In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, I have decided to write about why I don’t need you, Planned Parenthood. I think it is absolutely fitting with all that is going on with your run-in with Congress to share with you and the readers of the Moral Outcry blog, especially my Latina sisters, that there are other choices when it comes to seeking health care. Not all women, Latina women especially, want or need Planned Parenthood.

Let me preface this by saying I am uninsured. Yes. Uninsured. I have to pay for my healthcare and my meds out of pocket as of right now because I don’t qualify for Medicaid and I have a pre-existing condition. I know what it’s like to make the trek in the freezing Chicago winter to wait all day at Chicago’s John Stroger Fantus Clinic with numerous other people with coughs, colds, sniffles, and limps, as we wait for our name to be called. Some days I was there for about five or six hours just so that I could be seen by a doctor and have them tell me that I had strep and give me a script for antibiotics. I know the agony of having to decide whether or not I should go to urgent care or tough it out one more day with my illness because we might not have the money to pay up front for walk-in care.

I haven’t always been uninsured, though. Just like countless American students, I was covered under my parent’s insurance plan all through college. After graduation, I went uninsured for a time, and then got covered again by my husband’s job. I am so thankful for that coverage because I had the opportunity to receive prenatal care and delivered my first child by way of c-section in a hospital that was comparable to a 4-star hotel.

My second delivery, financially, was quite different. Uninsured, I sought to deliver our second son at a birth center with a midwife. I had absolutely no idea that midwifes were so awesome! Unfortunately, I required a second c-section, but the prenatal care was unparalleled to what I received when insured with our first son.

The clinic I attended was a medical missions facility, rooted and grounded in the love of Christ. The funny thing is they provided everything that you do, Planned Parenthood, except birth control and abortion. Fancy that idea! A medical facility that provides breast exams, pap smears, prenatal care, family health services, blood work, adoption referrals, birthing classes, parenting classes, and the list goes on. And, wait for it…

They value human life

You see, you’ve lied to us enough with your trademark pink and pearls. You are targeting us the Latino and African American population by strategically invading our neighborhoods. The root of who this organization is equals genocide and evil at best and we don’t want you anymore. If the roots of a tree are bad, the fruit is bad, and PPFA, your roots in eugenics have dug into the fabric of America for too long. If a midwife can offer me a breast exam, HIV screening, pap smears, prenatal and postnatal care, why are you even around anymore? What’s in it for you?

Oh yes. Dollar signs– Millions of them. After all, you are probably the most profitable non-profit organization around.

It seems to me as if you pride yourself on the fact that minority communities need you and your low cost health services. FYI, on top of abortion being murder, it isn’t healthy for the mother. You say “prevention is the cornerstone of [y]our services” (source). So riddle me this: Why then is “the rate of pregnancy among black women almost three times as high as it is for white women and, though they make up less than 13% of the female population, black women have about 37% of the abortions?” (source) Black and Hispanic women have higher abortion rates than non-Hispanic white women. Black women’s abortion rates are 49 per 1,000, Hispanic women’s are 33 per 1,000 and non-Hispanic white women’s are 13 per 1,000. (source) All that money going to educate women surely isn’t doing as well as you lie.

You don’t care about women. You don’t care of the life growing inside of us; the life that has a beating heart, a genetic code of it’s own, and a specific purpose and destiny to be fulfilled. You don’t care about telling us the truth and you don’t care about protecting our daughters. Though the American healthcare system is in need of some help, you don’t want us turning to websites such as freeclinics.us and clinics such as Hope Family Care Center and The Women's Clinic in Kansas City, Missouri. You want us to believe that those places don’t exist. You want us to believe that you’re our savior.

Well, I’m here to burst that bubble. You aren’t the only one who can provide a breast exam for me. I can do that in the shower and follow up at any family practice office. My midwife is amazing and can provide all my prenatal and gynecological needs and the clinic I go to can do the same. You want nothing but to make a buck off of insulting my womanhood and God-given privilege of carrying life in my womb. But it won’t be for long. Too many people are praying. Too many people in the church are awakening from complacency and inaction. We will love the mother that has no place to turn. We will open our homes and pocketbooks and make room at the dinner table for one more precious one. We will spread the word that you are not the only hope for the women of this nation. As much as you tell yourself, and us you are not.