With the government gearing up for another potential shutdown, I have begun to grow tired of and upset at the blatant misogyny that is able to take place even in our highest levels of government. The Republican’s attempts to defund Planned Parenthood are deplorable at best, and are largely characteristic of the overarching view of the Republican view of women.
With the government gearing up for another potential shutdown, I have begun to grow tired of and upset at the blatant misogyny that is able to take place even in our highest levels of government. The Republican’s attempts to defund Planned Parenthood are deplorable at best, and are largely characteristic of the overarching view of the Republican view of women.
Regardless of anyone’s personal stance on the morality of abortions, it is crucial for people to understand that the abortions performed at Planned Parenthood are not even funded by the federal government to begin with. Abortions at Planned Parenthood are privately funded and make up only a mere 3-5 percent of the services that the organization provides.
The majority of what Planned Parenthood provides for its patients is prenatal care, breast and cervical cancer screenings, birth control, pregnancy testing, STD testing, providing PrEP and PEP to people at risk of contracting HIV. The organization promotes women and men’s healthcare, and strives to provide the help people need to be safe and prepared for sexual encounters.
To demonize an organization like this in order to defund it is blatantly sexist in my opinion. The patients that are going to Planned Parenthood are going there in order to receive the healthcare that they are in need of, and to deny them that service based on petty and dated beliefs about women’s health would be a disgrace.
The truth is that as long as there are unexpected and unwanted pregnancies, there will be women who choose to take the path of abortion. That is something that no politician will ever be able to stop. The only thing that will change will be the options we give women who choose that path.
It is my firm belief that the defunding of Planned Parenthood would be the largest backwards step for the women’s rights movement during my generation. It is appalling to me that even in 2015 the government is threatening to shut down over what amounts to a dispute about women’s healthcare.
And perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this is that politicians are intelligent, and they understand all that defunding Planned Parenthood would mean for this country. But the facts and the information rarely seem to matter at all when it comes to making monumental decisions that will dramatically affect women and women’s rights for decades to come.
Anyone who favors retracting government funding for Planned Parenthood must bear the weight of knowing that they supported the defunding of the healthcare of thousands of women across America, including the 95-97 percent of their patients who do not receive abortions as part of their care at Planned Parenthood.
This why I stand with Planned Parenthood.
