Funding Of Planned Parenthood And The Services

Planned Parenthood is a controversial topic sweeping the nation of America with political and moral issues. Every day one could come across a new article on it, stubble upon a news article in their local paper or even on their local news station. Planned Parenthood directly provides reproductive health services, is involved in teach young students about sexual education, contributes to research in reproductive technology, and interacts with legal and political efforts aimed at protecting and developing reproductive rights.

Congress has sparked a debate as to whether or not the government should continue funding Planned Parenthood. Too many people are uneducated about the many services Planned Parenthood offers to those who would not be able to afford it otherwise. The debate began after a heavily edited video was released accusing Planned Parenthood of selling fetal organs for a profit. The selling of any body part is against federal law. CNN released an article confirming to the public that it was indeed an edited video by inputting the original and comparing it to the altered one. Planned Parenthood does donate tissue, but only for scientific research, and solely acquires reimbursement for the expenses. Planned Parenthood is a nonprofit organization.

You didn’t hear this from me, but the word on the street is that Planned Parenthood needs to be defunded. Tax payers look towards their elected officials for guidance when taking their stance on hot button debates like climate change. Through persuasive rhetoric the masses can find themselves on either end of the topic at hand. The members of the Planned Parenthood community have shown resilience in the face of adversity when faced with the prospect of their primary healthcare provider going out of business. Mister Jesse Anders and my anonymous informant, whose name was stricken from the record upon request, shared their insight into the matter over the course

Planned Parenthood is an organization that provides healthcare and education to both men and women, having over 650 health centers that provide healthcare to countless communities around the world. Shockingly, 78% of those who use Planned Parenthoods services live at or below 150% of the federal poverty line, showing how important this organization is to low-income families (Topulos, Greene, Drazen). Their mission statement is “A Reason for Being”, which is shown through their efforts to provide health care, advocate public policies, create educational programs, and endorse research. There are those who do not believe Planned Parenthood should be funded by the government, though, due to the fact that they provide abortions to women in need. Studies show that the effects of not having Planned Parenthood available are disastrous, causing low-income families to lack a healthcare provider and the number of those who are infected with STD’s and STI’s to rise. The biggest concern communities have about the government defunding Planned Parenthood is the effects that it would have on low-income families who would no longer have access to something that many people take for granted: health care. Although many believe that Planned Parenthood mostly provides abortions, in reality, only 3% of the people that seek help from them receive an abortion, while 97% receive affordable and, in many cases,

Since many believe that Planned Parenthood only performs abortions, a frenzy against it has been created. “We don’t want to commit taxpayer funding for abortions, and Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider” (Strickland quoting Paul Ryan, 2017). Republicans rather see federal funding go towards federal community centers. However, to clarify this misconception we need to look at what federal funding is going towards. Planned Parenthood receives its funding from Medicaid reimbursements (Berg, 2017). They do not keep any hidden money, or have money put aside to preform free abortions. As the federal money that comes in goes straight towards helping patients.

Since taking the reins in 2006, Cecile Richards has spearheaded Planned Parenthood through difficult times to ensure it has emerged better than before.

Millions of women across America will struggle to receive the medical attention they need if the federal government stops funding to Planned Parenthood. Every year 363 million dollars goes into the funding “pot” collectively at Planned Parenthood’s nationwide (Clark 5). This money is used predominantly by women; for six in ten women, Planned Parenthood acts as their main source of health care (Clark 4). Many individuals with low incomes depend on these clinics to maintain or help better their health. Recently, the federal government is trying to pass the Pence Amendment, which would eliminate funding to these institutions. The federal government needs to realize how important Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood is a nonprofit organization that does research into and gives advice on contraception, family planning, and reproductive problems. Recently Planned Parenthood has had controversy for many pro-life members creating videos that pro-life members have altered to making many believe Planned Parenthood organizations harvest and sell fetal body parts, and give abortions when they women are too late during their pregnancy. While Planned Parenthood has showed how they are federally funded, where money comes from to support their organization, and how pro-life members falsely accused them of harvesting and selling fetal parts many are still concerned. Do to recent controversy that Planned Parenthood has harvested and sold fetal body parts many believe Planned Parenthood shouldn’t be supported but, considering the accommodating services offered by Planned Parenthood it should remain federally funded. Planned Parenthood should remain federally funded because of their accommodating services, promoting research and technology in reproductive health care,

After researching both sides of the debate on the acceptability of the US Government funding Planned Parenthood, I have affirmed my initial support for government funding. The evidence that assured my support revolved around the consequences defunding Planned Parenthood would cause and the general lack of empirical evidence against Planned Parenthood. The majority of the opposition object to funding planned parenthood for moral and religious reasons. Overall, I feel more damage would be done by defunding the organization.

