Let Your Voice be Heard

I normally avoid online petitions.I think that sending letters and emails to my representatives or to organizations is a more realistic way to make sure my voice is heard. However, the White House has a petition page, and making sure that funding for Planned Parenthood continues is on that petition page. The majority of my friends have used Planned Parenthood services directly or indirectly (e.g., gone there for an exam, had an appointment to get contraception for birth control or to control menstrual issues, viewed STI results from a potential partner who had their tests done at Planned Parenthood, watched a family member survive cancer because a breast exam at Planned Parenthood detected a lump early enough to refer that person for a mammogram, etc.).

I've included the link here, but the White House site also has a "how and why" page that says the following:

"The right to petition your government is guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. We the People provides a new way to petition the Obama Administration to take action on a range of important issues facing our country. We created We the People because we want to hear from you. If a petition gets enough support, White House staff will review it, ensure it’s sent to the appropriate policy experts, and issue an official response.

The idea of petitioning the White House or the government isn’t new, but this online platform is. Since the White House has never featured anything like this, we expect to make some adjustments to improve the platform based on how people use the system and your feedback. We may change the signature threshold so that the workload for responding to petitions in a timely fashion is manageable. You can always view the current signature thresholds on the Terms of Participation page."

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/overturn-defund-planned-parenthood-bill