Commentary
If it weren't for Planned Parenthood, my sister would be dead.
So I am profoundly outraged by the injustice and discrimination of Friday's vote in the U.S. House to deny all federal funding to the organization.
The House majority leadership has tried to position this as being about abortion. It is not about abortion.
It is about access for low-income women to cancer screenings, to birth control, to testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, and to screening for diabetes and high blood pressure.
Simply put, it's about access to health care.
Women have a right to stay healthy, to finish college, to earn a living and to manage their futures. In fact, to this day I credit Planned Parenthood with saving my sister's life.
During a routine annual gynecological exam, their skilled nurses found a lump in her neck. They would not renew her birth control until she had this checked out by a specialist, for whom they provided a referral.