I can’t tell you how many times I had to explain to friends that the local Planned Parenthood clinic offers abortion services… and also birth control, STI screenings, pap smears, and other medical exams dealing with sexual health.  It is somewhat frustrating for me, but it’s not surprising to me that this happens.

After all, abortion is such a contentious issues in this country that it’s hard not to focus our energies on it, and on preserving the right of a woman to choose to continue a pregnancy or not (and rightfully so, in many aspects). It’s a bit sad to say because they’re incredibly important… but pap smears just can’t compete with that kind of attention.

Which is why I’d like to take a moment to promote this: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has designated May 9-15 as National Women’s Health Week. Taken directly from the linked website:

National Women’s Health Week is a weeklong health observance coordinated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health (OWH). National Women’s Health Week empowers women to make their health a top priority. With the theme “It’s Your Time,” the nationwide initiative encourages women to take simple steps for a longer, healthier, and happier life. During National Women’s Health Week, communities, businesses, government, health organizations, and other groups work together to educate women about steps they can take to improve their physical and mental health and lower their risks of certain diseases.

At the website, the Department of Health and Human Services offers a wide array of information, including a interactive screening chart, an eight week physical activity program for women, and a list of Women’s Health Week activities going on around the country (there are several in Raleigh… check them out here). The site also features tons and tons of resources on wide-ranging health topics that affect women… everything from HIV/AIDS to menopause, lupus to smoking. I apologize if I sound like a bit of a commercial for the website, but, just from having looked at it, it appears to be extremely successful in illuminating and providing strategies to deal with the health issues that women may face.

So it seems to me that this week is as good as time as any to think about the other services that Planned Parenthood provides, beyond the important abortion issue. And it would be great if women all across the area took this opportunity to make an appointment with a health care provider (maybe even your local PPCNC clinic!) or simply talk to someone… a wife, a daughter, a mother abut health issues. You don’t have to be as in-your-face as, say, Kathy Griffin, but let’s start the needed dialogue on these important health issues. And let’s work to bring them to the forefront… where they also belong.

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