Kristin Anne Carideo

This post is in support of the Blog Carnival put together by Shakesville and What Tami Said.

Primarily, the blog carnival has been put together by progressive bloggers in Indiana, due to the recent attempt by state officials there to defund Planned Parenthood.

I live in WA state, where we’ve actually just been able to pass legislation funding low-cost birth control for even more people through clinics like Planned Parenthood. Our local affiliate is not in danger of being defunded. Still, the national news has scared me, scared me into not taking anything related to my health for granted. And Planned Parenthood, both the organization and the idea, is not something that me and the rest of this country can take for granted these days at all. So I’m writing about my story here.

I am a power volunteer for my local Planned Parenthood affiliate. In fact, this weekend, I will be standing behind a table in Kent, WA, handing out condoms and asking people to sign petitions in support of the Limited Service Pregnancy Center legislation we weren’t able to push through this past legislative session. I serve on 2 committees as part of Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest’s Young Professionals group, dedicated to raising $10,000 for PPGNW by the end of the year. I write letters to the editor, I post constantly on Facebook. I donate as much as I possibly can per my current budget. In short, I spend a lot of my non-working life thinking about how best to advocate for Planned Parenthood and doing that advocating. It’s how I choose to spend my time.

Here’s the thing about me and Planned Parenthood, though. I’ve only ever needed them once. Just once. When I first moved to Seattle, after living abroad on and off and receiving free birth control and health screenings through the United Kingdom’s NHS. I was brand new in a job and the pills I’d stocked up on had run out. My new job offered health insurance, but it hadn’t kicked in yet, and on top of that, I didn’t feel like I could ask for time off to go to the doctor (on top of which, I didn’t have a doctor).

I could afford to pay out of pocket for my birth control thanks to my new job, so when I ran out of the stockpile I’d gotten in the UK, my first call was to Planned Parenthood, which ran a program out of Oregon that allowed me to talk to a nurse over the phone and receive a prescription without leaving my office or taking time off work. I cannot tell you what relief I felt. I actually wasn’t even sexually active at the time, but going on the pill the first time had made me feel bloated, weepy, seriously depressed and have acne breakouts for months before it leveled off. Being forced to stop the pill and then restart it again in three months was the last thing I needed.

Three months later, my health insurance kicked in, I started seeing my current doctor, and I was able to continue with the birth control I’d started in the UK all the way through to this past Spring when I got an IUD, never having to go on and off it again (which is a serious risk factor for accidental pregnancy).

In 2006 I needed Planned Parenthood. They were there for me. I know if I lost my job now and needed a pap or to go back on the pill, they’d be there for me again. I feel, somewhat terrifyingly, that I’ve now reached a point where if I accidentally got pregnant, I’d probably keep it, but I’m only just at the point now where I feel parenthood is within the realm of reasonable possibility for me. Planned Parenthood was always there, in the background, making me feel like I could take control of my health and my body and empowering me to make the right choices for me.

There are women and men all over this country who use Planned Parenthood has their primary health care provider. There are women and men who use Planned Parenthood only for STD tests and annual exams. There are women and men who, like me, know it’s a safety net that will catch you and take care of you when you have a gap in health insurance coverage. Planned Parenthood is more than a health care provider. It’s peace of mind for so many people like me and it’s a vital health service for so many others.

The defunding efforts are nothing more than a naked attempt to strip bodily autonomy from millions of Americans. I believe in bodily autonomy. I believe in the vital link Planned Parenthood provides to health care and empowerment for millions of Americans underserved by our broken health care system. I believe anyone who tries to imply Planned Parenthood is simply an abortion factory is wrong, wrong, wrong, because I’ve never had an abortion, and every day of my life I am thankful that Planned Parenthood is around.

Please consider supporting your local Planned Parenthood affiliate (like PPGNW), the national org, or Planned Parenthood of Indiana, which is turning away patients who need their care because of the mendacious actions of politicians who have no regard for our health, our minds, our well-being.

Read more stories by clicking on the link below.