Planned Parenthood Case Study

There are many current issues in Congress, especially after coming off of the brief vacation. With the election approaching quickly, Congress has its priorities jumbled up. With the short time to solve multiple conflicts, Congress is trying to focus on the partisan banter over the funding for the Zika virus. Republican's want to spend less money on funding, whereas the Democrats want to spend and give more to the CDC. James Arkin shared, "Republicans scoffed at President Obama’s $1.9 billion request, but agreed to fund $1.1 billion". The CDC and the Planned Parenthood Clinics already have funding for such viruses, which means the addition of more money would be unnecessary. Even though the disease clinics have shown to be running out of funds,

On Wednesday, September 9th, House Republicans held the first hearing in an effort to defund Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is an organization that provides reproductive health services to men and women in the U.S.. Planned Parenthood receives about $500 million a year from the government (which is a third of their total income, which also derives from donations and investments) and conservatives are looking to eradicate all funding to this organization. In July 2015, segments of a video showing PP officials discussing to research groups about how much they were asking as payment for giving them tissue from late-term abortions and techniques on how to do them were released. The Center for Medical Progress is the group that produced

In January 2016, Congress passed a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, a family planning group that runs more than 800 reproductive health clinics across the United States. They wanted to cut Planned Parenthood because they perform abortions. Most people don’t know they only do them for certain situations. If you were raped and the pregnancy is still early they will perform it. If the pregnancy was included in incest they might terminate it due to problems that would be cause in the baby due to alike DNA. In other cases if the pregnancy was harming the mother they might also do it then. That's not all what planned parenthood does though. They also have operations that include prevention pregnancy by distributing birth control and free condoms. They also educate the public about contraception, they reduce the spread of STD’s through education, testing, and treatment. They also screen for cervical and other cancers. Planned Parenthood offers so much but cutting tax funds they wouldn’t be able to offer a lot of those things. More than 5 million men and women world 5 million men and women worldwide use their services

Planned Parenthood is an organization that has been around since at least 1921. Recently, it has been in the limelight due to the on-going Presidential debates leading up to the 2016 election. It appears that the Republicans want to take away all federal funding to shut down the clinics where as the democrats believe that the republicans are misguided in their claims.

There are a lot of cultural beliefs and biases that impact the stance that people choose to take regarding defunding Planned Parenthood. The biggest, and most obvious, belief is religion – namely Christianity. As a Christian myself, I tend to feel perplexed when this issue is brought up, because I know what I believe and how I feel, but I feel as though it is not my place, or the government’s, to get involved in this decision. Most Christians believe that abortion is a huge sin, as you are taking the life of a human away. With that, most have the distorted belief that all Planned Parenthood does is abortions, when it is only three percent of what they do, and it is not funded in any way, shape, or form federally, per a law former President Obama put in place (Parenthood 2017).

One of the main reasons for the support of defunding is the fact that the clinics perform abortions. Abortion is legal according to the Supreme Court as of 1973 and should not used a reason to support the defunding of Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood was founded in New York City in 1916 as the first birth control center offered to women. The clinics did not start offering abortions until the 1970s when the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that “the constitutional right to privacy also applies to a woman’s decision, in consultation with her doctor, to have an abortion” (Planned Parenthood). Also according to Planned parenthood, the court recognized in Roe v. Wade, not only a woman’s constitutional right to choose, but that the state may prohibit an abortion after a certain point in the pregnancy, except when the mother’s life is in danger. Many states do have laws in place that prohibit abortion after a certain number a weeks, which varies from state-to-state. Using abortion as an excuse for defunding of Planned Parenthood is irrelevant because it is legal according to the Supreme Court of the United

Congress has sparked a debate as to whether or not the government should continue funding Planned Parenthood. Too many people are uneducated about the many services Planned Parenthood offers to those who would not be able to afford it otherwise. The debate began after a heavily edited video was released accusing Planned Parenthood of selling fetal organs for a profit. The selling of any body part is against federal law. CNN released an article confirming to the public that it was indeed an edited video by inputting the original and comparing it to the altered one. Planned Parenthood does donate tissue, but only for scientific research, and solely acquires reimbursement for the expenses. Planned Parenthood is a nonprofit organization.

I was disappointed to hear that the U.S Senate Failed at defunding the Planned Parenthood. According to Flores in her article in the journal & Courier, The pro-lifers are not backing down, and I hope this is true because what the clinic was doing is very inhuman. Planned Parenthood should be closed down for keeping what happened to the fetal tissues in the dark. Women who enter into the doors of this place expect to be well taken care of and

In the past year Planned Parenthood has been the topic of discussion in the Government and political circuit. A scandalous video came out this past year from an anti-abortion group who recorded employees of Planned Parenthood discussing the selling of fetal tissue to companies. Planned Parenthood has denied those allegations. It has been a heated argument among Democrats and Republicans, to keep, or to defund the organization. The issue was taken to the U.S. House of Representatives to discuss its fate in September of 2015 (Walsh, 2015). The bill did not end up passing, but many are still pushing to completely rid of the organization (Walsh, 2015). So, should the Government defund Planned Parenthood?

