On Feb. 18, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment to ban Planned Parenthood from receiving any federal funding, with a vote of 240 to 185. This amendment, which Planned Parenthood CEO Judy Tablar has called “an extreme and dangerous piece of legislation,” will likely have devastating consequences for our society if it passes in the Senate as well.
The bill, proposed by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), targets Planned Parenthood specifically because it is known as the go-to institution for abortions and contraceptives. Many House representatives are wary of tax-payers’ dollars being used to fund abortion. Given the significant amount of tax-paying people in this country who are morally against the practice of abortion, this almost seems reasonable.
Perhaps it would be reasonable, if not for the fact that under “Title X,” reproductive service providers like Planned Parenthood are already barred from federal funding for abortions. Supporters of this recent bill may suspect that Planned Parenthood illegally uses this funding for abortion, and so this bill serves to run Planned Parenthood into the ground, indirectly restricting the option for people—particularly people with limited budgets—to have abortions.
However, whatever you may feel about abortion, the reason that this bill is absolutely terrifying is that it will also directly restrict the ability for sexually active individuals to acquire free or reduced-cost contraceptives and STD-testing, since a lack of federal funding may jeopardize Planned Parenthood’s ability to provide these services at low rates.
A lack of contraception can lead to an unplanned pregnancy. Usually people don’t plan to get pregnant and subsequently have abortions, which is why Planned Parenthood goes out of its way to make it easy to avoid that situation by providing preventative methods. It would have been astounding for this bill to even come close to success in the House, given the clear negative implications for society. According the Planned Parenthood website, its health centers provide “a wide range of safe, reliable health care — and more than 90 percent is preventive, primary care, which helps prevent unintended pregnancies through contraception, reduce the spread of sexually transmitted infections through testing and treatment, and screen for cervical and other cancers.”
And, according to their website, only three percent of their services include abortion-related procedures. Planned Parenthood centers likely use money from donations or other sources for these services, rather than face something like this recent amendment by illegally dipping into federal funding.
Without access to the services that this institution (trusted annually by three million citizens) provides, it is likely that the abundance and duration of STDs will increase, that the number of teenage or unwanted pregnancy will increase. It is also unlikely that similarly reduced-cost screenings for breast and cervical cancer will be more difficult or impossible to find.
And yet the bill passed. Many are likely demanding, “What the hell? Really, Congress?” as such repercussions loom forebodingly before them.
If the Senate also approves this bill (and nothing could be shocking after this latest feat), the demographic most affected will be that of the financially-challenged, young, sexually-active, and perhaps a bit impulsive—which just happens to be the general profile of an American college student.
According to Health Services at Columbia University, about 20-25% of college students have an STD. Many times the disease lurks without showing symptoms, and without symptoms, there is little incentive to get checked out. Chlamydia, the second-most common STD (after HPV) both in the United States and here at Puget Sound (one in four, guys) only shows symptoms in women 30 percent of the time, and in men 50 percent of the time. Gonorrhea is similar to chlamydia both in its symptoms, and is also very common. These can both be cured rapidly by antibiotics.
Although reduced-cost STD testing is available at CHWS with proper insurance, students still have to set up an appointment, actually go to it, and then pay for it. A test for chlamydia is $35, and the full spread is $160. At Planned Parenthood it is even cheaper, but with no symptoms, what college student will make time and shell out money just to be sure¬?
Anyone who has had sex with someone of questionable sexual history should get tested for these diseases at the very least, if not the full spread. But when a large amount of college students are only concerned enough with personal hygiene to do their laundry every other month, it cannot be expected that anyone will be conscientious enough to go through the entire process of getting tested.
The government should therefore be pouring more money into these institutions to make these essential screenings free and easily available, not raising their costs and banning the public from getting the help that they need.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, which seeks to advance sexual and reproductive health through social and political research, incidents of abortion have decreased steadily since the 1980s while use of contraceptives has increased, despite, or perhaps because of, increasing openness about sexuality in our society. Planned Parenthood also has a prominent nation-wide sexual education program that encourages both abstinence and safe sex in the context of family planning.
Whatever your convictions on abortion, Planned Parenthood is at least 97% a good thing for our society, and that as of yet federally-funded percentage should absolutely remain affordable for everyone.
It’s up to the Senate whether or not this amendment flies. Because it’s better to be safe than sorry, all readers are encouraged to donate to Planned Parenthood via their website. It’s way more effective than joining their Facebook group and posting pictures of yourself looking serious.
Here’s to society not spiraling into a whirling cesspool of genital illness and pissed-off, oppressed women with irregular periods that birth control pills could have corrected, if only they could afford them.