When I turned 24, I lost my health insurance coverage. Like many, I had been covered since birth on my parents’ insurance, but the day I turned 24, I aged out and was dropped. I couldn’t afford my own insurance and none of my three jobs at the time provided benefits. That was okay with me – I was young and healthy (and naive) and I didn’t worry too much about not having health care, aside from my need for birth control.

So, I made an appointment at my closest Planned Parenthood, hoping I could continue to get birth control pills through them. At my appointment, they checked my blood pressure along with some other routine stats like my weight and height and pulse. My blood pressure was 160/110. I was only 24 and had no history of high blood pressure, but Planned Parenthood helped connect me to a local clinic that charged patients on a very affordable sliding scale. I was eventually diagnosed with chronic hypertension and have been treated successfully ever since. I have my own health insurance now, but I continue to donate to Planned Parenthood regularly, both in recognition of the important work they do for so many others, and in gratitude for saving my life. My blood pressure that day was so high I was a stroke risk, and I would have had no idea if not for that appointment at Planned Parenthood.

Not only did they provide me with the birth control I needed, they also caught a serious health issue that would have gone undiagnosed and untreated for almost five years until I finally finished school and had a job with medical benefits. In those five years who knows what could have happened. Best case scenario is I would have done significant damage to my veins and arteries, and worst case scenario is I would have had a stroke. For me and for so many uninsured or underinsured people like me, Planned Parenthood is the only access to affordable health care of any kind available.