Legislators to American Women: You Don’t Matter

Legislators aren’t even pretending to give a damn about us or our health anymore; Tennessee has recently joined the ranks of the ever-growing number of states working to chop Planned Parenthood funding, stripping women in these areas of their much-needed family planning funding, mammogram services, and free to low cost pap smears that they need each year. This time, however, the Bible belt state didn’t even give a show with a little dance and vote, providing lip service to democracy and women’s rights—they just chopped it with a backdoor decision without pomp and circumstance.

I learned about this heinous maneuver via Shakesville, where one commenter says, “It’s hard to live in a state that hates you.”

You know what, it really is. I live in Missouri, another red Bible belt state, which is constantly moving to derail our rights. Recently my district was split in three in a similar backdoor maneuver, dividing my Democratic county and adding our three new segments to the three surrounding Republican districts, thereby eliminating the Democrat vote we so relied up on for our county and issues. Our representatives are now hours away from us—both in distance and in mind—and care nothing for what we want. We have effectively been silenced, due to something that wasn’t even necessary—a supposedly optional move due to reduced census numbers—and there is nothing we can do about it.

I am so sick of this sh*t. I am so sick of having no voice, of paying these clowns for absolutely nothing. They work for us, not the other way around, and yet that’s what we’re doing, isn’t it? They’re cutting our health services, making it harder for us to get birth control, and all the while they’re happily taking our tax dollars that could instead go to buying the birth control we need.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m one of the lucky ones. I buy the cheapest oral contraceptives on the market and luckily, my body reacts to them favorably. But many women do not have this luxury; my pills made one of my friends, for example, not only break out, but bleed uncontrollably to the point of anemia, and she had to switch to a very expensive medication—which has a $60 copay per month. Given the state of our country, the jobless rate, the overpopulation and environmental factors we’re faced with—not to mention the simple fact that the health of women should be a freaking priority—this should be free. And if not free, it should be made affordable through places like Planned Parenthood.

But then again, I’m also not so lucky, since my husband is laid off and I don’t get insurance through my work. As all women know—and none of these idiots making legislation seem to get—you have to go to the gynecologist annually to even get oral contraceptives. You can’t just get them over the counter. And while I’d love to keep this month’s appointment, I have no insurance, and am not sure how I will be able to pay. I can only imagine what the thousands of women who rely on Planned Parenthood each month will be doing while I juggle my finances, deciding what bill will go unpaid so I can go to the doctor, get my birth control, and continue to live, since getting pregnant would likely kill me.

Thanks for nothing, Tennessee. You just slapped half of your constituents in the face.