NEW PLANNED PARENTHOOD INCITES PROTESTS IN SPRING 
This 7th Houston-area Planned Parenthood, which signed a 5-year lease and opened last week here at 4747 Louetta Rd. in a Spring shopping center shared by a Chase branch, party supply store, and daycare, doesn’t seem to have received the warmest welcome: Cool Kat Party Supply owner Glenn Mehterian says he moved his main entrance around the corner: “We’ll have more comfort entering our store from the Kroger side,” he tells abc13. And others have been moved to protest the clinic in their own way: Conroe man and Right to Life volunteer Joe Wiegan has come here to pray: “It was a lonesome feeling,” he tells the Montgomery County Courier’s Kimberly Sutton, “but after about half an hour, a man and his young son walked out of the Chase Bank next door and asked if they could join me . . . . He led a beautiful prayer for the unborn and they left with tears in their eyes. . . . .” Then Wiegan was joined by another: “He said he passed by earlier and asked God to please keep me here until he got back by so he could stop and pray with me . . . He was an awesome bear of a man, with a spirit as gentle as a lamb’s.” [abc13; Montgomery County Courier; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Montgomery County Courier
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I believe the term for this sort of folk is “moran”
Nothing like a little ignorance of your body to wind you up with welfare babies and some communicable diseases. These clinics provide annuals for women among other valuable services, I fail to see how this is a problem but then I remember the sorts of kooks that oppose planned parenthood.
Thank God for the current generation of silent “prayer warriors” rather than the ’80s and ’90s “Operation Rescue”-style of noisy, trespassing protesters with gory signs (though there are still some of these old guard around). The new method is actually far more effective and less polarizing.
Why is there an article in todays swamplot about crazies praying in a parking lot?
Funny, and just today, the news broke that the USA has the WORST first day infant mortality rate of all industrialized nations. Instead of praying for the unborn, maybe he should start praying for the born…
“Moran” is indeed a good term for people that believe that the reason these clinics are opposed is because they “provide annuals for women” and “other valuable services”…
why don’t these people protest for better public resources for families and single parents if they want to decrease abortion? it’s the single statistical metric that can guarantee a reduced rate of abortions. i often wonder about this and why these opponents continue to waste time on activities that have clearly been shown as having no effect, if not the opposite.
being against it completely is of course a foolish proposition, just reference any story of prohibition throughout recorded history. wish these people would do more research rather than protesting, we’d all be better off for it.
I suppose this story is somewhat related to real estate, but only slightly more so than any other news story that occurs in or around a building.
I could bore you all with my views on abortion and religion, but Swamplot is one of the few places I actually gain something from reading the comments. So I won’t crap where I eat.
I nominate Alec for comment of the day.
Surprised PP picked a strip mall seeing how easily protesters can be there and be seen by shoppers, unlike their main facility, the stair-stepped former Sterling Bank bldg on the Gulf Fwy, aka Stairway to Heaven.
Just when you thought Louetta couldn’t get any trashier…
“being against it completely is of course a foolish proposition, just reference any story of prohibition throughout recorded history.”
Slavery?
If anything it’s a sign the hood has gone downhill.
And abortions tickle so I expect to hear lots of giggling.
It’s so ironic that it shares a building with a Child Care facility, and PP is the most child uncaring group in the world. It amazes me that in 2013 anyone can consider someone who murders babies to be a good thing. PP is the real war on women.
“PP is the most child uncaring group in the world”
I find it difficult to believe that critics of Planned Parenthood really care about kids when every single attempt to do anything for children in need, whether it’s food assistance for poor families, health care, or the relentless rightwing attempts to undermine public education. These people do not give a rip about kids. They are transparently hateful of any kid in a tough situation. And don’t give me this about charities doing the Lord’s work; if charities could meet those needs, they would, and we wouldn’t have to talk about this stuff.
Opinions on abortion are like assholes. Everyone has one, and nobody wants to see yours.
I find the comments conflating providing healthcare to poor women with trashiness to be misogynistic in the extreme.
I beg your pardon…I allowed my frustration to get the best of me. I intended to point out that the moralists of the American rightwing repeatedly OPPOSE any and all attempts to extend help to those in need, including children, because apparently God says sex must be regulated, but those Biblical precepts that address care for the disadvantaged must not be. That’s how it goes with conservatives: sacrifice is for other people, and morals only mean something as long as it doesn’t cost them anything. Dare suggest their own supposed morality be actually written into law, and they become indignant.
@JB If by “babies” you mean an inanimate microscopic collection of cells. also, does this PP even do abortions? many do not.
I would at least hope that PP did their homework and looked at teenage birth rates in that area before opening a storefront someplace where it’s clearly NOT needed.
