Planned Parenthood and DU Valentine Hearts
I'm sure by now you have all heard that Susan G. Komen for the Cure has completely cut its support for Planned Parenthood, only a few months after a new anti-abortion vice president joined the organization. Sadly, this is only the latest attack against Planned Parenthood, an extremely important organization that has been at the forefront of the fight for Reproductive Rights.
You also probably remember that last year the DU Admins announced that we would no longer be doing quarterly fund drives for Democratic Underground.
With no quarterly DU fund drives, people have been asking whether our popular Valentine Hearts promotion would be back in 2012. Over the last week, the DU Admins have been discussing the issue, and trying to figure out if we should bring back the Valentine Hearts even if we are not doing a fund drive for DU. And one of the ideas that we have been discussing is to do the Valentine Hearts as a Charity Drive.
This latest news has convinced us that we need to do something to show our support for Planned Parenthood. So, I think we are going to do the Valentine Hearts this year. But instead of pocketing the money for Democratic Underground, we think it might be worthwhile to collect it all and donate it to Planned Parenthood.
After all, Planned Parenthood is a good fit with Valentine's Day.
What do you think?
= new reply since forum marked as read
And it would probably really po the fine person who made the decision at Komen to get a thank you letter from the collective us! 
Thank you. 
And a perfect fit.
I'll be getting me some hearts. to distribute. 
And thank you very much. I will be distributing many hearts if you will make this so.
Please.
I also think you guys rock for thinking of it!
And I'm so happy we get to do the HEARTS!!!!!!!!! 
I would support this.
great idea, I love it!
Thanks Skinner!!
Plus, may I suggest that you keep an official "Thanks For My Heart" thread pinned? It would be helpful bandwidth-wise and improve the chances of the message being seen.
Now, LET'S ROLL!!!
rocktivity
Might bring me out of my hidy place a bit more often.....
Thank you for this excellent idea. I can't wait to start buying hearts!
I ask for any who might wish to become members AND give to the cause.
Will the hearts drive create/renew memberships?
TIA.
for thinking of this!
love the valentine hearts. Let's do it.
The villification of Planned Parenthood in this country is unconscionable, since these clinics, especially in rural areas, may be the only source of health care for so many women. I'm certainly on board and I love DU Hearts!
Planned Parenthood? And I'm sure Chamber of Commerce approves. 
Nice of them to politicize cancer, cancer treatment and cut funding for abortion, birth control, education programs, breast exams etc. provided by Planned Parenthood. Do you have to belong to the pug party now to get assistance from them?
Perfect and timely
Except perhaps fuck Bush. 
BHN
President Barack Obama today made the most contentious move of his young administration with an order, overturning a ban on federal funds to foreign family planning organisations that either offer abortions or provide information or counselling about abortion.
... It will allow US aid, usually through the US agency for international development, to flow to HIV/Aids clinics, birth-control providers and other organisations that advocate or provide counselling about abortion across the world. It is known as the "global gag rule" because it denies US taxpayer dollars to clinics that even mention abortion to women with unplanned pregnancies.
The rule was signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, overturned by Bill Clinton in 1993, and reinstated by Bush. Critics of the rule say it deprives the world's poor women of desperately needed medical care, while proponents say US tax dollars should not promote abortion.
The issue was the same as with PP domestically in the US: the result of denying funding is to deny disadvantaged women access to basic health care services.
Signing the order was the very first thing Bush did after his first inauguration, in 2001.
Repealing it was the second thing Obama did -- after pledging to close Guantanamo.
When Bush signed the order, people worldwide made donations to Planned Parenthood International and other organizations that provided women's reproductive health care in less developed countries ... in George W. Bush's name, so he got the thank-you messages. (Planned Parenthood Canada, which is purely an information and counselling, non-medical organization, launched that campaign here.)
So Skinner, I think the initiative is excellent -- yes of course Planned Parenthood is à propos for Valentine's Day! Its history is the fight for women's reproductive rights, which women must be able to exercise in order to enjoy intimate relationships without coercion of any kind, and it is a favourite right-wing punching bag. Nothing could be more appropriate.
(Of course it does leave us foreigners out in the cold a little, but most of us enjoy the heath care services that PP provides, already ...)
"women's reproductive rights, which women must be able to exercise in order to enjoy intimate relationships without coercion of any kind".
That is, after all, what Valentine's Day is really about. Not women's breast health, but the right for women to continue to *enjoy* heterosexual intercourse.
Standing Ovation!
