I’ve been a Planned Parenthood supporter for the entirety of my adult life. I’ve also had some form of insurance (on and off) for the entirety of my adult life. Until now. My first 72 hours with no insurance and no future insurance in sight taught me that Planned Parenthood is more important, to more people, than even I had realized. Here goes.
Funny story, I used to live in Massachusetts where everyone had to have health insurance (Sounds like Obamacare, right? Yeah, it’s like that but Mitt Romney did it.) I left MA on February 27th but held onto my insurance until I had an official address somewhere else. On Tuesday April 30 I gave up the ghost. I called and cancelled my policy. Of note, I was paid through May but as my insurance was not exactly cheap and I could really use the money I was relieved when they said that they would cancel me effective immediately and refund the last payment. Then Wednesday morning dawned.
I could now tell you a whole lot about laser hair removal effectiveness and my lady-parts but I’ll keep it short and say that I felt something on my body that had not been there before. Something that I didn’t recognize as anything I had ever seen before. I wasn’t sure what it was. I was a bit freaked. Before you think I’m a giant hypochondriac let me tell you a few things about my family medical history:
- I lost a grandmother to Vulvar Melonama.
- I lost an aunt to anal cancer caused by HPV.
- All of my grandparents and all of my immediate family members have had cancer, of those 7 people 4 of them died from it.
I try to not fixate or be morbid but with that history I tend to treat cancer as a question of when, not if. I take care of myself but if we’re being honest, I feel like I’m walking around with a target on my back. I’m on guard to say the least.
So, there I was. In a new city (I had officially lived in Portland for 4 days at this point) without a job, without insurance and without a clue as to where to go. I had a moment of panic where I considered contacting one of the several friends-of-friends I’d been put in touch with and, you know, getting to know each other really quickly and then it hit me, I knew who I could call: Planned Parenthood. 10 minutes, an internet search and a quick phone call later I had an appointment for the next morning and had been quoted an estimated cost based on my income (or lack thereof) Situation under control.
Again, I’ll make a long story short- I was fine, there was nothing to worry about. I was then charged about half of what I had been quoted…I think because there was nothing to do with me but look and say “yeah you’re good, but stay on top of things” (Sidebar: I know I’ve spoken to the guys about this but seriously folks, pay attention to your body, know when stuff feels different) and I was on my way. The end.
Here’s the thing: without Planned Parenthood I don’t know where I would have gone. Generally I advise urgent care clinics for the uninsured (way more affordable than ERs) but I would not feel ok taking a gynecological issue to one of those and frankly I would have been too scared of the financial ramifications of going to an ER. I probably would have just ignored it. Now, in my case that would have been fine but I was lucky, that’s not always the case. Looking around the waiting room I was stunned by how much more crowded it was here than it had been in Boston. Thinking about it, I think the difference is insurance. In MA almost everyone has it, giving them options. The women and men (Yes, men, lots of them. No, they were not there to support partners, they had appointments) with me in the waiting room last week need somewhere to go and Planned Parenthood is filling that need.
I refuse to mount the “see, it’s not just abortions” argument right now because I think that argument undermines us. There is nothing wrong with providing abortions and I’m glad to know that if what I had woken up with that morning was not a skin abnormality but rather an unplanned pregnancy I would have had somewhere to go. What I will say is when you hear people ranting and raving about the need to “get rid of” Planned Parenthood know the full extent of what they are trying to take away. When we talk about Planned Parenthood the word “choice” usually comes into play and it’s an important one but what we need to remember is that the “choice” extends beyond abortion. It’s about giving people- women, men, humans- the ability to choose care and knowledge over fear and ignorance. Taking away Planned Parenthood leaves a lot of people with no choice.
Here’s a lovely moment from President Obama’s recent address to Planned Parenthood.
