+
upworthy
Family

Planned Parenthood's brilliant ad features an unexpected supporter: Donald Trump.

Millions of women rely on Planned Parenthood for lifesaving care.

In 2013, Jaime Benner discovered a lump in her right breast. She credits Planned Parenthood with saving her life.

Her primary care provider couldn't get her in for a screening for three weeks. Not only was Planned Parenthood able to get her in for an appointment that day, but they stood with her through the process of getting a referral for an emergency mammogram and beyond.

[rebelmouse-image 19473195 dam="1" original_size="750x390" caption="Image via Planned Parenthood Action/YouTube." expand=1]Image via Planned Parenthood Action/YouTube.


"The radiologist report came back inconclusive," she says. "But Planned Parenthood refused to accept that answer and sent me for further testing."

Two and a half weeks later, she underwent a complete radical mastectomy. "By the time I had my mastectomy, which was only a few weeks later, my cancer was spreading into my lymphatic system," she adds. "A day could have been the difference between the stage 3b cancer I had and stage 4."

Benner is the face of a new campaign to help save the organization's federal funding in a video that features an unexpected voice of support: Donald Trump.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, then-candidate Trump occasionally toed the Republican Party line in opposition to Planned Parenthood while other times he spoke frankly, sharing a important truths about just how vital the organization's services are to millions of people.

In a new 30-second ad for Planned Parenthood, Benner tells her own story, accompanied by clips of Trump, speaking in his own words about why Planned Parenthood matters. The video includes the notable moment from a Republican primary debate when he said, "Millions and millions of women — cervical cancer, breast cancer — are helped by Planned Parenthood."

[rebelmouse-image 19473196 dam="1" original_size="450x252" caption="Fact: 2.5 million people will visit one of Planned Parenthood's 650 locations this year. GIF via Planned Parenthood Action/YouTube." expand=1]Fact: 2.5 million people will visit one of Planned Parenthood's 650 locations this year. GIF via Planned Parenthood Action/YouTube.

That wasn’t  the only time Trump defended Planned Parenthood. In an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity in August 2015, Trump debunked the idea that the group is first and foremost an abortion provider — a claim that serves as the source of much of the controversy surrounding the organization — correctly noting that abortion is "actually a fairly small part of what they do."

If Planned Parenthood weren't around, people like Benner couldn’t just go somewhere else. There aren’t other local health clinics that can cover that patient load.

An analysis by the Congressional Budget Office found that defunding Planned Parenthood would have a disastrous effect on women’s health care options, especially those who rely on Medicaid.

[rebelmouse-image 19473197 dam="1" original_size="450x253" caption="GIF via Planned Parenthood Action/YouTube." expand=1]GIF via Planned Parenthood Action/YouTube.

"Not only did Planned Parenthood get me the testing I needed to find out I had cancer, they got everything together to get me Medicaid so I would have coverage," Benner says. "I'm not sure if you've ever looked into the costs associated with cancer, but one shot I used after chemo was $7,000 a syringe each time. I'm sure most average people couldn't afford to purchase one of those every two weeks."

[rebelmouse-image 19473198 dam="1" original_size="750x377" caption="Benner underwent aggressive chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Image via Planned Parenthood Action/YouTube." expand=1]Benner underwent aggressive chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Image via Planned Parenthood Action/YouTube.

Benner isn't alone. It's estimated that 1 in 5 women in the U.S. has visited a Planned Parenthood health center. While Republican politicians have the organization in their crosshairs, a majority of Americans (including a majority of Republicans, as a group) oppose cutting off funds to Planned Parenthood, with a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll finding that 75% of the public opposes cutting the group's funding.

Planned Parenthood is a lifeline for people of all political ideologies, and Donald Trump — clearly — knows it. The question remains, however, whether he and others will cut it off anyway.

"We have to help women," Trump said during the 2015 interview with Hannity. "A lot of women are helped [by Planned Parenthood]."

Now stuck between his pledge to "help women" and his promise to defund Planned Parenthood, Trump needs to choose one or the other. Benner, and millions of women like her, hope he’ll stand on the side of survivors.

GIF from Fox News/YouTube.

Using Trump's own words to make a point about why it's necessary to save Planned Parenthood is a pretty genius — and hopefully effective — move.

Watch Brenner and Trump make the case for protecting Planned Parenthood in 30 seconds below.

