Charlie Melville
Charlie Melville
The other day I grabbed my mail, and as I shuffled through it, I was surprised to see “Planned Parenthood” typed in hot pink in the top left-hand corner of one of the envelopes. I was even more surprised, and more than a little concerned, by the contents of the letter. It warned that with the new presidency comes the risk of Planned Parenthood being defunded by the government.
Thoughts raced through my head. Would I have to pay more for birth control? Should I look into IUDs before Planned Parenthood gets defunded? I’m sure that other women who received this letter probably have similar thoughts. How long will it be before Planned Parenthood gets defunded?
It might be sooner than I expected.
Earlier this month, an informal proposal was made by the White House that gave Planned Parenthood an ultimatum. Either they stop providing abortions, or the federal funding to Planned Parenthood stops. According to The New York Times, the executive vice president of Planned Parenthood, Dawn Laguens, said that federal funding to Planned Parenthood does not go toward abortions. If this is true, why stop funding Planned Parenthood at all?
In North Carolina, since we live on the edge of the Bible Belt, a large portion of our population is against abortion or other forms of contraception. Our governor, Roy Cooper, is pro-choice, but despite that, North Carolina is still pushing to defund Planned Parenthood because of the misguided idea that federal funding goes toward abortions.
A website called NC Values Coalition is a website dedicated to getting North Carolina residents to sign a petition. Their goal is to “defund international organizations like Planned Parenthood that provide abortions of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal taxpayer funds.” But Planned Parenthood is not using federal funding for abortions.
Those “hundreds of millions of dollars” are going toward other causes.
I contacted a spokesperson from Planned Parenthood South Atlantic (PPSAT) to ask specifically what services the Planned Parenthood center in Raleigh provides, and to whom. I was told by representative Sarah Eldred that Planned Parenthood strives to, “Provide services to anyone who walks through [their] doors, including women, men and young people.” PPSAT will take in anyone and everyone who needs affordable health care.*
I was also told that they provide a wide variety of services, “Including well woman exams, STI testing & prevention, life saving cancer screenings, birth control, and safe and legal abortion services.”*
Whether you’re pro-life or pro-choice, you can’t deny that the other services Planned Parenthood offers are highly beneficial. The government shouldn’t defund such a valuable organization solely because of abortion, when the government does not pay for the abortions the organization provides in the first place. Even President Trump himself said, “Millions and millions of women … are helped by Planned Parenthood … I would defund it because I’m pro-life, but millions of women are helped by Planned Parenthood.”
There’s also the fact that even if Planned Parenthood did stop providing abortions, women would find alternative means to abort children they did not want or could not care for, and some of these alternative means could put their lives at risk.
The Planned Parenthood South Atlantic in Raleigh provides a safe, welcoming environment for many of us at NC State to go to ask questions. They even have a “Learn” tab on their website that addresses some frequently asked questions if people are uncomfortable asking questions face-to-face.
As college students, many of us are having sexual experiences for what might be the first time. It can be scary for college students to care for their own health, and when it comes to sex, a lot of us feel uncomfortable confronting parents with questions and concerns. However, many of us still have questions about STIs, sexual orientation and gender, or even relationships in general, and seek out Planned Parenthood as our place to have those questions answered. It would be a shame to see that resource be taken away from us simply because of a highly debated political issue.
People who are pro-choice are never going to convince people who are pro-life that terminating a pregnancy is OK, and people who are pro-life are never going to convince people who are pro-choice that taking away a woman’s right to choose is OK, so the reasonable thing to do would be to stop arguing about it.
Understand the other side’s view, accept that people are going to believe what they want to believe, and leave Planned Parenthood alone. Because, I guarantee you Planned Parenthood is far more beneficial than it is harmful.
*Editor’s Note: These paragraphs were added after the column was initially published online.