Cassie Wolff

Professor Lutz

ENG 151

20 October 2011

Planned Parenthood Funding

History

            Planned Parenthood has been stirring since 1916 as the first birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York. Indeed Planned Parenthood is a major provider for women’s health care involving breast exams, pap tests, STD testing and even cancer exams. Yet, along with those they also engage in another act known as abortion. Abortion is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy which has two major sides against or for consisting of pro-life or pro-choice. Planned Parenthood is described as the country’s largest provider of this injustice.

Controversies, as we all have heard and seen have developed over government funding for Planned Parenthood. The issue is that Planned Parenthood has abortions available for anyone who is wanted to terminate their pregnancy. Some believe in abortion funding that people should have a choice as to whether they carry their child full term, while others which includes the point of view I strongly believe is that abortion kills a human being, and isn’t that what we have been told over and over not to do by the government? The real problem being brought up is what percentage of the governments federal funding goes to abortion if any and how much goes to other dependable services.

Pro-Life!

Saint Luke's Catholic Church

              "State legislatures and their governors are trying to predict each states' abortion policy preferences that may give them some insight into potential state actions" (Gohmann 19). Who cares what other states have to think, abortion is not right in America's morals or values. So, this is where the pro-life involvement movement begins. Being pro-life indicates that you are supportive of a child’s life in the womb, with the understanding that life has begun the moment the child is conceived. Abortion is just as much a murder as pulling out a gun or knife to end one’s life.  During the first trimester is when a baby’s heart begins to beat along with all other organ and brain developments. Pain receptors are also beginning to appear during the seventh week of pregnancy. Therefore, the baby has already started its life inside of the womb and during an abortion the baby unwillingly gets their life taken away along with feeling the procedure happen, even in the slightest way.

Women who become pregnant should carry out what they had started, whether the baby was planned or unexpected. Some pro-lifers believe every aspect of this but can argue that abortion in the cases or rape are completely acceptable. "As an estimated 5% of rapes result in pregnancy, at least 4,623 rape-related pregnancies may have occurred in 2006" ( Kacanek 1). Rape is something that sticks with you the rest of your life no matter what, and having a baby come along with the tragic event may not be the best for some individuals. 

 A baby is just as much a human being as the rest of us who should have a chance to be born and experience what we all get to experience during our lifetime. We want to prevent these abortions that happen every day which is currently around 126,000. That is nearly 46 million babies’ that do not get the chance to live outside of their caregiver’s womb a year. These brutal procedures can do a lot of scarring to the mother of the child, leaving her or even the families involved with feelings of guilt mostly triggered by moral or religious values.

Tom Lehner

Religious values come in to hand with the concern of disobeying one of the Ten Commandments, though shall not kill. Yet, aren’t the actions of getting an abortion deliberately ending a child’s life as stated above? The bible expresses multiple times in up to as much as 1200 pages that people should not kill other people. Every child is a gift from god and deserves the maximum amount of love, and just because if by chance it had a mental or physical challenge by all means does not mean that the child is worthless. 

More than one option

Fox Searchlight

      Just like almost every other decision we humans make, you are almost always handed more than one option for any situation. Approximately one-half of the 6.4 million pregnancies in 2001 in the United States were unplanned… These three million unplanned pregnancies include 1.3 million that ended in abortions; 1.4 million live births that woman reported were unplanned at time of conception. Some women who accidentally become pregnant are not fit to become mothers or do not feel as if they are ready to carry on such a dependable responsibility. In this type of situation you can get the chance to put your baby up for adoption. If adoption is an option you choose instead of abortion or raising the child yourself you are given the opportunity to research the different kinds of families available and willing to adopt the baby into their family by looking at their values and backgrounds. For 25% to 30% of infertile couples, the reason behind infertility is never found. Women or couples who cannot get pregnant themselves often depend on adoptions for a hope of having a family.

