Arguments Against Planned Parenthood

Is it really just the question of killing unborn babies or is one of the nation’s most debated topics based on something deeper than that? One of the most argued social issues in the United States is whether or not the federal government should provide funding to Planned Parenthood, a healthcare service provider. This debate relies moreso on the moral and ethical dilemmas faced by those supplying their opinions, rather than the facts. One of the reasons for this nationwide argument relies solely on the fact that Planned Parenthood offers the service of abortion. Many people are simply getting stuck up on this fact. However, what many people do not realize, or are choosing to ignore, is that Planned Parenthood provides many other health care
services to mostly low income families. Planned Parenthood is one of the top providers of healthcare to people living with low incomes. While it tends to be focused towards services for women, Planned Parenthood also supplies men with sexual health information and services. Planned Parenthood should continue to receive funding from the United States government because it is one of the nation’s leading healthcare providers as well as the top provider for sexual education.
In October of 1916, female rights activists Margaret Sanger, along with her sister Ethel Byrne and Fania Mindell, opened a birth control clinic after Margaret realized that women were not receiving proper birth control education which led to health concerns. Sanger had previously traveled to Europe where she studied birth control methods. Using this information, a clinic located in Brownsville, Brooklyn was opened. The clinic would experience lineups daily of women, which spanned down the block, waiting for their chance to receive birth control information or advice. However, just over a week after its opening, this clinic was shut down by police for sharing birth control information (Alter). After refusing to pay the fine she was charged, Sanger spent 30 days in jail. Here, she continued to spread her message of birth control practices with the other inmates. After her time in jail, Sanger traveled across the country to try her luck again. This time, she opened a clinic in Denver, Colorado. This clinic is now a part of the Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. After the clinic in Denver was stabilized, Sanger
returned to New York, this time to Harlem.
As a response to lack of accessibility to health as well as social services during the midst of the Depression for women of color, the New York Urban League endorsed Margaret Sanger’s new Harlem clinic, which receives much of its support from prominent Harlem churches. In 1952, when the International Planned Parenthood Federation was created, America showed the world its advances in reproductive health services. In the last couple decades, major changes made their way through Planned Parenthood. In 1999, the Food and Drug Administration(FDA) approved the first emergency contraceptive, known as Plan B, two years after they declared the use of birth control pills to be safe and effective. Just a year later, the FDA approved mifepristone, also known as the abortion pill. This pill gives pregnant individuals an option for a safe and effective option for pregnancy termination early on. Most recently, in June of 2016, was
the Supreme Court case Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt. Here, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-3 vote that Texas could not place restrictions on the delivery of abortion services that create a burden for women seeking one(Planned Parenthood 2016). On top of this, in the midst of the 2016 election, President Obama passed a law regarding Title X funding which affects basic preventative health care and family planning services for low-income Americans. Essentially, states can no longer vote to defund Planned Parenthood because abortion services that is offered in some of its clinics. Planned Parenthood’s President, Cecile Richards responded to this saying, “This will make a real difference in so many people’s lives. Thanks to the Obama Administration, [low income] women will still be able to access the birth control they need to plan their families, and the cancer screenings they need to stay healthy”(Muse). The common appearance of this topic in the media has caused an even larger audience, many of which supply their opinions. Over the past 100 years, Planned Parenthood has been one of the nation's leading providers in sexual and reproductive health services for men and women of lower income households.
The stigma with Planned Parenthood lies within the fact that people are not fully aware of all of the services that they provide. In their 2014-2015 Annual Report, they share what percent of their overall service is being provided in specialized areas. 45% of all services provided were based around STI/STD related services. Another 31% went to contraception related services. 13% went to other women’s services and 7% went to male and female cancer screenings. Simply in this report alone, over 70,000 women had their cancer identified early. This leaves only 3% of Planned Parenthood’s total services in the year responsible for abortion. Planned Parenthood also provides a safe environment for LGBTQ youth and allies enabling them to get the information or support that is needed to make healthy decisions. They recently expanded access to hormone treatments for transgender patients(Planned Parenthood). Clearly, it is not just abortion that Planned Parenthood is dealing with. In order to erase this stigma, people first need to get informed to all of the services offered. Your Solution to the problem: While it is understandable that there lies a moral dilemma within the use of government money to essentially provide abortions, that does not mean that the other services provided by Planned Parenthood should lose their funding as well. To please those stuck on the opposing end of government funded abortions, a possible solution to be suggested is the monitoring of the money provided to the organization to ensure that it is being used only for non-abortion related services. Planned Parenthood is an organization that does not solely rely on the funding of the government. They do bring in a hefty amount of money from donations, which can be used for these services that will not be covered by government funding. In their 2013-2014 annual report, Planned Parenthood revealed just how much money is brought in via different sources. 528.4 million dollars are provided through government funding, 391.8 million dollars through private sources, and another 380 million dollars from non-government and other revenue sources. “That (government support) totals more than 40 percent of Planned Parenthood's total $1.3 billion in revenue for the year, which suggests that the organization would be in some heavy financial trouble without that public funding”(Kurtzleben). The public funds being used to support Planned Parenthood come from two main programs: Medicaid, a health care program for lower-income Americans, and Title X, a federal family planning program which is also aimed to lower-income Americans. Those bothered by the funding of services related to abortions are still being pleased with the suggestion to fund non-abortion services because their tax money is not being used for it.