Abortion services cause defunding of Planned Parenthood

By ALEX SPENCE

Since the early 1900s, Planned Parenthood set out to provide affordable health care to women, offering services such as cancer screenings and STI testing, as well as contraception.

However, they also perform abortions, a controversial service that has caused a war among pro-life and pro-choice advocates. Planned Parenthood offers two kinds of abortion, the pill and the vacuum aspiration, or suction abortion, which is available up to 16 weeks after a missed period.

This procedure is legal in America, and it is not considered murder. However, 38 states in counting hold fetal homicide laws, 23 of which apply to the earliest stages of pregnancy.

Interestingly, the fetal homicide law defines a “person,” for the purpose of criminal homicide, as an unborn child at any stage. Notice they refer to it as a child, not a “bundle of cells,” which has become the catch phrase for many pro-choice advocates.

Many people argue that Planned Parenthood is a necessity for women and that the myriad of other crucial services provided by it are more important than the fact that abortion happens to be one of them.

While I do not disagree that Planned Parenthood provides many services for women that are important, there is a significant injustice occurring that is perpetuated by it.

People across the nation have either seen or heard the footage of Dr. Deborah Nucatola, the director of Planned Parenthood, discussing selling the body parts of aborted babies. Although there is talk that the video was strongly edited and shown in negative light and that the organization is not selling, but donating the body parts for research.

My response to that is simple: edited or not, it makes me cringe.

Spokesman Eric Ferrero of Planned Parenthood made a statement about the videos, saying, “Women and families who make the decision to donate fetal tissue for life-saving scientific research should be honored, not attacked and demeaned.”

While I agree that there is no reason for them to be attacked or demeaned for their personal decisions, I do ask, what exactly should these women be honored for? There is one life in these situations that is not taken into consideration, and unfortunately, that life is cast away.

Most notably, Hillary Clinton argues that the defunding of Planned Parenthood is an attack against women’s health. I have to strongly disagree. I do not believe women’s health is being targeted or
attacked.

It is unfortunate that certain services offered outshine the good that Planned Parenthood accomplishes, but that is how life works. It is important to know that women have other options.

According to the Chiaroscuro Foundation, in addition to thousands of United States doctors and hospitals providing the same care Planned Parenthood does, there are 1,048 federally qualified health centers in America that provide cancer screenings, contraception and STI testing.

If someone wants an abortion they will find a way to do it. However, this does not mean that I or anyone else should continue supporting something that we do not agree with.

As of Friday, the House passed a bill in favor of freezing the federal funding of Planned Parenthood for one year while Congress investigates claims against the organization.

The federal defunding is not an attack on women’s health. I, as well as many others recognize the good that Planned Parenthood has done for people, but that is not enough to erase the injustice that continues to be done.