Why Planned Parenthood Matters

Anti-choice protesters try to make it difficult for Planned Parenthood clinics to stay open and provide services. They act as though abortion were the only thing going on, but what most people don't realize is that Planned Parenthood provides a wide range of medical and reproductive services - all of which are vital to the women who go there.

Professor B writes about her own experiences with Planned Parenthood and those of her sister-in-law:

SIL pointed out that she didn't have health insurance and that, because of that PP was the only health care she received, period. When she went in for her bcp, they also asked her about her general health, gave her physicals, and provided prescriptions she needed for other issues. Suddenly I realized that those who attack PP, who picket it, who make it difficult for women to go there, are not only hindering women receiving gynecological care; they're also standing in the way of many, many women for whom PP is the only affordable, respectful, thorough health care they get. At all.

And who knows. At 17, unwilling to tell my mother I needed bcp, if PP hadn't been there--or if I'd had to cross a picket line to get to it--I might not have gotten bcp. I might not have had a good experience, and I might not have succeeded, my entire adult life, in preventing unwanted pregnancy until I was ready for pseudonymous kid. My sister-in-law, and many other women who lack health insurance (or whose health insurance doesn't cover birth control), would be unable to see doctors, would be unable to get birth control. This, of course, is the real point: abortion is only a small (but necessary) part of what women's health clinics provide. The attack on women's health clinics is, effectively, an attack on women's health; when and if anti-abortion crusaders shut down clinics, all they do is promote more, not fewer, unwanted pregnancies--by removing access to birth control, by removing respectful, affordable health care, by removing the education and support women need to learn how to take care of themselves, including planning pregnancies when and if they want them.

The Professor and the people commenting on her post relate a number of experiences that show how Planned Parenthood clinics can make young women feel comfortable with things like talking about birth control, getting exams, discussing their body, and sexuality in general. They ensure that dealing with their sexual health doesn't become a shameful or traumatic experience. To what degree is this one of the targets of anti-choice forces? To what degree do they oppose this work being done by Planned Parenthood?

Probably a lot more than most people realize — it's long been a fundamental premise of the Christian Right that sexuality and sexual behavior is shameful.

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