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Uploaded: Sunday, March 11, 2012, 10:30 AM                                             

First Person: A conversation with Linda Williams
Lisa Van Dusen interviews president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte

Posted by Please, PP: call it, like it is., a resident of the Leland Manor/Garland Drive neighborhood, on Mar 12, 2012 at 11:34 am

Van Dusen writes the study of rhetoric is a skill Ms. Williams regularly uses to articulate the importance of Planned Parenthood's services to her community. My, oh my. Such fancy terminology.

(Undercover) reports at Planned Parenthood locations indicate it's not only in rhetoric with which many PP staff are accomplished.

Let the buyer beware of the "services" offered by Planned Parenthood.

Posted by SP, a resident of another community, on Mar 12, 2012 at 12:30 pm

"Ninety-seven percent of PPMM's services are preventive." That's very misleading. Only 33% of their work goes to contraception. She is listing the 10% of pregnancy testing they do as preventative. What is a pregnancy test supposed to prevent? Over 50% of their work is STD and cancer screening, which can prevent a bad situation from getting worse, but lets just be clear that it isn't really preventing anything from happening in the first place. Finally, she is only mentioning health services, which is 68% of the budget. They do other things too. 16% is management and fundraising. Another 5% is lobbying. How is lobbying "preventative"?

Info take from their annual reports you can find here: Web Link.

Posted by Localmom, a resident of Mountain View, on Mar 12, 2012 at 1:28 pm

Planned Parenthood is one of the most respectable, helpful and legitimate health care services in this country. Their services (and by "services" I mean annual health exams, pap smears, breast exams, and help when someone struggles with recurrent urinary tract infections or yeast infections) are invaluable to young people, students,and under-insured families. They provide care to women that is desperately needed, and I applaud Ms. Williams and all the staff that contribute to this amazing health care system. Those who have negative comments about Planned Parenthood are simply misinformed.

Though I am lucky enough to have excellent health care coverage now, there were years while as a student that I had NO health coverage, and Planned Parenthood was my only connection to health care. I have forever been grateful for the care I received and impressed with the quality of care they sought to provide. Planned Parenthood will always have my heartfelt thanks and support.