# Not your parent's Dear Abby **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 25, 2003, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-your-parents-dear-abby/215130 "2003-11-25T04:57:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-your-parents-dear-abby/215130/1 "2003-11-25T04:57:59Z")
The following link is to the Dear Abby(Jeanne Phillips) letters that appeared today. I read them in my local paper, then found the website to see whether or not the paper had trimmed or edited them. > **[Dear Abby - Life Advice](https://www.uexpress.com/life/dearabby)** > > Written by Abigail Van Buren (also known as Jeanne Phillips), Dear Abby is the most widely syndicated columnist in the world, delivering sound, compassionate advice every day. Got to admit I like her style so far. In today’s replies concerning earlier advice to a pregnant teen, she stands up to the seeming fundies who were chastising her for _daring_ to advise that the girl maybe should(gasp!) seek help at a Planned Parenthood Center, since she had said she was afrraid to tell her folks. The final reply, in which Abby “bashes” the Crisis Pregnancy Centers shows she has some spine. And she did some “fighting ignorance” of her own when she educated people about the origins and history of Planned Parenthood. Did anyone else see these? ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-your-parents-dear-abby/215130/2 "2003-11-25T08:00:35Z")
Jeanne Phillips had been co-writing the column with her mother for a long time before the elder Phillips retired. They have a long-standing policy of referring people with reproductive questions to Planned Parenthood. Printing and responding to those who object to this referral is a new one for me, but I liked the way she responded politely, but firmly to them. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-your-parents-dear-abby/215130/3 "2003-11-25T17:08:11Z")
Anyone who’s surprised by that response never read Dear Abby. The col;umn has been endorsing Planned Parenthood for decades. You may be just ASSUMING that “Popo” Philips was an old-fashioned, moralistic, fuddy-duddy, but that’s not the case. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-your-parents-dear-abby/215130/4 "2003-11-25T17:22:05Z")
Maybe they’re confusing her with Ann Landers. I swear, Ann Landers seemed like a Nazi sometimes. (“KEEP YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF EACH OTHER, YOU LECHEROUS PIGS!” was Landers’ usual advice to any unmarried couple.) ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-your-parents-dear-abby/215130/5 "2003-11-26T08:07:06Z")
Damn it! Ann Landers was cool. Hell, in her book she said s&m was fine, as long as both partners were into it. I don’t recall her ever coming across as moralistic. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-your-parents-dear-abby/215130/6 "2003-11-26T14:44:52Z")
**I** sure as hell remember Ann Landers coming across as moralistic. A letter from a teen-ager in the early 1980s asked her for advice on contraception. Ann Landers’ response was, “There’s only one sure-fire way of preventing pregnancy: abstinence. If you two can’t keep your hands off each other, there are devices out there that can reduce your chances of getting pregnant. **But don’t think this means that premarital sex is okay. It is not okay.** ” ---
**Author:** ![kung\_fu\_lola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f4b2a3/32.png) [@kung\_fu\_lola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kung_fu_lola)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-your-parents-dear-abby/215130/7 "2003-11-26T20:14:26Z")
I (heart) Dear Abby! How courageous of her to have written that column. I hope people take her simple common sense to heart in this case, as they do in so many others.