A detour.

This is important enough that, yes, I'm even posting it here. It's not "polite," and in fact, it's got a component that's pretty embarrassing to me, but there's something at stake more important than my pride, so here it is.

The House of Representatives, you see, just voted to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving Federal funding.

There's a petition here, and I hope any US resident with a bit of conscience and empathy will sign it. Elected officials do actually pay attention to such things.

Here is a story. It is, in fact, my very own story.

Planned Parenthood is more than abortions. Most of their centers do not, in fact, offer that service. What they do offer is gynecological care for women who do not have medical insurance, do not have well-paying jobs (or any jobs), or are otherwise unsupported by spouses or family in making safe reproductive health decisions.

When I was unemployed and in graduate school, I found myself with no other real health alternative than Planned Parenthood. Through them, I was able to afford gynecological health screenings and birth control pills which I need for health reasons--and make no mistake, birth control is a health issue in itself, but in my case, an underlying health condition also requires me to use birth control to stop ovulation. This medical care kept me healthy and prevented emergency-room care that would have been necessary had one of my ovarian cysts exploded, which is exactly what I'm at-risk for when I don't have access to birth-control pills. Nice, eh?

Planned Parenthood did something else for me, too. My partner at the time had cheated on me, and declined to use a condom with his other partner(s). He acquired multiple STDs, which he then spread to me. This is not a matter of comfort or convenience; STDs are incredibly dangerous. If I had not been able to get low-cost gynecological exams from Planned Parenthood, I would not have been diagnosed with these STDs for some time, probably well after they'd done long-term damage to my reproductive health. Because of Planned Parenthood, I was able to get the medications required to eliminate these diseases at an incredibly low cost due to my nearly nonexistent income.

Planned Parenthood's funding--indeed, all social-services funding--is a barely-noticeable fraction of the Federal budget. It comes in last behind our various wars in the Middle East, the military overall, and the huge gap created by the multitude of tax cuts given to corporations and the rich. It is not being attacked because it's a serious drain on Federal coffers. It's being attacked because there are still a tremendous number of people, even in this enlightened year 2011, who think that sex is a sin and that women should have to suffer for engaging in it. These are the same people who have kept HPV vaccinations away from young women, because it's better to have an STD that makes you more prone to cancer than it is to possibly get the message that sex isn't dirty, shameful, and criminal. These are the same people who promote abstinence-only education, knowing it doesn't work, because they want young women to suffer for having sex. These are the same people who, in South Dakota, are trying to make it legally defensible to murder doctors who provide abortion services.

This is an attack on real human lives, with real consequences. It is not "manufactured outrage." Please contact your Senator and other elected officials to demand a stop to this legislation before it's too late.