A few day sago I posted an article on Facebook about Susan G. Komen For the Cure (TM. Seriously.) halting grants to Planned Parenthood; grants used to fund breast cancer screening and education.

Since then, if you have had any interaction on any form of social media, you have seen a virtual cluster fuck of outcry at this decision, and a mountain of furious opinions coming in from both sides.

And now, I’m going to elaborate on mine…kinda.

First, and I know this is an unpopular statement, but Susan G. Komen For the Cure has every single right in the world to stop awarding grant money to Planned Parenthood. It’s true. They absolutely do.  They could use that money to make 50 billion pink spatulas, thongs or roll around naked in it. It’s their right.

But, I also have the right to be completely disgusted by their decision, to donate to charities focused on research and cure, and to be absolutely terrified at the direction of women’s healthcare in this country, because in my mind, politicizing women’s health is a dangerous thing.

Cancer kills women.

Not just Democratic women or Republican women or Swing Voters.

All women.

It doesn’t check your party affiliation card when it invades your body, and it certianly doesn’t check your tax return to make sure you have enough money to fight it.

This needs to be a woman problem. Not a political problem.

It is my firm opinion that religion has very little place in healthcare.

Every person has the right to instill in themselves a personal belief system with which they use to make their decisions.  Whether it be based on religion or faith or spirituality, I don’t care. You have the right to have it.

But you don’t have the right to extend that personal belief system to others.

We can’t let the beliefs of some make the decisions for all. It’s not fair.

This is not about abortion. Stop reducing the importance of women’s healthcare to such a petty political talking point, it’s insulting. Having boobs and vaginas doesn’t render women incapable of making educated decisions about our body.

If you don’t want an abortion, it’s very easy not to have one. You don’t just trip and fall into one.

I know that it’s hard, because it’s such a way of life in this country right now, to be PRO or AGAINST or just plain THIS AND ONLY THIS, but we have to stop and remember that we can’t entangle our personal and religious belief systems with the fact that women in this country, regardless of finances or race, need to be able to take care of themselves, and it’s scary to me that the ability to do so is jeopardized, both from the private sector, as well as the federal government.

That’s why this move and this precedent is important.

This is why it’s time to use your outside voice, because if we are loud enough, it works.

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