Planned Parenthood paying for Twitter followers
While Indiana Planned Parenthood cries it will have to close clinics and fire staff if taxpayers stop bankrolling it, Planned Parenthood Action Fund is frittering money buying Twitter followers.
PPAC is paying Twitter to promote its name in its “Who to follow” section. The cost? According to ClickZ.com, somewhere between $10-$70 per follower. Last week PP had about 17,500 followers. Tonight it has 18,172 followers. Say 500 of those followers came from the Twitter ad, then Planned Parenthood spent between $5,000-35,000 to get them.
PPAC is one of only 600 advertisers who have run campaigns since Twitter launched the feature in April 2010.
Advertisers are major corporations like Mercedes, American Express, Clinique, Microsoft, Nissan, Yahoo, Dell… and Planned Parenthood.
Clearly our forced subsidies are freeing Planned Parenthood to spend money trying to rebuild its shredded brand and get its political mo jo back – so as to continue to force us to finance it. Planned Parenthood now has to buy friends to fake its popularity.
“Even if we had the money I would never approve that kind of spending,” wrote Tom McClusky of Family Research Council in an email to me today. “Of course, I’m not government subsidized.”
[HT: David Schmidt of LiveAction.org]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
astroturfing anybody?
Nothing these people do with our taxpayer money surprises me. They’re clearly trying to drum up “business,” and we all know most of their money (other than government subsidies) comes from abortions. But it’s still no surprise the lengths these people will go to to kill babies for money.
So… if we follow PP on Twitter via the ad, that costs them money? Hmm…
Yeah, I was just thinking if pro-lifers all started following them from the “Who to follow” link, it would cost them money without supporting Planned Genocide one bit. :)
This kind of Twitter campaign seems to be a terrible waste of money. Don’t most Twitter users use phones and desktop apps to read and tweet instead of using Twitter.com, where these ads appear exclusively?
Wonder how much the followers make an hour…or is it per tweet/reply/re-tweet?
According to the linked Poynter article, this promotion is costing Planned Parenthood $120,000 per day.
That could cover a whole lot of pap smears for underserved women, if that were the sort of thing PP actually cared about.
The difference between PP and Family Research Council is clear. PP provides education and health care too women who might not otherwise have access. Family Research preaches and attempts to impose its values on the public. PP is inclusive; FRC is exclusive. PP deserves public funding.
PP is way ahead of the pack. They are going where their customers and advocates are. More followers mean more potential contributions, which is exactly what they need now considering our state is deciding to control a woman’s choice. PP is behaving in modern times while Indiana is back in the dark ages. Next, we will be complaining that the breast cancer walk has tripled in size and closed.streets downtown. PP will probably get the blame for that too!
You have got to be kidding if you think that Planned parenthood doesn’t preach and attempt to impose its values on the public! What makes Planned Parenthood despicable is that it wants to do that with government grants that come from taxpayers including those that oppose abortion. Do it on your own dime! There are plenty of multi-millionaires, even billionaires like George Soros who support PP who could easily pay for all the abortions for those who can’t pay, NO government grants necessary.
Abortions are only 3 percent of the services that Planned Parenthood provides. The remaining 97 percent of services provide basic women’s health care and education. The bulk of PP’s services are intended to prevent the need for abortion in the first place by raising awareness among lower-income citizens and supplying contraception. In looking at the 97 percent of services, the overarching mission of PP is remarkably in line with the goals of this blog. Prevention and care is pro-life; these actions enrich lives — the lives of countless women who would otherwise not have access to fundamental information and health services, thus decreasing the need for a “choice.”
I don’t care how much “good” PP supposedly does for women’s health. They advocate, support, and profit off murder…murder of innocents no less. If you are the errand boy for the mob, you are part of the mob. It doesn’t matter that you don’t pull the trigger, order the hit, or launder the money. You still have some culpability in what the mob does. I know in my city, and I’d guess in most, there is a public health department that offers the same healthcare services at little to no cost for poor women, depending on income. They actually offer more because they can not only diagnose the cervical or breast cancer (or other medical issue) – they can treat it. I do believe they even offer classes for those who wish to take them regarding proper contraception and prescribe birth control, if that’s your thing. PP is a private, for-profit company and even if only 3% of their “business” is killing babies – that blood is still on their hands and the hands of any and everyone who works there. That blood is on our government’s hands, too, as long as they continue to give PP money.
