We Love Us Some Pro-Choice Muckraking

So by now everyone should have heard of the awesome documentary 12th and Deleware coming to HBO on August 2nd. If not, the link goes to the trailer, and the documentary is about crisis pregnancy centers and how evil and manipulative they are, to put it a blunt and concise way.

In the same vein NARAL of California has released an awesome report on CPCs in the California area. (Warning: the link opens to a PDF).

And lastly, RH Reality Check's Charlotte Taft details her dealings with a CPC calling itself The White Rose (named after an anti-Nazi resistance group, isn't that classy) when she ran a clinic in Texas in the 80's.

NARAL has a letter to superpages.com and yellowpages.com that everyone can sign, asking the websites to take down any and all CPC advertising that misleads consumers into thinking they provide abortion services, thus violating terms of service for the websites.

Just by looking under Abortion Alternatives (unfortunately, this category doesn't seem to be against TOS policy) in Oklahoma on Yahoo Local, there are 10 listings just within Central Oklahoma. One group has almost as many locations as Planned Parenthood does. Not cool.

Voting?

Well, it's that time of year...candidates are hitting the trail trying to win your all important vote! Now as Planned Parenthood of Central Oklahoma is a non-profit we can't be involved in any election or electioneering process...we do however want to encourage you...private pro-choice citizen... to make an effort to find out not only how your candidates feel about choice but about women's health and contraception.

In 2008, the world celebrated the election of our current President...in Oklahoma we were mourning our ability (enough Senate votes) to stop any anti-choice legislation for two years. It's been tough.

Vote wisely my friends...

Possible Good News for Military Women

RH Reality Check's MakoSharkEsq has written a very interesting article on the history of the abortion ban in the military, and provides some good information on the awesomeness of the Burris Amendment...which has a very good chance of getting the ban lifted.

Limiting choice holds back society

People often talk about how youth are the change of today and the hope for the future. So much change comes from college campuses and young people getting involved in their communities, locally, nationally, and internationally. We’re following in the footsteps of those who have made changes and continue to do so. They have been fighting a long hard battle for women’s rights against those who are hypocritical and do not seem to care about those outside their small, exclusive bubble.

Such people want young people to change the world, but within certain boundaries. The world is at your fingertips, they may tell us, but then they take away a woman’s right to make her own choices and choose her destiny. Where is the world for her? If a woman cannot have control over her own body, then how can she have control over what she wants to do? The U.S. has made large strides in regards to women’s rights. We have the opportunity and choice to vote, go to college, and pursue nearly any career. Why can’t we have a choice over our own bodies already?

I wish people could open their eyes and minds, step into the present, and let women make choices of their own instead of micromanaging or scaring women away from what they feel they need to do. Women are fully capable of making decisions for themselves and do not need others telling them what they can and cannot do. We have been through that enough. Does anyone like to be limited from choices and opportunities? If limits like this were placed on everyone, we would not have any kind of advanced technology and would not understand the capacities of the human brain. Why open doors for things like nuclear weapons that destroy people and the world and limit a woman’s right to choose her destiny? We cannot change the world when others hold us back.

Comments from guest blogger Laura Davis

VETO OF HB 3290 STANDS!

Thanks to the pink brigade and all the pro-choice advocates in the state, the veto of HB 3290 stands!

November is the single most important month for reproductive rights in Oklahoma. It matters who you vote for...ask the questions and get the answers...

VETO NUMBER FOUR!

Late yesterday Governor Henry vetoed HB 3290! VETO NUMBER FOUR, can you believe it? Call, email, fax your senator today and ask him/her to sustain the Governor's veto!

Click here to find your legislator's contact information...

Senate overrides Governor Henry's Veto of HB 3284

Exhausting. Once again, anti-choice/anti-woman legislators have overridden yet another veto from Governor Henry. Debating to sustain the veto on HB 3284 were Senators Rice, Wilson, Eason McIntyre, C. Johnson and Adelson. Suprise of the day was the addition of Republican Senator Jim Reynolds to the debate reiterating the fact the goverment should be staying out of personal healthcare decisions.

The gallery was a sea of pink thanks to many pissed off women and men who made their voices not only heard but seen today and yesterday. You betcha we're pissed.

Please thank Senators: Adelson, Ballenger, Crutchfield, Easley, Eason McIntyre, C. Johnson, Laster, Leftwich, Lerblance, Paddack, Reynolds, Rice, Sparks, Sweeden, and Wilson for standing up for reproductive rights in Oklahoma!

There's one more bad bill we want Governor Henry to veto and that's HB 3290 which bans insurance coverage for abortion. Make your calls today, keep up the pressure...