Alright, wow.

Wow, seriously. This video doesn't make me stop supporting Planned Parenthood, but what the fuck. Based on the people I initially saw posting this I thought it was going to be something inclusive; in my community phrases like "vagina-havers" is meant to be a way of referring to the physical health of cis women and trans men, or just whatever bodily function happens to be recognized... "menstruators" was another one.

But, no, this is another one of those "When we say 'has a vagina' we mean women. Period. Huh, huh, period!" campaigns.

Here's why I think it's unsettling, though. It's not because I disagree with things such as referring to this as a "women's health issue." There are very good social and political reasons for calling things "women's issues" even when they do not only affect women. The problem is that making it so explicit as to define women as "people who have vaginas" encourages the denial of important health services to trans men and trans women.

The thing is, these services are important to all people who have vaginas, not just women.  FTMs need gynecological services, we need access to abortion and birth control, we need access to emergency contraception, we need access to pelvic exams and breast exams.

Furthermore, by defining "women" as "people with vaginas," this pushes trans women out of women's health.  There is already a huge problem with women's health centers and women's services refusing to allow trans women access because of this very problem.  Trans women need these services just as all women do.

And did anybody else get a nice little twinge with that whole spiel about men who don't care about vaginas?  Didn't that sort of come off as heterosexist?  Yeah, yeah, I get it, they mean men who don't care about women's health, but did it seriously require heterosexist prodding to make that point?  Just because lesbians do not generally have sex with men does not mean they don't require the services of Planned Parenthood.

I'm not starting a campaign against Planned Parenthood or anything, but seriously... if you are running this sort of campaign, please keep this in mind.