President Trump’s Plans for Planned Parenthood

By: Mary Kiser

President Trump talked with the Freedom Caucus, a conference of conservative representatives, in a last-ditch effort to replace Obamacare with Trumpcare.

The president “offered to repeal Obamacare’s Essential Health Benefits provision, which mandates the health insurers offer coverage for basic care like hospitalizations, prescriptions, and notably for women, pregnancy, maternity, and newborn care.”

He wanted to provide an extra incentive for the group of men’s support, and he hinted at Trumpcare’s primary goal: defunding Planned Parenthood, at least on a federal level.

He and the male representatives were in lengthy, general discussions about women’s health.

Not a single woman was present.

However, Planned Parenthood’s services are inclusive. “[Defunding] Planned Parenthood means preventing low-income and rural women and men who depend on Planned Parenthood for cancer screenings, STD testing, and birth control consultations. In 105 countries, Planned Parenthood is the only birth control clinic. Annually, 2.5 million women and men seek care at Planned Parent-hood clinics.”

If the congressional decision is in favor of Trumpcare, then both women and men will suffer the repercussions, and so will their children.

Planned Parenthood is “one of the nation’s leading providers of high-quality, affordable health care for women, men, and young people, and the nation’s largest provider of sex education.”

The nonprofit organization’s work focuses on reproductive health. According to its website, 80 percent of their patients want birth control which prevents 579,000 unplanned pregnancies.

But the organization also provides “270,000 Pap tests and more than 360,000 breast exams in a single year, and it provides more than 4.2 million tests and treatments for sexually transmitted infections, including more than 650,000 HIV tests.”

Planned Parenthood saves lives, but the organization’s pro-life opponents look at other statistics.

The organization performs abortion procedures, but the stats are less than 94 percent and more than 3 percent. “Advocates and opponents of abortion rights have calculated somewhere between 15 percent and 37 percent of the organization’s annual non-government health services revenue comes from abortion services.”

Conservatives and liberals have their reasons for either supporting or opposing Planned Parenthood. Religious beliefs, personal experiences, and personal choices can make for a complicated decision.

Before they make one, Congress should look at how Planned Parenthood either helps or hinders their country. The fate of millions of women and men rest in their hands.

Choose wisely.