Photo Credit: Hector Yabes
Many people hear “Planned Parenthood” and automatically associate this organization with providing abortions. This connotation has led to pro-life movement against the non-profit that hopes to defund them simply in order to prevent a safe and accessable abortion option.
The debate over abortion rights in The United States is not a new one. Pro-choice views were instated into the federal government by Roe V. Wade, a case confirmed in 1973. This decision permits women to get abortions without excessive goverment restraint, a service that Planned Parenthood provides among many others.
The current pro-life rhetoric within the Trump Administration has progressed into the campaign to defund Planned Parenthood in an attempt to place restaints on women’s reproductive rights and restrict abortions.
Despite being arguably best known for abortion servies, the nonprofit also offers many other types of healthcare in an accessible manner. They provide birth control, contraceptives, emergency contraception (also known as the morning-after pill), general health care, and services for HIV, STDs, pregnancy, along with directed help for men, women, and LGBTQ+ patients.
These various services are incredibly important for many people, especially those who have limited access to healthcare. Planned Parenthood’s public options are especially important for patients who struggle with covering insurance and other costs.
By defunding this organization, public health options will be taken away from the many people who have no other access to healthcare and from those who simply cannot afford it from other places.
The method of “defunding” Planned Parenthood as a pro-life catalyst to prevent abortion services is simply immoral. Anti-abortion views are already lacking openmindedness, empathy, and compassion, and the desire to restrict accessible healthcare in order to halt womens’ abilities to make choices about their own bodies and lives is unprincipled.
Womens’ rights to make their own health decisions have always been under attack, but the Trump Administration’s strong pro-life beliefs have encouraged a rise in anti-abortion beliefs and legislature. This plan to defund Planned Parenthood might come from a mainly pro-life place, but the repercussions of this proposition will be detrimental for many people in countless ways.