Helping Prevent Infertility Whenever Possible and Helping People Build Families of Choice, Particularly When Faced With Infertility. Visit us at www.theafa.org
This week, the Senate is expected to pass a budget and decide whether to bar all federal funding for Planned Parenthood health centers.
Stand with Planned Parenthood now. Dial 202-559-1164 to call your senators and tell them to vote NO on any legislation that targets Planned Parenthood and women's health. Earlier this year, over 800,000 women and men signed an open letter to their political leaders in Washington, in an effort to protect Planned Parenthood and the multitude of Americans who depend on their centers, but the battle is not over. Your senators need to hear from you directly right now.
Anti-choice lawmakers are dangerously close to cutting millions of women off from birth control, cancer screening, HIV testing, and other lifesaving care but you have the power to stop them from doing that.
The clock is ticking. Click here for more information, and to show your support. The AFA stands with Planned Parenthood. If you do too, please make that call.
We as human beings, universally, seem to share so many commonalities. We all bleed, both literally and figuratively. We all need to feel a solidarity of some kind in order to get through our lives. For many, it is country. For others, love. But for most, it is not only love, but also love of family. And if the number of ipods that accompany people to work are any indication, we also all seem to be moved, viscerally, by music. We experience music more than we hear it; we all share that need, to feel and to take in the stories told through song. Music searches us out and touches us in a way that we all seem to long for. And so, we are also touched by the story tellers who are willing to bleed for us through song, who share their lives with us, because their words so often give voice to what is in our own lives or our own hearts.
Today was an unusual day. I don't always get to have breakfast with a famous rapper, or to hear him sing. In this case, the very handsome (and muscular) Run DMC (aka Daryl McDaniels), shared his voice and his story of being an adult adoptee with a number of us at the Hard Rock Cafe. Along with the British singer Zara Phillips, also an adult adoptee, the two of them spun a powerful tale. Daryl said he always knew something was wrong. And at 35 years of age he was contemplating suicide when his adopted parents finally told him the truth.
Daryl's and Zara's were not the only voices. Not everyone can educate through song! Others educate through spoken passion. There were so many of that ilk today. But first among them was Adam Pertman.
Adam was today's host. To be honest, I didn't know what to expect when I walked in the room. I wound up hearing countless stories, and testimony about the need for adult adoptees to have the right to their original birth certificates. Today was a call to arms about this issue. Although this right is being contested by a number of groups, legislation allowing adult adoptees to access their OBC's is being passed through hard won legislation in a number of states. And that is the fight that today was about. Getting the word out. Letting people know. Two and 1/2 years in the making, this event was led by Adam and the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. EBD is committed to research, data, and proof, things which are close to my writer's heart. According to EBD, the arguments being utilized to support the continued consealment of adoptee's original identities are flawed. Birth certificates were never sealed to protect birthparents, anonymity could never be guaranteed and birthparents overwhelmingly support contact. In addition, access to original birth certificates does not decrease adoption rates or spike abortion rates. Adam can tell this story better than I, you can read him here, and you should. Adam is a smart man. He may not be a rap star but he is a solid thinker and a coalition builder.
Many of his universal team, as well as many dissenting voices, were in residence at the Hard Rock this a.m. to sound the charge, or to silence it, for opening up original birth certificates for all adoptees nationwide. Year by year, state by state, inch by inch, passionate people reported on their progress or lack of it. Working to pass imperfect bills in order to begin this process of creating wholeness.
I was moved beyond words. I have said many times about so many things, that the one thing we as human beings deserve above all else, is our own personal truth. What I learned today is that we as human beings not only deserve, but require, that same thing. I don't think I knew that before, at least not the way I know it now.
I have always known however that music can teach. And yes, the willingness of individuals to bring their pain, their lives, their experiences to the fore can also teach. Via film today I saw individuals ripping open their unsealed birth certificates to view them for the first time. You know, I never realized before that most babies surrendered for adoption are named by their birth parents. Can you imagine seeing your original name, on paper, for the first time? What that would feel like?
Ok. Here comes the hard part. Those of you who have read my words over the years may remember a quandary I have mentioned before. I have a cousin who I know is adopted. I have kept this secret, given to me by her mother and my own, for my whole life long. My cousin has never spoken of it to me and I don't know if she knows this secret that I know, that I have held. Yes, in earlier writings I said my cousin was a he. She is not. My quandary? Her parents, my parents, that whole generalion of secret keepers, have all passed. The only person left to ask if she knows, is herself. I don't know if she knows and I have battled with talking to her about it forever. What right do I have to talk to her about it? What right do I have to not talk to her about it?
