Judy Blume's Planned Parenthood pitch

On May 5, subscribers to Planned Parenthood's mailing list received an e-mail from author Judy Blume. Cleverly headed "Are You There [Your Name Here]? It's me, Judy" (a reference to Blume's classic young-adult novel, "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret"), the message made a pitch for Mother's Day donations. "It's not easy to be a mother these days," Blume wrote. "And right now -- with more and more women seeking care from Planned Parenthood health centers -- we need to do all we can to support them. By honoring a mother in your life, you'll be making a gift to millions of mothers and families who seek care from Planned Parenthood."

The next day, an e-mail titled "Judy Blume backlash -- please help!" arrived from Planned Parenthood's president, Cecile Richards, who wrote: "Anti-choice extremists are inundating [Blume] with hate mail and phone calls."

That e-mail included links to donation forms on Planned Parenthood's website as well as a hastily created "Stand up for Judy Blume" page where supporters could send encouraging words to the author -- even though Blume is famous for her frank treatment of subjects related to puberty and sexuality and is presumably no stranger to hate mail.

Much of the push-back appears to have been generated by an article in the pro-life publication LifeNews, which put some heavy, misrepresentative spin on Blume's words. "Blume notes how more women are seeking abortions from Planned Parenthood because of the difficult economy," wrote LifeNews Editor Steven Ertelt, "and she urges readers of the e-mail to use that as a reason to support the abortion business." Ertelt provided an e-mail address for Blume as well as a link to her website and urged readers to write and voice their complaints.

Needless to say, this is just the kind of thing that makes abortion-rights advocates apoplectic. In the blogosphere and elsewhere, pro-choicers fired back, imparting the statistic about abortion making up only 3% of Planned Parenthood's services and pointing out that many of the women being yelled at by picketers in clinic parking lots aren't even pregnant but, rather, trying to avoid getting pregnant. "Are you there LifeNews? It's me, Reality," wrote a commenter on the popular women's media blog Jezebel.