Why I donated $50 today to Planned Parenthood
There's no conceivable separation of the issue of women's health from the little matter of something called women's reproductive freedom. One simply cannot exist without the other. That's why the Susan G. Komen Race for a Cure organization has ceased to be about women's health by pulling its funding for Planned Parenthood's breast cancer screenings and services. Planned Parenthood, through its lobbying efforts, sex ed programs, birth control clinics, and maternal and child health services, is one of the most important resources that exists for women's health in this nation. They do a hell of a lot for men as well.According to Wikipedia, the services of Planned Parenthood reach more than five million Americans each year, more than a quarter of which are under 19 years of age, and three-quarters living at 150% of the poverty line or below. PP is usually the only service option available for the young women living in the most dire economic situations. All sexually-active Americans have benefited in some form or another from the organization's extensive testing and treatment for sexually-transmitted diseases, and it is truly a lifelong resource for women in regards to their health-- from pregnancy/midwife/prenatal services through menopause treatments, and of course, cancer treatments. The Komen organization has made the decision to cut off financially from an organization that conducts 830,000 breast exams every year.
Planned Parenthood has been a courageous public advocate for abortion rights, birth control accessibility, and comprehensive sex education in public schools. This work is monumental. Their counselors offer medicinal and health services to clients without soaking them in mysticism and superstition. In most locations where they operate, the only alternative available for the services they provide are religious cults disguised as hospitals.
The late Christopher Hitchens was right when he said there is only one known cure for poverty on this planet. That is, he said, "the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction." The Komen Foundation is willing to partner with fast food restaurants that pollute the bodies of women, with perfumes that have been laced with toxins, and with religious and social organizations that oppose the empowerment of women and that promote policies of systemic poverty and malnourishment, yet they're dropping ties today with Planned Parenthood because a Sarah Palin-clone graduated to the level of vice president in the leadership hierarchy.
Poverty has just the one known cure, and sadly, we have no known cure at all for crass political expedience and religious fanaticism. No, for those things, we don't yet have even a race for a cure.
posted by CM @ 6:01 PM
1 Comments:
I find myself commending them for sticking to their policy (that they will not fund an organization that is under congressional investigation) but I think it's unfair to the organization (Planned Parenthood or otherwise) to be penalized until it has been proven that they did something wrong. At this time, it is "reported" that public funds were "improperly" used for abortions. We have yet to see if that claim is accurate and I don't see how money donated for breast exams has anything to do with the funds the public provides...but that refers us back to their policy. Either way, I won't be doing Race for the Cure of donating my money to the Komen Foundation. Luckily, there are other ways to support the cause without having to go through them.
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