Planned Parenthood As A Federally Funded Program

Planned Parenthood is a federally funded program available to the general population which provides many services regarding reproductive health. “Planned Parenthood is one of the nation’s leading providers of high-quality affordable health care, and the nation’s largest provider of sex education” (Planned Parenthood, 2019). The list of services provided includes abortion, pregnancy preventative methods, STI testing, LGBTQ services, and general health care. In recent news, many republican candidates are advocating against defunding Planned Parenthood and implementing laws that would restrict many people, especially the underprivileged, from receiving many of the vital health care services.

The United States Vice President Mike Pence is one of the many politicians who is leading the way towards banning abortions. He has already signed an Indiana abortion law, which prevents anyone from accessing options and services for abortions. The legislation which was signed by Mike Pence in 2015 imposed restrictions on a woman’s ability to seek abortions. Pence’s support for anti-abortion comes from the biblical verse he shared at the march for life rally in which he stated, “Know that He who said, ‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you’ also said, ‘I will never forsake you” (Pence, 2019). Pence has spent his career restricting reproductive and LGBTQ rights, his policies strongly reflect his own restrictive beliefs on sex, sexuality, and gender identity (Planned Parenthood, 2019).

Pence started his amendment to defund Planned Parenthood in 2007 and it was successfully passed in 2011. After the law was implemented and as Indiana’s governor at the time, he significantly cut public funding to its clinics by more than one million dollars (Kliff, 2017). The arguments that are presented by the state of Indiana suggest that the pre-natal screenings have led many women to opt for abortion when fetal deformities are detected. Supporters of abortion rights said that the law was unconstitutional and infringes on woman’s rights (Ollestein, 2019).

There is a collection of policies and bills that Pence has signed to restrict the general population from seeking out health care information and services. In 2015, Pence signed an anti-LGBT bill, which opponents said would allow for wide-scale discrimination and raise concerns for equality. Pence’s campaign took shape in 2007, as a representative he introduced one of the first amendments in Congress to strip Planned Parenthood of federal funds. It was one of six such measures that he sponsored before he left for congress 6 years later in 2013, which is where he has signed every abortion bill that has crossed his desk (Redden, 2016).

Pence has long championed anti-abortion policies, as a congressman, as the governor of Indiana, and as vice president. Many Republicans and conservatives strongly voice their opinion towards abortion laws. Before 1973, abortion was illegal in 30 states; and only legal under certain circumstances such as rape or incest in the other 20 states. It wasn’t until January 1973 where the U.S supreme court handed down in Roe vs Wade case that abortion was to be legal across the United States. The court recognized it as a constitutional right to privacy which extended to protect woman’s rights under the fourteenth amendment (McBride, 2006). However, 40 years later, Congress has voted 8 times to overturn the Roe vs Wade case. The votes were made to defund Planned parenthood entirely; the reconciliation bill which was to be passed by the House of Representatives and Senate will pull almost 450 million dollars from the federation, which will cause many Medicaid recipients to lose out on clinic visit reimbursements (Basett, 2016).

There was little to no evidence or reasoning backing up Pence’s policy to defund Planned Parenthood. Rather, his reasoning stems from his own extreme conservative beliefs which translate to him being strongly anti-abortion. Overall, Republicans state that defunding Planned Parenthood will allow for other eligible entities including federally qualified health care that can provide the same services. The number of clinics provided by data collected from the Health and Human Services indicates that these other clinics outnumbered Planned Parenthood from a ratio of 20:1 (Earll, 2015).

If the defunding of Planned Parenthood were to happen, we have to account for the number of unwanted and unintended births that would occur. In 2008, clinics such as Planned Parenthood helped prevent 973,000 unwanted pregnancies (Frost et al., 2010). If we were to have those pregnancies come to full term, the number of resources it would take to support those babies or put them in foster-care systems would be immeasurable. It is highly ignorant to believe that the well-being and pro-life of a fetus is far more important or valuable than the quality of life that would follow after the birth. Furthermore, after GOP legislators stripped funds from Planned Parenthood in 2013, a Texas study identified that there was a 35 percent decline in IUD requests and a significant increase in births by 27 percent (Culp-Ressler, 2016). When Politicians pull money from health organizations it eliminates access to reproductive health services, which can be critical to the millions who rely on them each year.

It is important to note that the claims made by Republicans in which community health clinics can ramp up to meet the demands of Planned Parenthood services are highly incorrect. Even with the expansion of these clinics to serve more than 25 million individuals, 71% below the federal poverty level, a 2014 report notes that at least 62 million individuals still have unmet primary health care needs (Kapadia, 2017). Moreover, even though these clinics are present in more than 9000 communities, approximately 25% of communities still do not have a community clinic. Results from a national survey of federal health centers found that the reproductive health care services are also strikingly limited, 25% do not provide oral contraceptives on-site, only 19% provide all contraceptive methods on-site, and only 50% provide on-site IUD devices on-site. These community clinics will need significant funding to serve their existing population, in addition to picking up the patient population that would be left without care if Planned Parenthood centers are shut down (Kapadia, 2017).

Additionally, a study conducted of United States adults in January 2013 focused on Woman age 18-34 years who were to answer what sources of care they would intend for (private office/health maintenance organization [HMO], family planning clinic, other, would not get care) for reproductive health services. The response rate was 61% or 723/2,182 respondents of which approximately half intended to use private offices.