As of recently, the Trump Administration forced Planned Parenthood out of Title X, a law. A law enacted under President Richard Nixon in 1970, making it financially easier for low-income families to have access to reproductive health care services. Planned parenthood was forced by the administration to forfeit $60 million so they wouldn’t have to follow a rule that would prohibit privately funded abortions.
Trump’s goal is to defund all clinics that provide abortions. Most pro-life citizens agree with his stance that abortions are wrong. Unfortunately for the people who go to those clinics, this means that, not only will it be harder to get an abortion, but it will be harder to receive the other services that clinics provide. Title X grants used to provide up to $286 million to clinics and family planning centers.
Planned Parenthood, one of the biggest family planning centers, provides many reproductive services at what used to be a lower cost. These services include: abortion services, abortion referrals, birth control, emergency contraception, general health care, HIV services, LGBTQ+ services, men’s health services, patient education, pregnancy tests, STD treatment, testing, and prevention, women’s services, and many more. Now that Planned Parenthood is no longer associated with Title X, it is more difficult for low-income families to receive cheaper reproductive health care.
There are many common misconceptions about Planned Parenthood. These misconceptions could be at blame for why it was ultimately defunded. According to Planned Parenthood themselves, abortions are only 3% of the services provided when all services done have been counted. Most people only know Planned Parenthood for abortion services and fail to educate themselves on what else they provide. Most people also believe that they only provide services to women, but that’s also false. They offer a wide variety of services for men’s reproductive health, such as: exams, treatments, education, screenings, and referrals. There are also people all over the world that rely on the care that the nonprofit organization provides such as: Mexico, Ecuador, Uganda, and seven more countries.
Unfortunately, people who come from low-income families and need access to affordable reproductive care are being forced to think: what’s next? Sadly, people who depend on the care provided by Planned Parenthood have no other options for their care.
