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gryphonseggYesterday, Shakesville and What Tami Said co-hosted the My Planned Parenthood Carnival, in which bloggers shared their stories about the importance of Planned Parenthood. This is in response to Republican efforts in the last few months to defund PP and ultimately shut the organization down. I support efforts to save Planned Parenthood, even though own experience is less positive than those featured in the carnival.
I have the anatomical parts typical of the female human reproductive system. Those parts sort of work too. Sort of. Even though I am not sexually active, I need to take hormonal birth control to curtail the pain and other symptoms of a reproductive system that doesn't work quite right. A few years ago, I needed to get my prescription renewed even though I did not have insurance or much money. Even getting an appointment to talk to someone who can write a prescription costs money, often a lot of it. It is standard practice, at least where I live, to refuse birth control prescriptions to patients who won't submit to a pelvic exam and pap smear, and pap smears are, by my standards, really expensive. Planned Parenthood was there when I needed it.
I have heard from other people, who used PP services in other areas, that they were able to get their prescriptions without a pelvic exam. I was explicitly told that this was impossible and I had to have the full exam, including pap smear, to get the prescription. Other people have said their Planned Parenthood exams were faster and less painful than exams performed elsewhere and they were asked fewer intrusive or humiliating questions. I can't say this happened to me. It was the most painful exam I've ever had, in terms of physical pain alone. And I can't even say that all the pain was physical; if you want to talk about humiliating questions, well, I'd rather block it out. The woman who performed the exam didn't believe my answers to her questions about past sexual experience. She thought I was just being whiny and overly delicate. I would have walked out if I'd had a better choice. As bad as it was, going without the prescription is worse-- if nothing else, it lasts longer. So I shut up and got it over with rather than suffer my usual symptoms until I could get a job and afford insurance. There wasn't anywhere else I could go. If Planned Parenthood hadn't been there, I wouldn't have had any relief at all.
That's why I am horrified by the recent attempts to eliminate Planned Parenthood. Because some people don't have anywhere to go for the medical care they need. Because even when it's not the best it can be, it's still better than nothing. Because if the reactionary forces in our national and state governments take it away, then people who rely on it for free or reduced cost treatment for their medical conditions will go untreated. Some will "merely" suffer intense pain, while others, such as those whose cyclical symptoms include a dangerous drop in blood pressure, may need to seek emergency care repeatedly. The opponents of Planned Parenthood don't care, of course. They've got it in for anyone who would do such a disgusting thing as be born with uterus and then compound that mistake by not being comfortably supported by family money well into adulthood. But I hope that anyone who is unsure of the seriousness of the problem, anyone who might have been wondering if this issue is worth the amount of fear and anger it's generating, will consider the people who have turned to Planned Parenthood when there was nowhere else to get the health care they needed-- people like me.
I have the anatomical parts typical of the female human reproductive system. Those parts sort of work too. Sort of. Even though I am not sexually active, I need to take hormonal birth control to curtail the pain and other symptoms of a reproductive system that doesn't work quite right. A few years ago, I needed to get my prescription renewed even though I did not have insurance or much money. Even getting an appointment to talk to someone who can write a prescription costs money, often a lot of it. It is standard practice, at least where I live, to refuse birth control prescriptions to patients who won't submit to a pelvic exam and pap smear, and pap smears are, by my standards, really expensive. Planned Parenthood was there when I needed it.
I have heard from other people, who used PP services in other areas, that they were able to get their prescriptions without a pelvic exam. I was explicitly told that this was impossible and I had to have the full exam, including pap smear, to get the prescription. Other people have said their Planned Parenthood exams were faster and less painful than exams performed elsewhere and they were asked fewer intrusive or humiliating questions. I can't say this happened to me. It was the most painful exam I've ever had, in terms of physical pain alone. And I can't even say that all the pain was physical; if you want to talk about humiliating questions, well, I'd rather block it out. The woman who performed the exam didn't believe my answers to her questions about past sexual experience. She thought I was just being whiny and overly delicate. I would have walked out if I'd had a better choice. As bad as it was, going without the prescription is worse-- if nothing else, it lasts longer. So I shut up and got it over with rather than suffer my usual symptoms until I could get a job and afford insurance. There wasn't anywhere else I could go. If Planned Parenthood hadn't been there, I wouldn't have had any relief at all.
That's why I am horrified by the recent attempts to eliminate Planned Parenthood. Because some people don't have anywhere to go for the medical care they need. Because even when it's not the best it can be, it's still better than nothing. Because if the reactionary forces in our national and state governments take it away, then people who rely on it for free or reduced cost treatment for their medical conditions will go untreated. Some will "merely" suffer intense pain, while others, such as those whose cyclical symptoms include a dangerous drop in blood pressure, may need to seek emergency care repeatedly. The opponents of Planned Parenthood don't care, of course. They've got it in for anyone who would do such a disgusting thing as be born with uterus and then compound that mistake by not being comfortably supported by family money well into adulthood. But I hope that anyone who is unsure of the seriousness of the problem, anyone who might have been wondering if this issue is worth the amount of fear and anger it's generating, will consider the people who have turned to Planned Parenthood when there was nowhere else to get the health care they needed-- people like me.