Planned Parenthood has turned down half a million dollars from self-described “ass-hole” and bestselling author Tucker Max.
Max attempted to donate $500,000 to the women’s health care and abortion provider at the urging of his public relations strategist Ryan Holiday. According to Holiday, the donation would have been a way to help “[r]ehabilitate some of Tucker’s PR. Reduce a tax burden. Encourage other donors.”
For the uninitiated, Max is an author who devotes his prose to personal stories of drunken debauchery and sexual exploits.
“I get excessively drunk at inappropriate times, disregard social norms, indulge every whim, ignore the consequences of my actions, mock idiots and posers, sleep with more women than is safe or reasonable, and just generally act like a raging dickhead,” he explains at his website.
Apparently, Planned Parenthood is not cool with that.
Holiday explained in a first person narrative, published by Forbes, how Max’s $500,000 was rejected over the telephone as Max was driving to make the donation at the Planned Parenthood of North Texas in Dallas.
As Holiday relays:
PP: “I guess it’s the way you write about women.”
Tucker: “What do you mean? I’m not negative towards women in my writing. Women love my writing; more than half my fans are female.”
PP: “Well…there are certain jokes you make we feel can be perceived in a certain negative manner.”
Tucker: “So because I made a fat girl joke you won’t accept a $500,000 donation?”
PP: “I wouldn’t characterize it that way.”
Tucker: “How would you then? I’m listening and I want your best quote.”
PP: “We don’t feel it would be appropriate, given Planned Parenthood’s mission and your body of work, to accept your donation.”
Tucker: “What? I thought Planned Parenthood’s mission was about helping women, not passing judgment on humor.”
Planned Parenthood’s rejection of Max’s donation came in the wake of Texas cutting off all Medicaid funding to the organization. In response, the Obama administration ended funding for the state’s women’s health program — leading Texas to sue the federal government.
Planned Parenthood did not immediately respond to The Daily Caller’s request for comment.
According to Holiday, however, Planned Parenthood’s decision to reject Max’s money represented a folly of “self-righteousness.”
“So I tell this story not simply to call out Planned Parenthood—though they deserve it and more. Tucker wasn’t trying to make a fool of them with the donation I set up, but they acted like one anyway,” Holiday wrote.
“Planned Parenthood did to Tucker exactly what the Susan G. Komen Foundation had done to Planned Parenthood,” he added. “Let perception and moral superiority and BS politics get in the way of their real mission of helping people in need.”
According to Holiday, Planned Parenthood was not interested in an anonymous donation either. The money went to other, unnamed, charities.