U.S. DEPARTMENT of REPRODUCTIVE CONTROL
August 1, 2018 7:19 AM   Subscribe

The newly formed U.S. Department of Reproductive Control's vision is simple: A reproductive health care system that reflects traditional American values and religious beliefs. And with the current administration's help, they're making great strides. They're putting doctor-patient relationships back where they belong, offering birth control for real Americans, and restoring order to your choices. But some folks, it seems, just can't be pleased.
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas (16 comments total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
The Yes Women?
posted by cjorgensen at 7:23 AM on August 1, 2018 [1 favorite]


It took me depressingly long to be sure this was satire
posted by potrzebie at 7:24 AM on August 1, 2018 [73 favorites]


"Everything on this site is true, except the name of the organization"
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 7:24 AM on August 1, 2018 [7 favorites]


To be clear: U.S. Department of Reproductive Control is not an actual U.S. Federal Department, but rather satire on the goals and aspirations of the current administration.

Unfortunately, the deadline (July 31, 2018) to submit comments to the White House and Federal Register has passed.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:26 AM on August 1, 2018 [2 favorites]


The impact is not limited to Americans, either: How Trump's [ed: Republicans'] abortion gag rule policy impacts the global AIDS crisis
posted by mosst at 7:31 AM on August 1, 2018 [1 favorite]




Is there a #TooSoon flag?
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:39 AM on August 1, 2018 [8 favorites]


Is there a #TooSoon flag?

The flag field has a new free-form option, go nuts
posted by filthy light thief at 7:51 AM on August 1, 2018 [3 favorites]


Good god, you people, don't scare me like that.
posted by a power-tie-wearing she-capitalist at 9:25 AM on August 1, 2018 [13 favorites]


While we're sort of on the subject, does anyone know how to conclusively determine whether pages at https://www.weareplannedparenthoodaction.org/ are genuinely actually connected to Planned Parenthood somehow? I followed links from social media from what appeared to be a local branch of Planned Parenthood Action for signing a petition... but the pages on that domain I end up at after passing through t.co and bit.ly trackers just request all of my personal information without telling me what specifically they're going to do with it or where they're going to send it. Trying to verify its legitimacy I didn't find many direct links from official national PP literature or sites or an official description of what the domain is, but I eventually hit on this Google search which currently returns a result (among others) saying
Rose Petals & Pomegranates
Jul 22, 2018 - Savor sumptuous aphrodisiacs with a sensual experience of the health and pleasure that Planned Parenthood embodies. Indulge in a...
But that text doesn't seem to be displayed at the URL any longer, or maybe it's showing something different to GoogleBot than it is to me.

So that domain could be legit, with the “Rose Petals & Pomegranates” thing the result of a scam run against them, but why the heck is something affiliated with Planned Parenthood doing creepy stuff like asking for contact information without simply telling you how you might submit the same message to the nominally-targeted local or federal official without funneling your contact information through their site?

And is there any general approach to making sure you're talking to a real activist organization instead of the GRU these days? (An approach, that is, which is faster than tracking them down IRL and assessing whether they're too Maria-Butina-like before you sign their petition...)
posted by XMLicious at 9:44 AM on August 1, 2018 [2 favorites]


sorry for threadjack, but I happen to do lots of this stuff

XMLicious - long story short, the domain details don't look similar enough for me to say they're the same org: also, not that it's entirely conclusive, but the legit whois registration looks nothing like the domain in question
posted by rye bread at 1:22 PM on August 1, 2018 [1 favorite]


https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/ is the PAC that isn't a nonprofit; it does activism that Planned Parenthood isn't legally allowed to be involved in. It has no official connection to Planned Parenthood, just the political goal of keeping it active.

"weareplannedparenthoodaction.org" is likely a group trying to capitalize on them.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 2:06 PM on August 1, 2018


FWIW I just googled "Planned Parenthood Action Fund". The first result was a paid listing linking to a donation page:

https://www.weareplannedparenthoodaction.org/onlineactions/hkv0R7LN0E-Q-U5mXFaXRA2?sourceid=1004272&ms=4NALz1800K1N1A&gclid=CjwKCAjwtIXbBRBhEiwAWV-5noUWyyTQucm2q8bgj8agiZW7UI8f4UHhTg8vDEJFSOEEBRy_93LTDxoCjIwQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas at 2:17 PM on August 1, 2018


Yeah, if you do a Google search for all indexed pages there are many URLs which read like petition and donation links for local affiliates of the national PPA group; plannedparenthood.org describes PPA and links to plannedparenthoodaction.org; and a few individual, somewhat clumsily-created-looking pages on plannedparenthoodaction.org link to weareplannedparenthoodaction.org URLs. Also if I go to the root page of https://weareplannedparenthoodaction.org I get a you-are-not-logged-in type message and indications which could feasibly come from an ecommerce or other IT-service-providing company.

But in the absence of an official statement from PPA generally acknowledging weareplannedparenthoodaction.org and saying what it is and why they don't just let the IT/donations/whatever company use one of their own subdomains, it's all circumstantial and fairly inconclusive.

I'm perhaps more cautious than I might otherwise be because in the last decade there was something which was supposed to be a grassroots right-wing forum web site for my state, openly associated with a former state-level elected official, until a progressive web site noticed that its privacy policy was basically a copy of RedState.com's privacy policy and the text of the policy stated that the “local” non-profit running the “grassroots” site was a subsidiary of Eagle Publishing. And that was let slip by a dumb mistake back before (as far as we all know?) Russian intelligence services were so heavily involved in all of this.
posted by XMLicious at 3:02 PM on August 1, 2018


I just cried a little at my desk.

I'm really relieved that this is satire. But it seemed entirely plausible to me.
posted by joannemerriam at 1:22 PM on August 2, 2018


There was an article in Marie Claire that said some govnt entity is issuing grants to organizations to discourage the use of long-term contraceptives (i.e. iuds and implants). I'll have to dig in more when i'm home to see if i can find more info, but it definitely sounded like some tactic to keep a fertile wimmen population. scary stuff
posted by WeekendJen at 1:15 PM on August 3, 2018


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