Planning Parenthood

Planning to become a parent is a profound experience, at times agonizing, hopeful, stressful, and joyous. Not everyone is able to become pregnant, however. When the journey to parenthood proves challenging, Planning Parenthood will guide prospective parents through the complicated mazes of assisted reproduction and adoption. Specialist authors first describe fertility assistance, surrogacy, and adoption, clearly outlining the requirements of each strategy. They compare the medical, emotional, financial, and legal investments and risks involved with each of these options. Then they introduce the issues that people will need to consider when deciding which path to parenthood is best for them. Along the way these experts offer encouragement for changing course under any number of circumstances. Supporting the detailed information in this book are personal stories of the often long, winding, and emotional road to parenthood—from in vitro fertilization to egg donation to surrogacy to adoption. Armed with professional knowledge and inspired by the experiences of others who have gone before them, prospective parents will be informed and reassured by this unique resource.

In Sacred Work, Tom Davis brings to light the ways in which the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a leading reproductive rights organization, and the clergy are not as incongruent as they often are construed to be. Beginning with Margaret Sanger's efforts to include mainline clergy in the fight to provide information about contraceptives to the general public, Davis details the religious and historical dimensions of this long alliance up through current debates.

Did you ever walk out of class having even more questions than when you walked in? You may feel that way about History or Math, but what about your Sexual Health class (if you even had one)? If you’re anything like most of the youth in America today, your head is probably spinning with a swirling, high-speed hurricane of questions. It is totally normal to be curious and to have questions about relationships, bodies, consent . . . you name it! But where can your average teen go to get all the reliable and accurate answers they need? In Case You’re Curious (ICYC), a text-and-answer program conceived by Planned Parenthood, has been providing this educational service for teens for years. And now In Case You’re Curious: Questions about Sex from Young People with Answers from the Experts is a big book of answers with funny and educational illustrations, to the most popular and most interesting questions young people have about birth control, development, sexually transmitted diseases, and so much more. Within these pages you will find non-judgmental (and fun!) answers meant to educate teens without the uncomfortable silence or weird eye contact often associated with “The Talk.” With questions like “Does masturbating give you a disease?” and “Is the pineapple thing true?” In Case You’re Curious isn’t afraid to tackle the nitty-gritty questions you may think twice about raising your hand to ask in your Sexual Health class or at home.

The author shares her journey from Planned Parenthood director to anti-abortion activist.

For many women in their 20's and 30's, the greatest professional hurdle they'll need to overcome has little to do with their work life. The most focused, confident, and ambitious women can find themselves derailed by a tiny little thing: a new baby. While more workplaces are espousing family-friendly cultures, women are still subject to a "parenting penalty" and high-profile conflicts between parenting and the workplace are all over the news: from the controversy over companies covering the costs of egg-freezing to the debate over parental leave and childcare inspired by Marissa Mayer's policies at Yahoo. Here's the Plan offers an inventive and inspiring roadmap for working mothers steering their careers through the parenting years. Author Allyson Downey, founder of weeSpring, the "Yelp for baby products,” and mother of two young children advises readers on all practical aspects of ladder-climbing while parenting, such as negotiating leave, flex time, and promotions. In the style of #GIRLBOSS or Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office, Here's the Plan is the definitive guide for ambitious mothers, written by one working mother to another.

The full, up-close story of the battle between Susan G. Komen for the Cure and Planned Parenthood from the woman at the center of the explosive media firestorm of early 2012, Karen Handel, former SVP of Public Policy at Komen. In 2011, Susan G. Komen for the Cure was growing weary of the “pink” being tarnished by its health grants to Planned Parenthood (PPH), whose many controversies were fueling backlash against Komen. They wanted to remove themselves from the pro-life/abortion debate and made what they thought was a rational, reasonable decision: seek neutral ground in the culture war by severing ties with Planned Parenthood—and in turn, eliminate a major headache while opening a new, robust fund-raising channel. Karen Handel, the organization’s Senior Vice President of Public Policy, was tasked with identifying options to disengage. In November, the Komen management and board decided to move forward. Komen believed that they and PPH had made a “gentle ladies” pact, agreeing to part ways amicably and acknowledging that a media firestorm was in no one’s best interest. Yet, six weeks later, PPH unleashed a media campaign so viral and so seamlessly executed that it must have been in the works for some time. PPH attacked Komen against the backdrop of the Obama administration’s clash with the Catholic Church over contraception. After just three days, following hysterical cries that “Komen was abandoning women,” Komen capitulated and reversed course. Handel—a lifelong pro-life Republican who was raised Catholic—was immediately made the target. She resigned within days of Komen’s reversal. Liberals called her a right-wing Trojan horse. The pro-life community hailed her as a hero. She insists she is neither. Why did Planned Parenthood attack? Was Komen simply a pawn in something bigger? In this book, Karen Handel finally speaks. *** For at least a decade, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world’s leading breast cancer organization, had been dealing with the backlash from pro-life conservatives because of its grants to Planned Parenthood, the world’s largest abortion provider. According to Karen Handel, Komen’s Senior Vice President of Public Policy in 2011, the two organizations had mutually agreed to part ways amicably, but then Planned Parenthood surprisingly unleashed a media attack against Komen, waving the banner of women’s health as a shield for its underlying political agenda. Public criticism against Komen intensified with damaging consequences, eventually concluding in Komen’s surrender and Karen’s resignation. In daring to walk away, Komen had unwittingly ignited a battle in which it became collateral damage in a larger election-year war between liberals and conservatives for the souls (and votes!) of women and the nation’s conscience—with abortion and contraception linked as ultimate wedge issues. What exactly went on inside this firestorm of controversy? Were there larger forces at play? In this tell-all, highly charged account, Karen Handel breaks the silence and finally reveals what really happened in the winter of 2011.

Aims to guide prospective parents through the complicated mazes of assisted reproduction and adoption. This work describes fertility assistance, surrogacy, and adoption, clearly outlining the requirements of each strategy. It compares the medical, emotional, financial, and legal investments and risks involved with each of these options.