Disney Princesses Trying to Go to the OBGYN Under a Trump/Pence Administration (Illustrations by Maritza Lugo)
Last year, I had an argument with a man whom I knew to be reasonably intelligent. At least I believed him to be until this particular conversation. We were having a heated discussion about the hit that Planned Parenthood had taken in their image from the bogus heavily edited videos in 2015 that were specifically designed to incite widespread outrage.
He believed everything in the videos and therefore believed that Planned Parenthood should be shut down. No amount of reasonable, logical points on my end would sway him. But the point where things took a particularly eye opening turn was when he scorned my statement about how Planned Parenthood provided cancer screenings. Practically lunging out of his seat towards me, he insisted that what I had said was just one of the erroneous things people believed about PP. I stared at him in disbelief while he shouted-literally shouted in my face-that I was grievously wrong and people only THOUGHT PP provided cancer screenings, but that they didn’t have the equipment or technicians necessary to perform mammograms. And I did the only thing that I could possibly do. I laughed. And laughed and laughed. Because it was so typical that a man would assume that the only possible cancer to be screened for had to do with breasts. And he was entirely smug in his assumption, he wouldn’t even let me refute it, he just kept interrupting me. It reminded me of a Seinfeld episode where Jerry calls his dermatologist girlfriend Pimple Popper M.D. (played by Marcia Cross) because he doesn’t understand why people thank her for saving their lives, completely overlooking the possibility of skin cancer. Pap smears and HPV co-testing is how cervical cancer screenings are done. And Planned Parenthood does that. Also there are other below the belt cancers (uterine, ovarian, vulvar etc) that have more of a chance of being caught early enough if someone regularly goes for annual visits to PP or an obgyn and establishes a base line for their bodily behaviors or at least consults with a medical professional. And all of those things are possible at low or no cost because of how Planned Parenthood operates.
The point is that this man who argued with me (and did end up voting for Trump and might possibly be one of those people who doesn’t know that ACA and Obamacare are one and the same ) is one of many who are woefully uneducated yet so confident in their false assumptions about how preventive healthcare works in this country for women. And yet we are ushering in an entire administration with these kinds of archaic and unsupported viewpoints.
January is Cervical Cancer Awareness month. A year ago Maritza Lugo and I collaborated on a tongue in cheek project that utilized reimagined Disney Princesses to garner attention from MSM to remind anyone with a uterus that they should make their annual pilgrimage to the gynecologist. Ask about the HPV vaccine. Get an STD test. Talk about birth control. I was frustrated with the lack of coverage that dogged the more “taboo” cancers, having been a part of the group Cervivor for years where I’d watched its founder Tamika Felder work tirelessly around the clock year round to educate people and provide a safe community for anyone affected by cervical cancer. But in general I’ve been battling this frustration for years in the way that health and sex ed classes by and large do not promote comprehensive education. I thought that combining recognizable pop culture with an often overlooked topic would spark conversation and luckily it did. We knew that our project wouldn’t automatically eradicate the cervical cancer diagnoses, but if we don’t start talking about it, we’ll never get to that point, and everything needs to start with a first step.
Since then Maritza and I have dedicated ourselves to doing other awareness collaborations but this year it felt particularly important for us to team up again as the inauguration of Donald Trump looms ever closer before us. While Paul Ryan announces that Congress will be looking to move forward in dismantling ACA and summarily defunding Planned Parenthood. (Which is a misnomer because there is no line item in the federal budget that goes to Planned Parenthood.) And those in favor of the ACA repeal and shutting down Planned Parenthood cheer for an end to “baby killers” while the underlying message of that rallying cry is actually for an end to women, trans, LGBTQ, disabled, chronically ill, people of color, and those with limited soco-economic means to have a right to healthcare. A right to choices. To dignity. And to their own lives. We’re staring down the barrel of a world where basic healthcare becomes a privilege. And being a woman could present as an uninsurable pre-existing condition. Make no mistake that the gauntlet thrown by the Republican party with these attempted measures spearheads a war on women and a direct attack on working families regardless of how often they claim their message to be otherwise.
ACA, like many pieces of legislation, can be improved. It has weaknesses. It has issues. The majority of people using it will not deny this fact. But the concept of taking it away piece by piece with no replacement plan is a catastrophically dangerous idea. Trump has waffled on exactly where he stands on the issue, but many Republicans (like Paul Ryan) have not. Trump’s stances on most things calls to mind the high school kid who ran for class president on a platform of longer free periods and pizza in the cafeteria and then once elected because his dad “made a call” went back to ranking the hotness of girls on the bathroom wall, cutting class and maybe showing up for the prom planning committee meeting because he heard there would be snacks. He’s repeatedly emphasized that it needs to be known that any failures of ACA needs to be blamed on the Democrats which stands to reason that without any thoughtful plan waiting in the wings to replace it, his only concern is to be seen as some kind of savior while demonizing the Democratic party. Healthcare for all who need it should not be a partisan issue. Government is meant to serve the needs and safety of the public. And the idea of blaming or congratulating one side of the aisle over another for the responsibility of “rescuing” the American people resonates with the level of maturity of middle school schoolyard taunting. But this is what we elected and this is what we will be dealing with for at least four years.
Where has empathy gone? When did all the millions of people who need healthcare and have benefited from it dissolve into a gelatinous inhuman pile? Deemed undeserving or a burden? Why are we ignoring the economic stimulus it has provided? Why is it so difficult to take existing legislation that is helping people and continue to improve upon it rather than stamp feet in the sandbox screaming, “La la la I can’t hear you! Get rid of it! My way is better!”
According to ACASignups.net, if ACA is repealed, approximately 12.3 million people on Medicaid/Chip, 9 million people on subsidized policies and 1.4 million young adults on their parents’ plans stand to lose their coverage. The American Public Health Association has contended that it’s ludicrous of politicians to claim that providers could somehow take on the 2.5 million Planned Parenthood patients that would be affected by a lack of funding.
The elephant in the room when it comes to Planned Parenthood is always going to be abortion and that’s just too damn bad. Because I love elephants. Are you morally opposed to abortion? Guess what, that’s your right and it’s cool you don’t have to get one! But you don’t get to tell anyone else how to live their lives. Or police their choices for their bodies. You cannot label yourself pro-life if your stance is to only teach abstinence education in schools, to take away healthcare options from women (yes say it with me, abortion is part of healthcare, deal with it) and then neglect and look down on these people as they try to raise children on government assistance because they’ve been left with no other options to break the cycle of poverty. It’s hypocritical to then try to pretend that it’s not all interconnected. That we’re all on the same level playing field with the same opportunities, income bracket and educational availability. Ignoring the reality of this perpetuates a broken system instead of actively trying to fix it, and I thought we were trying to make America great again?
This project was so important to Maritza and I because we are genuinely afraid. She as a WOC and me as a woman who has heavily relied on preventive care to keep a pre-cancer diagnosis from turning into a full-blown one. And again we know that Disney princesses are not going to solve the world’s problems, but using our voices will and that’s why we did this. We find the arbitrary nature in which members of this new administration dismiss marginalized voices to be frightening. They haven’t been properly vetted. Their lack of empathy, and understanding make us afraid for ourselves and we are afraid for our friends within specifically targeted communities. We stand with Planned Parenthood this month for Cervical Cancer Awareness. We stand with them every month. And we will work to take down every wall this new administration tries to erect to keep us from the basic human right to exist.
If you want to donate to Planned Parenthood, go here. If you need to get in touch with your representatives, you can find them here. In the Senate Kirsten Gillibrand is currently working on an amendment to protect women’s healthcare from possible fallout of a repeal of ACA.
