Texas has officially defunded Planned Parenthood. Ever since these heavily doctored videos came out about Planned Parenthood’s alleged “trafficking fetal material,” conservative pro-lifers have been up in arms trying to shut it down. Governor Greg Abbot has given Planned Parenthood a 30-day notice that details how they will be kicked off the 3.1 million dollars they receive from Medicaid. After this 30th day is complete, they will receive a notice of termination and a 15-day notice. It seems that the conservatives in Texas are going to be celebrating a huge win, and with Donald Trump coming to office in a few weeks, these trends may continue in other states.
The thing that I don’t understand is that these clinics do a litany of things other than abortions. Removing Planned Parenthood from Medicaid would leave thousands of low-income individuals without access to routine health care checkups, cancer screenings, birth control, and a bunch of other essential benefits. What the conservative, pro-life crowd doesn’t realize is that not all people have a reliable source of healthcare, especially these women who come from a lower socioeconomic background. Another thing that really bothers me about these conservative pro-lifers is that they want to force women to have these babies, but when they are born and the mother is impoverished, those same conservatives would rather not give them sufficient food stamps.
The Texas Policy Evaluation Project concluded that in 2015, as many as 240,000 women attempted self-induced abortions. This spike in self-induced abortions was a direct result of the outlandish policies being implemented in Texas. The most common methods of conducting these abortions were using a drug called Misoprostol, using herbs or homeopathic remedies, or getting hit in the abdomen. At this point, you must be thinking that this seems extreme, but the circumstances for these women are in fact extreme. The average Texas county is now 111 miles from the nearest clinic, which is a stark uptick from 72 miles in 2012. Even if you get an opportunity to go to a clinic, the odds of you getting an appointment are very low. In one instance, a woman called a clinic from 150 miles away, and they said that she could schedule an appointment in a month.
It is apparent that today’s conservatives have launched an all-out war against women. Years of progress for women’s reproductive rights are going backward, and it seems that this is just the start to the next four years of dismantling women’s rights. Thankfully, earlier this month, Obama signed a law that would bar states from blocking federal funding to Planned Parenthood. This stalwart rule will “strengthen access to essential services like cancer screenings and contraception for some of the most vulnerable patients in this country.” The only thing this rule does not do is prevent states from shutting down clinics and making it harder for women to access them. Ultimately, more work needs to be done before Trump takes office because he will do absolutely nothing to protect these women. Now it is left up to each state's supreme courts to offer these protections. For Texas, Planned Parenthood has a long way to go to fairly distribute their care to women.
