In response to the defunding of the Women’s Health Program in Texas, some students are using comedy and charity as a way to connect to the student body.
Creative writing sophomore Miranda Denmon and photography junior Maggie McCartney were concerned when they heard about Gov. Rick Perry’s new budget plan.
“I remember first hearing about the defunding of the Women’s Health Program — I was completely dumbstruck and scared,” Denmon said.
“The Women’s Health Program is the only kind of health care I have, and I knew I was not the only one. Thousands of women and their families depend on Planned Parenthood’s services for education, family planning and prenatal care.”
Trying to keep the highly politically charged situation fairly uncharged while still getting their message across, Denmon and McCartney placed spoonerism joke onto a t-shirt, hoping to give the raised funds from sales to Planned Parenthood.
“The t-shirt idea started off as a joke. I posted ‘Puck Ferry’ on my Facebook, and my friend Maggie McCartney had responded saying that t-shirts should be made,” Denmon said.
“The next day we talked, and found out that we both were serious, wanting to do something to make a difference. We decided we’d make a few, then sell them and donate the profit to Planned Parenthood.”
Denmon and McCartney said they did not anticipate such a large response — within two days, 50 confirmed orders, donations and volunteers — to their social media advertisements for shirts and were soon placed in contact with student Sarah Wood, president of Voices of Planned Parenthood.
“The overwhelming response we’ve received is inspiring and comforting, but I fear for the future,” Denmon said.
“Legislation is being proposed all over the country that undermines women’s freedom, privacy and access to health services … It’s heartbreaking, to see the statistics of how many women depend on Planned Parenthood’s services, who won’t be able to (receive it) after April 30.”
The two students said they plan on having a booth on campus where they will sell shirts that read “Puck Ferry” on them.
“Sarah (Wood) was extremely enthusiastic about the entire idea and has now helped us book a booth to do exactly that,” Denmon said.
“The event will be on April 25, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., outside the M.D. Anderson Library…We will be selling t-shirts for ten dollars each.”
Some of us Planned Parenthood supporters would LOVE to buy t-shirts! How can we order them?
If you're on campus you can buy then at the booth April 25th! Depending on what size you'd request we might have some available pre-order. Please feel free to email me at [email protected]. Thanks for the positive support! 😀
I hope they plan to sell online. They coined a new battle cry against the war on women. The shirts that are sold out of state need a tag line…Stop the war on women.
What charming young ladies and a charming sentiment! BTW – the Obama Administration cut off federal funds to the Texas women's health program, not Gov. Perry or Texas lawmakers.
The Obama administration cut off funds as a response of Rick Perry and other TX lawmakers repeatedly tried to unconstitutionally decide where federal funding should go. Sure, Obama made a mistake here too, but Perry definitely provoked the cut.
Also, Puck Ferry for a million other reasons.
"That pulled him up. For the first time he grasped, with the only kind of knowledge that matters, what they were really talking about. The words "a baby" took on a new significance. They did not mean any longer a mere abstract disaster, they meant a bud of flesh, a bit of himself, down there in her belly, alive and growing. His eyes met hers. They had a strange moment of sympathy such as they had never had before. For a moment he did feel that in some mysterious way they were one flesh. Though they were feet apart, he felt as though they were joined together – as though some invisible living cord stretched from her entrails to his. He knew then that it was a dreadful thing they were contemplating – a blasphemy, if that word had any meaning. Yet if it had been put otherwise he might not have recoiled from it. It was the squalid detail of the five pounds that brought it home." – George Orwell's KEEP THE ASPIDISTRA FLYING Chapter 11
Not a christian btw, just a fan of Orwell and what he might say on this issue
Planned Parenthood's main function is not to provide abortion services (though they do, and they're not funded by federal money at all), it's to provide low-cost healthcare for women in all stages of life. They save a lot more babies than they harm, by offering affordable prenatal and postnatal care for women who might not otherwise be able to do the things necessary to bring a healthy baby into the world.
Doesn't hospitals already do such an thing, and many other clincs that also do not do abortions? Here is another issue, why should any of this be tax funded?
Did the Obama Administration cut Texas family planning funds by 2/3rds? Nope, that was all Perry & Company. Saying that Perry is a “defender” of the Women’s Health Program (which dude vetoed in 2001) and Obama “cut off” the WHP is plum loco.
Keep on working, great job!
I’ll be there on the 25th to support this effort! Great job girls!