Opinion: We need to protect Planned Parenthood
"I stand with Planned Parenthood" by ctrouper is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Planned Parenthood, a non-profit organization that provides millions of people with easy access to birth control, sex education, hormone therapy, abortion services, and other general healthcare services, is under attack by people who claim to be “pro-life.” These self-proclaimed pro-lifers use religion-based arguments in an attempt to dismantle Planned Parenthood. If the United States can clearly distinguish the church from the state, then Planned Parenthood will continue to provide healthcare services.
Planned Parenthood is making headlines once again thanks to Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump’s nominee for Supreme Court Justice.
Her potential appointment to the nation’s top judicial seat has the non-profit organization once again receiving backlash from the self-proclaimed “pro-lifers.” Pro-lifers seek to defund the organization as a whole on account of the controversial services it provides, including various contraceptives and abortion services.
When people claim that the government should “defund” Planned Parenthood, they would not be taking away their money. No, instead they would be blocking the organization as a whole, preventing people who rely on Medicaid from getting the services they need and scrapping the entire organization.
Planned Parenthood provides way more than just emergency contraceptives and abortion services. The organization also offers STI testing and treatment, birth control, cancer screening and prevention, hormone therapy, general sex-education, and overall healthcare services.
What does this mean for Planned Parenthood? The organization is non-profit, meaning they do not receive government funding. Rather, they rely on donations and grants to keep their services at an affordable price.
I find it hypocritical that a person who claims to be “pro-life” is willing to dismantle an entire organization whose main goal is to provide affordable healthcare to the less fortunate. They are only pro-life when it comes to a woman having a child. Their claims of all lives being precious are only limited to the unborn.
It is not just the pro-lifers trying to dismantle Planned Parenthood, the Trump-Pence administration is doing their fair share at trying to stop the organization as a whole.
As of Sept. 26, President Trump announced his intent to nominate Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court after the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This decision angered many people due to the fact that President Trump wasted no time finding a replacement for Justice Ginsburg, not to mention the replacement he found has polar opposite beliefs and will likely work to undo all that RBG fought for during her time as Supreme Court Justice.
In 2017 when Barrett was nominated to the U.S Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit, Dana Singiser, the Vice President of Planned Parenthood’s Government Regulations and Public Policy, publicly denounced Barrett in a statement.
“The idea that Amy Coney Barrett would be a fair and impartial judge on issues of reproductive health is ludicrous,” Singiser said.
Barrett has made it an active point in her career to be openly against Roe v. Wade, the court case from 1970 in which Jane Roe filed a lawsuit against the district attorney of Dallas, Texas, for a law passed that made abortion illegal. In the court case, Roe claimed that the law was a breach of personal privacy that is protected by the first, fourth, fifth, ninth, and 14th amendments.
The court case decided that the right of privacy that abortion falls under is in fact protected by the 14th amendment, and in a 7-2 court ruling, the law was repealed.
Women do not always get abortions because they do not want to deal with a child. Women get abortions for several reasons, including a lack of funds to pay for doctor appointments and childcare, and other underlying health issues that would have the pregnancy result in a miscarriage.
All of this comes back at Planned Parthood, simply because they are the most reliable and well-known organization that provides abortion services. Pro-lifers spew hate and threats against a single organization for one procedure they offer.
I am dumbfounded by this entire situation. Would you personally get an abortion? No? Great, then do not get one. Do not force your beliefs onto someone else. You do not know their story.
We need to keep politics out of the human body. Our country is never going to progress if we are constantly pitted against one another because of varying beliefs.
Because of the pro-lifers’ adamant beliefs, they are willing to scrap an entire organization that provides millions of people with free or low-cost healthcare. If Planned Parenthood is taken away, a woman’s reproductive rights are taken away with it.
Updated at 7:59 p.m. on Oct. 14, 2020
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Ashton Lewandowski • Oct 14, 2020 at 4:45 pm
Before I make my quick criticizations of this article, I want to provide some quick background on my own personal beliefs. I agree with what you think entirely. Sure, I’m a male, but I still think all opinions matter on every topic. But anyway, that’s not really what this article is about. This article is about protecting Planned Parenthood from “pro-lifers.” I haven’t followed that situation probably as much as I should have, but this article doesn’t really link to any specific attacks from pro-lifers. You make claims that “pro-lifers seek to defund the organization” or “pro-lifers spewing hate” but you never have sources for those claims, and those are big parts of this article that you are trying to convey to readers. If I was one of these “pro-lifers,” I would just shrug off this whole article due to this lack of sources. I don’t know if you could edit this article to improve it, or if you’d even want to, but I would definitely recommend doing so since all you need is a few links. I’ve personally used the arguments made here, and I think they are powerful and can actually change minds, but please provide evidence for the claims you make about the attacks. This existence of these attacks could be common sense to you, but anyone (like me) who hasn’t been following this situation would have to believe you, the author, and that’s where you lose people, at least in my opinion. Feel free to take my advice or just ignore this or whatever, but I’d feel that you might actually convince “pro-life” readers by just providing examples of these attacks. Show them how nasty and disgusting their side is being in these attacks! Show them the ugliness being created on their side. Etc. Etc. Please, delete this if you have the power to and if you do in fact read this. All this is just my suggestion, no ill-intent meant. Have a good day.
Justin Spencer • Oct 14, 2020 at 7:51 pm
Thank you for reading! We appreciate your feedback.
Tucker Sutton • Oct 14, 2020 at 10:14 am
Hey Rachel,
I appreciate your opinion, but I respectfully disagree with much of what you said. First of all, I see you mentioned that planned parenthood does not receive any government funding. This is absolutely false. Planned parenthood receives federal funding every year. As a matter of fact, planned parenthood reported that they received $617 million in taxpayer money in the 2018-2019 fiscal year. I also disagree with what you said about Planned parenthood’s main goal being to “provide affordable healthcare to the less fortunate.” Planned parenthood is the nation’s largest operator of abortion facilities in the United States. In 2017, a total of 862,320 abortions took place in the United States. The reason why I am Pro-Life is because I believe all human beings have unalienable rights, as seen in The Declaration of Indpendence as: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. As soon as an abortion takes place, you are denying that human being his or her first right: the right to life. When we talk about the laws regarding
abortion, I don’t see the word mentioned anywhere in the Constitution. That’s why in my opinion, Roe v Wade should be overturned. You also said that Trump’s supreme court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, has made it an active point in her career to be openly against Roe v Wade. That’s because it is completely unconstitutional and is never even mentioned in the Constitution. I am so glad that we have a President that cares about American lives and stands up for the right to life.
Justin Spencer • Oct 14, 2020 at 7:52 pm
Thank you for reading and commenting. We appreciate your feedback and your perspective. Thank you for contributing to the discussion of this important topic.