Thanks for not being so scary

This morning at the prayer vigil protest outside Planned Parenthood on 472 Pleasant St. in Worcester, MA, we noticed a young girl, whom we did not know, cross the street and walk towards us. Linda asked if she were joining us. She apologetically said no, she actually had an appointment, "but not for an abortion." She went on to explain that she had to go to Planned Parenthood as her health insurance had run out in a kind of a catch-22 situation. She was on Masshealth (Medicaid) but when she enrolled in a State college she was removed from Masshealth, and required to either show proof of health insurance or pay the State school for health coverage. I think the State's reasoning is that college kids can take college loans to pay for health coverage. Under Massachusetts Law, if you do not have health coverage they will fine you when you do your tax return. But this girl had financial aid, could not get any more loans, and therefore had no insurance.

Aside from our scepticism that Planned Parenthood gives away free care (we assume they get some type Federal reimbursement for this), we engaged this young girl in conversation for about 10 minutes, where she impressed us with her wherewithal, stating she understood that a pregnancy was a child, even asking how could someone not understand that? Also that she knew artificial contraception is never fool-proof, so she decided that the best way to avoid pregnancy at this point in her life was to not engage in promiscuous sex. We discussed how it seemed odd that a person would have sex with someone they would never consider having a baby with, and that the culture seems to think the approach to this great "marriage act" is simply how to minimize risk. As I have said previously, Planned Parenthood wants young people to think they can put a condom on their hearts - but sex does not work that way, certainly not when it is new, though possibly after one becomes desensitized to the "becoming one flesh" aspect of the marital act.

We even joked around some with her, but finished up suggested she may want to find another place to have her medical exams, and offered the help of Problem Pregnancy to see if we could find some free medical care for her. She did not spend more than 5 minutes in the Planned Parenthood building, however before she left us, she hugged Linda and thanked us, "for not being so scary."