With every presidential election, comes many debates about funding. The latest debate is the funding over Planned Parenthood. The Republican party is working to pass with the Senate, defunding of Planned Parenthood. This issue has caused non-stop debate across the country. On Thursday September 24, 2015, the Senate did not vote a majority to defund the organization; however, the debate still continues.
Planned Parenthood has been around since 1916 beginning based out of Brooklyn, New York. It provides child health services, breast and cervical cancer screenings, contraceptives, abortion and overall reproductive health. It is a nonprofit organization, which includes 820 clinics across the United States. Over 3 million people in the country are served by the organization. Planned Parenthood receives 500 million U.S. dollars from the government.
The Republican party would like to cut ⅓ of government funding for abortions provided by Planned Parenthood. However, it still could be shut down if an agreement on the budget can not be made by this coming Wednesday. The debate mainly began when videos were released recently of undercover anti-abortion advocates conversing with Planned Parenthood staffs on prices for the sale of fetal tissue. Since this, the Republican party has been taking action to defund the organization. Many Republicans feel the program should at least be defunded until further investigation occurs. Republican Tim Huelskamp voiced his opinion,“There is no excuse when you have evidence like this, it’s time to move forward. It’s not time to back off.” Whether the program should be defunded for a short period of time, or completely overall the entire party can agree that in this moment it should be defunded.
But what would happen if Planned Parenthood was defunded? In a nutshell, health care would be completely cut out for so many people that desperately need it. Women need this organization most, and the removal of it would just add a struggles to many lives. Roughly 2.6 million women are treated a year by Planned Parenthood, which can conclude that the defunding would lead to an increasing amount of unplanned births. This will more than likely lead to a higher abortion rate, as access to birth control becomes unavailable. The idea of abortion leads to yet again another debate.
The debates over reproductive health will occur in a constant cycle. Between abortion and access to contraceptives, it seems as if the government will never be in agreement on what to support and fund. It will be interesting to see where Planned Parenthood ends up over the course of the next few weeks.
