*** DISCLAIMER: Please be aware that the opinions in this piece do not reflect the official stance and views of Her Campus, Her Campus Oklahoma nor The University of Oklahoma.***
Image via NBC News
Many people have been celebrating President Trump’s restriction of Title X funding, which effectively removed $60 million from Planned Parenthood. However, this is a loss for women, and men, all over the nation.
According to Planned Parenthood’s official reports, only about 3% of all services performed by the organization pertained to abortion. This means that the majority of their funding has been removed for a small fraction of their services. This loss in funding means that Planned Parenthood can no longer provide the other 97% of services with as much ease as before.
The reason this is such a big deal is because Planned Parenthood offers a very wide array of services. They provide basic health care, including, but not limited to, annual checkups, screenings, and gynecological services. Along with this, they provide counseling and sex education. This includes counseling related to rape, assault, and LGBTQ+. They also do STD testing, treatment, and vaccinations to make sure you are sexually healthy. Planned Parenthood also does cancer screenings for both men and women. Finally, Planned Parenthood helps with planning for parenthood. This means they provide birth control, emergency contraceptives, fertility testing, treatment of sexual dysfunction, pregnancy testing, and prenatal care.
Given all of the services that Planned Parenthood provides, it is easy to see how defunding the organization can lead to severe problems in the future. Even if people do not know about all of the services, Planned Parenthood still helps their communities in many more ways than just providing abortions. Whether or not you agree with abortion, you should be able to see the importance of this organization, so please, spread this information so everyone can know about the services provided and the importance of keeping Planned Parenthood programs functioning.