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What's the Scoop? ice cream has been deluged with "threatening" phone calls and messages after a fundraiser for the reproductive health organization Planned Parenthood.
"Some of them have been scary," says owner Jodie Ostrovsky. "We've gotten quite a number of phone calls, a lot of Facebook stuff—we've gotten comments through the form on our web page. Some of them are bizarre and odd. We don't know why they're telling us that we have problems when they're saying terrible, threatening things."
What's the Scoop? created an ice-cream flavor for Planned Parenthood called Rose City Revolution—a mix of honey, rose and vanilla—that Planned Parenthood had sold as a fundraiser. At the ice-cream shop, What's the Scoop also sold the flavor for a three-hour window on Thursday, July 17, during which 10 percent of proceeds were donated to Planned Parenthood.
On the same day, an anti-abortion blog called LifeNews.com wrote, "Abortion giant Planned Parenthood has announced that a local ice cream parlor has created an ice cream just for them. No it will not be called Blood and Scream!" The blog then provided a link to the Facebook page and website of What's the Scoop?
Some comments on the Facebook page mirror those on the blog:
Ostrovsky's daughter had answered the phone to the shop, because Ostrovsky was busy making ice cream. "Normally I wouldn't have let her answer the phone," she said. "I just thought, 'Please let it not be a crazy person.'
"What it comes down to," she says, "is that we try to support the organizations we care about in our community. We're proud to have supported Planned Parenthood, because they provide a much-needed service to women in our community and all over the country."
While she talked on the phone to WW, a customer walked by her shop and thanked her for the fundraiser. "At least our supporters are seeing what's happening," she says.
The shop has conducted similar fundraisers as benefits for cystic fibrosis research, leukemia and lymphoma research, and arts organizations without incident. They'd also done another fundraiser for Planned Parenthood without problems.
WWeek 2015