Planned Parenthood cuts affect students

Aubrey Carr / Contributing Writer

In a 241-187 Legislative vote on Sept. 18, the House passed legislation to freeze Planned Parenthood’s funding for the next year due to alleged fetal tissue uses.

The controversy stems from a series of heavily edited videos made by The Center for Medical Progress, a California anti-abortion group, in which Planned Parenthood is made to seem as though it alters abortion procedures in order to sell fetal tissue. Dr. Deborah Nucatola, senior director of medical services at Planned Parenthood, said the tissue she was discussing was that of women who donate tissue legally and voluntarily for scientific research.  It may just be the media’s popular scandals that promote opinions and concerns reflecting the false accuracy of Planned Parenthood’s mission but when there are representatives in powerful positions who agree with the media’s depiction, public funding for the nation-wide clinic’s health services are at risk, and so are those who utilize the company for more than abortions.

Abortions account for only 3% of services offered by the company per year; most of Planned Parenthood’s provisions are within the aim of affordable, general healthcare for both men and women. These provisions include but are not limited to physicals, counseling, screenings, STD testing, assistance in pregnancies and even overcoming infertility.  Furthermore, no government financial aid is permitted to be awarded to the abortion services.

Rachel Coalburn, President of the Voices for Planned Parenthood Chapter at FIU, said that she is not too worried about funding being frozen; she expects that if it makes its way onto Obama’s desk, he will veto.  “Florida’s [Planned Parenthood clinics] have been defunded for about 2 years now, but no one really knew about it.” She said that even in the off chance that national funding is frozen, “if it’s publicized, well marketed, people will up rise.”

I recently took a small survey on Planned Parenthood around FIU’s Modesto Maidique campus and online. Although it wasn’t a large enough selection to use for scientific purposes, I think it shed light on how those between the ages of 17 to 23 understand Planned Parenthood.  Most participants either identified as Democrat or did not identify with any party. When asked, “What is the first word that comes to mind when you hear ‘Planned Parenthood?’”, the answers were mostly “birth control” and “healthcare” instead of “abortion,” which I expected to overwhelmingly take the lead.  Coalburn suspects this is because this age group is still forming its opinions and is less involved in politics than the older generations.  More importantly, she said healthcare can be difficult to access for college students and these students turn to Planned Parenthood for their birth control prescriptions, exams and so much more because Planned Parenthood’s services are inexpensive and accessible.

Freezing or completely cutting off funds for Planned Parenthood is not only an “attempted erosion of women’s rights” as one survey participant commented, it is an attack on available healthcare and education for everyone, because Planned Parenthood does not only lend itself to the aid of women with unwanted pregnancies.  Planned Parenthood provides extensive care for men and women alike; those with no specific concern for their reproductive decisions as well as those who wish to correct their infertility.

Planned Parenthood is about safety, choice, education and rights. It is about providing help for a young adult or low-income American who finds him or herself in a difficult situation and cannot access safe, geographically reachable and economic health services. Defunding Planned Parenthood turns into less about ridding the world of abortion and more about restricting the rights of and services for fully developed humans.