A pitbull stares at the window, looking for the mailman.


Dogs are naturally driven by a sense of purpose and a need for belonging, which are all part of their instinctual pack behavior. When a dog has a job to do, it taps into its needs for structure, purpose, and the feeling of contributing to its pack, which in a domestic setting translates to its human family.

But let’s be honest: In a traditional domestic setting, dogs have fewer chores they can do as they would on a farm or as part of a rescue unit. A doggy mom in Vancouver Island, Canada had fun with her dog’s purposeful uselessness by sharing the 5 “chores” her pitbull-Lab mix does around the house.

Keep ReadingShow less
Representative Image from Canva

Let's not curse any more children with bad names, shall we?

Some parents have no trouble giving their children perfectly unique, very meaningful names that won’t go on to ruin their adulthood. But others…well…they get an A for effort, but might want to consider hiring a baby name professional.

Things of course get even more complicated when one parent becomes attached to a name that they’re partner finds completely off-putting. It almost always leads to a squabble, because the more one parent is against the name, the more the other parent will go to bat for it.

This seemed to be the case for one soon-to-be mom on the Reddit AITA forum recently. Apparently, she was second-guessing her vehement reaction to her husband’s, ahem, avant garde baby name for their daughter, which she called “the worst name ever.”

But honestly, when you hear this name, I think you’ll agree she was totally in the right.

Keep ReadingShow less

An English doctor named Edward Jenner took incredible risks to try to rid his world of smallpox. Because of his efforts and the efforts of scientists like him, the only thing between deadly diseases like the ones below and extinction are people who refuse to vaccinate their kids. Don't be that parent.

Unfortunately, because of the misinformation from the anti-vaccination movement, some of these diseases have trended up in a really bad way over the past several years.

Keep ReadingShow less

A beautiful cruise ship crossing the seas.

Going on a cruise can be an incredible getaway from the stresses of life on the mainland. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t an element of danger when living on a ship 200-plus feet high, traveling up to 35 miles per hour and subject to the whims of the sea.

An average of about 19 people go overboard every year, and only around 28% survive. Cruise ship lawyer Spencer Aronfeld explained the phenomenon in a viral TikTok video, in which he also revealed the secret code the crew uses when tragedy happens.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

Kudos to the heroes who had 90 seconds to save lives in the Key Bridge collapse

The loss of 6 lives is tragic, but the dispatch recording shows it could have been so much worse.

Representative image by Gustavo Fring/Pexels

The workers who responded to the Dali's mayday call saved lives with their quick response.

As more details of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore emerge, it's becoming more apparent how much worse this catastrophe could have been.

Just minutes before 1:30am on March 26, shortly after leaving port in Baltimore Harbor, a cargo ship named Dali lost power and control of its steering, sending it careening into a structural pillar on Key Bridge. The crew of the Dali issued a mayday call at 1:26am to alert authorities of the power failure, giving responders crucial moments to prepare for a potential collision. Just 90 seconds later, the ship hit a pylon, triggering a total collapse of the 1.6-mile bridge into the Patapsco River.

Dispatch audio of those moments shows the calm professionalism and quick actions that limited the loss of life in an unexpected situation where every second counted.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

Yale's pep band had to miss the NCAA tournament. University of Idaho said, 'We got you.'

In an act of true sportsmanship, the Vandal band learned Yale's fight song, wore their gear and cheered them on.

Courtesy of University of Idaho

The Idaho Vandals answered the call when Yale needed a pep band.

Yale University and the University of Idaho could not be more different. Ivy League vs. state school. East Coast vs. Pacific Northwest. City vs. farm town. But in the first two rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament, extenuating circumstances brought them together as one, with the Bulldogs and the Vandals becoming the "Vandogs" for a weekend.

When Yale made it to the March Madness tournament, members of the school's pep band had already committed to other travel plans during spring break. They couldn't gather enough members to make the trek across the country to Spokane, Washington, so the Yale Bulldogs were left without their fight song unless other arrangements could be made.

When University of Idaho athletic band director Spencer Martin got wind of the need less than a week before Yale's game against Auburn, he sent out a message to his band members asking if anyone would be interested in stepping in. The response was a wave of immediate yeses, so Martin got to work arranging instruments and the students dedicated themselves to learning Yale's fight song and other traditional Yale pep songs.

Keep ReadingShow less