About Planned Parenthood

How much do you really know about Planned Parenthood? Sometime in your life, you have heard about it. Whether it be knowing someone who has been treated there, you being treated there, or just hearing about them on the news, you have a glimpse of what Planned Parenthood is. Planned Parenthood is a non-profit organization that provides not only reproductive health care not only in the United States, but globally. They believe in the right of each individual, to manage hers or his fertility, regardless of their race, income, ethnicity, etc. Planned Parenthood provides information and health care, and promotes services available to all. There is almost about 700 centers located globally, and about 3 million patients. There is a major controversy in this country over the rights and wrongs of abortion. Just over the last year, there has been a call to defund Planned Parenthood because of this controversy. Not only Planned Parenthood's patients, but there are other people who recognize why Planned Parenthood should not be defunded.

The federal government was trying to pass the Pence Amendment, which would eliminate funding to clinics, such as Planned Parenthood. The call for defunding all began with, Representative Mike Pence (R-IN) has filed an amendment to H.R. 1 which would take all federal funds away from Planned Parenthood health centers and would have a devastating effect on women's access to health care across the country (National Women's Law Center 2018). The Pence Amendment would mostly put the health of millions women and men at risk by eliminating their healthcare.

This amendment will not only be taking healthcare away from millions of men and women, but it will also take away jobs. Within each of these clinics are employees ranging from working as front desk to working as doctors. There are more than 700 centers nationwide for Planned Parenthood, previously stated. Taking their jobs away, will cause more suffering, which is what Planned Parenthood is trying to eliminate, suffering. If Planned Parenthood is defunded, the millions of women and men across the globe will struggle to receive the medical attention they need if the federal government stops funding to Planned Parenthood.

The defunding of Planned Parenthood was severely cause, This misnamed effort would enact cruel laws to block millions of patients who depend on Medicaid or other public health care programs from accessing care at Planned Parenthood health centers (Planned Parenthood 2018). With already the millions of women and men that will struggle if defunded, the individuals with low incomes who really depend on clinics, such as Planned Parenthood, will struggle twice as much.

Planned Parenthood doesn't receive a loaded check like other organizations do. Like many other health providers, the clinics treat patients who are on Medicaid, for example, and then after bill the government. Defunding all this money given would cause, Planned Parenthood receives about $530 million in Medicaid reimbursements, which accounts for about half of its budget. Without that money, clinics would immediately be in jeopardy of closing, and if they do remain open, prices for services could increase (Curry 2017). Low-income individuals would have to pay the price for the government's actions to defund, pay more at any other clinics.

There wouldn't be a loss in healthcare only. Millions of Planned Parenthood patients would lose their access to the preventive care they've relied on, care like cancer screenings, birth control, and STD testing, etc. Without Planned Parenthood being funded, So people who are seeking services such as UTI and STI treatment or contraceptive counseling, low-income women, LGBTQ individuals, and any person with the ability to get pregnant could be affected by Planned Parenthood losing federal funding. Particularly, anyone who relies on Medicaid would be impacted (Cook 2018). A variety of people including women, men, or LGBTQ individuals would be severely affected by the loss of receiving contraceptives, where in some clinics there aren't any available.

The long-term effects of the defunding of Planned Parenthood is, Who would shutting down Planned Parenthood health centers hurt the most? It's people of color, people living in rural areas, and people with low incomes. They represent the majority of Planned Parenthood's patients, and they already face unfair systemic barriers to accessing health care. If these patients are blocked from care at Planned Parenthood, many would have nowhere else to go. In fact, 21% of counties have no safety-net family planning alternative should their local Planned Parenthood health center close, and more than half of Planned Parenthood's health centers are located in rural and underserved communities (Planned Parenthood 2018).

You might be asking why are all quotes relate to the loss of health care or how it affects low income people, but if Planned Parenthood defunded, millions would have to look even harder or work much harder just to pay just to be looked at for their health. Not only will it affect their own health, but their family's health care is on the line too. Planned Parenthood is one of the various clinics that lets families come in for their health, with the type of insurance they specifically have. There would be so much to lose if the government defunded Planned Parenthood.

The major controversy, abortion, is why government wants to defund Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is known for, But why is the organization is so huge? Perhaps only a big organization could have survived the legal challenges Planned Parenthood has withstood”many in connection to its willingness to perform abortions”over the last 30 years. Up until the 1970s, abortion rights enjoyed majority and bipartisan support among Americans, as the New Yorker reports. That changed with the second Nixon Administration, and, in the 1980s, "opposition to abortion grew violent," Jill Lepore writes. As a result, "fewer and fewer places were willing to provide abortions, which made Planned Parenthood, in many parts of the country, the last abortion provider left standing (Diep 2015). With other centers declining to help patients with abortions, Planned Parenthood is one of the clinics that helps with abortions. If Planned Parenthood avoided helping with abortions, there would be no need for the government to defund it.

No matter the clinic, a patient's information, whether it be health information or personal, is confidential at all times. Planned Parenthood failed in keeping confidential information by, The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) established the Privacy Rule, which protects all individually identifiable health information by setting limits and conditions on the uses and disclosures that may be made of such information without patient authorization. A recent Congressional investigation found that several Planned Parenthood clinics violated this rule by disclosed patients' individually identifiable health information in an effort to resale human fetal tissue obtained from abortions to a biomedical supply company(Carter 2017). Giving out a patient's information is one thing, but trying to sell their fetus tissue is no right thing to do; nonetheless, whether you a nurse or a doctor you do not have the right to do.

Planned Parenthood has been bashed for their recent actions. Instead of protecting the health and safety of women, Planned Parenthood Planned Parenthood stands accused of jeopardizing the health and safety of women and girls. They have been accused by pro-life advocacy groups of abetting the sex trafficking of minor girls and at least four affiliates have been similarly accused of neglecting the health and safety of patients (Attia 2015). We do not know if these accusations are believable, but if Planned Parenthood is no behind this, there is no reason for them to be defunded.

The money government gives an organization should not only be used on the clinic, but for the patients as well. More accusations of Planned Parenthood consists of, In addition to current allegations of harvesting and selling tiny livers, lungs, and hearts of aborted unborn children, Planned Parenthood has faced accusations of bad conduct in the past. Planned Parenthood affiliates have also been accused of financial waste, abuse, and possible fraud with taxpayer dollars (Torre 2015). Previously stated, if these accusations are false, there is no reason for the government to defund Planned Parenthood. If Planned Parenthood is defunded, these are key reasons why they will go through with it.
Overall, the defunding of Planned Parenthood needs to be fought because there is too much to lose.

Millions of men, teens, women and LGBTQ healths' are on the line. Not only this, but there would be a large impact on the accessibility of contraceptives and STD testing. Planned Parenthood provides so many essential services to uninsured and low-income women, men, teens and LGBTQ. Although we do not know of the accusations of Planned Parenthood are true, we should all keep an open-mind that the government should not defund the organization. The funding allows Planned Parenthood to providing reproductive health services. Therefore, I believe the government should not defund Planned Parenthood.

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