Funding For Planned Parenthood

The Help These Women Deserve

In these past few years Texas legislators have been defunding family planning. They are trying to ultimately remove Planned Parenthood out of the state’s women’s health program. 50 clinics have shut down because of this as well. According to the Texas Policy Evaluation Project, 300 pregnant women seeking an abortion were unable to get birth control they wanted the three months before they became pregnant due to the cuts in funding. In this article from MotherJones.com, it is said that there will be nearly 24,000 unplanned births between 2014 and 2015 thanks to the cuts, which will also raise the state and federal taxpayer’s Medicaid cost by up to $273 million.

I think that Texas should fund Planned Parenthood because it was just more than an abortion clinic. The place provided birth control, contraceptive counseling, screenings for cancer, HIV test and other key problems women faced. The government not funding these middle class and poor women just keeps them in poverty. Some women may not even be able to get the proper care they need because of the cost. Also without the Planned Parenthoods being open women will have to travel hundreds of miles to get a safe, legal abortion. The funding of Planned Parenthood helped alleviate some of the suffering for poor women. Instead of having women have kids because they aren’t able to get the funds for an abortion or get to a nearby clinic, the government should at least help them have a choice.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/03/what-happens-when-you-defund-planned-parenthood

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-south-texas-surgical-center/abortion-care-services/abortion-care-fund

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-greater-texas/newsroom/press-releases/building-our-future-fund

http://www.utexas.edu/cola/orgs/txpep/Researchers.php