now witness the POWER of this FULLY ARMED and OPERATIONAL feminist

[xenologer]

Had to get up really early to be at the state house this morning, but it was worth it. I was testifying against a bill in a committee hearing to defund Planned Parenthood in Indiana, and I got to be the first of the opposition to speak (right after the lady from Right to Life, sitting there with her mouth all pinched up tightly as a cat's asshole).

I'm pretty proud of how I did, and I think I helped. One of the Planned Parenthood lobbyists asked me to email her my testimony so that they could use it as an example of How It Is Done (eeeeee!) and so I thought I'd relay it to y'all as well.

My name is [my name], here on behalf of Planned Parenthood, mostly because of how much I owe of my own health and success to Planned Parenthood. I'm the first woman in my family to get a college degree. My parents were supportive, but we're a military family and as you're all aware, people don't enlist for the money.

My parents were proud, but when it came to the financial end of a $120,000 education, that was entirely up to me. I had no money left over for doctors. I literally endorsed my paychecks and physically handed them over to Butler University.

It would have been easy to sacrifice my health for the sake of being the first woman to finish, but thanks to Planned Parenthood it wasn't necessary. They clearly don't believe young women should have to choose between an education and basic preventative care, and Planned Parenthood are the people doing something about it.

I'll be 25 in a month and I've only had one routine pelvic that wasn't provided at reduced cost by Planned Parenthood. For years, that made Planned Parenthood the only place I could afford to get checkups. I had one shot to get a degree, and I was willing to put everything else second.

I still did do it. My late great-grandmother, who was a young woman during the Depression, got to see our family, after almost eighty years, produce a woman with a college degree. We're talking about a woman for whom birth control pills might as well have been magic. I wasn't stopped by poverty. I wasn't stopped by the looming threat of pregnancy derailing this dream for yet another generation.

If not for Planned Parenthood, I might have been. I see in this legislation a clear statement that women in my position should have to choose between our health and our education, that I should have had to choose: either I can have doctors or knowledge but not both.

It's 2011... and we can give women better options than that. Planned Parenthood are the people offering better options.

Reliable access to preventative care and birth control were the difference between the women in my family for the past eighty years and this woman now. When you're asking yourself whether you approve of Planned Parenthood's impact on this state, you are asking yourself about me.

Do you approve of Planned Parenthood's impact on my life? Or don't you?

Because Planned Parenthood gives women access to a legal procedure that some people may wish you could keep them from having, are you really going to let my success story be one of the last?

This bill has to go, and by saying so here today I hope to repay in small part the debt I owe to this organization. I'm proud to give this act of testifying and my tax dollars for Planned Parenthood and the patients who need them. Thank you for your time.

There's a chance the bill will indeed fail, because the Democrats on this committee are people I pretty much trust not to be horrible shits. I also don't think it'll pass because they try this every damn year. However, both the House and Senate in Indiana are controlled by Republicans, so there's no saying for certain what fuckery they'll get up to.

I'm going back tomorrow, and this time the mister is coming with me. I mentioned offhand to the Planned Parenthood people that he's a pharmacist, and they told me the House added a bill regulating a RU-486 in a particular very stupid way to the committee schedule at the last minute. I got an emphatic Facebook message from the Planned Parenthood lobbyist ("CALL ME" and her phone number. "Right now?" "YES."). She wants him to be available to read a statement on the bill written by one of his former professors and answer questions if the representatives have them.

The Planned Parenthood lobbyist who alerted me to all this told him that we're her new favorite couple. We're my favorite couple, too. The couple that cockpunches the patriarchy together stays together, yeah?

Comments

[the_future_modernes]

this post is WORTH IT for the title ALONE!!! And yeah you for advocating!!! Hopefully you all can stave of the damned Republicans.

[amalnahurriyeh]

The couple that cockpunches the patriarchy together stays together, yeah?

You need to have this put on tshirts. Or, like, engraved on your wedding rings (or equivalent object based on your feelings about marriage).

