Why I’m donating $700 to Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio

You can stroll down any street in New York and be confronted by a couple of smiley faces with clipboards and iPads. You can close your guilty little eyelids and shrug past their humble pleas for donations because you’d rather spend $10 on a California roll that you don’t really need, or you could swallow your pride, wake the fuck up and donate some money — because Planned Parenthood and other organizations really need it, especially in states like Ohio.

Since the election, Planned Parenthood has received more than 315,000 donations and upwards of 100,000 of these were made in the name of the delightful Mike Pence. As huge as those numbers are and smug as the latter of that sentence may make you, they’re always in need of more.

America’s reproductive rights right now are in a bit of a sticky situation (to say the least), and it’s been looking like Trump’s pro-life administration will defund Planned Parenthood putting a lot of women who rely on the nonprofit for reproductive healthcare in a dangerous situation.

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We’ve already begun to see the tragic effects of the abrasive pro-life camp in Ohio. This week, the strictest abortion law in the whole of the U.S. was vetoed by Governor John Kasich. It would’ve banned abortions when a fetal heartbeat is detected which is sometimes only six weeks into a pregnancy. Oh, and there’d be no exceptions for rape or incest.

Kasich’s refusal to sign the bill is a win, but it’s important to remember that he did sign Senate Bill 127, another scary initiative that forbids abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, again with no exceptions for rape or incest.

To put all this bullshit into perspective, the previous laws in Ohio restricted abortions after 24 weeks and also allowed exceptions for rape, incest, and health complications. SB 127 is unconstitutional, as it violates Roe v. Wade, which made abortion legal until “viability,” which usually considered to be 22 to 24 weeks. Many pro-choice advocates are concerned that SB 127 is the beginning of a long fight on the part of pro-lifers to have Roe v. Wade abolished.

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As part of our charity initiative at The Tab, we’re donating $1000 to charities selected by editors in our New York office and of that lump sum, I’ve chosen to send $700 to Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio based on the news these past few months.

They provide reproductive health care services to women and men, which are essential and nowhere near as widely available as they should be. Specifically, they provide services to help people make lifelong informed choices, focusing on preventing unwanted pregnancies, STI prevention and treatment, care for reproductive cancers and responsibility.

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As a British girl, I’ve grown up knowing I won’t fall into pregnancy and parenthood before I’m ready. My friendship groups have been a mixture of girls on the pill, girls fitted with IUDs and implants, girls that have taken the morning after pill, and girls that have had abortions. All of which have been free, or costing next to nothing.

Living in America through the tail end on 2016, I’ve realized how much we take this for granted in Britain and more importantly, how shitty girls in America and other countries around the world have it when it comes to reproductive health.

It’s very possibly going to get worse, but hopefully our $700 can make a difference in Ohio for now.

If you’d like to donate too, you can do so here.