Another option besides abortion would be a support group that makes the women feel like she has a better view on how to raise her child. Counseling centers are available almost anywhere to help educate you on your unexpected pregnancy such as what you don’t know about pregnancy and even post-pregnancy. This is a resource for pregnant women that needs to be taken advantage of, 11% o.f pregnant woman are diagnosed with Post Partum Depression. This statistic may not be much but with counseling services still being offered by Planned Parenthood we could get that lowered. Getting online to just do a little research to find woman who have had the same situation as you and what they chose to do besides abortion could help you in your decision making. Women who get pregnant and are too young to be on their own, such as the 468,988 babies are born to teenage mothers each year, can involve their family or the father’s family to help out whenever needed if capable.

Keep Funding Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood is a service that is here to help people regardless their age, race, income, etc. They believe that respect and value for diversity in all aspects of their organization are essential to their well-being. Planned Parenthood’s mission is to also ensure that they respect patients’ right to privacy in anything that happens inside those doors.

Planned Parenthood as we all know is not just for abortions of unwanted pregnancies. It is a health care center that helps men and women all over the world to educate them make smart decisions for themselves and others around them. This is an excellent addition to communities’ in the United States for young people who do not want to share their sexual life or questions with their parents. Planned Parenthood has numerous ways educate young people about safe sex and the risks of having unprotected sex, such as unwanted pregnancies. At the clinic they offer all different kinds of birth controls to prevent pregnancies such as abstinence, birth control implants, patches, shots, pills, sponge, vaginal rings, condoms, and withdrawal methods. Planned Parenthood consists of testing for diseases as well as having support groups and pamphlets for anyone interested or curious about anything they have to offer.

If Planned Parenthood is completely cut by funding from the government teenage pregnancies and unwanted pregnancies will grow at an exceptional rate it is believed. This is so because some girls and boys will no longer have the availability they feel comfortable with to learn about safe sex or able to get those birth control ways and condoms if they are sexually active. Most kids are embarrassed or feel uncomfortable just going to a Drug Mart or Walgreens to practice safe sex by purchasing a condom, so getting rid of that advantage some kids use could increase the cases of abortions in which we are trying to stop in the first place.

Birth control pills

Another downfall of cutting all funding would be the exams and testing people can get at Planned Parenthood would no longer be offered. These exams make people aware of what is going on with their body and help reduce the spreading of STD’s and other viruses by giving patients the proper cure they need without telling an adult figure if that is the case for some individuals. Planned Parenthood isn’t just for sex related things either; Planned Parenthood also helps with general health care such as cholesterol for example. They have flu vaccinations, helping with the decision to quit smoking, high blood pressure problems and so much more. Believe it or not Planned Parenthood also has help and support available for the people out there with different sexual orientations.

Getting rid of Planned Parenthood completely is a mistake. Some may not realize this but birth control  pills that more than a handful of girls take on a daily basis are more than just to prevent pregnancies. Birth control pills are used for all different kinds of purposes. Woman who develop cysts on their ovaries are given the option of take birth control pills in order to prevent this kind of thing from happening again because the cysts could lead to not being able to bear children in later years. 

What the Government Should Do

Planned Parenthood has many more advantages than people see, all the focus goes to the abortion aspect but if Planned Parenthood was cut all of its funding how would teens or other individuals get there help if all they depend on is this service? It is here to help make communities a better place by educating and providing services. Without it could you imagine what it could be like? Abortions only represent 3% of total services provided by Planned Parenthood. Federal funding is given to Planned Parenthood, but none of it is used toward abortion services. 

Lori Robertson

Abortion funding needs to be cut; it is an immoral act of killing a human being that did not have the chance to live. As the whole Planned Parenthood funding goes, we would end up being ashamed of ourselves if we dropped it on its feet. So many things could go wrong by ending it completely. Planned Parenthood’s major mission is to provide women health care like testing and exams to protect their body and other people that could end up being infected.