Of the number of women who obtain contraception care at clinics, more than one-third of them use Planned Parenthood (Marcus). With the removal of these services, there would be a drastic increase in the number of unplanned pregnancies. Each year, Planned Parenthood prevents an estimated 516,000 unexpected pregnancies (Strickland). Not only would the number of unplanned pregnancies increase, but the awareness of sexual education would decrease, as Planned Parenthood provides sex education to 1.5 million people each year (Strickland). While it is easy to assume that women would be able to get access elsewhere, it is simply not feasible. The magnitude at which Planned Parenthood extends its services would not easily be matched. The inability to provide contraception to the women who would go unprovided would create a detrimental problem in the government that is trying to defund the

A key argument that has been propagated by the opponents of Planned Parenthood’s continued funding and government support is that the money spent on it could be used on other community health facilities. The caseload and the large number of patients make it difficult for community health centers to provide the services efficiently. The situation in Texas presents a good case study for analysis of the effects. The state cut Planned Parenthood out of its family planning networks in 2013. They started excluding Planned Parenthood from its network of clinics where women from low-income communities got STI screening, contraception, and other reproductive health services (Muchmore 2015). The state has a significant focus on abortion restrictions and the decision to defund the Planned Parenthood federation. The other clinics available in the areas argued that they could take care of the workload if Planned Parenthood stopped and they would only have to increase their capacity.

January 21, 2017 the Women’s March took place worldwide to fight for civil rights, but mainly women’s rights. The women in the march were fighting for funding for Planned Parenthood to stay and fighting against the Trump’s Administration idea of defunding it. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was a strong advocate for women’s rights fighting for women’s choice of pregnancies and access to birth control in 1916 because it was frowned about in society. Planned Parenthood should be defunded because their clinics are unsafe, takes taxpayers money who do not support abortion, and uses other resources funded by government money.

Planned Parenthood performs screenings that helped reduce the percentage of women who died of cervical cancer; which used to be the most deadly cancer among women. (F) “A woman in Washington State named Joyce who for years could only afford health care at her local Planned Parenthood clinic,” during one of Joyce’s annual exams, her doctor “helped catch an aggressive form of cervical cancer early enough to save her life,” and it is doctors like the ones that saved Joyce at Planned Parenthood that are the reason cervical cancer is no longer the most dangerous cancer among women (“Planned Parenthood” 190-191). (I) People can argue that women can get this sort of care elsewhere but (G)“three out of four of [Planned Parenthood’s] patients are considered to have low incomes,” (“Political Attacks”) and (J) Planned Parenthood provides mammograms at little or no cost to the women and help women catch breast cancer early. That doesn’t seem like an organization out to kill. (H) In fact there are many stories about Planned Parenthood saving the lives of women like “a woman from Chicago named Courtney who has a disease that can leave women infertile. So in college, she turned to Planned Parenthood for access to affordable contraceptive care to keep her healthy. And today, she’s got two beautiful kids,” today, Courtney brought two lives

2.5 million women and men both go to Planned Parenthood. 80% of the clients are there for birth control. Only 3% of the people go for an abortion. Non Clients do not want their tax dollars to go towards because they believe that they are paying for an abortion, but in reality, they are not. Planned Parenthood has 8.5 million activists and supporters. Barring Planned Parenthood would cost the people more money in the long run. Shutting them down would cause a “ national health care disaster.” The business itself prevents 579,000 unplanned pregnancies a year. Nearly half of the patients that go are people with low incomes or live in rural communities. The government actually saves more money for every person that goes and get serviced in the Planned Parenthood.

The political climate in America today is unstable to say the least. With any new President comes new threats to many American subgroups. One of the subgroups currently under attack is the very large group of people who rely on Planned Parenthood for reproductive healthcare. Planned Parenthood, which just celebrated its one hundredth anniversary, is a non-governmentally run organization that provides education and services on reproductive health as well as general health care services. Planned Parenthood has been a controversial organization for many years, mostly because it provides the service of terminating a pregnancy, also known as abortion, which many people find to be morally wrong. However, Planned Parenthood is more than an abortion clinic. It is used by millions of people, providing affordable reproductive health care services, offers help with family planning, and therefore needs to be saved from defunding.