Shakesville and What Tami Said to Host Planned Parenthood Blog Carnival

Don’t you just love blog carnivals? They unite us all into writing for our personal causes while simultaneously raising awareness—even if it’s about something as simple as a disease, or as whimsical as Turn Off the TV Week.

July’s blog carnival, hosted by Shakesville (this blogger’s favorite blog, ever!) and What Tami Said, won’t be in either of those categories, however (though how you choose to blog about it is, of course, entirely up to you). It’s a Planned Parenthood Blog Carnival, and it will begin on July 7. As more and more states continue to defund the life-saving organization, it couldn’t come at a more needed time.

Just this week, states such as Texas, North Carolina, and Wisconsin have all announced their plans to defund Planned Parenthood, rending thousands of women incapable of receiving the life-saving services that PPH provides. They’ve also said point-blank, from these actions alone, that the women of the United States mean nothing to them and their political agendas. They’d much rather watch us die than alienate the small population of the country that has a problem with the abortion services that PPH provides—no matter, of course, that abortion is legal in this country, that it’s less than 3% of what PPH does, and that every woman should have a right to safe, accessible health care.

For every piece of good news we hear about in terms of women’s rights in this country—such as the failure of 25-hour waiting laws to pass, which also recently happened in one state—we seem to hear another three or four pieces of devastating news. As pro-woman as this administration claims to be—and as many women voted for them based on these claims—you would think that they’d be doing much more for women’s rights and health than regurgitating their rhetoric (Lily Ledbetter, anyone?) over and over again without issuing protection for anyone.

We can’t afford to let them dismantle our health like this! Women of America, I urge you to stand up, call your legislators daily and let them know that you won’t stand for this War on Women. Tell everyone you know—and when your conservative brother-in-law or uncle rumbles on about how it doesn’t affect him, tell him that it sure as hell does if he is married, has children, has a mother, has you as a sister. And you can blog about the War on Women and the attacks on Planned Parenthood specifically during the blog carnival next month; feel free to post your links here at Pro-Choice Voters.

To sign up for the Planned Parenthood Blog Carnival and for more information, click here. It starts July 7, so there are no holiday plan excuses to get in the way of participating! Start planning what you want to write about now if you want; there is certainly no dearth of material, unfortunately. One thing that could be particularly helpful is writing sample letters and phone scripts to help other activists connect to leaders in their areas; another might be personal stories on how PPH losses affect you personally.