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Cut Title X? I Don't Think So.

First the Hyde Amendment, then the reduction in women's services under the new health care bill, and then the attempt to redefine rape - this is really getting under my hackles. Here comes the GOP men in Shining Armor to clarify to us what rape is...how wonderful. As if as women are just wandering around not knowing what violation feels like or aren't sure if we really were "asking for it."

I'm a patron of Planned Parenthood. I walk myself down to the clinic, past the typical protesters, and sit myself in some of their lovely waiting room chairs and I fill out that nice sheet that says I'm a student that lives off loans and work study allotments. I go back and have my pap smear and breast exam, allow them to analyze my pee, and then wait. Later, I answer their question about my income - no, it hasn't changed (I hope it will eventually). I take my "goodie bag" and skip on out to continue being the studious student I am. I've never used any other Planned Parenthood resources. I consider myself lucky, but also responsible.

Now we've got a bill called "Title X" that funds my right to have all that free appointment stuff and, most importantly, the pills that allow me to live a normal live without having to stock up on coat hangers or invest in a chastity belt. Now, the GOP wants to get rid of it. Instead of bombing clinics, the extreme right in this country had the brilliant idea of pulling the rug out from under women's services completely. You bet I'm pissed.

To be clear - P. P. doesn't pay for abortion services unless it's a case of incest, rape, or a threat to the mother's life. Even then, legislature wants to undermine women on that front as well. As soon as women are able to put out one political fire, another one crops up. It's not the extreme right as much as it is personal apathy to the issue. The majority of people I see in those waiting rooms are women who already have 1 - 3 kids and want to keep it that way.

It's a human rights issue as much as it is a women's issue because Planned Parenthood also provides HIV, STD, and pregnancy testing - this is dangerously skirting a world epidemic issue. We have HIV testing in place so that we don't instigate the plague of it from decades past. Should we experience that again because some uptight Neo-Victorian conservatives frown upon people having a good time? Wow.

The fastest way to domesticate women is to take away their sexual license. To redefine "rape" - is anybody out there listening to the horrendous possibilities that could happen if women are stripped of their ability to defend themselves in that sense? To remove access to birth control and pap smears/breast exam is to limit the awareness and control a woman has over her body, her "self."

I wrote to my representatives in Congress. Both of them are white men, and although they are also Democrats I still don't understand why I can't represent myself. Why do women have to keep "asking" someone else's permission to have their own freedom? Aren't they entitled to just as much as anyone else on this godforsaken planet? It's as if we're perpetually five years old and wondering when we can cross the street by ourselves.

Men as well as women are going to be sent back to the "Dark Ages" if this funding is cut. How many women are going to be able to provide for themselves? It's like instituting a cut on food stamps. Do you think the hungry are just going to smile and say to themselves, "I could use a cutback on my calories anyway." Everyone is hungry, and the human bodily hunger for sex isn't going to cease just because funding was pulled from Planned Parenthood. Pregnancies will go up along with STDs, and HIV. And if certain people do decide to "redefine" rape for us, oh the possibilities.

The 1950's called. They want their mindset back.

You can take action against these cuts here - via Amplify



More articles by Category: Body image and body standards, Education, Feminism, Health, Politics, Violence against women
More articles by Tag: Activism and advocacy, Rape, Sexuality, Abortion, Gender bias, Planned Parenthood, Reproductive rights, News
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