The controversy concerning Planned Parenthood has reached new heights in the last few months. The non-profit organisation has come under heavy attack from many conservatives, extremely religious individuals, and anti-choice advocates who believe that the company fosters and facilitates immorality through its abortion services.

I wish to offer a different perspective: Planned Parenthood offers essential health and family planning services to those most in need of their help, specifically low-income families. They also offer abortion services that are not inherently ethically wrong, instead they offer women a choice. This choice currently reflects women's bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom, two simultaneously important and threatened concepts in today's society.

Last week I went to a luncheon the Women's Centre at my university set up, where Francie Hunt, the senior field manager of Planned Parenthood, spoke about the services the organisation provides, as well as the fierce opposition it has faced recently. Hunt spoke about the legislative restrictions that essentially shame and undermine women in the serious choice they make to terminate an abortion. Currently, in Tennessee, there is a 48 hour waiting period, meaning that women have to go to 2 appointments at Planned Parenthood.

After the first appointment, they have to wait 48 hours to "think" about the serious decision they are making. The topic of the "fetal heartbeat bill" was also discussed; several states including Alabama and Texas have tried to pass a bill where a woman has to listen to the heartbeat of the fetus before she terminates her pregnancy. This not only works to shame and embarrass women for their choice, but also to persuade a woman to reconsider her decision, as if a woman should not be entrusted with such a huge responsibility.

All these restrictions not only infringe on women's agency, but also undermine women's reproductive decisions. It goes without saying that a woman who decides to terminate a pregnancy does not take the decision lightly; she understands the gravity of her choice and has thought thoroughly about the decision's impact on her current situation and on her future.

I cannot stress how important Planned Parenthood is in this current political climate; women need the option to decide whether they want children or not. Deciding when and if to have a child is not a decision that should be politicised and discussed through a moral or religious lens. A woman deciding to have a child is not a political decision at all, it is a personal one.

Politicians, conservatives and media outlets alike need to refrain from entering the discussion on when it is permissible for women to have children or not. Politicians need to stop shaming and embarrassing women for exhibiting the agency to control their own bodies. Women are not asking for these opinions. A woman's decision to have a child is not between her and her state Senator. This decision is a private and personal one. It should be treated as such.