Planned Parenthood is a non-profit organization that provides affordable reproductive health services across the U.S. and in other parts of the world. It’s been surrounded by controversy and many politicians, Republicans in particular, wish to defund it because it offers abortions.
Why is offering abortions in a safe and affordable environment such a bad thing?
Planned Parenthood is a very safe place for women to go if they are pregnant and happen to decide that they do not want to go forward with their pregnancy, for whatever reason that may be. The reason does not matter to anyone except for them and is nobody’s business except for theirs.
Despite what some may think, Planned Parenthood does not only offer abortions; abortions are only one of many services that the organization offers. Planned Parenthood also offers birth control, long-lasting reversible contraception, emergency contraception, breast exams, cervical cancer screenings, pregnancy tests, pregnancy options counseling, STD testing, vasectomies and LGBT services. By having these services, the amount of abortions can decrease because of the birth control options.
In fact, abortions only make up three percent of the many health services provided by Planned Parenthood.
The sex education provided by Planned Parenthood reaches 1.5 million people in one year. 579,000 unintended pregnancies are prevented yearly, and the number of breast exams reaches 360,000 and helps prevent breast cancer.
With these statistics, it is very hard to understand why anyone would want to defund Planned Parenthood. If PP gets defunded, it will be a lot harder for many people to get the healthcare that they need at a price that they can afford.
The people who want PP to get defunded need to realize the impact of what they want to do. The hundreds of thousands of people that benefit from PP may not have other options. In the case that a woman does want an abortion, she may try to get one in a way that is unsafe and even illegal. This is dangerous and can harm the woman, even resulting in death. Should abortion become illegal, women would still try to get them if they really wanted one and they would not be able to get one safely.
The way I look at it, PP is providing many ways to prevent unwanted pregnancies, and by defunding it, the amount of unwanted pregnancies would only increase therefore the number of abortions would increase. By defunding PP, the number of STDs could increase and treatment for STDs that someone happens to get wouldn’t be as accessible for many.
I am curious to hear reasons as to why Planned Parenthood should be defunded, because I can’t think of a single counterargument. I don’t understand why anyone would want to take away healthcare of any sort away from such a large population. We should all be allowed to take care of and have control of our bodies, which is exactly what PP is providing.
