Friday, July 29, 2011

A Fair Reflection on Planning Parenthood

OK, so maybe “family planning” isn’t the first topic to pop into your head when I say “4-H Fair,” but then again, there’s a lot of frank talk about animal husbandry around those dusty fairgrounds, and plenty of teenagers with sun-struck hormones. I’d say it makes perfect sense that 30 volunteers put in nearly 100 hours at the recent St. Joseph County 4-H Fair at a booth with information about human health and sexuality. My time at the Planned Parenthood booth was eye-opening, but not in the way I expected when I settled my middle-aged and smiley self at the table full of educational pamphlets, beneath the placard that said, “Sexuality is part of life.  Talk about it.”

Here’s my full disclosure:  I am one of fleets of volunteers in Indiana who support Planned Parenthood’s health services and education programs for people of all ages.  I do this as an active citizen with an historical perspective, because the track-record is clear:  People with accurate information make better choices about health, sexuality, disease-prevention, and family planning than people without information. This has always been the case.  Our historical moment is an interesting one – super-saturated with sexual images, but still so clumsy and haphazard about providing our adolescents, parents, and older adults with the information and resources they need to make informed decisions.

What I learned at the 4-H fair – besides the fact that it’s a grave mistake to eat more than one elephant ear in a single day – is that people are hungry for information about all aspects of their own biology, as well as how to talk to their kids – and grand-kids – about theirs.  Two of the most popular pamphlets on our table were cheerful male and female trifolds on puberty titled “The Incredible Male (and Female) Body!” Moms holding sticky toddlers by the arms, dads with 10-year-olds who looked at our colorful table with fascination and horror—they all tucked those pamphlets into purses and folded them into back pockets of Levi’s, along with other handouts on abstinence, no-nonsense cards on birth control options, lists of life-saving cancer-screenings for men and women, just to name a few.  I thought my booth hours might be boring, but in fact one lively conversation followed another: A young mother, her bright-eyed, goo-gooing infant tucked in a floral sling, wanted to know more about the new IUDs.  An upbeat family of six – in matching patriotic t-shirts and curlicue ringlets—approached the table so that the earnest mom could thank Planned Parenthood for her excellent prenatal care.  A group of serious, pony-tailed high-school girls asked about earning their Girl Scout Gold Awards by volunteering at Planned Parenthood.  Giggling freckled boys tried to shove the rainbow-decorated pamphlets on menstruation into one another’s hands, it’s true, but even they were game for some friendly conversation about their health classes at school.  As deeply uncool as I am, it was gratifying to see strangers approach the table wanting to learn more, and trusting that someone kind and respectful could help them.

All the volunteers at our table – ages 18 to 70-something – are the living legacy of Margaret Sanger, who founded Planned Parenthood nearly 100 years ago in an historical moment also fascinated and confused by sexuality, and tragically lacking accurate information. Sanger became an educator and birth control activist after growing up in poverty in a family of 11 children, and was inspired by her work as an urban nurse with mothers whose health was broken by a dozen or more pregnancies and whose families were strained and starving and desperately sought another path.  It was a radical new idea – that families were important enough to plan.  Sanger said that “motherhood should be put on a higher plane than ignorance and accident,” and studies prove her theory that people with accurate information will delay sexual activity and engage in it more responsibly later.  And there is always more to learn: Did you know that the fastest-growing STD and HIV rates in this country are in the 50 and older set?

Planned Parenthood has been bounced around politically more than a soccer ball at a women’s World Cup game, and we should consider why health care – especially women’s health care – is a target now. This is not a century ago; we know more than we ever have about education and providing resources for healthy families, but funding those pro-active solutions is another question.  Keep your eye on the Affordable Health Care Act, and think about the proposals for low-cost or no-cost contraception. Imagine: more education and preventive health care, fewer unwanted pregnancies and disease.  We can do this.  If we can breed the fluffiest bunnies for the 4-H fair, we can certainly do right for the health of humans.  I know, it’s so un-sexy to talk about biology, but frank conversation is what we need most.  I have high hopes for our species, still.  Don’t you?

Broadcast by April Lidinsky on July 29, 2011 • WVPE's Audio Archive
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