In Texas (Texas being the first state in America to cancel Medicaid funding), Governor Abbot recently informed Planned Parenthood that the state is cutting off the organization from the state’s Medicaid program stated by Andy Sullivan in the article “Texas Tries To Stitch a Safety Net without Planned Parenthood”, as recently released undercover videos show evidence of violations. Another huge thing they have been under fire for is whether or not they are making a profit off of abortions, if they are making a profit off of abortions the government strongly

Planned Parenthood is an organization that provides healthcare and education to both men and women, having over 650 health centers that provide healthcare to countless communities around the world. Shockingly, 78% of those who use Planned Parenthoods services live at or below 150% of the federal poverty line, showing how important this organization is to low-income families (Topulos, Greene, Drazen). Their mission statement is “A Reason for Being”, which is shown through their efforts to provide health care, advocate public policies, create educational programs, and endorse research. There are those who do not believe Planned Parenthood should be funded by the government, though, due to the fact that they provide abortions to women in need. Studies show that the effects of not having Planned Parenthood available are disastrous, causing low-income families to lack a healthcare provider and the number of those who are infected with STD’s and STI’s to rise. The biggest concern communities have about the government defunding Planned Parenthood is the effects that it would have on low-income families who would no longer have access to something that many people take for granted: health care. Although many believe that Planned Parenthood mostly provides abortions, in reality, only 3% of the people that seek help from them receive an abortion, while 97% receive affordable and, in many cases,

“Nothing matters.” That quote attributed to Ambrose Bierce may be true in some cases. It may be true to those who do not value the funding of Planned Parenthood. But something does matter. And that is the funding of the healthcare resource Planned Parenthood. Many do not understand the vital role Planned Parenthood plays in the lives of up and coming parents. Planned Parenthood has been operating and serving those in need of care in the United States and overseas for more than 40 years (“Planned Parenthood Global”). Planned Parenthood has vowed in their mission statement:

Planned parenthood has been a topic of controversy the last couple of years, as people throughout the nation ask whether or not the healthcare organization should be defunded. When video footage was released in 2015 of “Planned Parenthood medical officials discussing the sale of fetal tissue to researchers,” it seemed likely that federal funds would be revoked as backlash from the public was noted (Welch). Although the nonprofit organization does offer the termination of unplanned pregnancies, the organization offers many more services to women and men, such as free birth control and yearly health checkups “backed by medical experts and more than 100 years of research in reproductive health” (Planned Parenthood). As many people struggle financially to provide for their families, Planned Parenthood’s services are a relief to those who otherwise would not be able to afford healthcare, which is why the organization should not be defunded.

This proposal was never made formal and it seems unlikely that Planned Parenthood will accept, despite the fact they receive $500 mill annually in Federal Funding. However, let it be noted that the majority or almost none of the funding is used for abortions, with the majority of the money being used to help pay for women’s health services provided by the non-profit. As can be seen in the Planned Parenthood summary of service 2016 Image and 2014 Graph in the appendix, very little of Planned Parenthood’s service relate to abortions, with as little as 3% being the average over the past 3-years. In addition the Images below, under Planned Parenthood Revenue Sources and Service Graphs, show the Non-profit receiving $528.4 million in Government funding and only 3% of services related to abortions. If it is concluded that all the funding for abortions comes from the Government, then $15.74 million of Government money is spent on abortions. However, it is very unlikely that it all comes from one source meaning that the amount of government money spent on abortions is much less than $15 million. Due to the lack of funding going towards abortions, Dawn Laguens, the executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said “Let’s be clear: Federal funds already do not pay for abortions (Haberman, 2017).” Overall, based on the graphs, it is quite noticeable that Planned Parenthood’s impact is not all abortions, rather abortions are a small part of Planned Parenthood. The Non-profit spends more in preventing and treating women with STDs and STIs, as well as providing contraception methods Thus, the federal funding cut would be a horrible decision for the U.S Government to go through with, as

Planned Parenthood has always been a controversial topic because of the many services they perform for their patients. The most controversial topic is abortion, but Planned Parenthood additionally provides substantial health care, birth control, STD prevention and treatment, etc. for patients who do not have access to or cannot afford actual health care. Due to the amount of people who receive treatment in Planned Parenthood, it should not be defunded so that the people who use it as their only option are not left without health care and the economy can benefit from the money they raise from Planned Parenthood’s services. Defunding Planned Parenthood can also lead to issues revolving around the rural areas where they are centered, as well as the economy as a whole.