Past Client of PPCW Wants PP Kept Out of Pasco: "No loving, caring caregivers there"

The following is testimony given to the Pasco Planning Commission, June 18, 2009:

My name is Christine W. and I live [Pasco] and I am here to say that I don't want Planned Parenthood in our community, and I have very personal reasons for that.

When I was 16, I found out I was pregnant. I was terrified. All of my family and friends told me that an abortion would fix all my problems. So I went to the Planned Parenthood in Kennewick.

I was treated like a number. There were no loving, caring caregivers there!

After my abortion, my life just fell apart. All the things that everyone was worried about happening to me happened because I was so upset at myself. To me that wasn't a blob of tissue; it was a baby.

Our girls deserve better than this. Our sisters, our daughters, and our mothers. If we are truly caring people, then instead of asking them to choose between their baby and money, or their baby and education, or their boyfriend, or their husband, we should instead provide loving, caring support for those women.

I have talked to a lot of women who have had abortions, and the saddest thing I hear from them is: "If I had only known, if I had only known, I would have never done it."

That's the saddest thing, because it's a lifelong decision. You have to live with it for the rest of your life. Forever.

(Anna Franks, president of Planned Parenthood of Central Washington, who was also present at the meeting, was not solicited for comment or feedback.)