Recently, there has been controversy over the mass closing of Planned Parenthood locations nationwide. For example, according to Laura Bassett of the Huffington Post, Indiana has closed many of its rural Planned Parenthood locations and it is not the only state that has had these closings. Florida, Wisconsin and many other states have decided to defund their Planned Parenthood locations in order to stop abortion within their states. These state leaders, such as Scott Walker from Wisconsin and Jeb Bush in Florida, defunded their Planned Parenthood locations in order to stop abortions in their states and protect the lives of fetuses. But with the rampant desires, and actions taken to defund Planned Parenthood, the problem then becomes countless women losing access to reproductive care. So it is only right to continue funding Planned Parenthood and to stop the defunding of Planned Parenthood right?
Well, absolutely. According to Francie Diep of Pacific Standard, federal funding makes up almost half the funding that Planned Parenthood receives. This means that from statistics taken from the same article, there were 2.4 million American women in 2010 who were receiving their contraceptives from Planned Parenthood. This number has only increased over the past five years. With that increase, that means that when Planned Parenthood is defunded, there will be even more women who lose their access to contraceptives. This means that there will likely be even more unplanned and unwanted pregnancies, increasing women who have children and increasing the number of women who cannot afford children they have. While people may hold differing views on abortion, in the end, it is better to have an abortion and be able to have a child later in life that can have a good life rather than having a baby who will more than likely face a life of poverty when a woman is too poor or too young to have a child.
In addition, the same article states that it would create a gap in the amount of reproductive care that women have access to in lower income communities. Planned Parenthood is well known to provide reproductive services other than abortions. In fact, only about 3 percent of their funding accounts for abortions annually, according to the organization itself. They also provide STD screening to many young women throughout the nation. Many of the women who go to Planned Parenthood are not able to afford to go to other locations that would cost them more money to purchase something as simple as health for themselves. By defunding Planned Parenthood, many women would completely lose their ability to be able to live healthy lives free of STD’s or know early enough that they have one to be able to do something about it before it becomes life threatening.
Planned Parenthood is more than an abortion clinic. Planned Parenthood should not be defunded because they provide so much to so many people. Planned Parenthood is the only method that a significant population of people is able to see reproductive health. Without it, many people could face diseases that they do not need to face alone. Don’t allow Planned Parenthood to be defunded. When you defund Planned Parenthood, you defund reproductive health.
