It never occurred to me that Planned Parenthood was in the cancer screening business ,too. Ironic ,IMO.
This is something very personal to me, so please don't take this response personally, although it was what triggered my reply. It's also a very personal response...
PP is in the cancer screening business, and they do a lot of good otherwise.
After three years+ without it, I finally have health insurance again.
During the time I didn't have health insurance and was un/underemployed and poor, the local PP office (an office that, by the way, doesn't and has
never offered abortion services) provided the following to me, free of cost, based on my income (or, really, lack of). They were the
only free health screenings of
any kind available to me (by the time I had been uninsured long enough to be on the waiting list for the state healthcare program, they'd closed the waiting list). Because they did a basic physical ever time I went there, I was confident that if I had any other hidden health problem, they'd find it.
Here's what I got: free annual pap smears, to make sure I didn't have cervical cancer (there's a history of it my family); free annual breast cancer screenings (about five years ago, when I *did* have insurance, I had a scare where I ended up having to have a breast ultrasound--turned out to be a cyst and negative, but boy, that was effing scary); free STD screenings (I had one, because I'm in a committed monogamous relationship, and wanted to be responsible); and free birth control.
I'm in my mid-thirties, my boyfriend is in his mid-forties (and had a child when he was in his teens, because he was ignorant about birth control at the time--I'm very glad she's here, because she's a wonderful person). I'll also admit, there was a gap between my health insurance coverage and birth control through PP (in addition to birth control, I take the pill because if I don't, I have *horrible* cramps that lead me to missing a lot of work monthly)....during that time, my boyfriend and I practiced the pull-out method. Not particularly responsible. If had I gotten pregnant, one of two things would have happened: either I would have gotten an abortion, or the state would have paid a heck of a lot of money in child-care assistance, food stamps, etc., etc. Given my personal life circumstances, I'd probably have gone through option A.
So, for those folks who don't like PP (and again, this isn't directed to anyone personally): do you appreciate the cancer screenings they've given me particularly given my family and personal history? Do you appreciate how scary it is to be without health insurance, and to not have other options for even basic health care? This is why PP is important (and not just for women--they give cancer screening for men, as well). This is why the Kormon Foundation pulling funding is a big deal...for many of us, PP is the *only* option for even basic health care.
