Black Lives Matter: Cities must prioritize human services and end over-policing

The state-sanctioned murder of Black people must end. Police officers and departments must be held accountable and prosecuted for the murders of George Floyd and countless others. Public health efforts are built on the principle of saving lives, and our cities must prioritize funding for public health and wellbeing ahead of funding for police. Through blatant police violence or through centuries of policies that have systematically oppressed Black people, the systems that built and uphold American society have continuously demonstrated disregard for Black people's health and humanity.

If Black people do not have the right to bodily autonomy in order to live their daily lives — or to protest the violence against their lives — without the fear of brutality or murder, we can never achieve justice, let alone reproductive freedom. The over-policing of Black people extends far beyond the actions of individual police officers. It exists in our public institutions and is pervasive in our health care system.

We cannot address structural racism or white supremacy in this country without looking inward and addressing the role Planned Parenthood has played in it. We commit to a thorough reckoning of our own racist history and how it continues to express itself today. We commit to continue, enhance and prioritize our efforts to address and correct implicit bias and racist practices within our organization in order to improve our advocacy for bodily autonomy for all people. We vow to support and make space for the Black organizations and leaders already at the forefront of this fight. We will follow their lead.

Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates stands in solidarity with protestors. We stand with the Movement for Black Lives in calling for radical change to end the over-policing of Black people and a reprioritization of funding on the state and local level, moving funds away from the police and back into human services, education, health care, the arts, and the other services which help people live and thrive.

• Contact Your Local Government and tell them to reject any budget that increases funding for police and cuts funding for community services. Cities across the Commonwealth are using COVID-19 to cut funding for human services while increasing funding for police. 

• Donate to Bail Funds to keep over policed people of color and protesters being met with violence out of jail. Consider making your donation recurring. There are funds in Pittsburgh, and Lancaster.

• Sign the Movement for Black Lives petition and check out their week of action.

• Educate yourself and the people around you: We encourage non-black allies to deepen their understanding of how racism affects us all by reading these anti-racism resources and have conversations with your family and friends.

We stand with our patients, our staff, our partners, and all those in the communities we serve who have been directly affected by police violence this week and long before. We’re here for you, and we’ll keep fighting alongside you. No matter what.