Women's Healthcare at Risk

Recently the Republican-dominated House of Representatives voted on a measure that would strip federal funding from Planned Parenthood. Much has been made of this measure and its political and symbolic meaning, driven by conservative Republicans who are anti-abortion, but also seen as a part of a larger strategy to repeal the healthcare reform law.

What hasn’t been written about as much is the devastating effect the cuts to Planned Parenthood would have for women of color and low income women. Millions of women and families rely on Planned Parenthood not just for reproductive medicine and birth control, but also for preventive health care, including annual exams, breast and cervical cancer screenings, HIV testing, health education, and more. In fact, it is estimated that 97 percent of the services received are non-abortion related. Cutting funding will therefore eliminate primary healthcare services for millions of women who do not have private insurance and have no other means to obtain healthcare.

These cuts will disproportionately impact African-American women. Planned Parenthood has estimated that 15 percent of its patients are African-American, many of whom are uninsured. Also, African-American women tend to have more chronic illness and disease, and many chronic illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension get discovered during routine wellness visits and annual exams. Therefore many women with undiagnosed, treatable chronic illness will lose critical opportunities to have their chronic illness detected and managed. In short, says Willie J. Parker, MD, Medical Director at Metropolitan Planned Parenthood in Washington, DC, cuts to Planned Parenthood funding are “destabilizing the safety net that many people of color rely on. A hit on Planned Parenthood really becomes a hit for African-American women”.

To read more, click here, and see our Call to Action below if you want to tell your legislators how you feel about this measure.

Floods of change

- by Stacey Prince

History is unfolding before our eyes. I can't think of anything more important to write about this week than the happenings in Egypt. Who knew that a movement created by the people could overthrow a powerful and dictatorial government that had been ruling with oppression for 30 years? The people would not be suppressed, intimidated, or beaten into retreat; they perservered and made change happen. The beautiful Arab idiom which states that "a flood begins with a mere droplet" has been quoted in many recent articles. I love that image, and it causes me to wonder, where else are droplets falling into pools which run into streams which join rivers which overflow to a flood? I hope that TJP can be a droplet that is part of a growing movement in which healers of all kinds - psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, activists, advocates, physicians, body workers - look beyond our offices and our guild's needs and make it our jobs not just to heal psyches and bodies from the injuries of oppression, but also to confront, resist, reduce and eliminate that oppression at its source. Many droplets can lead to a flood of change.

Democracy Now coverage of Egyptian Revolution