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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGaGcBmVsTg?wmode=transparent]
Planned Parenthood is an organization started by Margaret Sanger in 1916 as a way of giving women access to birth control and today is comprised of over 800 health centers serving over 3 million individuals in this country. In addition to the distribution of various modes of birth control, a proponent of comprehensive sex education, Planned Parenthood is also known for providing abortions. All of these factors together have made it a target for organizations interested in ending or limiting these services. This past week an anti-abortion organization called Live Action posed as organizers of a sex ring that focused on immigrant underage women and solicited advice from Planned Parenthood staff members in New Jersey caught on video. From Jan 11-15, twelve clinics in six states were visited by actors commissioned by Live Action to find footage that would support their belief that Planned Parenthood was systemically covering up the abuse of young girls, which would be required by law to be reported. Financed with a $125, 000 gift from unknown sources, the leader of Live Action. Lila Rose has been quoted as saying "We will work to de-fund them in every state wherever it is possible, to de-license them [Planned Parenthood] and to expose them," she told the conservative Value Voters Summit in October. The video footage released from the January 13th visit has been controversial, particularly after the Planned Parenthood employee featured in the film was suspended of her duties. "We were profoundly shocked when we viewed the videotape released this morning, which depicted an employee of one of our health centers behaving in a repugnant manner that is inconsistent with our standards of care and is completely unacceptable," Phyllis Kinsler, chief of Planned Parenthood of New Jersey, said in a statement. While it is far from proven this is a systemic problem within Planned Parenthood, the actions of one individual can have a tremendously negative impact on the public perception of an organization that has served the community for almost 100 years.
To learn more about the history of Planned Parenthood: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/history-and-successes.htm#Sanger
To learn more about Live Action: http://liveaction.org
To learn more about the current videos: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/01/AR2011020106135.html?hpid=moreheadlines and http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/24/AR2011012404462.html
"No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act," also known as HR3 is pretty clear in its intention. Since 1976, the Hyde Amendment has provisioned that no federal money could go for abortions, unless it was a case of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. In the new bill, to be eligible, rape would have to be elevated to "forcible rape," and would no longer include statutory rape or date rape. To try and distinguish rape from forcible rape has enraged many who think all rape by definition is forcible. After much backlash, the phrase "forcible" has been dropped from the bill.
To learn more about the Hyde Amendment: http://www.aclu.org/reproductive-freedom/public-funding-abortion
To learn more about this current rephrasing: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/03/AR2011020304370.html
To read the actual bill's text:http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h112-3
Wikipedia Gender Gap
In the pursuits of creating and sharing knowledge, Wikipedia is a great example of the wisdom of crowds as well as the simultaneous need for experts to correct misinformation that with the power of the Internet becomes truth. Recently it has been reported that only a small percentage (13%) of the information on Wikipedia is produced by women. It is also noted that gendered topics tend to have different types of entries. If it is stereotyped as a female topic the entries tend to be far more brief than if it were a "male" topic. It is the goal of Sue Gardner, the director of the Wikipedia Foundation to increase female produced content to 25% by 2015. She is quoted as saying: “Everyone brings their crumb of information to the table,” “If they are not at the table, we don’t benefit from their crumb.”
Ladies, we have been invited to dinner...will you come and what will you bring to the table?
To learn more: http://designtaxi.com/news/33932/Gender-Gap-Only-13-Female-in-Wikipedia-Contributor-Base/