Kitsch Magazine: Fall 2015

as compared to New York City means that state funding is often
allocated downstate, leading to strains in resources. And a
major difficulty for patients in accessing Planned Parenthood’s
health services is the availability and cost of transportation in
upstate New York—there is no abundance of buses and trains
like there is downstate. If someone cannot get transportation
or time off work, they could have to delay their appointment
by weeks. “For many people, we’re the only doctor that they
see that they can have access to, and we’re one of the only
Medicaid providers in the area,” said Gipson. Being in a rural
community also affects the education work they do. New York
State does not require schools to teach sex ed, so there is
“a massive inconsistency” in what students learn. “Often our
education and outreach staff are really the only informed,
expert resource they’ll come in contact with about the actual
facts,” said Kelly. “We’re dedicated to combating the myths,
making sure that young people, in particular, know that they
actually have a lot of rights, being a New Yorker. If they were
living in Pennsylvania, it’d be a really different story—they
don’t have the same kind of access.”
“All the Restrictions and the Barriers”
In the 21 years since Kelly began work at Planned
Parenthood, limitations on reproductive rights have only
become stricter and stricter. “When you look at all the
restrictions and the barriers and just the sheer volume of votes
have is based on the idea that ‘if we don’t tell young people,
they won’t do it,’ which is just the opposite of everything we
know,” Kelly said. She cited the Netherlands as a place where
they start sexual education much earlier, in much more detail
than the US does, and the average age of becoming sexually
active is two years later than it is here. Similarly, the states
with the highest teen pregnancy rates are New Mexico,
Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma—all
states with abstinence-only education. Meanwhile, states with
comprehensive sexual education have the lowest rates.
Kelly said that in the future, one of her dreams is to
have a drop-in, after-school sex ed program, where students
can feel comfortable asking any questions they have about
sex and relationships and all the things they don’t talk about
in school. “We want to make sure there are many more ways
for people to access information and support and resources to
have full, healthy sexual lives as people, instead of relegating
that to one semester, one class,” she said. “When you ask a
group of college students in their freshman year, ‘how many
people got a really accurate, adequate, and complete sex
education?’ people are like... ‘yeah no.’ And so there’s gaps.”
Planned Parenthood also works with campus advocacy groups
to do many dorm education programs at area colleges. “The
demographics we serve overlap with college students, we
serve a ton of students. So making sure we are engaging
“ ”
The recent attacks on Planned Parenthood have not affected operations in
that we have not been closed a single day because of them.
But we are seeing an uptick in protests.
we’re fighting against, it has definitely been sliding backwards,”
she said. When Kelly started her job, many of the doctors
she worked with were able to recall the time when abortion
was illegal, and all of the medical consequences that came
along with it. “They had a really different, intimate orientation
to seeing what that looked like—the sepsis, and the loss of
fertility, and the infections—they saw that,” said Kelly. And due
to all the increasing restrictions on abortion on both the state
and federal level, America has slowly, scarily, been returning to
this time: “I went to a national Planned Parenthood Conference
a few years ago, and a really brilliant CEO got up in front of
everyone and said: ‘We live in post-Roe America; it’s now.” In
other words, we no longer have to imagine what it would
be like if the 1973 court case that legalized abortion were
overturned—there are now so many restrictions on abortion,
that for many people, it effectively is illegal.
And restrictions have not just been tightening when
it comes to abortion, but also when it comes to sex ed. Kelly
noted that in 1994, she could teach much more in middle
schools than her education staff can now, thanks to the federal
push for “abstinence-only” education that began in 1998.
According to Advocates for Youth, none of these programs have
been shown to have any success in delaying sexual activity or
reducing teen pregnancy, and often contribute to the spread
of misinformation about the effectiveness of contraception.
“Unfortunately, a lot of the ways that information gets tinted
by some of the shame and assumptions and hopes that people
students we are providing services for and helping them feel
empowered can empower us all,” said Gipson, who oversees the
campus organizing program.
“An Uptick in Protests”
“The recent attacks on Planned Parenthood have not
affected operations in that we have not been closed a single
day because of them. But we are seeing an uptick in protests,”
said Kelly. The Ithaca health center sees regular protesters who
stand across the street with signs, but do not bother patients
and staff. The health center in Corning sometimes gets “more
aggressive” protesters. And ever since the fraudulent videos
were released, PPSFL’s Hornell center, one of the smallest
clinics, has been seeing up to 40 protesters show up at a time,
harassing patients as they try to enter the building. The staff
discovered that the protesters are not local, and are being
bussed in from outside of the communities they serve. “Our
first thought is always ‘how can we make our patients feel
safe?’” said Gipson. “Having escorts to walk you from your car
to the health center makes a huge difference for patients.”
The fallout from the attacks has also forced them to
keep an even closer eye on what is happening in Congress.
“Politically, we’ve been paying attention to our elected officials
and how they’re voting. Tom Reed just voted to defund Planned
Parenthood for the second time. We are grateful that Obama
is in office because he is going to veto that bill, but it is
something that we are constantly thinking about and looking
at,” said Gipson. While PPSFL does not have to worry about
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