Lecture at Planned Parenthood

Last night I attended a lecture by Darrel Ray at Planned Parenthood in downtown Houston last night. I had to park my car across the street and as I walked toward the entrance I noticed a couple of guys walking around. I asked them where the entrance into the building was and, instead of answering my question, one of the men asked me what was going on in the building. I suppose he had seen lots of people who were obviously not getting abortions walking in and he was naturally curious. Well I was totally not ready for a protester so I answered his questions. I told him about the lecture and that it was being attended by atheists. He asked me then if I was an atheist and I proudly said that I was. His demeanor then drastically changed and tried to hand me a leaflet which I only kept after his third attempt at begging me to read it. As I was walking away he says, "Do you know where you're going? They kill babies in there!" Argh! I wish I had been warned but it was past 7pm and I never imagined they would be out there at that time. I angrily told him that I had an abortion several years ago and I never regretted it. Then I made a beeline to the nearest trash can and loudly informed that man that I was throwing his shit away.

The lecture was wonderful, but it took several minutes to calm myself down before entering the conference room. This may be my opinion but people who protest outside of Planned Parenthood are ignorant, and proudly so, of what this organization is truly about. The mission statement of Planned Parenthood is "to ensure that all women, men and teens have access to safe, affordable health care and accurate information. That’s why Planned Parenthood is a plan you can love with." It seems to me that these protesters are also against the freedom of people, both men and women, to seek affordable health care and they also hate women. This makes me angry on so many levels.

I got my first pap smear and my first month of birth control from Planned Parenthood in Sinton, Texas. My mother took me. I was 17 years old. 

At the moment Planned Parenthood is experiencing the yearly "40 days of harassment" based on the religious observance of Lent. What an ingenuous way to pervert god's message, but I digress. I've been made aware of this from a HCoF friend who has been a volunteer escort for several years. He knows that I don't work and has been gently convincing me that I should do this. Well, after being confronted on the sidewalk by a protester I signed up. I told them that I didn't think I had the discipline to ignore the stupidity of the protesters and that I'd have to do something else. They laughed and said it would be no problem. I was impressed with the causal dismissal the staff had of the protesters. I guess they have become so used to their insanity and ignorance and they knew there was no hope for them.