll be posting non-judgmental articles to help women know we're empathic and care. Up until now, almost all on-line efforts have been towards the pro-life supporter community, and we'll continue to provide the most up to date news for you. There will be a new blog up soon, too. 

Please "like" this page AND share this page with whomever you can AND suggest any articles you'd like to see added. Thanks! 

http://www.facebook.com/Talktoafriend

Planned Parenthood Does Nothing to Prevent Abortions- Get the Facts!

UPDATE: The Register-Guard has updated their article to include a more balanced point of view. The perspective of Linda Teutsch of 40 Days for Life was included. I'm happy to see this, as I (and probably many others) had written to the RG about the problem.

Earlier this week, Dr. Alveda King was in Eugene, Oregon, and I am very sorry to say I missed her. Dr. King held a vigil outside of Planned Parenthood on Monday, and I was surprised to see that our local paper, The Register-Guard, even covered it, since they did not cover any of our many previous rallies, vigils and marches over the past year.

http://www.registerguard.com/web/updates/29399891-55/abortion-king-parenthood-planned-prayer.html.csp

To the article's credit, the author wrote, "Much like her famous uncle before her, Alveda King is on a crusade for civil rights. For her, those rights apply to unborn children as well." 

However, almost half of the article is spent trying to defend Planned Parenthood. How does that have anything whatsoever to do with providing news coverage of the event? She writes, "(Cynthia) Pappas (Planned Parenthood local agency CEO and president) said it’s important to remind people that Planned Parenthood does more than offer abortion services, including providing various contraceptives.

  

 “We do more than any other organization to prevent the need for abortion,” Pappas said.

Let's examine that assertion. 

(1) Birth control has not and does not reduce or prevent the need for abortion. A higher incidence of abortion  accompanies increase in providing birth control. Although this may appear counter-intuitive, it is true. Birth control emboldens more people to have sex in situations that could create unwanted children, and birth control has a fail rate.

Guttmacher Institute- 54% used contraception before unintended pregnancy that resulted in abortion.

http://www.lifenews.com/2012/10/25/planned-parenthood-wants-to-elinminate-prenatal-care/

AND

http://www.abort73.com/abortion_facts/birth_control_and_abortion/

(2) Planned Parenthood does NOT do more than any other organization to prevent the need for abortion. Planned Parenthood is in the abortion business. Only a small percent of money is made from non-abortion services, and many of them are being phased out. 

Planned Parenthood wants to eliminate prenatal care:

http://www.lifenews.com/2012/10/25/planned-parenthood-wants-to-elinminate-prenatal-care/

More to the point, of the pregnant women who come to Planned Parenthood for counseling, almost 98% have abortions. Two percent receive prenatal care.

Source: Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. “Fact Sheet,” October 2011, 2.

(3) Every year Planned Parenthood has been in existence, there is a drop in the number of abortions BUT an increase in the number of abortions done by them.

In the USA, during 2000–2009, the abortion rate decreased by 7%.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss6108a1.htm?s_cid=ss6108a1_w

However, take a look at Planned Parenthood's own Annual Report for any given year and you can see their rate of abortions consistently goes UP.

For example,  Planned Parenthood performed 333,964 abortion procedures during 2010-11, up from 332,278 abortions in 2009.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/item/14156-annual-report-shows-planned-parenthood-tallied-record-abortion-count-in-2010 

So, are ANY efforts, whether they be through Planned Parenthood, First Way or any other pro-life group paying off? 

Um, yes. They may well be the reason for the drop in abortion. Who else is doing it?  

Obviously not Planned Parenthood.

(3) An organization that really does the most to prevent the need for abortion focuses on economic help and supports for the woman with unplanned pregnancy, since 75% of abortion is driven by the sense of economic necessity. 

Planned Parenthood does nothing to address economic needs, while organizations such as First Way do. 

http://www.abort73.com/abortion/common_objections/ 

(4) Most importantly, if nothing is wrong with abortion and abortion is not morally wrong, why does it matter if any organization prevents the need for abortion? Why does Pappas even need to make the statement she makes? 

I ask, "What is abortion, Pappas, morally defendable or morally reprehensible, so that you might feel the need to prevent the services you offer?" What could be more transparently political than that statement?

Our mayor, Kitty Piercy, was at the ribbon-cutting to "celebrate" the new Planned Parenthood in Springfield. The majority of people in Eugene are pro-choice. Yet, in this town of "tolerance" and "open-mindedness," why does a business need to be defended instead of simply providing news coverage of a prayer vigil?