Controversial Issues affecting Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood is a safe and easy accessible medical health center that helps out low income women and men. It provides general health care as well as sexual health care. Despite the fact that it is a useful resource to have, Planned Parenthood has some drawbacks that includes several issues and controversies that are affecting the reputation of this beneficial health facility.
When people think of Planned parenthood, they automatically think of abortions. Abortions are seen as something negative, therefore it reflects poorly upon Planned Parenthood. However, Planned Parenthood does so much more than provide women with the option of abortion. Those who are against abortions, look past that and only focus on what they consider to be negative which is abortions. According to the article, “Thousands protest outside Planned Parenthood clinics around the Country”, written by Peter Holley, anti-abortion groups protest Planned Parenthood because they believe ‘“The American public needs to be awakened to the atrocity of what is happening to innocent unborn children.”’ Those who are pro-life, do not condone the fact that Planned Parenthood provides such services. By protesting, they hope to influence other’s decisions. They protest in the hopes that their voices are heard so that eventually Planned Parenthood is shut down.
The issue of funding for Planned Parenthood has caused much of the controversy. The anti-abortion groups do not support the government funding that Planned Parenthood receives because they assume that money is what is being used to perform abortions. However, Janell Ross, author of the article, “How Planned Parenthood actually uses its Federal Funding”, states that, “it’s important to note that federal dollars are not used to provide the service…the organization uses money from other sources — private donors and foundations as well as fees — to fund its abortion services.” Aside from the money that the government gives to Planned Parenthood, the organization also receives a large amount of money in donations. Many people are not aware of this and that abortions constitute only three percent of the services done by Planned Parenthood (Ross). This misconception causes more controversy when there should not be because the government does not actually pay for abortions performed.
Another point of controversy that has risen in the past year is the selling of fetal tissue by Planned Parenthood. A video surfaced of Planned Parenthood officials who were allegedly discussing the selling of fetal tissue to scientists for research. According to the article “Planned Parenthood Won’t Accept Money for Fetal Tissue” by Tamar Lewin, there are nearly 700 of these health centers in the country but only two supply scientists with fetal tissue. One in California and the other in Washington. However, only the center in California receive money for the fetal tissue. Republican conservative groups oppose Planned Parenthood. They are the ones who attacked the health center by attempting to pass legislation that would end the funding after this incident, but they were not successful. The selling of fetal tissue is illegal which is the main reason why the republicans have opposed Planned Parenthood in recent times. However, according to the article, Planned Parenthood denies accepting money for fetal tissue, rather, they donate it. The other side of the argument is that women are willing to donate the fetal tissue for research purposes. The executive vice president of Planned Parenthood, Dawn Laguens, stated, “This is Planned Parenthood standing strong, saying that we are not going to be bullied, even by five congressional committees, into walking away from important research and women’s desire to donate” (Lewin). This is the opposing view on the issue. Planned Parenthood defends themselves by saying that they never received money in exchange for fetal tissue women have the right to donate if they wish. The false accusations made by Republican groups against Planned Parenthood is what led to controversy.
Although Planned Parenthood is there to help many people by providing affordable healthcare, there are controversial issues that are affecting people’s opinion of Planned Parenthood. However, despite these issues, Planned Parenthood should continue to be funded because it provides many services aside from abortions that can really benefit people.
