Tag Archives: Sexually transmitted disease

Quick Hit: World Contraception Day

26 Sep contraception

On this World Contraception Day, I’d like to give a shout-out to birth control in all its forms. It gives me freedoms to and freedoms from, all of which I appreciate on a daily basis: freedom to determine the size and spacing of my family (one 9-week-old is enough right now, thankyouverymuch), freedom to follow a career trajectory of my choosing, freedom to enjoy sex without worry, freedom from horrendous menstrual cramps (this may seem like a minor inconvenience to some, but please believe it is not), freedom from being perpetually pregnant, freedom from STIs, and freedom from limited social and economic opportunities. Really, the list goes on and on. I owe my independence in large part to birth control.

What does birth control mean to you? Please add your thoughts in the comments section below, and hop on over to Population Council’s website to contribute to their word cloud.

Also be sure to check out these great posts in honor of World Contraception Day:

 

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I Stand With Planned Parenthood Because…

25 Feb I-Stand-with-Planned-Parenthood

This post is a little bit different from my others; it is part of Fair and Feminist’s Blog Carnival and is dedicated to reasons why I stand with Planned Parenthood. In the face of the GOP’s onslaught against the organization, it’s critically important that we all stand with Planned Parenthood now more than ever.

So, without further ado, I stand with Planned Parenthood because….

  • PP respects my right to choose when I’ll become a mother
  • PP trusts me to make my own decisions about my body
  • Of that life-saving pap-smear they gave me when I had no insurance and no money
  • PP stands up to threats the size of Oklahoma City just to support my right to choose
  • PP doesn’t care if you’re poor, rich, Black, White, Latina, Asian, young, old, gay, straight, able-bodied or not — they’ll provide you with quality healthcare
  • PP serves those traditionally underserved by society with primary healthcare
  • PP provides medically accurate information on all-things sexual and reproductive health — unlike bastard CPCs
  • PP provides a plethora of health services: contraception accounts for 35%; testing for sexually transmitted diseases, 34%; cancer screening and prevention, 17%; abortion only 3%.
  • Even if I was part of that 3%, PP would treat me with respect, dignity and without judgment
  • Without PP, millions of women — and men — would be without proper reproductive and sexual healthcare
  • PP helps prevent hundreds of thousands of unwanted pregnancies every year, helping women live their lives as they otherwise might not be able to

I’m sure there are a million other reasons to stand with Planned Parenthood — so please feel free to add in your reasons in the comment section below!

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Title X Update: House Sucks, Senate Has Hope

18 Feb I-Stand-with-Planned-Parenthood

Today WAS going swell. It’s a beautiful day outside and I got fixings to make chocolate chip cookies. Then I heard: the House passed the Pence bill, officially de-funding Title X.

I realize that it’s very easy to be an arm-chair activist, to let others speak for you. But I — along with millions of other women — beg you to take two minutes to be an activist today.

I recently wrote about Title X and how it helps poor and uninsured women. You can get the skinny here. But the following bears repeating:

THIS IS NOT ABOUT ABORTION. THIS IS ABOUT WOMEN’S HEALTHCARE.

The House is a lost cause, but you can take a hot minute to either email or call your Senators and urge them to block this legislation once it reaches the Senate floor.

Your Senators NEED to hear from you! PLEASE. As someone who relied on Planned Parenthood for healthcare when I moved to NYC and had no money and no insurance, I can testify to the necessity of Title X.

Please believe,  it takes less time to reach out to your Senators than it did to read this post. Look up & contact them here.

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Title X No More?

12 Feb planned_parenthood

In addition to trying their damnedest to eliminate abortion rights, the GOP has also launched an attack against Title X.

What is Title X? Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) explains:

The Title X Family Planning program, which Nixon signed into law in 1970, is one of this country’s great achievements in public health and social justice. Clinics funded through Title X now prevent nearly a million unintended pregnancies every year. They save women’s lives through cancer screening, immunization and blood-pressure testing. Publicly supported family planning even saves the government money — $3.74 for every dollar invested.

And yet, for some reason, the GOP wants to eliminate ALL federal funding for Title X, via Rep. Mike Pence‘s Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act. The irony, though, is that not one penny of Title X funding is EVER used to provide abortions, since federal funding for abortion is not legal. The GOP just loves naming bills in such a way to confuse the public.

So what does this mean for women? It means that women who have no insurance or are low-income and depend on Title X-funded clinics for their primary health care — such as annual Pap Smears, breast cancer screenings, STI treatments and contraception — will be shit out of luck.

Planned Parenthood in particular would be decimated if this bill passes. Explains Richards,

Title X’s bedrock role in women’s health care is due in large part to Planned Parenthood — the sole provider of Title X services in some states. Our health centers provide family planning care to more than a third of the five million women served by Title X, and our services play a critical role in reducing unintended pregnancies, decreasing infant mortality, and detecting cancer at early stages, when there is a better chance of treating effectively. Altogether, Planned Parenthood’s 800-plus health centers provided care to about three million patients in 2009. The services they delivered include not only family planning and contraception but also breast and pelvic exams, cervical cancer screening, testing for sexually transmitted infections, post-partum care, and community initiatives to help teens stay healthy.

By de-funding Title X services and trying to eliminate the right to abortion,  the GOP is effectively launching a large scale attack against women. Not just against their uteruses, but against their overall health and livelihoods.

Here’s the million dollar question of the day: If the GOP wants to get the economy on track, HOW does de-funding Title X help meet this goal?

I feel like a broken record, but this bears repeating: TAKE ACTION! Contact your reps and tell them to save Title X. And if you’re on Twitter, be sure to tweet about how PPFA has helped you — or women you know — with the hashtag #ThanksPPFA.

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