A viral e-mail encouraging people to tweak Sarah Palin by sending donations to Planned Parenthood in her honor – triggering a thank-you note to the anti-abortion Republican candidate – is working in Maine.

“We don’t have specific amounts and won’t have them for another month,” said Chris Quint, director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, from his Scarborough office. “Definitely donations are up. From what I understand they are up around the country.”

Quint said the group doesn’t know who started the e-mail or where it originated. As it’s been forwarded from mailbox to mailbox, the message tailored to different regions. He’s seen e-mails that include a link to Maine’s Planned Parenthood or a link to the national Planned Parenthood, and e-mails that include an address for Palin at McCain for President headquarters in Virginia and others that don’t.

The e-mail forward starts:

“Dear Friends:

“We may have thought we wanted a woman on a national political ticket, but the joke has really been on us, hasn’t it?”

The increase in donations is mainly coming in over the Internet, Quint said, which typically isn’t a big avenue for the group, and many are from people who’ve never given before.

Online, donors are invited to make a contribution in memory of or in honor of someone, and that someone gets a thank-you if their name and address is filled in.

“If they make it in honor of someone, no matter who it is, we will send them a card,” Quint said.

He didn’t know how many Palin cards had gone out.

– Kathryn Skelton

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