Planned Parenthood as Women's Health

Planned Parenthood as Women's Health is a metaphor worth exploring. Metaphor is a mode of thought (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) that has the potential to shape thought, thus by Planned Parenthood connecting its organizations image to that of women's health provides a vehicle for conceptualizing the metaphor Planned Parenthood as Women's Health. In this ad below, by Planned Parenthood (PlannedParenthood, 2011), the speaker identifies herself as a mother and survivor of cancer that states "without Planned Parenthood I wouldn't be here today" (PlannedParenthood, 2011). She shares with viewers that she was diagnosed with cervical cancer early because of Planned Parenthood, also she suggests that because of Planned Parenthood she is a cancer survivor of 30 years. In addition, Carolyn proposes that Planned Parenthood provides a gap to women and girls, suggesting that without Planned Parenthood a gap would not be filled and women and girls health would suffer. A male voice adds to the metaphorical construction by stating that the Senate should stand by Planned Parenthood and Carolyn and put the lives and health of women above Washington politics.

The shifts in meaning that occur with this metaphor are in the combination of Planned Parenthood and Women's Health and arguably the combination is both literal and metaphoric, suggesting that their are both literal and metaphoric constructions within Planned Parenthood as Women's Health.

Literally we can see from this ad that Carolyn's health, and chances for surviving a cancer that targets women, was dependent on Planned Parenthood and its services. She literally was a Planned Parenthood patient and her early diagnosis of cancer may not have occurred without her access to this organization. Additionally, Carolyn suggests that this organization is literally filling a gap concerning womens and girls access to health care, including preventative health care.

Metaphorically we can imagine Planned Parenthood as Women's Health. This metaphor invites people to imagine a connection and new construct that is created through the interaction of these two concepts, to think about their likenesses as well as their unlikenessess (Richards, 1936), to think about the directions which together they influence our living (Richards, 1936) and our understandings, transference (Richards, 1936), and new meanings that arise with metaphoric interaction (Black, 1981). Organizing conceptualizations and understandings around such a metaphor challenges those exposed to think of the presence and absence of this metaphor. For example, in the video it is urged that the Senate should stand by Planned Parenthood as Women's Health and in such a call to action is attempting to paint a world with and without Planned Parenthood as Women's Health. 


The limits of this metaphor for its enabling potential(s) as well as its constraining potential(s) may help to explore & understand the applied function(s) of this metaphor within the Planned Parenthood campaign to keep its federal funding, as well as other functions of the metaphor. Limit work, is thought of as an exploration into what is enabling and constraining about typically gender stereotypes  (Bruner, 1996), and is useful when exploring feminist messages and campaigns for social justice, as well as gendered constructions, including gendered metaphors.

Obviously this work could go on until a book length work is reached. However, I would like to share some brief observations and invite you (the reader) to comment and share your observations. First, I propose that the metaphor Planned Parenthood as Women's Health as a campaign message, slogan, image, construct, etc, is fairly persuasive. For example, it creates a space where to reject planned parenthood is to reject women's health, which is exploitable in a political apparatus or political situation (such as a political conflict centered around the budget and cutting Federal funding for Planned Parenthood). It also reframes the picture that is constructed by anti-abortion advocates who suggest that Planned Parenthood's main purpose is to provide abortions, and who even construct the metaphor of Planned Parenthood as Abortion Providers.

Some of the constraints of this metaphor Planned Parenthood as Women's Health is that this metaphor ignores men, it constructs a metaphor where men are absent. Although this can be seen as enabling a power that shields it from being attacked by "outsiders" "men", it can also limit support by these "outsiders" "men". As a campaign that needs support of men, considering first that the majority of Congress is men and second that men are a considerable portion of the US population, this can be a risky metaphor. As mentioned, it can work because men as the outsiders can be seen as violent if they try to destroy this metaphor, but it could also backfire through their exclusion. Literally we know that Planned Parenthood serves men as well as women, as well as families, and that it serves people regardless of their class, race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, and other identities. But, these literal and concrete practices of male inclusion, as well as other inclusions within Planned Parenthood practices and services are excluded, or are at least ignored, with the metaphor Planned Parenthood as Women's Health. 

As we can see from a preliminary exploration of the limits of the metaphor Planned Parenthood as Women's Health it can be both enabling and constraining within Planned Parenthood's campaign to preserve Federal funding.


A future inquiry will be to further explore this metaphor in congressional budget discussions as well as other campaign ads and campaign messaging. As of now defunding Planned Parenthood as part of the recent budget proposal has been rejected (Herszenhorn & Cooper, 2011). But, the attempts to defund Planned Parenthood aren't over and, because of such efforts, I am sure we won't be seeing the end of the use of the metaphor Planned Parenthood as Women's Health any time soon.



Resources
Black, M. (1981). Metaphor. In M. Johnson (Ed.), Philosophical perspectives on metaphor (pp. 63-81). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

Bruner, M. L. (1996). Producing identities: Gender problematization and feminist argumentation. Argumentation and Advocacy, 32(4).

Herszenhorn, D. M. & Cooper, H. (2011, April 9). Concessions and Tension, Then a Deal. New York Times. Retrieved from  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/us/politics/10reconstruct.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=planned+parenthood&st=nyt

Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. (1980).  Metaphors We Live By

PlannedParenthood. (2011, February 25). Planned Parenthood Action Fund TV Ad: Carolyn Telling Her
Story. [Video File] Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJlQ_9_Fufo&feature=related

Richards, I. A. (1936). The Philosophy of Rhetoric. New York: Oxford University Press.