The Necessity of Planned Parenthood
“Planned Parenthood is a nonprofit organization that does research into and gives advice on contraception, family planning, and reproductive problems” (About Us).
This program is necessary and the government should not defund Planned Parenthood because private women’s health care organizations are more expensive; therefore, women who are living below the poverty line cannot afford the same health care as wealthy women. Planned Parenthood also provides advice on family planning for expecting parents who cannot obtain it elsewhere. This program also helps because private health insurance agencies can deny women coverage because of their pre-existing conditions and they can charge women more than men, whereas Planned Parenthood helps both men and women for reduced rates. Many politicians are in favor of defunding Planned Parenthood and instead opening more privately run women’s health organizations. This will help increase profit to their big businesses while denying Medicare for those with low incomes. However, these politicians have not presented any way to ensure that all women get fair and equal treatment as they do in Planned Parenthood.
This is one of the biggest reasons why the government should continue funding Planned Parenthood, because it gives low income and underserved communities an opportunity to access health care services for lower costs. In a study testing the different ways women get contraceptives, it is shown that, “New Hampshire’s low-income women paid an average of $5 to fill a birth control prescription through Planned Parenthood, compared to $40 to more than $100 at a regular pharmacy” (Abramovitz 3). The study goes to prove that, thanks to Planned Parenthood, women are able to afford birth control, making them less likely to become pregnant unintentionally. Planned Parenthood is also an extremely efficient organization since it not only helps women obtain affordable medicare but also, “each year, Planned Parenthood provides nearly one million cervical cancer screenings, 830,000 breast exams, contraception to nearly two million women, and sexually transmitted infection tests and treatments to 1.2 million people” (Abramovitz 3). Planned Parenthood puts its funds to good use by providing care for women who wouldn’t have been able to afford it otherwise.
Planned Parenthood not only helps women obtain medicines and medical screenings for a low cost but it also helps with advice on family planning and contraceptives. “The Family Planning Benefit Program (FPBP) is a program which provides family planning to all women and men of childbearing age who meet residency and income requirements” (FPBP 2017). The high fertility rate (Campbell 236) of the impoverished is due to the restricted access to contraceptives and other safe methods. This program helps “simply to offer to poor couples a greater measure of control over a vital element in their own lives” (Campbell 236). As well as introducing contraceptives, this program also helps with HIV counseling and testing, screenings for sexually transmitted infections and cervical cancers, as well as educational services related to pregnancies. These tests help provide information for sensitive topics some may be uncomfortable with without other people knowing since participating in the “Family Planning Benefit Program is 100% confidential” (FBPB 2017).
FPBP guarantees medicare as well as necessary medical education for anyone at an affordable rate. Private health insurance agencies can deny a woman health care due to their pre-existing conditions and even charge them more than men for care. “A pre-existing condition is a health problem that occurs before you apply for a health insurance policy”(Pre-Existing Condition Protection) such as heart disease, asthma, high blood pressure etc. In order to stabilize healthcare companies from financial burdens, “Individual market health plan could deny coverage for anything related to your pre-existing condition, charge you higher premiums based on your medical history, or even reject your application altogether” (Pre-Existing Condition Protection). According to the health care law known as the Affordable Care Act assembled in 2014, all Americans no matter the pre-existing condition should be allowed coverage and financial help to make it affordable.
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, it is illegal to decline an individual’s right to Medicare based on their pre-existing condition. This act also helps the Planned Parenthood program help to find individuals the necessary information to make the right choices for their families, as well as provide their patients with a full range of health care plans including birth control with no co-pay, hospitalization, ER care, etc (Health Care Coverage). Additionally, both men and women will be able to lower their insurance cost, making Planned Parenthood an easy and affordable organization for anyone to take part in. In the novella, Anthem, by Ayn Rand, we are given a description of the society in which we learn that the people of the society are not allowed to make most of their own choices. During the story we learn about the “time of mating” and according to Equality 7-2521 “it is an ugly and shameful matter, of which we do not like to think” (Rand 41).
Although the men and women of the society are disgusted and embarrassed about both their bodies and the process, they have no control over their own bodies and are forced to mate and conceive children.Thanks to Planned Parenthood, women are given contraceptives, which is both a safer and easier alternative to bearing a child, giving women the choices they deserve over their bodies. The basic right for an individual to make their own choices can best be described through Siddhartha: “It is not for me to judge another man’s life. I must judge, I must choose, I must spurn, purely for myself. For myself, alone” (Hesse 33).
Planned Parenthood has helped many lowing income men and women access low payment health care, medications, and screenings. Without this organization it would leave several Americans without medicare taking away basic human rights of self care and progression. As a result rather than defunding Planned Parenthood we should make an effort to help both the men and women of our communities who struggle financially to receive Medicare at an affordable price.
