Good Dialogue

Women’s Health as Politics

According to Jezebel’s Erin Gloria Ryan, however, the influence of another key player in the Komen organization goes a long way in explaining its decision to defund: Karen Handel, who ran for governor of Georgia in 2010 and lost… has been Komen’s senior vice president for public policy since April 2011. On her campaign blog…, Handel wrote: “I will be a pro-life governor who will work tirelessly to promote a culture of life in Georgia. … [The Atlantic]

The decision was “not about politics,” a Komen statement insisted… Brinker, a longtime GOP donor who was ambassador to Hungary under then-President George W. Bush, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama in 2009. She has cast Komen as above politics, saying its focus is women’s health. But the decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood comes shortly after Komen unveiled a new partnership that strengthens its ties to the George W. Bush Institute. The institute is the policy-making arm of Bush’s presidential library, which is scheduled to open in Dallas next year. [The Washington Post]

Anyone who says it’s not politics is dead wrong. For Republicans, women’s health is ALWAYS political - generated by privileged white men and sustained by privileged white women who were handed down the message. And then those in favor of all-encompassing healthcare for women are left to fight it out. To fight it out in order for all women to have access to fucking health care.

Of course, there’s the endless “should women be allowed to make decisions about their own bodies or not?” debacle (very tricky question!!!!!), but that’s for another 100-page post.

Fuck the GOP. Fuck, fuck, fuck ‘em.