FULL OF CRAP! as usual, Jill. No one ever paid ME to follow Planned Parenthood. You and Pro-Life just can’t help your Lies, can you? I’M PROCHOICE AND SUPPORT PLANNED PARENTHOOD!!!! SAY IT LOUD, SAY IT CLEAR!! STOP THIS WAR ON WOMEN! STOP THESE “SO CALLED” CHRISTIANS FROM MAKING LAWS FOR THE REST OF US! THEY’RE IDEAS OF MORALS ARE ARCHAIC. THIS IS 2011 NOT 1711. DON’T LET THEM PUT WOMEN BACK IN THE DARK AGES LIKE THE TALIBAN!!! DONATING $$$$$ TO PLANNED PARENTHOOD JUST FOR YOU, JILL
Mandy—”Abortions are only 3 percent of the services that Planned Parenthood provides. The remaining 97 percent of services provide basic women’s health care and education.”
Mandy, that 3% that you talk about is number of visits. PP shoves abortions-related visits together and spreads other visits out (for example, birth control for one woman counts as 12 visits in a year because she has to return once a month to pick up the pills). The actual percentage of business that is abortion related is closer to 12%. I know this because I used to work there. Also, there’s substantial evidence that indicates that increased access to contraceptives does not decrease the number of abortions. In fact, it often increases the number because women feel safe in knowing that they’re popping a magic pill that will keep them fetus-free and are less careful. The fact is, most women that came into my clinic for an abortion had been using some form of contraception. Whatever PP says, they are not trying to decrease the number of abortions. Whether abortion is 3% of their business or 40%, it’s still a huge chunk of their profit.
Prochoicenow, whether or not you, yourself were paid, this post is accurate. PP is spending money on twitter followers. Do a little research. Anti-abortion is not exclusively a Christian position. Atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, Muslims, Taoists and members of just about any faith system in the world call themselves pro-life.
Prochoicenow said: STOP THIS WAR ON WOMEN!
Gladly. Tell Planned Parenthood to quit doing abortions and lying to women. Pro-lifers have been trying for years to say that abortion isn’t THE way to deal with a crisis pregnancy (or unplanned/unwanted pregnancy). The war on women escalated to a new level when people started advocating such things like abortion that HURT women. Pro-lifers want to end that hurt. You’ve totally misinterpted the entire pro-life movement in just a few short sentences. Planned Parenthood’s contributation in the pro-choice/pro-abort’s desire for abortions to be legal/ “normal” is a war on women’s feritlity/reproductive system, which contributes to what you called “war on women”.
Prochoicenow: STOP THESE “SO CALLED” CHRISTIANS FROM MAKING LAWS FOR THE REST OF US! THEY’RE IDEAS OF MORALS ARE ARCHAIC. THIS IS 2011 NOT 1711. DON’T LET THEM PUT WOMEN BACK IN THE DARK AGES LIKE THE TALIBAN!!!
You like fear mongering, don’t you? Women were oppressed in horrible ways even before 1711 (what’s the big deal with 1711? Why’d you choose that date anyway, did I miss some particularly historical happening that happened then? I’ll have to ask a friend of mine who has a Masters in History).
We’re not trying to treat women like the Taliban. We’re not telling women to wear Burkas. We’re not telling them they can’t have minds and make decisions. We’re begging them NOT to murder their pre-born babies.
ProchoiceNow said: DONATING $$$$$ TO PLANNED PARENTHOOD
Does this mean we can stop tax dollars from being sent to Planned Parenthood since you’re willing to donate to them?
ProChoiceNow – hey, you might want to get your keyboard looked at; seems as though your Caps Lock key is stuck.