Republican congressional leaders are pushing to defund Planned Parenthood. House Speaker Paul Ryan announced Thursday that Republicans will move to strip all federal funding for Planned Parenthood as part of the process they are using early this year to dismantle Obamacare. Republicans are pushing for this all because they offer abortions. Here's the thing—Planned Parenthood offers so much more than just abortions! Abortions really only make up about 3% of their services.

Planned Parenthood is one of our nation’s leading providers of health care and the largest provider of sex education. There are about 700 health centers throughout the United States operated by 59 independent local affiliates. Over 2.7 million women and men visit Planned Parenthood health centers annually for health care services and information and 1 in 5 U.S. women have been to a Planned Parenthood at least once in their lives. Planned Parenthood should remain funded because it provides people with essential disease screening and prevention like breast exams and STD testing, educates youth, gives women access to contraception, and gives women more choices when it comes to unintended or unwanted pregnancies. Planned Parenthood's mission statement is: "A Reason For Being." They believe in the fundamental right of each individual, throughout the world, to manage his or her fertility, regardless of the individual's income, marital status, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, national origin, or residence. They value diversity, privacy, education, safety, support, and reproductive knowledge/understanding.

Planned Parenthood receives about $500 million per year in funding from the federal government. It’s a common misconception that the majority of this money goes towards abortion services, however, only three percent of all Planned Parenthoods provide abortion services. So where does all of the money go, then? It goes to more than 270,000 Pap tests and 360,000 breast exams annually. It goes to over 4.2 million tests and treatments for sexually transmitted infections – including more than 650,000 in H.I.V. tests (let us not forget the H.I.V. outbreak that ensued after Vice President-elect Mike Pence defunded Planned Parenthood in Indiana in 2011 – 181 cases from November 2014 to August 2015 in Scott County alone). In short, it goes towards providing women with vital healthcare services that they may not have access to otherwise.

So before you pursue cutting the funding, please understand that there is so much more to Planned Parenthood than abortions. They are providing health care to those that cannot afford it, and that should be something anyone in the world understands. Health care costs can be outrageous. Whether you are for or against abortion, they are simply a women's' health clinic, striving to make a difference, that performs abortions just like any other doctors office. If you choose to cut PP, you should cut funding to hospitals and other offices that perform abortions. Be anti-abortion, but don't take away health care to those in need.