Jeanine Clarke: Why cover a protest based on misinformation?
Re “Protest went unnoticed by Bee” (Letters, Aug. 30): If the protestors standing in front of the Planned Parenthood office on McHenry on Aug. 22 were sharing inaccurate information regarding this organization, it is just as well that The Bee did not cover their protest.
In 1916, Margaret Sanger began setting up clinics in poor neighborhoods to provide women with health services they probably would have gone without. Her intention was not to reduce the black, Italian, Jewish and Irish populations. According to Planned Parenthood, abortions are only 3 percent of their total services. The remaining 97 percent consists of cancer screening, contraception, diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases for both women and men, and men's health issues such as infertility and testicular cancer.
Individual opinions regarding the abortion issue and the use of fetal tissue for research are very personal, but they should not result in the withdrawal of federal funding for Planned Parenthood because of the valuable services it provides.
Jeanine Clarke, Salida
This story was originally published September 1, 2015 at 6:57 PM with the headline "Jeanine Clarke: Why cover a protest based on misinformation?."