No, Gianna Jessen, Planned Parenthood Wasn't the Problem

[moriah]

Gianna Jessen spoke in front of Congress Wednesday, specifically implicating Planned Parenthood in the attempted third-trimester saline abortion (no longer performed in the US) that caused her premature birth and resulting cerebral palsy in April of 1977. She has grown from a two-pound infant born two-and-a-half months premature with a grim prognosis into a beautiful young woman who has participated in marathons. Her story is powerful, inspiring, and tragic.

But how much of that story is really true, and how much blame, if any, does Planned Parenthood have for the awful circumstances surrounding her birth?

Back when Becky Bell's parents tried to keep other people's daughters from dying because they couldn't bear to tell their parents they were pregnant, Gianna's adoptive mother Diane DePaul started taking her teenage daughter on talk shows to give a face to aborted children. No one seemed to be speaking for the babies and their rights in 1991, and 14-year-old Gianna spoke powerfully for herself. She took her daughter on Maury Povich, the 700 Club, and began accepting speaking assignments for $500 an appearance before Gianna was even 15. None of these early stories mentioned Planned Parenthood, or the clinic or doctor that performed the procedure.

...

A book came out in 1999, claiming that her birth mother's name was "Tina" and she had went to Planned Parenthood for help obtaining an abortion, but the full text of Shaver's book isn't available in electronic format. (Update: text of book analyzed at link.) Varied accounts exist online of a horrific experience and "Tina's" sorrowful regret, anger at being deceived by people who pressured her into an abortion, and desire never to hurt her child by forcing them to meet.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/09/12/1420577/-Gianna-Jessen-Planned-Parenthood-Wasn-t-the-Problem

There is absolutely no proof that Panned Parenthood was involved in Gianna Jessen's mother's saline abortion, and it looks like there are significant holes in the one source that information allegedly came from. Yet her testimony before Congress Wednesday was enough to have several media outlets report that her mother received her saline abortion at Planned Parenthood. (Her fellow speaker was forced to admit that Planned Parenthood wasn't involved in her birth at all.)

[Control-Z]

1. Liar.

"Her fellow speaker was forced to admit that Planned Parenthood wasn't involved in her birth at all."

[moriah]

2. Me?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/09/09/hearing-starts-push-defund-planned-parenthood/71916392/

Melissa Ohden, founder of the Abortion Survivors network, acknowledged her failed abortion did not take place at Planned Parenthood, but said in prepared testimony she was there to "give voice" to "the hundreds of thousands of children who will have their lives ended by Planned Parenthood this year alone."

[Control-Z]

3. Oh gosh, no. Not you.

"Yet her testimony before Congress Wednesday was enough to have several media outlets report that her mother received her saline abortion at Planned Parenthood."

Melissa Ohden testifying before congress to try and defund PP, and the media outlets pushing the lie.

I'm really sorry I didn't make a clearer statement. It just made me so angry.

[moriah]

4. :) All good....

I feel you. I mean, I admit, I'm not fond of the idea of abortion, especially late-term abortion. But no one who has one is acting like Ms. Garrison from South Park, going to a clinic excited to have an invasive and painful medical procedure (even if it's safer and far less painful than childbirth). No woman who gets an abortion is happy about being in those circumstances. Women certainly don't purposefully go off and get pregnant just to abort for shits and giggles.

I have insurance, and I go to Planned Parenthood for my medical care routinely so that I can support their work. Back when I was 15 and wanted birth control, the fact we qualified for reduced lunches was enough to get my first pelvic and month of the Pill free, and I had a $5 copay each month after that. And I know that location didn't offer abortion back then, because the nurse practitioner who examined me was my neighbor across the street.

But that visit kept me from having to seek out an abortion provide as a teenager. Too bad Gianna's mother didn't go there before the middle of 1976.

[Control-Z]

5. Twice now I have helped (supported)

a medical abortion. Both times it was shocking to see how painful the process is. Vomiting sick. Horrible cramps. No one does it for fun. I'd have to say there's not a sane woman alive who wouldn't prefer birth control over abortion.

Both my daughters went to Planned Parenthood for birth control when they were teens. They went on their own and then told me afterwards. I had already preached to them about safe sex and reliable birth control and they had attended PP events with me so there was no question about my approval.

I also had talks with my son and his buddies about their responsibilities and about a woman's right to choose abortion in the case of an unplanned pregnancy.

[moriah]

6. I didn't tell Mom at first, either.

The neighbor NP never said a word about me being there alone, nor anything to my mother, but I knew she would have been okay with it. (Getting proof from the school of being on reduced lunches was easy.) I made the visit several months before I actually had sex, so Mom didn't learn until it came out that my BF and I had been sexually active. She said she was a little hurt I didn't ask her to come with me, because she would have without a doubt or hassle, but was happy that I was being safe (considering what revealed the secks was a discovered condom, she was happy on both accounts).

[Control-Z]

7. Since their grandmother

died from an abortion, my kids knew my feelings starting at a very young age. I discouraged early sexual activity but also knew I had little control over it. I don't think I ever expected them to come to me first. I was just happy to know they were well informed and knew where to go.

It's funny, maybe 8 months ago my younger daughter and her boyfriend were broke and out of condoms. So as we were driving home that night they asked me to buy them some. All three of us walked up to the condom shelf together and discussed which brand and how many to buy. One woman gave us a curious, but not unkind, look.