/sarcasm
I believe that preventing unplanned parenthood starts in the home with the parents of the potential mother/father to be. Of course, some of their parents probably do a lot of praying that their kids won’t become teenage parents. How’s that working??
Planned Parenthood is about a lot more than abortions.
Ignorance breeds ignorance.
Doofus, that’s not a surprise as most other countries don’t have such an expansive view of the term “live birth” as other countries – in most babies born that are less than “x” long or that have less than “y” weeks gestational age aren’t counted as live.
That should read “most other countries don’t have such an expansive view of the term “live birth†as the United States does”
What the hell do people who live in Spring do for work? Besides Sonic cashier I mean.
“Planned Parenthood is about a lot more than abortions.”
But it has performed over 50 million of them since 1972. How easily some people will overlook this, because they offer “helpful services to women.”
“@JB If by “babies†you mean an inanimate microscopic collection of cells.”
Heartbeat, eyes, and fingernails by the second month.
Nice troll job Swamplot!
“I believe that preventing unplanned parenthood starts in the home with the parents of the potential mother/father to be.”
Even if for some creepy reason, you feel your parents should have a say in you birth control choices, unless one or both of them is a gynecologist, you still need to access medical care.
Also, we do realize that it is not only teenagers that require family planning services, correct? The level of discourse in this thread is somewhat disturbing.
I think what some fail to understand is that the protestors are mainly only opposed to the abortions, not the other care women are offered.
It is well documented in the scientific community that life begins at conception. Abortion is killing life
http://www.princeton.edu/~prolife/articles/embryoquotes2.html
these protestors should get a job. whether they are protesting keystone XL pipeline, abortion clinic, save whales, or some other bullshit, GET A JOB DEADBEAT PROTESTORS
Someone should abort this thread
Once more, old white men opposed to “Big Government” want to tell women what to do
with their bodies . . . this would be Big Government at its biggest!
There are some socioligists that show a link between the relatively easy access to abortion to the “disadvantaged” class and a large drop in crime over the last 20 years. Just saying.
Most PP do not offer abortion services anyway. The only one in Houston that does is the location off of the Gulf Freeway.
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Not even going to touch the abortion argument or ignorance about health services…
“We is FREEDOM LOVIN’BEEBLES” . . . George H.W. “Lyin’ my Ass Off!” Busch
@commonsense the majority of aborted American babies are also black. Most “disadvantaged” people are also minorities. Is this not suppressing minorities all over again? This time, however, it is to prevent them from even existing (outside the womb at least)
@biggie I’m certain there are people of all colors and ethnicities around the world that oppose killing life inside the womb.
Most of the storefront locations of Planned Parenthood in town are non-surgical, so they don’t perform abortions. Pray all you want you guys.
@jessie
I missed the part where the minority women were forced to abort. It isn’t oppression of the poor at all. Forcing them to bear the expenses of a child they can’t care for… Now that’s financial oppression. It doesn’t help that the pro-life movement is aligned with right wing groups that also oppose welfare, food stamps, contraceptives…
@Jessie M, how this oppression when the services are entirely voluntary and in fact discouraged at every step of the way? It also provides for better life for parents, prevents neglected children, and keeps the crime lower (not my word, sociolgists’ words)
@purdueenginerd
It is not direct suppression, you’re right, but allowing them to kill their own is not uplifting them either.
Not being able to afford a baby is not the greatest justification for killing it. people would be upset if a zoo ever made a decision like that for an animal. People would be urging them to give it away (give it up for adoption) instead. Why isn’t the same alternative suggested for humans?
True that we could all help the poor a little more, but we must define poor. American poor people are more wealthy than the majority of the world and in some ways than ancient kings. Most still have air conditioning, clean running water, plumbing and even cable tv. I’m all for assisting with true needs.
Sorry, forgot to say something else.
Saying those who aren’t for food stamps etc is essentially calling them greedy and selfish. But the mother who aborts her baby is doing the exact same thing – thinking of herself and not the baby.
I’m not saying we don’t all make wrong decisions sometimes and that a woman who does this cannot receive forgiveness.
Jessie and Mike, not making any assumptions about your beliefs just by these comments, but I am hopeful that those with strong beliefs such as yours about the value of life will finally get it that if life begins at conception, it doesn’t end at birth. I would love to see so much energy go into making life for those already born as important as those who aren’t, like health care availability, food, clean water, proper care for the mentally and otherwise disabled, and the list goes on. Only then can you consider yourself pro-life. As for PP, they are doing good work for people who have no other option…unless of course you would like to open your heart and checkbook to help??????
