Planned Parenthood Pros And Cons

Planned Parenthood is a non-profit organization that is government funded and offers free health care, sex education, and family planning to millions of women all over the country. (“Who We Are”) The organization was founded by Margaret Sanger in the 1960’s. Her mission was to provide free health care to women all across the nation despite their race, ethnic background, income, etc. She also vowed to educate and care for women’s sexual health while maintaining their privacy. As of late, Planned Parenthood has been a target of controversy, with a possibility of being defunded. Why or why not should the government continue to fund this organization?

The controversy of Planned Parenthood has been centered around the organization’s supposed selling

There have been several individuals including patients and former staff that have come forth and shared their experiences at various Planned Parenthood clinics around the country.

A substantial amount of individuals believe that the government should defund Planned Parenthood. The claims made against the organization include; The Planned Parenthood Action Fund endorsed Barack Obama in his 2012 election as a “champion for women’s health.” Many believe that it was wrong for them to endorse a presidential candidate, because they had only done it three times before. Planned Parenthood is seen as being wealthy; their revenue has gone over their expenses by $90 million. Planned Parenthood has been accused of fraud of over eight million dollars of

Planned Parenthood is non-profit and has been around for over fifty years. Planned Parenthood offers many services to women, other than abortions. A few of the services offered to women are free health care, such as anemia testing, cholesterol screening, physical exams for employees and for sports, flu vaccinations, aid in quitting smoking, high blood pressure testing, tetanus vaccinations, and thyroid screening. The many other services they offer include free birth control, emergency contraception, testing for STD’s (Sexually Transmitted Diseases), breast cancer screenings, cervical cancer screenings, pelvic exams, free information to women, and a number of other things.(“General Health”) Under the Hyde amendment that passed in 1976, there has been a legislative provision prohibiting the use of certain federal funds to pay for abortion unless the pregnancy arises from incest, rape, or to save the life of the mother. During the fiscal year that ended in June 2014, Planned Parenthood affiliates around the country received $528.4 million in government funds. It has been estimated that 42 percent of their services went towards STD/STI testing and treatment, 34 percent went to contraceptive, 11 percent to women's health services, 9 percent to cancer screenings and prevention, 3 percent to abortion, and 1 percent to other services. This 9 minute video