I want to be happy but...

Okay, so I'm SUPER happy that Obama passed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act! We never saw legislation like this during the Bush Administration. Hell, we never really saw any legislation that didn't benefit rich, married, Christian white people. So, the feminist in me was pumping her fists in their air when Obama signed this into law. OH HAPPY DAY!!

But wait a minute...

Not too long before, he pulled $200 million in family planning funding from the stimulus package under immense pressure from Republicans. Now I'm all for bipartisanship but W...T..F?!?! This funding would've given hope to the millions of low-income women who are not able to afford contraceptives or have access to family planning services. But, for whatever reason, the Repubs saw this as a waste of money. Now I could be wrong, but I'm pretty that increasing the number of births would have the opposite effect of aiding the recession. But I'm just saying...

Back in college, I had NO insurance whatsoever. My family fell upon hard times so there wasn't really much of a choice. I could say from personal experience that getting access to contraceptives wasn't an easy task. I couldn't afford to see a real doctor, so I had to rely on the local, sorry a** health department. Getting an appointment was very hard. I would have to make one about a month in advance (This was the one by my school. Don't even get me started on the one in my hometown). If I was able to schedule one early in the morning, then I would be in and out most of the time. Later in the afternoon was a different story. I would be there for hours. It was manageable for me seeing as how I had nothing else to do. But I couldn't begin to imagine the frustration of those with jobs and children to take care of...ugh. Anywho, one day I had an appointment only to arrive at the health department and finding out that it was closed for some kind of meeting or some crap like that. Needless to say, I was pretty pissed. I called the next day to see if I could come then, and they told me that I didn't even have an appointment the day before (Although, the appointment reminder card they gave me last time said different), that it was the week before, and seeing as how I missed that I had to schedule another appointment. *Sigh* I didn't think it could get any worse...until I was told that it would be almost two months before I could see a doctor. Are you serious?!?! I shot them the deuces and scheduled an appointment with the Student Health Center. They were really fast and I was in and out before I knew it. Pretty good service. I was feeling good until I realized that, without insurance, birth control would cost me $20 every month...for the generic brand! OH HELL NO!! I was barely getting by as it was. But I had to suck it up and pay that $20 because even though I was broke, I would be even worse off with a child! Oh, but it didn't end there. Turns out, without insurance, the appointment ended up costing me $95!!! I actually cried after I found out. I don't remember how I got through it, but thank God I did.

So the moral of that long, random story that just wasted the last minute and a half of your life was to let you know how hard it is for low-income women getting access to contraceptives. In some aspects, I was an exceptional case because I had no children and and a loan refund to help me get by. Hell, when I look back at it I was probably damn lucky. I can't imagine working a low-wage job and having mouths to feed while trying to pay for doctor's appointments and contraceptives in order to keep from having MORE mouths to feed. It gives me a headache just thinking about it. And I can't even begin to fathom what kind of headaches these unfortunate women will have in the coming years without that funding. I love you Obama and that fact that you're trying to "reach across the aisle," but do me a favor: pull your hand back from across that aisle, take a good look at it, and then...SLAP YOURSELF!!!

Go to this link and take action:
http://www.capwiz.com/now/issues/alert/?alertid=12539436