WILKES-BARRE, Pa. -- A Planned Parenthood branch that covers all of northeastern and central Pennsylvania is responding after a tweet stirred up controversy on social media.
Planned Parenthood Keystone, a branch based in the Lehigh Valley sent out a tweet Tuesday encouraging Disney to add a princess who had an abortion. The tweet has since been deleted, but initially, it prompted plenty of responses on Twitter, as well as reaction in Wilkes-Barre.
The tweet read:
- "We need a Disney princess who's had an abortion."
- "We need a Disney princess who's pro-choice."
- "We need a Disney princess who's an undocumented immigrant."
- "We need a Disney princess who's actually a union worker."
- "We need a Disney princess who's trans."
The tweet was deleted.
In a statement, Planned Parenthood Keystone said:
"Pop culture has a critical role in educating the public and sparking meaningful conversations," but "the seriousness of the point was not appropriate for the subject matter."
The tweet had people in Wilkes-Barre talking.
"They're wrong. They're a stereotype. Planned Parenthood is for anybody that needs to go and basically get any type of help, not just people in the streets. A Disney princess portrays that a happy ending isn't always the reality of life," said Candace Ellis.
"They must've been hacked because I can't understand them actually writing that themselves. That makes no sense to me at all, whatsoever," Gary Powell said.
Newswatch 16 stopped by the Pennsylvanians for Human Life Wyoming Valley Chapter, a pro-life, nonprofit organization that offers alternatives to abortion.
"Their message is always to promote that the women have the choice to have an abortion and we totally oppose that. Regardless of whether they use the Little Princess, or whatever, we're here to say that we have the help that we can give that a woman never has to choose an abortion to lose their child," said director Betty Caffrey.
Newswatch 16 was unsuccessful in reaching out to Disney for this story.
Planned Parenthood Keystone's statement defends the tweet but says it deleted it because the context didn't fit into a Disney princess discussion.