The Susan G. Kamen Foundation’s defunding of Planned Parenthood has thrown a lot of people for a loop, and has incensed a whole whack of liberals, and with good reason. They are withdrawing funds that have heretofore been earmarked to help provide the underprivileged and underinsured with breast exams and mammography referrals, which I think most people would agree is a worthwhile endeavour if your stated aim is to help end breast cancer.

Planned Parenthood is one of those miracle organizations that provides information and medical services to people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford them. I never needed to use them when I was in the US, but IIRC, my Main Distractor visited them once. So I mean they’re not just for women, either. They’re just there, so you don’t have to rely on whatever sketchy info your friends might tell you, or nowadays, what you can find on the interwebs. You can get checkups and prescriptions and and blood tests and prenatal care and breast exams, and about 3% of the services they provide are abortions.  (Which means that 97%, or the vast majority, of the services they provide are not abortions, if you’re a little math-challenged.)

And so if you’re one of the people who thinks that a zygote should have equal rights as a grown-up (or not, but that’s another story) human being of the female persuasion, that 3% sticks in your craw, I suppose.

My opinion is a very common one among liberals: abortions should be available to women who need them, and they should be as rare as they can possibly be. There is no way that anyone else except possibly the other person who contributed to the zygote, and the doctor, should have anything to say about it. In my opinion. If I’m going to hell for this belief, well…I’m sure I’ll have lots of company, and I’ll hold my head high there. I believe in the integrity of my person, and I’ll thank you to keep your religion right out of my uterus.

But if you take a look around there are a lot of people who think that 3% outweighs the other 97%, and they’re cheering and delighted about the furore, and “striking a blow” against all the uncaring baby-killing heathens.

So while the media and many of my liberal persuasion are hollering about never contributing another penny, women’s health should be above politics, cancer doesn’t care who you pray to or who you vote for, I actually suspect this is all part of a big plan to make this very well-known charity–which, face it, was founded by a George W. Bush Republican–a Conservative Charity. So all the conservatives and anti-abortion donators can very publicly support this known brand. And all of the people who know that Planned Parenthood makes such a massive difference in so many women’s lives, particularly disadvantaged women, who don’t have a lot of options, will feel angry, helpless, and betrayed. Although you don’t have to feel helpless: you can contribute to Planned Parenthood directly, and I’m sure they will be delighted to have your support.

I know that diseases don’t give a damn who you voted for, or how much you gave to your church, or how often you went to church, or anything else. I’m a fatalist about that stuff. If you’re going to get it, you’re going to get it. You may be able to beat it, or you may not, but one thing is for sure: if you can discover it early and get a head start on beating it, you have a better chance of beating it. And so, yeah, medicine should be above politics, medical research should be above politics, treatments should be above politics, and universal health care should have nothing to do with politics at all.

But, of course, it does. Especially in the U.S.