This Heroic Woman Chanted "Yeast Infections!" at People Protesting Planned Parenthood

When in doubt, gross 'em out.

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(Image credit: Twitter)

The debate surrounding Planned Parenthood is still raging, but one supporter has figured out the key to talking some sense into them: Get into the nitty-gritty about women's health and start talking about yeast infections. (That's right.)

Mary Numair, 29, works at Purringtons Cat Lounge in Portland, Oregon, and noticed that protesters had been gathering outside the Planned Parenthood nearby. She told BuzzFeed that she tried to reason with them, but could never get through to them. 

And for Numair, this is personal. When she was in her early 20s, she had chronic yeast infections but no health insurance because she had a pre-existing condition. (This was the pre-Obamacare years.) So she relied on Planned Parenthood to help with birth control and care for her stubborn infections. 

She got a piece of cardboard form the dumpster, and wrote "Dear P.P, thanks for helping with my yeast infections" on it with market. She then added a vulva drawing, complete with smiling clitoris, and a stick figure of a woman with big boobs. She then got a co-worker to cover the rest of her shift, went outside to the protest, and stood next to some families with kids.

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She started yelling and chanting "yeast infections," and naturally, it did not end well. "In my first 30 seconds of walking out there, I did get called a whore," she told Slate. "One woman was shaking her head. I knelt down to her kid and said, 'Do you know about yeast infections?'" 

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But some people passing by the protest gave her props, and the tactic eventually worked. After 20 minutes of screaming and doing high kicks, they left, even ending the prayer circle they started in an effort to pray for her.

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Numair said she'll continue her counter-protests, and wants someone to help her make a giant wooden labia. She hopes that the trend will spread, and has good advice for people who get confronted: Ask about their own personal health.

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Megan Friedman
Editor

Megan Friedman is the former managing editor of the Newsroom at Hearst. She's worked at NBC and Time, and is a graduate of Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism.