On Feb. 18, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to eliminate the $317 million that indirectly finances and supports Planned Parenthood. If the motion gets past the Senate, Planned Parenthood will lose more than 75 percent of its budget. This is just another disastrous move in a series of poor financial decisions made by our government in recent years, one which, if approved, will cripple one of the nation’s leading sexual and reproductive health care providers and educators and have international consequences.
Planned Parenthood draws controversy from the far right for its pro-life stance and the estimated 300,000 abortions it performs per year, but it’s the other vital services it provides young couples and prospective parents that deserve to be highlighted.
The program also offers sexual health education to young Americans nationwide and is active on the international front, working with partners in Africa, Asia and Latin America to provide access to local health care and education. Additionally, the organization provides affordable contraceptives to young people, promotes women’s rights and health, and conducts cancer screenings and prevention.
More than 1.2 million people participate in a Planned Parenthood educational program each year, and one in four American women will use its health care services in their lifetime. Clearly, this program efficiently and effectively provides a service both essential to the health and wellness of couples everywhere. Canceling its funding is incredibly short-sighted and speaks to the distorted priorities of the self-serving officials who watch over taxpayers’ hard-earned money.
Unfortunately, this decision isn’t an isolated event. The monumentally flawed decision-making exhibited by those in charge of government spending is as frequent as it is mind-blowing. Ten years ago, our government allocated 17 percent of the nation budget to education. Now, even as U.S. spending balloons, only 14 percent of the national budget is invested in the education of our children. In contrast, $663.8 billion is sent to the Department of Defense to reinforce a military that is the most technologically advanced and most expensive in the world.
Without the services of Planned Parenthood, some other program will have to step into a void that helps more than 17 million people worldwide per year via the Internet, employs almost 4 million people and whose health centers have served roughly 30 million people since 1916.
Is there any sort of contingency plan? Does the government have an alternative that improves upon the good work Planned Parenthood has done in the past and is accomplishing today? No, it doesn’t.
This was just another harebrained scheme that executes a positive and logical idea ­— cutting government spending — in a counterproductive and nonsensical fashion.
In a time when the government’s spending in the Middle East has topped $1.1 trillion and continues to grow with no end in sight, cutting the budget of an organization still committed after over 90 years to “improve women’s health and safety, prevent unintended pregnancies, and advance the right and ability of individuals and families to make informed and responsible choices” seems like a grossly irresponsible choice.
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