How Planned Parenthood Can Win Roe Back
- SimplyRheumatoid.com
- Apr 12, 2024
- 5 min read
I wrote this plan for Planned Parenthood for my class at CSU-Global last year. I feel embarrassed that I was terrified to publish this paper when so many women have to tell their abortion, miscarriage, rape, and complicated, high-risk pregnancy stories. This paper is for them.
How Planned Parenthood Can Win Roe Back
Lidia Page
Colorado State University Global
MKG440: Strategic Marketing
Daniel DeBlasio
11.5.23
How Planned Parenthood Can Win Roe Back
When I first got my period around the age of 13, I remember my sisters plotting to approach my parents to discuss getting me on “the pill.” While I believe their sense of urgency may have had something to do with my mood swings, I also believe they wanted to flaunt their women’s rights and health knowledge to my Conservative Catholic Mexican parents. I can’t remember precisely when my sisters succeeded in their quest to get me on the birth control pill, but I was grateful that they did because it allowed me to finish high school and work a part-time job at sixteen. Reflecting, I realize the gift I had to be able to work at a Chinese food restaurant with a tough, Mr. Miyagi-like male immigrant boss, Chinese cooks, and a mixed-race waitstaff. It was the best thing that happened to me at that age. While my high school English teacher was inflicting Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven upon me, I had a better story I wanted to immerse myself in every weekend at the restaurant. My sisters gave me an understanding of my body’s hormones and the ability to fall in love with being a financially independent woman. If not for the pill, I would have missed learning and loving hard work. Sadly, many of today’s young American teenage girls are being deprived of the opportunity I had because they lack access to a Planned Parenthood Center.
The Ability for Women To Control Their Futures Threatens Dark Money and
Men’s Monopoly on the Current World Order
In a 2022 Senate speech, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse noted the following regarding dark money’s influence and impact on Planned Parenthood and Women’s rights.
“For nearly half a century, women in this country have relied on Roe’s recognition that
our constitutional right to privacy includes the right to decide when to have a child. This is one of the most profoundly personal and life-changing decisions anyone can make” (Whitehouse, 2022). I would add it is also the most financially impactful decision a person can make that will impact their future and their ability to financially shape it for as long as they live (unless they win the lottery, of course). America’s obsession with oversharing on social media has educated and enlightened many. However, arming people with the knowledge that dark money and powerful lobby groups are working against their interests isn’t enough anymore. A quick and dirty SWOT Analysis effectively tells the story of how Planned Parenthood can take back its power and influence back and rebrand itself as a one-stop shop for informed whole-person wellness and care, disrupting Dark Money’s master plan. A total whole person wellness rebrand appeals to a broader demographic, and a wellness objective that incorporates a financial aspect hits oppressors where it matters most; after all, “Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family” (Annan, n.d.).
My SWOT analysis shows that opportunities for a rebranding and powerful Women of
Influence (WOI) campaign can help America regain Women’s Rights. Social media silent stories take shape as women seek to align themselves with other women influencers. A follow is not just a follow anymore; a like isn’t just a like anymore; those silent, impactful actions influence others to hear a new American women’s story. By following pro-choice women like Padma Lakshmi, Sallie Krawcheck, Dr. Amy Myers, and Melinda Gates, I influence others to hear a new story. Each woman I follow tells a different but closely interwoven story of an American tale. Krawcheck tells a women’s economic story, Lakshmi a working mother’s survival story, Myers a doctor's discovery and women’s wellness story, and Gates a divorcee survivor, tech powerhouse, and philanthropist on a mission to empower women worldwide story. Together, these women create a powerful collation of Women of Influence that can help Planned Parenthood reshape and rebrand its services and story.
The Plan: A Rebrand and Women of Influence Partnership Campaign Blitz for the Win
Mathew Desmond is currently my favorite new author. I like his blunt, no bs, fact-based, good trouble, necessary trouble John Lewis writing style. In his book Poverty By America, Desmond (2023) states, “The birth control pill showed us that women’s economic empowerment was tied to their reproductive empowerment.” Desmond (2023) highlights a crucial fact that “women with access to effective contraception go to school longer and participate in the job market at higher rates than women who don’t.” Women’s ability to choose to be financially independent and free to shape their story is the spikelet armed bomb that dark money fears. As displayed in my SWOT analysis, Planned Parenthood can rally Women of Influence to narrate, shape, educate, and influence groups of young, newly registered voters to wield their voting power and disrupt dark money’s long game. A concentrated WOI Planned Parenthood strategy would leverage the women I selected network of followers and their silent supporters to micro and macro influence and retell a new Planned Parenthood story.
Image 1. Rebranding wording example for Planned Parenthood Wellness Centers
This intelligently narrated strategy would leverage women’s health and wellness
(Meyers), women’s economic influence and impact (Krawcheck), women’s business building and societal contributions (Gates), and a women’s survival journey and path to stardom and motherhood (Lakshmi). Together, these four women can elegantly tell the story of a place where women can get the wellness care, educational support, financial support, mental health healing, and mentorship support all humans desire and can access at a local Planned Parenthood. The women’s social media platforms, guerilla marketing, pop-up book signings, and networking events would aid a successful rebranding. This strategy would Palso require Dr. Meyers to educate the entire Planned Parenthood workforce via on-demand required continuing education courses.
Hence, the center staff remains armed with health and wellness knowledge to offer center
patients. My plan would require these four WOI and their silent partners to commit to an 8-
month cross-country road and social media blitz. Krawcheck and Gates would be the voter
engagement liaisons by educating women on their economic power and impact. Lastly, Planned Parenthood’s story and structural rebrand will require significant effort and financial support from women philanthropists, investment groups, small donors, and courageous women like Lakshmi to tell their stories. If executed artfully, Planned Parenthood could be the comeback story women will tell for generations.
References
Desmond, M. (2023). Poverty, By America. Crown.
Kofi Annan Quotes. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved November 5, 2023, from
The Institute for Functional Medicine. (2023, October 29). [Image]. LinkedIn. Retrieved from:
Whitehouse. S. (2022, May 11). The Scheme 14: Attacking Roe. [Video]. YouTube. Senator
Sheldon Whitehouse. Retrieved from:
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