Planned Parenthood And Reproductive Rights In America
It has been 103 years since the founding of Planned Parenthood and 47 years since the legalization of birth control for all citizens irrespective of marital status and today women continue to fight for their reproductive rights. The Trump administration is attempting to once again revoke women’s reproductive rights but we should not fall back into old times when it was extremely difficult for women to make a decision about their own sexual health. There is nothing wrong with not wanting to be a mother just like there is nothing wrong with wanting to be a mother. It is a choice and as a society we must overcome the idea that women are meant for this biological destiny of being a mother and instead allow them to continue having their reproductive rights.
The purpose of birth control is to prevent women from having unwanted pregnancies. Planned Parenthood provides safe forms of contraception but if this organization gets defunded then it will only become extremely difficult for many women to get a hold of birth control causing the rate of unwanted pregnancies to increase. This issue is important because without reproductive rights women will lean towards unsafe deadly methods of contraception and abortions. With Planned Parenthood we can at least rely on their methods to be safe.
There are women who have no desire to be a mother, so they will do whatever it takes to terminate the pregnancy even if it also puts their own lives in danger. Lisa B. Haddad an Obstetrics and gynecology doctor claims that “some 68,000 women die of unsafe abortion annually, making it one of the leading causes of maternal mortality” (2009) Abortions are only safe if the method is recommended and done by a trained person. Deciding to have an abortion is extremely painful and personal something that many women are not proud nor happy about but only the individual going through it knows their circumstances.
Defunding Planned Parenthood will only make it difficult for people to access healthcare at Planned Parenthood health centers. We should really care about the issue of the Trump Administration defunding Planned Parenthood because for many people that is what they depend on for health care since other health systems are expensive. So it does not only become an issue for women but for everyone who depends on Planned Parenthood for health care such as cancer screenings, STD testing, treatments, physical exams and much more. Teen pregnancy prevention programs are also funded through Planned Parenthood which has been known to help decrease the number of unwanted pregnancies by educating people on the different ways to stay protected and safe during sex. It is estimated to prevent nearly 600,000 unwanted pregnancies each year.
Women are constantly being shamed for the type of mother they are. Some of these women do not have the ideal support from the father nor family. It is not only teenage girls who cannot sustain themselves in this economy but grown women who are barely making a living for themselves now bringing a child to this world? With what will they be able to provide for the baby? Will the baby really be better off in group homes where they live in poor conditions and lack the attention they need? Or in the foster care system? Right when they turn 18 they become thrown out with no shelter or support. We can start by focusing on the children who have been stuck in the foster care system. Before the legalization of birth control women were giving birth to babies who would end up suffering in poverty. It is still very accurate today. According to the “Children International” statistics 1 in 7 children are born into poverty.
There are people protesting outside these clinics shouting out “Murderer” to women who go seek for help, but what they fail to realize is that Planned Parenthood is so much more than what they think. It helps women receive the care they cannot afford anywhere else. Because of Planned Parenthood women are able to get tested for STDS and are offered HIV services to help people live longer and healthier lives.
Women have gone through a lot when it comes to gaining their reproductive rights. During the 1960s to 1970s women were forcibly sterilized. Liza Ko explains that it was “used as a means of controlling “undesirable” populations – immigrants, people of color, poor people, unmarried mothers, the disabled, the mentally ill”. In the “No mas bebes” film women spoke about their traumatic experiences when they discovered they had been sterilized without their consent and would no longer be able to get pregnant ever again. Once again the government and men in charge had the power over the woman’s body and reproductive choices. Up until the year 2014 women in California prisons were still forcibly sterilized.
We will be making progress as a nation when women’s reproductive rights are finally valued and supported. We can all help by letting our voices be heard.
