Disclaimer: I have not seen the youtube videos (site blocked at the office) so I'm taking what Clark-Flory describes at face value.

I am/have been a financial supporter of Planned Parenthood and I'm seriously reconsidering my financial support in light of this. I would have thought that PP would be better equipped to handle situations like this. Although I may disagree with abortion notification and consent laws, I do believe that institutions should follow the letter of the law. Especially one that is such a target as PP. And I may question some statuatory rape laws (especially ones without Romeo/Juliet clauses), they are also the law. The clinic workers here should have contacted CPS. The clinic should have fully trained on-site counselors to deal with these cases. I don't think minors are served well if they are forced to go directly to the police without assistance; that would most likely lead to minors not reaching out for help and would make them even more vulnerable. But we also cannot give (purported) 15 year olds abortions and then send them home so they can continue having sex with their adult boyfriends. This is especially true in the case where a minor is being abused by a family member. PP needs to have fully established guidelines that meet each state's reporting laws and have trained staff available to assist minors to negotiate those laws and to get them the help they need. It is a difficult balancing act to protect minors, to make sure they get proper medical care and also to assist the authorities to ensure that abusers don't get away or worse continue with the abuse. I can understand that PP may be suspicious of dealing with law enforcement officers especially when it could jeopardize patient-doctor privlege and in light of some of the target campaigns against it made by various politicians and prosecutors. However breaking the law is NOT the solution. Planned Parenthood doesn't only endanger it's reputation when it doesn't abide by state laws, it also puts at risk each and every patient that relies on it for health care. There is no excuse here; PP should have done better, those clinic workers need to be fired.

I keep on hearing it stated in the letters section that feminists (as one letter wrote) "want to discriminate against male to female transexuals." I think I'm a mainstream feminist, and I've never encountered this. I've never heard any feminists complaining about MTF transexuals using the ladies room. (Granted all women complain about the long lines found at women's public restrooms, but that has more to do with the lack of facilities than anything else). Nor have a I received any literature from NOW, PP, NARAL, Ms Mag hating on MTF's because they don't see the "evils of the male patriarchy".

Granted, I don't think that transexuality has been at the top of the list of mainstream feminism, probably because in the scheme of things MTF transexuals don't make up a large percentage of feminists. I completely agree that early modern feminism had issues with lesbians, women of color, and was very class-ist. But as far as I've seen the "feminist movement" (if you can call it that) has really tried to be more inclusive and not so narrowly focused on the typical "white upper middle class" women's issue. Any citations of mainstream feminist sites or publications that are examples of this so-called hatred?

as the mainstream feminist movement. Brightstar, that quote that you posted is just an idiotic stupid woman writing a stupid idiotic letter about something which she seems to know very little. I would be surprised if she even called herself a feminist. And if she does, can I vote to kick her off the island?