Volunteering

A couple days ago, I volunteered for the first time at Planned Parenthood. There are plenty of ways to volunteer at the organization, but what I'm doing is pretty low-key: a handful of us show up on Wednesday nights for a couple of hours to do paperwork, data entry, make phone calls, or do other various administrative things. I was pretty excited about volunteering after going to the information session a couple weeks ago, but I was a little disappointed after leaving on Wednesday because we spent the whole evening alphabetizing returned mail so that doners' addresses could be updated in the database. To give you just an idea of how much returned mail, there were five of us sorting the mail, and it still took us about an hour and a half to do. And we only separated the mail into stacks of each letter of the alphabet, we didn't fully alphabetize them.

Anyway, I knew that the Wednesday night volunteering wasn't going to be very hands-on or a great way to become intimately involved with the organization, and that was fine because it was only a 2 hour/week commitment and I wasn't sure how much time and energy I wanted to devote to this or how much I would like it. But I sort of wish now that I had more time to volunteer doing something more interesting than sorting mail. I think after filling out the application and having to clarify in my own mind what it means to be pro-choice and why I wanted to volunteer at all, I was hoping to be able to put that into action. (In case you're curious, here's the short mission statement of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts)

I've been asked by a few people why I want to volunteer at all at the PPLM. The most obvious reason is that I am pro-choice. I don't think abortion is something to be taken at all lightly, but I think every woman or couple has the right to decide for themselves whether they are healthy enough, financially prepared, and emotionally ready to be good parents. I'm well aware that plenty of unplanned pregnancies turn into happy, healthy babies and families, but I think every woman should be able to consider every possible option for herself and her partner.

The other main reason that I support Planned Parenthood is that I believe that everyone, regardless of age, gender, or income, should have access to information about sexual health and contraception. I know way too many college women who are sexually active and do not want to become pregnant, but they don't want to go on the pill because they don't want their parents to find out and they're still covered by their parents' health insurance. In addition, not everyone goes through a comprehensive sex education class in high school, and it's important that they have someplace to go to learn how to stay healthy, regardless of whether they're sexually active.

An interesting tidbit: the employees at Planned Parenthood refer to people on the other side of the abortion fence as "anti-choice" not "pro-life." I had never thought about how the term "pro-life" is subtly influencing, even if you had no idea what the two sides were debating. Everyone likes life, right?

Another interesting tidbit: the employees at Planned Parenthood are nearly all female, which is a nice complement to my nearly all-male environment at work. This means that men's restrooms don't exist there - instead, there are a couple of unisex bathrooms.