access
THE NEWSLETTER OF PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF INDIANA AND KENTUCKY / SPRING 2018 THIRD ISSUE OF THE 2018 FISCAL YEAR
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CEO CORNER
I am inspired every day by our fierce allies and supporters. It is hard to watch our state
legislatures attack abortion rights and sex education, when they
could use their time to make our communities healthier.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF INDIANA AND KENTUCKY President and CEO Christie L. Gillespie Chief Financial Officer Cheryl Gatzmer
And even though these legislative
Vice President of Education, Training and Human Resources Judi Morrison
learned at Planned Parenthood of
Vice President of Patient Services Lynne Bunch
we are tougher.
Vice President of Public Policy Patti Stauffer
sessions have been tough, I have
Indiana and Kentucky (PPINK) that
I am blown away when passionate, motivated people fight back against bills like Indiana Senate Bill (SB) 340 and Kentucky Senate Bill (SB) 71. I stood in awe when you showed up by the hundreds in Frankfort to protest and stand up for those who will be hurt most by these bills. You are standing with Nicole, who drove hundreds of miles for an abortion because Kentucky’s laws have closed all but one abortion clinic.
You are standing with MaKaela, an Indianapolis Teen Council member who advocates for comprehensive sex education for her peers.
Thank you for standing with PPINK today and every day as we fight for the future Hoosiers and Kentuckians deserve.
GET INVOLVED! Text DEFEND to 22422 BECOME A VOLUNTEER
bit.ly/VolunteerWithPPINK BECOME A PATIENT
ppink.org/visit
SHARE YOUR STORY
No Matter What.
humansofppink.com DONATE!
Christie L. Gillespie / President and CEO
ppink.org/donate
@CGillespiePPINK
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CELEBRATIONS
PPINK Named Top Performer for LGBTQ Equality PPINK has been named a “2018 LGBTQ Healthcare Equality Top Performer” by the Human Rights
Campaign’s Healthcare Equality Index. The Top
Performer designation reflects PPINK’s commitment to equity and
inclusion of our
LGBTQ patients, visitors, and
employees. In our first year on the
HEI, PPINK scored 90 out of 100
possible points! Legislative Champions Support PPINK 1
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We’re glad to have outspoken legislative champions in the Indiana Statehouse who support PPINK with their
voting records and with their pocketbooks! Rep. Terri
Austin (D-Anderson), Sen. Jean Breaux (D-Indianapolis), and Rep. Sue Errington (D-Muncie) have proudly
donated to PPINK to support our mission and help us
provide high-quality care to Hoosiers across the state. Teen Council Meets with Indonesian HIV Activist 2 In February, Indianapolis Teen Council members met
with Sister Nurhayati Silalahi of the HIV/AIDS Program of the Huria Kristen Batak Protestan in Jakarta,
Indonesia. Sister Nur and the teens spoke about
peer education efforts around HIV/AIDS education in teenagers, stigma, and access to treatment. Grants Support Preventive Care
PPINK received a grant for $9,000 from the City of
Bloomington Common Council’s Jack Hopkins Social Services Funding Committee to help patients access long-acting reversible contraception (LARCs), STI
testing, and colposcopies at our Bloomington health
center. PPINK also received $100,000 in support from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust for LARCs and Marion County health center operations.
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Mobilizing Hoosiers to Action This year brought a short
to the state about abortion
PPAIK also opposed other bills
up by March 15, but many
this law is an attempt to justify
freedom. SEA 203 codifies
legislative session that wrapped constituents turned out to the Women’s March and
the Statehouse for Planned
Parenthood Advocates of Indiana
“complications.” We believe that the recent denial of an abortion
facility license to Whole Woman’s Health Alliance in South Bend.
with implications on reproductive troubling personhood language and lays a foundation for future
hostile legislation. PPAIK worked
and Kentucky’s Hoosier Days of
Action to make their voices heard! Our top priority was Senate
Enrolled Act (SEA) 340. It adds unnecessary requirements to abortion facility licenses and
mandates additional reporting
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with national advocates to at least
establishes a review of maternal
to protect pregnant people from
methods. Indiana’s maternal
include amendment language criminalization for abortion or miscarriage. We also focused
closely on SEA 65, which sought
to require parental consent before sex education can be taught in
school. Favorable amendments made this bill better but still a
step backward for destigmatizing
access to sex education in Indiana. We are pleased to celebrate a
few successes as well. SEA 142
mortality and prevention
mortality rate is twice as high
as the national average, so this research is overdue. Planned
Parenthood advocates were glad to see two hostile bills, SB 388
and Rep. Curt Nisly and Hoosiers for Life’s total abortion ban
(House Bill (HB) 1097) die without passage.
Thank you for standing with
Planned Parenthood in Indiana!
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Kentuckians Fight Back Against Attacks on Reproductive Rights Despite public assurances that abortion would
not be a key focus of the 2018 Kentucky General
Assembly, it appears Kentucky legislators cannot resist attacking reproductive rights. Lawmakers are again
fixated on targeting reproductive health care and sex education instead of focusing on the pension crisis,
the opioid epidemic, or the state’s budget. Kentucky
legislators have filed no fewer than 10 bills related to abortion, abstinence education, and clinic licensing requirements.
SB 71, filed by Sen. Stephen Meredith, has been mired
in controversy since its first hearing because it contains shame-based “abstinence until marriage” language.
After comprehensive sex education advocates pushed
back on the bill, Sen. Meredith ridiculed his opposition by saying the “lady doth protest too much, me thinks.” HB 454 would ban one of the safest abortion
procedures available to Kentuckians after 11 weeks of
pregnancy. This bill was rushed through the legislature, although similar laws have been ruled unconstitutional in five states.
With the pension and budget debates heating up, we expect legislators to use sex education and abortion
as distractions from the real work our public servants
should be doing. We encourage Planned Parenthood advocates in the Commonwealth to stay present
and active in the workings of our legislature and city governments.
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Ronnie’s Impact Nurse practitioners like Ronnie are the heart and soul of PPINK health centers
Ronnie drives more than 120 miles every day to work at PPINK’s Indianapolis–Eastside health center as
a nurse practitioner. Her dedication to our mission
and the patients she sees every day is clear from the moment you meet her.
“I’m not here just to write the prescription and take the swab. I feel that my job
is also to empower. We are here to help— no matter what.”
If there is a chance to talk about reproductive health
or her career with PPINK, she jumps at the opportunity and is a fierce advocate for women’s health.
“I am very proud of what I do. I have no problem telling
people where I work and how I help people every day,” said Ronnie. “My family doctor, my dentist … we
exchange medical knowledge and opinions because I
will talk to anyone, literally anyone, about birth control.” Ronnie celebrated her five-year anniversary with
PPINK in November and says that working for PPINK
s
isn’t just a passion, it is a calling.
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