During her shift at Portland, Oregon’s Purringtons Cat Lounge on Sunday, Mary Numair looked out the street-facing windows and saw a woman carrying a sign that read “Abortion Kills Children.” Numair had noticed a group of protesters about a block away, gathered outside one of Portland’s Planned Parenthood health care centers. “I thought [the woman] might be lost. I said, ‘Hey, you’re gonna feel real silly. The protest is down that way,’ ” Numair, 29, told me. “She said ‘No, I need to stand here.’ I said, ‘Fuck this shit,’ went back inside, and started making my sign.”
The sign, which Numair crafted out of masking tape and a piece of cardboard from the dumpster, praised Planned Parenthood for treating her chronic yeast infections when she was in her early 20s and uninsured. It also included a delightful cartoon of a vagina with a smiling clitoris and a stick figure with pigtails and prominent breasts (above).
Numair’s best friend and co-worker clocked in early so she could head out to the protest, where she planted herself between two families with children. “In my first 30 seconds of walking out there, I did get called a whore,” Numair said. “One woman was shaking her head. I knelt down to her kid and said, ‘Do you know about yeast infections?’ ”
Onlookers gave Numair the thumbs-up, and some passing cars honked in support, but she was the only counter-protester on the scene. Still, with a spontaneous chant, she managed to break up the protest in under a half-hour. “I don’t know why I started chanting ‘Yeast infections!’ but it just came out. I have this cold, so it was just this obnoxious squeak, cheerleader-like. And I started doing high kicks, which I don’t normally do, in my skinny jeans.” A religious leader was guiding a circle of protestors in prayers for Numair—but as her chants got louder and more grating, they stopped.
I love this SO much!
That my friends is how you call out these anti-choice nuts on their ignorance.
Keep Portland Weird!
ReplyDeleteSorry. This isn't helpful. That's exactly the opposite of what I consider helpful.
ReplyDeleteHhhmmm. So calling them out with pertinent information doesn't help? In such a way they CAN'T ignore it? What does help, in your opinion?
DeleteYour post is exactly the opposite of what I consider intelligent.
DeleteIt may not have helped you but it helped the people entering the clinic after she got rid of the protesters. What have you done to help?
DeleteThere's a middle ground. She was right to protest the protest, but she should have stopped short of asking a five year old child "do you know about yeast infections?"
DeleteJust remember, 8:31, this is a five year old child who has probably seen graphic, color photos of abortions and has heard adults around him/her taking about "whores" and "sluts" who are "killin' beybies."
DeleteI think "yeast infections" are pretty tame in comparison.
Wait so 5 year old can understand abortion but not yeast infections? I don't understand that,
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DeleteYeah, precious joys can only learn about forced carry (not a 2nd amendment thing,) misogeny and abortion but not yeast infections. This is exactly why pro-life dominionists feel they are on higher ground.
DeleteThat 5 year old had just heard the same woman be referred to as a whore, just for being outside a medical office.
DeleteHer heart is in the right place but she looks drunk and loopy and the sign is really lame brained. I would hope that she would call up her friends and they could get together and stage larger counter protests in the future. She can be effective without stooping to their level of crassness.
DeleteThank you, Mary Numair. Planned Parenthood provides ALL TYPES of healthcare for women. Not a catholic, but even the Pope said to stop concentrating only on abortion.
ReplyDeleteShe's inspired me to counter protest at my local Planned Parenthood. I used their services for years when I was a single mom in my twenties and now it's time to show my appreciation. There's nothing worse than being accosted by one or more of those simpletons when trying to enter the building. I have escorted (and literally shielded) friends and relatives to the door of PP a few times. Though I've had verbal confrontations with some nosy protesters I've never formally counter protested but now I'm inspired to speak out. My body and health is MY business!
ReplyDeleteExactly!
DeleteWhen I was in college, many of us used PP for our annual exams, yeast infections, birth control, and other health issues. PP was my primary health care provider for a number of years and I wasn't the only one.
Rsame here, 8:06! When I first came to the US as a student, I had no health insurance, and the family I worked for were simply a$$holes.
DeletePP provided me with much-needed healthcare, as well as Birth Control.
I am forever in their debt, and I show it by supporting them however much I can. My daughter also got her healthcare from them once she was in college. As you might know, Texa$$ does not provide much healthcare, and as a student, she could only afford the most rudimentary insurance, which cost her PER MONTH as much as she is now paying PER YEAR while living and working in England.