Go you! And your testimony is fabulous.

[knitminder]

Oh, this is brilliant. It is eloquent and classy. Thank you for being a voice of reason and compassion in a cacophony of vitriolic rhetoric.

[silveradept]

This is an excellent testimony for the need to not only have Planned Parenthood, but to make it so that everyone has access, reagardless of income or status, to services that will keep them healthy.

[safenthecity.livejournal.com]

Ashley, I am ever in awe of you.

I also love the mental image of you and Brian in superhero costumes, laying the smackdown on the patriarchy while holding hands and having silly couple's quips as you kick ass.

This is how I shall picture you two forever.

[e-mily.livejournal.com]

You two are the BEST couple. I love you both.

[raven-moon.livejournal.com]

Awesome day's work, both of you!

Is it me, or are these bills and initiatives and resolutions coming faster with every passing week? From a woman who also owes PP a debt of gratitude, thank you!

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's in your imagination. The Feminist Majority is calling it "The War On Women" and that's just all the proposals at the federal level. I would pay good money to someone to drive to D.C. and kick Mike Pence's ass.

[keori.livejournal.com]

It's not just you. There is a coordinated attack by the radical christian right to eliminate women's access to reproductive healthcare. The bills to defund PP are just the latest in the string. Meanwhile, moderate Republicans like President Obama want to "reach out" and "find common ground" with these sick, delusional scumbags.

http://keori.livejournal.com/376848.html

It's amazing the lengths these people will go to in order to turn America into Gilead, and women back into chattel. FIGHT BACK.

And Ash, I am exceptionally proud of you. Well done.

It's not your imagination -- it's a successful tactic!

[motherwell.livejournal.com]

Sun Tsu wrote: "Appear where you are least expected and force your enemy to run hither and thither" reacting to your actions. It's what the GOP have been doing since 2001: keep the stupid, hateful and insane actions coming faster than we can respond to even a fraction of them.

I was hoping Obama would return the favor as soon as he took office, but that seems not to be in the cards. We need more liberals reading Sun Tsu.

[ievil-spock-47i.livejournal.com]

You rock!

[fragmentedsky.livejournal.com]

You're so badass!

[kingofdoma.livejournal.com]

So... proud... flexing every muscle... not to hug you in joy and pride... ... >.<

*THROWS THE WORLD OUT OF ORBIT .1023 DEGREES*

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH THIS WAS AWESOME AND IT'S LIKE THE GREATEST THING YOU COULD DO YOU'RE AMAZING I'M SLIGHTLY JEALOUS RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR

[sorayuy.livejournal.com]

That is one of the best speeches I have ever had the privilege to come across in my life. I look forward to hearing what the both of you say tomorrow. =D

[hversu.livejournal.com]

Wow. Thanks for standing up for me and for all other self-respecting women. Excellent testimony.

I think you guys are my new favorite couple too, and I don't even know you.

Damn Fine Showing!

[motherwell.livejournal.com]

I've resolved to get more involved in politics, possibly (being a tech-writer) gathering and organizing information to use to retake the PR initiative and start re-casting the Republicans as ignorant, incompetent, bigoted, insane, and WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING. I've sent emails to MoveOn and other organizations, but got no response. Any ideas of who I can contact?

[amphoraofsmoke.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[crysthewolf.livejournal.com]

"The couple that cockpunches the patriarchy together stays together, yeah?"

ROFL!!! *dies of awesome*

Sorry I didn't make it. Had a really rough couple of days beforehand, stayed up too late the night before, and woke up at 10am the next day thinking, "Shit! I was gonna go to that rally!!! Fuck fuck fuck!!!" :( That and the only time I've gone to PP for anything I was doubled over in pain for the next several days. Not THEIR fault certainly, but I think it probably made me chomp at the bit a bit less. I think they're This, however, definitely inspires me to be more activisty about the whole business.