Why Planned Parenthood Should not Be Defunded

“Your access to health care shouldn’t depend on who you are or where you live'. Planned Parenthood is a non-profit healthcare association that believes in women’s right to make their own healthcare decisions. In essence, Planned Parenthood should not be defunded because other healthcare providers can not cover every excluded patient, uneducated patients would be in danger and patients would lose their only healthcare provider.

Firstly, it is unrealistic to defund PPFA (Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc.) because other healthcare providers would not be able to manage the number of patients that would need coverage. This is evident when the author writes, “more than 20 percent of the countries where Planned Parenthood health centers operate, there are no other healthcare providers present who serve patients that rely on safety net providers'. Consequently, there simply aren't enough reproductive health care providers. According to PPFA, per year, Planned Parenthood health centers provide birth control to nearly 2 million people, 4.2 million STD tests and treatments and 320,000 breast exams and nearly 295,000 pap tests' (I Stand with Planned Parenthood, 2020). In reality, smaller community health facilities that already account for their own patients, would not be able to give the same effective care to Planned Parenthood's numerous. In support of this assertion Belluck (2019) writes, “if Planned Parenthood loses funding, other providers supported by the program would have to increase their caseloads by an average of 70 percent to care for the 1.6 million people who currently receive such services through Planned Parenthood… Many providers haven't already said they would be unable to fill this gap' (Belluck, 2019). Explicitly, the extract tells us that the case load would be too overbearing for workers. Furthermore, the text allows us to see how great of an impact defunding Planned Parenthood would cause. As well as, why Planned Parenthood's health services are imperative, including their efforts to educate.

Secondly, patients who are not trained and taught how to take care of themselves and their young ones are put at risk. This is evident when the author writes, “Approximately 60% of planned parenthood patients who had access to health care found that pregnancy deaths actually increased rather than decreased'. In support of this assertion the text states, “pregnancy related deaths doubled after the state stopped reimbursing planned parenthood and imposed stringent funding cuts for women's health'. According to the text, '54 percent fewer patients in the state received care. In Wisconsin, fewer women could access lifesaving cancer screening, following the closure of planned parenthood'. According to Belluck (2019), “Trump’s domestic gag rule harms women in more ways than one.... It effectively dismantles Title X, forces doctors to lie and forbids them from referring their patients for abortion, and prevents women from being able to access Planned Parenthood’s services'. Accordingly, the excerpt highlights examples of how these women face adversity, especially when they have no other choice.

Thirdly, many patients rely on Planned Parenthood as their only health care family option. For instance, predominantly poor communities have to depend on Planned Parenthood and their general and reproductive health care programs. In consequence, if PPFA were to close 2.4 million patients would lose access to health care. This is evident when the author writes, “programs such as medicaid and title x would be in danger and the legislation that defunds planned parenthood would stand in the way of those people accessing proper health care'. Directly, the text above highlights the negative outcomes that the removal of medicaid and title x programs would cause. Uniquely, the importance of PPFA is demonstrated in the text when the author states, “These programs serve about 4 million patients each year, many of them poor, at more than 4,000 clinics. About 40 percent of those clinics are operated by Planned Parenthood, which receives close to $60 million through the family planning program each year'. Of course, this rule that Trump puts in place — the gag rule affects low income and minority women drastically. In the article the author writes, “This rule will have dire and disproportionate consequences for African-American patients, who make up 22 percent of people who access health care through Title X' (Planned Parenthood, 2020). Not only does this rule prevent those who are financially unstable from gaining basic care but it also stops them from receiving the best care available.

Although Planned Parenthood is widely known for its service to millions of women, some may argue that other Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) can offer women of PPFA a better and wider range of care. Nonetheless, a claim such as this one is simply far-fetched considering the statistics. According to the Heritage Foundation, 'In addition to roughly 1,200 federally qualified health clinics there are over 2,000 pregnancy centers that provide medical testing, prenatal care, ultrasounds and child-birth classes, among other services to women facing unplanned pregnancies'. However, research shows that, “it is unrealistic for Federally-Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) to serve the millions of women who currently rely on Planned Parenthood for high-quality contraceptive care'. According to PPFA, 'The average FQHC site offering contraceptive care serves 320 contraceptive patients in a year. The average Planned Parenthood health center serves 2,950 contraceptive patients in a year' (Planned Parenthood, 2020). Nevertheless, the excerpts above support the reasoning that PPFA's services outreach the resources that other FQHCs propose, and should remain funded.

Given these points, defunding health care from PPFA would be a huge mistake. Ultimately, taking such action would only hurt those receiving care under PPFA's Title X and Medicaid programs. Moreover, PPFA allows women to make the choices they need to, by supporting their rights. Overall, Planned Parenthood believes that it is unjust for women's health to be put at risk. In fact, people who have no other healthcare alternative options would be forced to find other means. All in all, PPFA contributes drastically to healthcare services world-wide. Subsequently, without it local clinics and medical associations would have exhausting caseloads. In brief, those same organizations would break down under the pressure. Obviously, they would not be able to handle the number of patients that PPFA currently cover alone.