About
Planned Parenthood is a network of health clinics, mostly in the United States focused on providing reproductive and sexual healthcare. Planned Parenthood had been controversial for the entirety of its existence, and recently has become a main focus of the abortion debate.
Background
Planned Parenthood has a complicated history, but the first clinic that would go on to become part of Planned Parenthood was founded in Brownsville, Brooklyn, by an activist named Margaret Sanger.[1] Sanger and a partner, who were providing women with methods of birth control at the clinic, were arrested and convicted for “distributing obscene materials.” While the charges were just misdemeanor, the publicity surrounding the trials brought much new attention to the cause of women’s healthcare. In 1942, the clinic and others who had formed a league for cooperation, became known as the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.[2]
Planned Parenthood currently has 820 affiliated clinics under president Cecile Richards. While they provide full and comprehensive health care to both men and women, they are most well-known for providing abortions, birth control, and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.[3]
Online History
Most of the controversy surrounding Planned Parenthood stems from their activist stance on women’s healthcare, including providing abortions.[5] On several occasions, anti-choice groups like Live Action[6] and The Center for Medical Progress[7] have attempted to perform undercover stings on Planned Parenthood clinics, entering the clinics with secret cameras and filming the doctors and healthcare workers. On several occasions, the videos have become viral, causing controversy.
“Planned Parenthood Sells Parts” Controversy
The Planned Parenthood Sells Parts controversy refers to a viral video and campaign by a pro-life organization called the Center for Medical Progress wherein actors, pretending to be medical professionals, secretly filmed a discussion with a Planned Parenthood employee where the employee appears to be suggesting that Planned Parenthood sells fetal body parts it extracts in partial-birth abortions. The video caused outrage in the pro-life community, however, multiple sources have claimed the video portrays a false situation by Planned Parenthood and thus is a hoax. Despite this many this claim that Planned Parenthood is guilty of corruption, believing that it is not a hoax and still continue to investigate.
Online Presence
Planned Parenthood has over 150,000 followers on Twitter[8] and 263,000 likes on its official Facebook[9] page. In addition, several consistent hashtags are used by Planned Parenthood supporters and detractors. For supporters, these hashtags including #IStandWithPP[10] and #StandWithPP,[11] while detractors use #DefundPP,[12] and more recently, #PPSellsBabyParts[13]. The graphs below depict the traffic in use of these hashtags from August 24nd through September 23rd, 2015, according to Topsy Analytics.[14][15]
Search Interest
External References
[2]Wikipedia – Planned Parenthood
[3]Planned Parenthood – About Us and Who We Are
[4]Reddit – ELI5: What exactly is Planned Parenthood?
[5]Encyclopedia Dramatica – Planned Parenthood
[7]The Center for Medical Progress
[8]Twitter – PlannedParenthood
[9]Facebook – Planned Parenthood
[10]Twitter – #StandWithPP
[11]Twitter – #IStandWithPP
[13]Twitter – #PPSellsBabyParts
[14]Topsy – Tweets per day: #DefundPP and #PPSellsBabyParts August 24th -- September 23rd
[15]Topsy – Tweets per day: #StandWithPP and #IStandWithPP August 24th -- September 23rd