Good for her. I always thought that people should protest the protesters with huge color pictures of female and male 'naughty parts'. And pics of actual sex. You know, for educational purposes. Maybe a big pic of a penis with genital warts? A picture of a cancerous cervix?
ReplyDeleteThese freaky protesters are always saying they are educating others by doing this. I think it's time to educate them on how babies are made. And pics of ALL of the many things that PP sees daily.
Get those pictures right in their and the children they drag along with them faces. They really do need a taste of their own bullshit. They need to have someone else's opinions and beliefs shoved in their own faces. To educate them of course. And if some of those sign carriers were big, burly, hairy biker guys all decked out in leather and chains? Perfect!
These little piss ants are not the boss of me or you or anyone else outside of their own family.
"These little piss ants are not the boss of me or you or anyone..."
DeleteThank you for that, and it is so very true.
Good idea about those disease pictures. After all, those religious freaks insist on showing pictures of aborted (?!) fetuses!
Delete.
.
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Good for her!
ReplyDeleteI disagree about graphic drawings of genitalia for a public protest. Anti abortion activists only care that PP performs abortions and health care provided is irrelevant to them.
ReplyDelete"I disagree about graphic drawings of genitalia for a public protest."
DeleteReally? How about the pictures they use of aborted fetuses? You don't believe people should counter protest by showing the results of some of the medical problems if left untreated?
I do. More people should be counter-protesting and using factual evidence of the things PP is trying to prevent. And if some of that evidence is of diseased genitalia, so be it.
The sign isn't only meant for the "anti abortion activists." It's for people who drive by who need to be reminded that PP is more than abortions.
DeleteRegardless, it eventually drove the protesters away and that's a great thing.
Not talking about drawings. Talking about real photographs. It would probably offend them as much as THEIR photos offend me.
DeleteThey are not educating, they are lying. They need to be educated. If they don't like that kind of education, they are free to leave. They only care about abortions? They really need to be educated on what PP clinics do. and have done for decades. They are so into pictures. They really should see stds, pap smears, breast exams, sex, the very thing that causes pregnancies etc., etc., etc.....
Hand out some condoms and have someone demonstrate how to properly put them on (a banana or cucumber of course.) This is where the biker guys would be great.
PDX girls! Love you!
ReplyDeleteGood luck getting any dates now lady. Not that her bleached out nasty ass got any anyways. Try a shower.
ReplyDeleteIt's Portland, she'll be fine.
DeleteYes! Let's shame women for having a yeast infection.
DeleteYou do realize that yeast infections are pretty common and that the majority of adult women have had at least one in their lifetime. Plus, a yeast infection isn't caused by not showering.
Grow up.
Who said that yeast infections were or were not caused by showering 1:25? The suggestion to take a shower, is because she looks dirty and needs a long hot shower, with a delousing.
Delete@ 1:35.
DeleteI agree with 1:25. Grow up. And get your eyes checked. She looks well maintained and healthy. As for her "bleached out nasty ass", again, she looks clean and well maintained. AND she is doing something other than complaining about what someone looks like.
Your mouth is FAR more foul than her appearance. YOU take a shower - for your mind!
Hahahaa "She looks well maintained and healthy".
DeleteReally Leland. I think you are the one that needs your eyes checked.
Well maintained LMAO.
@ 7:59
DeleteSo you laughed your ass off? Good. Maybe it will help get the shit out of your mouth. I'm fairly certain it won't help your mind, though.
People like you - those who attack a person because of what YOU think they LOOK like and not what they DO or how they act - are one of the reasons our world is so screwed up.
As has been said already, GROW UP!
Who takes a five year old to a PP demonstration? I took mine on a tour when they were old enough. Yeast infections can be passed back and forth between partners, so men need to get treatment as well, even if they use condoms. I'd rather them learn it from me than on the street, and I want them to feel that sex and the sex drive are natural, that no means no, etc etc etc.
ReplyDeleteTruth is that she showed up at 3:48pm for a rally that was scheduled to end at 4:00 pm. They were already closing down. The huddled persons praying was the closing prayer by a Catholic priest. To say she shut down the protest, however creative her protest was, in inaccurate.
ReplyDelete