@commonsense we must define better. Many girls don’t realize what they’re getting into only later to understand the truth of the situation. That has become a horrible experience for some.
Better is simply a euphuism for irresponsibility and selfishness. I think most don’t realize that at the time however. Regardless, adoption is still better than killing the baby, isn’t it?
Neglect is better than death. It is little know that there are waiting lists for adoptions. But the means of prevention is murder. I believe there are better ways to prevent neglect and crime.
@sjh i agree with You. I have recurring automatic payments that go towards people who are disadvantaged. That doesn’t make me a better person or even a good person. If a human is alive, in the womb or not, we should support their true needs. I cannot however support someone financially that is taking away life. I don’t support al-queda, neither abortions. Both kill
For all of you men commenting on the perils of abortion, grow a uterus and we’ll consider your opinion. Until then, kindly STFU.
@ anon #26,
I’m not going to attack you here but if you don’t understand what role parents can play in the future behavior of their children, then you’re probably not a parent.
Why do you think so many teenagers are parents now? Do you really believe that two 16 year old high school students went out to mess around hoping to create a baby? That’s a creepy thought right there.
If they’d been taught about prevention, they’d at least have had a choice.
Your whole second paragraph in #26 was out of line. Yes, now I’m attacking you.
There’s about 120,000 kids adopted per year in the US. The shortfall per year is over 100,000. I totally support adoption, but i feel its naive to think the influx of 1 million unwanted children per year would be a positive for society. In addition, for the individual it still comes down to finances. Even if woman gives up the child to adoption… Prenatal healthcare and delivery without complications are going to run around $10,000 without insurance. That’s nearly the annual income of someone working full time on minimum wage. It’s this situation that pushed women to get back alley abortions for many years prior to roe v wade.
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The pro-life movement is not about giving alternative options to women. Many oppose contraceptive proliferation, which reduces abortion rates, many oppose sex education, which reduces abortion rates, they don’t support the improvement of these women’s lives. There’s nothing in their dogma that fixes, or remedies the fundamental socioeconomic reasons a woman gets an abortion. Their entire policy appears to be predicated on punishing women for sex. That isn’t pro-life.
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I am cool with someone being opposed to abortion, or encouraging alternatives. But the moment an attempt is made to punish women via the legal system for making a choice between surviving and not surviving its no longer pro-life. Like president Clinton said in 1996, “Abortion should not only be safe and legal, it should be rare.”
Parents can TALK as much as they want about birth control but they can’t actually prescribe birth control pills or insert IUDS, or fit for diaphragms. Ergo planned parenthood and services like them are still crucial for preventing unplanned pregnancy whether you are 16 or 39. Birth control does not fall out of the sky and into women’s vaginas, no matter how much more convenient that would be.
Children are like farts. You can only appreciate your own and other people’s are offensive.
To echo others above… Why, Swamplot? Hardly a real estate story this. Disappointing.
Planned Parenthood has, by making health services including medically accurate information about contraception available to women without the money or access to get those services elsewhere, prevented more abortions (by preventing unwanted pregnancies) than all the people praying in parking lots across America have done. They’re a big part if the reason that the teen pregnancy rate in the US is at its lowest level in 40 years.
Hdtex: My thoughts exactly. Thank you.
I think the real estate angle of this story is that PP was able to sign a lease in a commercial shopping center surrounded by other mainstream businesses. In other places around the country, opponents to contraceptive and family planning services have threatened real estate owners with protests if they lease to Planned Parenthood. When Planned Parenthood built a new facility in Austin a few years back, protesters were trying to intimidate the contractors working on the building.
As far as I know, the only place in Houston that PP provides abortion services is at the facility on the Gulf Freeway. This is likely just a stand alone clinic, no different that a minor emergency clinic, or even a group doctor’s office.
Now a political note-It’s interesting the Christian Scientists are never seen praying in front of doctor’s offices or hospitals.
“Birth control does not fall out of the sky and into women’s vaginas, no matter how much more convenient that would be.”
.
That would be awesome though!
As a point of order, I’d suggest that those who oppose abortion and who oppose family resources, welfare, etc, are not necessarily the same people even though they often vote conservatively. Union workers and greens, for example, have many positions at odds but still vote democrat and no one considers them hypocrites.
In NYC, Catholic Charities runs over 200 programs to service at risk youth; Aslan Youth ministries in NJ tutors over 275 children who live in housing projects. Closer to home, the Houston Food Bank feeds 865,000 people a year through a network of more than 500 food pantries, most of which are staffed and stocked by churches. The Chronicle of Philanthropy last year released a study showing that people in more religious states give a higher percentage of their income to charity – just because you may oppose federal programs to accomplish this work because they are already supporting it somewhere else, and probably somewhere that is more efficiently and more directly in touch with the needs of the population they are trying to serve.
