A Special Circumstance
...by Jill June
Jill June headed Planned Parenthood for decades, starting in 1985. Since attending the 2021 Okoboji Writers’ Retreat, she’s been sharing essays among our participants.
I asked her yesterday to contribute a guest column for this space. The following are just three stories:
By: Jill June
All names are changed to protect confidentiality.
#1
One evening in the late 1980s I was at Planned Parenthood doing paperwork after hours. The clinic was open on the floor above me and a staff member called to say a man was here and wanted to talk to the “Highest ranking person in the building.”
Bill was brought to my office and I noticed immediately his hands were trembling. We sat at a small table in my office. I tried to put him at ease, but he wanted to jump right to the point. “I'm here because I want you to know that me and my wife are not just statistics,” he said. They planned on coming to the clinic in the morning when she was scheduled for an abortion.
“We have 3 wonderful kids and we love them very much,” he told me. “We never planned for this pregnancy and we were up all night talking and crying about it. We both know we cannot have another child now” he explained. I assured him there was no need to justify their personal family decisions to me or anyone.
“But I want you to know how much thought we have given this,” he said. As a farmer, he told me they were fighting hard to keep their farm because of the widespread crisis in agriculture. He cried when he said, “It's because we love our children so much that we cannot have another.” I told him I admired and respected his commitment to his family and that I would never forget meeting him.
#2
On a hot summer morning, a mother and daughter ran a gauntlet of name-calling protesters to enter the clinic. The girl was young and shaken by the experience and the prospect of her surgical abortion. All patients scheduled for a pregnancy termination meet privately with professional staff to educate and counsel them about their options and confirm their decision was made of free will. During that time, the mother was also provided written materials including information about resources and aftercare instructions. It turned out Mom was illiterate and asked to speak with someone in charge.
When we met I could see she was feeling very vulnerable. She told me there was a lot of “trouble" going on at home. They were “poor” and she was trying to help her daughter by coming to the clinic. I assured her we would help and that we knew of other resources that she might want to contact. I noticed she had homemade tattoos on her hand and her shoes were worn out.
She described the brutal situation that was causing all the trouble. The pregnancy of her 12-year-old was the result of incest. I cried with her and held her tattooed hand in mine. As mandatory reporters, we are required to notify protective services for a girl of her age. Mom was agreeable but asked if her daughter could still get the healthcare they came for. I said she could and shuddered at the realization that I was a custodian of such power. I read mom the applicable forms and she signed them with her mark.
#3
Often I was questioned about our confidentiality policy by members of high-profile families. When I assured them our lips were sealed they brought us their daughters for care. Sometimes, these were outspoken leaders who publicly opposed Planned Parenthood and legal abortion. Even protesters would come to the clinic for an abortion. When we asked if they were very sure of their decision, especially in light of how deeply they opposed abortion, they would explain that their situation was different. That they are not like all the other women that come into the clinic:
Their circumstances are special.
More about Jill June: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/rekha-basu/2014/06/15/jill-june-honored-career-voice-women/10535225/
This will only continue because they *are* special in their eyes. Their movement, focused around the Christian Nationalists, but also used as cover by many of the private equity and billionaire bros, is animated by a belief that they are better than the rest of us, and so, are more deserving of the limited resources in a linear world, where every time a decision is made to let one person have access to something, another is automatically denied access to that, whether it is clean water or abortion.
This SCOTUS has been infiltrated with 6 hired assassins, put there by the cabal who have been playing the long game of occupying this nation, one move at a time, ever since it was apparent that Naziism in Germany wasn't going to work. Joseph McCarthy was a warm up at the batter's box for the thinking that never went away at the end of WWII.
And what animates their hauteur that the rest of us do not deserve what they increasingly make available to fewer and fewer of us, is their thinking they are more special than anyone else.
So, get used to it. They are better than us in their eyes. We deserve to be punished because we are not pure enough for what they clearly deserve due to their beatification.
Barf.
Jill's stories reminded me of one in particular. When I lobbied for Planned Parenthood, I got a call from a long time friend ("Jo") who was not "pro choice". She and her husband owned a small business. One of their top sales people, a man married with 6 children of his own, had an affair with one of the administrative assistants. She thought she was pregnant. Since I knew Jo's feelings about abortion, I started offering suggestions of places she could go for support to have the baby.......and Jo had reasons why none of those would "work". Finally, she said, "No, abortion is the only option." Hmmmm. Pause. Then I said, "Isn't it good that she has the choice." Turned out in the end she wasn't pregnant, but the story has stuck with me for five decades.