Why I support Planned Parenthood

This past week has been a fucking head trip…no, seriously. For readers that follow me on Twitter you know my world has been spinning off its fucking axis. Right now I am trying to just process everything but the short of it is that my Dad is back in Chicago. At some point I will do a post mortem on the blog but right now I just need to process everything.

However it seems that while I have been dealing with family drama, the world has just been going mad. What the fuck is up in Wisconsin? Dear Lawd, we have the governor sending state troopers out to look for Democratic legislatures who are hiding out.

We got the Republicans deciding that Planned Parenthood should get no funding…which is really the point of today’s post. By the way all you Democrats, Independents and whoever else sat out the midterm elections; y’all need to shut the fuck up. See, even when you don’t vote you are indeed voting and now we are seeing our country going ass backwards. But that too is another post.

My relationship to access to health care has always been tenuous at best. I got married and pregnant at 18, as you can imagine I didn’t exactly have health insurance so I had to avail myself to Medicaid which was interesting to say the least. Frankly having Medicaid in my experiences has always been seen as a sign that you deserve lousy medical care after all you are poor and well poor bodies especially poor brown bodies apparently don’t deserve adequate and respectful care when it comes to their bodies. At least that is how most providers treat Medicaid recipients in my experience.

Yet since coming of age there has always been one place I can count on to get my annual exams, birth control, etc and know that I will be treated well. That place is Planned Parenthood. I have used Planned Parenthood in different states and have always been treated well. Back in my 20’s when I needed birth control yet lacked insurance I could get birth control. When I thought I had a lump in my breast, I was seen in a timely fashion and treated with dignity.

I always find it interesting how many folks seem to only equate Planned Parenthood with abortions which yes they do provide and some how only see them as providers of abortions which is patently false. Yet even if that was all they provided, abortion is still a legal procedure and the reasons that women choose abortion are varied. Perhaps some women have been irresponsible, yet we also live in a time that demonizes women who have babies and then need assistance in the form of social services. Well hot damn, women are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. On the other hand do we not believe in this country that people have the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness? If that is the case, then don’t worry what others are doing with their bodies and specifically their wombs…it’s none of your business.

That said until all women have access to good, affordable and respectful services then we will continue to need places like Planned Parenthood. Call me a fool but with states axing services that might mean even the meager services offered via Medicaid will no longer be available and all the more reason that women need access to places like Planned Parenthood. Then there are women who for whatever reason may not be completely broke but simply don’t have a health care provider for their gynecological needs. That pretty much sums up my current situation. I had a lovely midwife who delivered my daughter who decided to retire not long after I have birth so for the past several years I have been trying to find a health care provider I like and trust who I can also afford since I am paying out of pocket. That pretty much means Planned Parenthood since it’s actually down the street from my office, affordable and I actually like them which is more than I can say of a few providers I have had in recent years.

Maybe its because I am a Black woman and maybe its because my Mom died relatively early and started having health issues at approximately the same age I am now but I take addressing my health needs very seriously. After all the stats don’t exactly suggest that Black women in my age demographic are as healthy as they can be yet in order to be healthy there has to be access to services and services that are culturally sensitive which is another piece that I have always liked about Planned Parenthood.

Anyway this current issue hit close to home and I really felt the need to add my voice to chorus of voices rising up over this issue.

3 thoughts on “Why I support Planned Parenthood”

    • When I was in middle school I was offered a day of education from a wonderful man that ran the lab in our local hospital. He arrived at my school with babies that had been naturally lost to miscarriage and were preserved in formaldehyde. It allowed students to actually see babies up close and first hand to examine the miracle of life in the formation of the human infant. It was a revelation to me. I could see the eye lashes, toes, little fingers etc. On the other hand we also watched three actual abortions on film. It was one
      of the most difficult things that I have ever seen in my
      entire life. In my opinion, I was truly educated. Unfortunately, most girls do not receive this type of
      education when deciding what direction they must take. My education left such an impression upon my life that I
      decided that not even if I were rapped would I have an
      abortion. Planned parenthood doesn’t educate women about
      this subject. In fact they even lie to perspective clients. Focus on the Family has people on their show
      they were former employees that had stated that they
      believed that they were helping women but they were trained to lie when clients asked if the babies would feel pain. The fact is that babies do feel pain. If every womb had a built in window into the world of the
      out babies, there would be no abortions. Ignorance is bliss. Too many abortions today are just used as a form
      of birth control. It is a sad reality. That baby had no
      choice, no vote, no voice. They do feel the pain of being torn apart without anything to control their pain.
      We don’t even treat animals like this. We treat them humanely and put them down gently without pain. What an out cry there would be if we ripped animals apart in such a way as we do our own human babies.

      Abortion is America’s Great Holocaust and we will be judged for our neglect and choices.

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