Contraceptive use and abortion have risen in parallel in the United States. The relationship is not what you suppose, so y’all can quit arguing about that at least.
@luciaphile Even accepting your statement as fact (which I do not), you’re conflating correlation and causation. The number of Segways sold and the number of cases of rectal cancer diagnosed have also increased in parallel in the U.S. Many things correlate but have no causal relationship.
@ hdtex
Unless things have changed, the other half responsible for life are men. Are they not stakeholders?
Funny how people think it’s right to force their particular values on others; this is how I think and feel and thus you must do as I do. Even going so far as to deny people adequate healthcare reproductively speaking. While it’s fine to believe as you please, and have your own set of morals, denying people healthcare that is sorely needed is just plain wrong and shortsighted.
heyzeus, the Guttmacher Institute study seems to be the most well-known, and I quote:
“In seven countries—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan, Bulgaria, Turkey, Tunisia and Switzerland—abortion incidence declined as prevalence of modern contraceptive use rose. In six others—Cuba, Denmark, Netherlands, the United States, Singapore and the Republic of Korea—levels of abortion and contraceptive use rose simultaneously.”
Please note that the Guttmacher Institute is a division of Planned Parenthood.
A term to familiarize yourself with is “risk compensation,” although I would assign equal importance to cultural norms.
Having duly cited the left, I will now cite the right (although only in a universe where words have lost all meaning could the Catholic church be considered right and not left):
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/badcatholic/2012/11/does-contraception-reduce-the-abortion-rate.html
May I particularly draw your attention to the paragraph that begins “Now before the inevitable screams of ‘correlation does not equal causation!’ commence, let’s dive a little deeper.”
Please also note that my interest in the subject in no way “correlates” with a belief that human life is “sacred” nor have I said that I was either pro-life or pro-choice.
1. “only in a universe where words have lost all meaning could the Catholic church be considered right and not left”
Sure, the religious group that forbids abortion, forbids birth control, opposes all protections for homosexuals, and in which archbishops have on several occasions stated that they would refuse communion to anyone who voted democratic is not “right” on our political spectrum. You’re talking crazy talk.
2. The blog that you have posted on the issue of correlation and causation is an opinion piece. There’s no statistical analysis done, whatsoever, demonstrating causation between increasing contraceptive use and increasing abortion rates. But more to the point, it ignores the blatantly obvious answer to the question of why both contraceptive use and abortion rates would rise post 1965: Important legal decisions invalidating state laws outlawing the sale of contraceptives (Griswold, 1965) and abortion (cases leading up to Roe v. Wade, 1973).
Of COURSE contraceptive use and abortion rates would increase from 1965 forward. There are many factors explaining that, the simplest of which is that state laws prohibiting both were struck down.
Correlation: Still not causation in this instance.
The Church lives with the obvious tension, of being a stable institution keen to preserve itself, while promulgating the teachings of a destabilizing radical. In the twentieth century, it tipped even farther to the left — because it was safe to do so — and while still dying in Europe particularly remained strong in Latin America, and grew in Africa, not least in areas where Marxism and/or victimology were taking hold, and was sometimes allied with them. The modern Catholic church is the great friend of the poor and dispossessed — it practically has no other role now — and so belongs to the Left: the new pope made that explicit recently, not least of which with his choice of name. But the church is not anarchic — nor was Francis.
It is not “political” at all in the sense usually meant — or it would probably have ceded the issue of homosexuality already. The GOP’s concern for “life” is a very pale imitation of the pope’s (nor has that concern always been the exclusive province of the right). The death penalty is curious: the church’s position owes everything, near as I can tell, to modern liberal thought, and nothing to the Bible (for that reason the issue has bedeviled right-leaning Catholics — and no, there are not that many — I’m pretty sure they all wrote for National Review at some point). If the church operated on the scale of politics, it would have endorsed the death penalty, which until very recently retained overwhelmingly strong support here. As to the voting habits of Catholics — Google is your friend, heyzeus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_and_politics_in_the_United_States
The shift you see to a more even distribution after 1964 (and the recent anti-Obama business you mentioned) I suspect owes much to the rise of evangelism in America, which has not left the Catholic church untouched. It’s where the believers are. It probably also has something to do with prosperity and the successful integration of various earlier immigrant groups.
But doubling back again: the whole great force of liberalism can broadly be said to begin with Jesus and is a product of Western civ, which is is synonymous with the Church, with a little Platonism thrown in, and a little Judaism thrown out. What is now called conservatism is of course a strand in that liberal tradition as well.