Planned Parenthood is an essential provider of women’s healthcare, offering a comprehensive range of health-care services including preventative health care for breast cancer. It is a service that offers a range of sexual and reproductive health care services, including general health care, referrals, LGBT services, vaccines, among many others.
Planned Parenthood is necessary to health care for numerous reason. Statistically, 4 in 10 women who receive care from Planned Parenthood report that it is their only source of healthcare. Not only is Planned Parenthood serving a mass of women, they are also the only provider of healthcare for a large number of women. Taking away or defunding this organization would have extreme consequences for those who use Planned Parenthood as their main source of healthcare.
Additionally, Planned Parenthood reaches demographics that have limited access to healthcare. They primarily serve low-income and underserved communities, with half of the patients covered by Medicaid. Planned Parenthood serves communities where health centers are already inadequate or limited, ensuring that their needs are served. Planned Parenthood is crucial to these areas to be able to access to care, and without these organizations, the people in these regions would suffer immensely. Those who already have limited access will have even more limited access, thus impacting the health of many Americans, specifically women, LGBT people, and marginalized groups.
Even more so, Planned Parenthood works toward tackling health disparities and providing focalized care, condensed into one place to add appeal through convenience. In terms of health disparities, Planned Parenthood is doing important work in terms of bridging demographic disparities of those who are more prone to breast cancer and cervical cancer. Both Latino women and African American women are at higher risk for developing and dying from cervical cancer than white women. Planned Parenthood works to ensure that women of color have access to screenings and preventative care in order to work toward reducing this higher risk.
The importance has been put to the test in examples of states where Planned Parenthood funding was cut. In 2011, the state of Texas cut its family planning budget by two-thirds and banned Planned Parenthood from attending the Women’s Health Program. Within two years, the number of women who received care for this program plummeted by over 50 percent. This is an extreme decline, and undoubtedly had negative impacts on the preventative healthcare and range of services that women in Texas were able to access affordable and conveniently.
Abigail Claire Tilton | Denton, Texas 