Written by Diana Robinson-Bardyn   

With their recent decision to defund Planned Parenthood, Susan B Komen displayed the colors of a ‘not so pink’ organization, an organization willing to join ranks with those who are waging a relentless war on women, those who are willing to disregard the very lives of our nation’s most vulnerable women in order to advance a political agenda.

This move, regardless of its rapid, albeit questionable reversal, is just another example of zealous witch hunting on the backs of women’s health and reproductive care. In a nation where access to premium health care remains unavailable to so many, it acts as a great segregator, a perverse form of discrimination that callously differentiates between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ by the lesser value society has chosen to put on the lives of so many.

And the facts are clear. When health care is not readily available to people, the quality and length of their lives are diminished.

According to an Economic and Budget Issue Brief of the Congressional Budget Office, “In a continuation of long-term trends, life expectancy has been steadily increasing in the United States for the past several decades. Accompanying the recent increases, however, is a growing disparity in life expectancy between individuals with high and low income and between those with more and less education. The difference in life expectancy across socioeconomic groups is significantly larger now than in 1980 or 1990.

”The fact that low income groups don’t live as long as others is not god’s will as some would have us believe. It is the result of policy — the kind of policy that has been rejected by every other Western democratic nation where accessibility and affordability have been the drivers.

Planned Parenthood provides over 750,000 breast cancer exams per year for women who often have nowhere else to go. In the State of Florida 25% of adults are without health insurance.

A large share of the clients served at Planned Parenthood clinics are low-income African-American and Latina women. The National Cancer Institute identifies lack of access to early and effective screening for breast cancer (and hence lack of early treatment) as a primary reason that African-American and Latina women die of breast cancer at higher rates than the general population. — Jodi Jacobson, RH Reality Check

In 2011 the Florida legislature spent:
59 days focusing on anti-women’s health legislation rather than focusing on improving jobs and the economy;
2 million state tax dollars directed to crisis pregnancy centers that provide no health services to women.

It is important to remember that during the 2011 legislative session the Speaker of the House complained when Senator Randolf used the word ‘uterus’ on the floor of the house noting this was “language that would be considered inappropriate for children and other guests.”

Imagine discussing lung cancer for 59 days with the word ‘lung’ being barred for inappropriateness.
There may be a difference between forcing a woman to wear a burqa, supposedly to protect her virtue, and forcing a woman to stare at an ultrasound, supposedly to inform her about her choice. If there is, it’s not much of one, both burdens being the result of male-centered assumptions about what’s best for women.– Pierre Tristam, FlaglerLive

It will take much more than pink ribbons (pinkwashing) to save the lives of American women.

It will take more, not less, access to safe and legal health care services.

It will take legislators who are not uncomfortable with the word ‘uterus’.

It will take health care that is accessible and affordable.

To all.

Cross posted from BlueTableTalk.com
http://www.bluetabletalk.com/2012/02/06/womens-health-pink-on-the-brink/