My dear girl, I know you read my blog. If you have ever had a thought, a doubt, a feeling, that something was wrong. If you want to talk about it, call me. I am here for you, I love you, I am your family. I love you.
The American Fertility Association Stands with Planned Parenthood
U.S. House of Representatives Jeopardizes Women’s Healthcare
The U.S. House of Representatives voted Friday to bar Planned Parenthood health centers from all federal funding, including birth control, cancer screening, HIV testing and other essential care. The American Fertility Association (The AFA), a national family building not-for-profit organization, vehemently opposes this action, which puts the health of underserved Americans, particularly women, at great risk.
“The AFA is dedicated to helping all people build healthy families. This biased action by the House of Representatives is clearly an orchestrated attack on those who depend on these services the most, including rape victims who have nowhere else to turn, teenaged women who have no familial support that they can count on and tens of thousands of low income families nationwide. This large group of American citizens will now be without access to cancer screenings, STD testing or family planning support,” states Ken Mosesian, Executive Director of The AFA.
Approximately 98% of all Planned Parenthood services are for contraception, STI/STD testing, cancer testing and screening, and pregnancy, prenatal, midlife and infertility treatments for women. Approximately 2% of all services are for abortions.
This is, by far, the most dangerous legislative assault on women's health in recent history, and it cannot go unanswered. Please join The American Fertility Association in standing with Planned Parenthood and with the millions of women, men, and teens they serve, who are now at risk of losing access to basic care. Planned Parenthood has drafted an open letter to every single representative in the House who voted for this inexcusable bill, and to every senator who still has a chance to stop it. Visit Planned Parenthood’s website http://www.plannedparenthood.org/ to sign the open letter, and take a stand for those most in need.
The American Fertility Association, a 501 (c) (3) national not-for-profit organization is a lifetime resource for infertility prevention, reproductive health and family building. The AFA's services and materials are provided free of charge to consumers and available to everyone without reservation. These services include an extensive online library, high-definition videos, telephone and in-person coaching, a resource directory, a daily blog, and a toll-free support line.
“Personhood” bills are threatening both women’s reproductive rights and access to IVF in all 50 states; however, the two states where they are currently building a great deal of support are Iowa (HF 153) and Oklahoma (HB 1571). These bills are clearly intended to limit IVF treatment, certain forms (if not almost all) of birth control, as well as protecting all life “from the moment of conception, while removing any and all judicial oversight and interpretation.
But, it does not stop there - other states such as Colorado, Montana, Nevada, & North Dakota also have petitions being circulated at a rapid rate for inclusion via ballot or legislation. And, let’s not forget the recent attacks on surrogacy in both Arizona and South Dakota.
As for Iowa and Oklahoma, be aware that these bills are a clear attempt to provide all rights and protections currently only provided to those functioning outside of a woman’s uterus to a fertilized egg in a petri dish or in a woman’s fallopian tube. In short, a woman who does become pregnant would not only lose her right to any medical privacy, she will essentially lose any decision-making authority over her own health.
Some may claim these ramifications of the legislation are both “far-fetched and absurd:” however, one must not forget that many women all over the country have been arrested and charged under the guise of “personhood.” This bill unequivocally threatens the reproductive rights of women across the entire country.
And, let’s not forget the impact on IVF - as it is more than a mere slippery slope since the bills intend to impede the ability of those who suffer from the disease of infertility to seek treatment to create their family. By giving constitutional rights to embryos, the bill will effectively restrict a patient’s right to make any decisions regarding their embryos, while leaving physicians to provide care under the threat of criminal action. These bills intend for the law to consider all embryos as human, regardless of their ability to either implant in the uterus or develop into a person, and their impact will leave patients and their doctors with the inability to decide what is best for them and their treatment.
In short, with “personhood” bills being promoted across the country that will restrict a woman’s reproductive rights and restrict the creation of families, what are we to do? We (as patients, women, men, mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers) need to stand firm against the legislators that are proposing these bills and supporters who are circulating petitions as they have the potential to impact the human race as we know it. Stand up and be heard, keep abreast of what is happening in your state, write your legislators, and use the power of your vote to keep these bills off of the docket. Reaction now needs to become action in the future. We did it in Colorado in 2009 and 2010, and it can be done again.
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