#IStandWithPP
by Josee Molavi | Online Editor
I am a proud supporter of Planned Parenthood, the non-profit leading provider of women’s with reproductive health services. I am a proud supporter Planned Parenthood, despite the partisan-propelled political storm this currently controversial organization faces. I am proud to be a part of the conversation that educates about and stands in support of its values. Planned Parenthood is leading the fight for reproductive health and justice for those who are deprived of it, and I am proud to be a part of that movement.
Though recently thrust into the political limelight, Planned Parenthood has been empowering and supporting its patients for quite some time; dating back to its founding 1916. With numerous locations nationwide, PP provides its patients with quality women’s, children’s, family and reproductive healthcare, along with contraceptive services and sexual education. Healthcare is affordable, safe, and reliable through PP, which is why one in five women will visit a center near them and utilize these services within their lifetime.
The organization is facing much opposition and scrutiny from the GOP, facilitating further partisan divide in our country and legislation alike. In fact, on September 30th, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted to cut the organization off of its funding. Planned Parenthood receives about 450 million dollars a year in federal funds, according to its latest annual reports from the Congressional Budget Office. Seem like a lot? It’s actually less than two-tenths of a percent of the federal budget, which in total is approximately of 3.6 trillion dollars. However, the bill did not pass in the Senate. Republican politicians are now in response threatening another government shutdown, which, back in 2013 cost the government and its taxpayers 24 billion dollars. 24 billion dollars down the drain; 24 billion dollars wasted on petty partisanship, rather than perhaps being used for productive purposes, perhaps to provide healthcare to our country’s women in need.
Furthermore, over the summer, the media drew attention to a video released as an attack on the organization by anti-abortion groups. These falsified videos depicted conversation from top-level Planned Parenthood officials concerning the supposed “black market sale” of fetal organs. These videos and claims are being investigated; it has been found that the videos had in fact been deceptively altered and edited. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America stated in response to these accusations: “At several of our health centers, we help patients who want to donate tissue for scientific research, and we do this just like every other high-quality health care provider does — with full, appropriate consent from patients and under the highest ethical and legal standards”. Among others, GO
P Presidential candidate Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, called the practice discussed in the video a “clear violation of federal law”, which is a major scrutiny the organization faces in light of the video attacks. While the sale of organs and tissue, adult or fetal, is in fact illegal by federal standards, the donation is not. Additionally, According to the American Society for Cell Biology, a nonprofit group of scientists with varied backgrounds, “Fetal cells hold unique promise for biomedical research due to their ability to rapidly divide, grow, and adapt to new environments. This makes fetal tissue research relevant to a wide variety of diseases and medical conditions.”
Yet another common misconception about Planned Parenthood is that it primarily exists to perform abortions, and does so at great numbers. As a pro-choice woman, I don’t believe that this defines whether Planned Parenthood should be defunded. I don’t aim to justify Planned Parenthood by throwing abortion under the bus. I believe that abortion, like all women’s reproductive healthcare, should be safe and accessible. Defunding of Planned Parenthood only perpetuates the stigma around abortion, and is another attack to place Washington politicians between a woman and her doctor. Nonetheless, based on statistics provided by Planned Parenthood, only 3 percent of its health services are even abortion related. If the issue of abortion hits home, this may be calming news to you. Planned Parenthood works endlessly to provide equally important contraception and preventative services: that makes up 80 percent of the work they do alone, along with a dedication to testing for and taking and preventative measures against STDS all while facilitating advocacy for women’s health issues. In 2013, Planned Parenthood performed half a million breast exams and 400,000 pap tests, both of which are crucial for early cancer detection. I urge you to view Planned Parenthood as the multifaceted organization that in reality it is.
I cannot imagine the detrimental consequences of ripping such funding away from a resource that provides women with life-changing, life-improving– life-saving services. Planned Parenthood is a champion for the women’s right to choice. Though it is one option, pro-choice activists like Planned Parenthood understand that abortion is not the right choice for everyone. And that’s the premise of my pro-CHOICE philosophy; we can give the option to those that may benefit, while respecting those who choose to abstain from such procedures. Planned Parenthood is all about encouraging its patients to consider and explore a multitude options and providing resources to them about these options, whether it be abortion, adoption or parenthood. Through its services, the organization helps teenagers and adults alike make smart, safe, healthy choices, choices that the patient’s doctor can weigh in on, choices that will benefit them in the long run, choices that they are comfortable with. That is why I support PP. I stand with Planned Parenthood because this healthcare and whether I’m allowed to access it is not up for political debate now, or ever.
#DefundPP
by Megan Killpatrick | Guest Writer
Yes, we should defund Planned Parenthood. I realize that this may sound odd coming from a person who is not an old white man in a red tie, but I would argue that I have sound logic to back up this stance, so hear me out. I am for the complete political, social, and economic equality of the sexes. I am pro-women, I am pro-compassion for expectant mothers regardless of their choice whether or not to carry out their pregnancies, and I am also against funding Planned Parenthood, our nation’s largest abortion provider.
Although federal funding for abortion is prohibited under the law, this does not stop Planned Parenthood’s government funding from both directly and indirectly financing abortion procedures. This is due to the simple concept of money fundability, which basically states in this context that federal money slated to offset Planned Parenthood expenses (other than abortion expenses) frees up money (which would have otherwise been allocated to these expenses) that Planned Parenthood can use to fund abortions. In other words, the funding allows Planned Parenthood to finance abortions because their other expenses are taken care of, and if Planned Parenthood was defunded, Planned Parenthood would likely still provide needed health services but would no longer have the extra money available to fund abortions.
One point that I want to make explicitly clear is that defunding Planned Parenthood does not mean decreasing funding for women’s health services. Equal funding could instead be provided to federally qualified health centers, which far outnumber Planned Parenthood clinics in the United States. By doing this, we would provide the same (and hopefully increased in the very near future) funding for much needed women’s health services, such as pelvic exams, cancer and STI screenings, mammograms, prenatal care, and post-abortive care. If we made this change, not only would we be maintaining the overall national financial support for these services, but these funds would be funneled into centers that are often much closer to American women than their nearest Planned Parenthood would have been and that provide medically necessary services. With government programs such as Medicaid, “Obamacare”, and such funding for federally qualified women’s health centers, we can provide the crucial services that American women need and that the government can and should provide.
On top of this common sense evidence, Planned Parenthood is not the pure and benevolent organization that it is often made out to be. While it does provide some services that women need, Planned Parenthood often grossly overcharges the low-income women whose cause they claim to champion. For example, Planned Parenthood has been caught selling $4.25 Plan B emergency contraception for upwards of $38.00. On top of this, Planned Parenthood themselves reported a $100,000,000 net income from surgical abortions alone in 2006. And what about their founder, Margaret Sanger? She was an infamous racist with radical views including racial purification through extermination of minorities through abortion. She wrote in her book Pivot of Civilization that immigrants and poor people were, “…human weeds…spawning… human beings who never should have been born.”
Planned Parenthood is an organization that comes from dark beginnings, conducts themselves inappropriately and unethically, and fails to provide the best use of federal funds to benefit women’s health services, which the funds are designated to be used for, not abortion.
