On July 18th, the Seattle Storm will be raising money for the country’s largest abortion chain, the WNBA team’s ownership has announced. The “celebration of support” will include fundraising, a rally for Planned Parenthood, and ongoing support.
Dawn Trudeau, one of the co-owners of the Storm, said that this was born out of a desire to protect access to health care for women. “As individual Americans who are not legislators, merely citizens, we have felt hamstrung by our limited ability to make a meaningful impact in the national health care debate,” she explained. “Access to affordable, quality health care, including a full range of reproductive care, is a critical precondition for anyone – especially girls and women, to pursue their dreams and grow into their best selves.”
“We believe it is important to add our voice in favor of comprehensive health care for girls and women by supporting this wonderful organization,” she continued. “The essential services provided by Planned Parenthood make the organization a natural ally and partner for the Storm.”
NEWS | Seattle Storm, Force 10 Hoops Announce Support for Planned Parenthood
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— Seattle Storm (@seattlestorm) June 15, 2017
The partnership is, unsurprisingly, being applauded by Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands (PPGNHI). “We are thrilled about this first-of-its-kind partnership,” CEO Christine Charbonneau said. “The Seattle Storm owners made a decision to publicly support Planned Parenthood making them the first professional sports team to make their voice heard and their stance known. We are proud to work alongside the Storm and their efforts in leveling the playing field for women and girls. Right now, we are seeing a relentless effort to roll back progress for women. Being in this fight alongside our supporters and the Storm is an honor.”
The “Stand With Planned Parenthood” rally will take place at KeyArena’s West Plaza, with $5 from every ticket sold for that evening’s game donated to PPGNHI. The team will also hold an auction to raise money for Planned Parenthood, all in the name of supposed “progress” and “health care” for women.
Of course, there’s the little problem that Planned Parenthood doesn’t offer either of those things.
Part of the rallying cry to support Planned Parenthood is that women should not have to choose between their careers, their education, or their future… and a child. This is true, but Planned Parenthood doesn’t actually solve this problem. Instead, they tell women that they must choose between killing their own children and receiving no help whatsoever, left to navigate their crisis pregnancies completely unaided. After all, Planned Parenthood offers next to no prenatal care and provides hardly any adoption referrals. Pregnant women who contact Planned Parenthood looking for help are told that they can either get an abortion, or look on Google.
Meanwhile, they commit more abortions than any other organization in the United States. That’s the only option they offer women who are facing crisis pregnancies. So women are told that their only option for a bright future is to kill their preborn children. Is that progress? Or is it keeping women in the same desperate, dismal situation that they have always been in?
On top of this, there’s the issue of health care… which is also practically non-existent at Planned Parenthood. The organization serves a very small percentage of women, and is vastly outnumbered by comprehensive health care clinics.
Over the years, health care services at Planned Parenthood have steadily dropped, while abortions have increased there. Planned Parenthood performs only a small percentage of health screenings: less than 2 percent of all breast exams, less than 2 percent of all cancer screenings, and less than 1 percent of all pap tests.
And yet, we’re expected to believe this is a “vital” organization for women, so much so that rerouting its taxpayer funding to other comprehensive health clinics would somehow hamper progress and destroy health care?
Let’s be real: Planned Parenthood’s priority is not health care. It’s not helping women. Its priority is abortion, above all else, and women deserve better. They deserve real options, and real health care. That is progress, and defunding Planned Parenthood would be a big step in the right direction towards making that progress a reality.
