What Will Happen if Trump De-Funds Planned Parenthood?

This is only my opinion, and not the representation of Saintel Daily, LLC.

Planned Parenthood, along with other family planning organizations, is about to lose a ton of federal funding.  This is going to make services like cancer screening and birth control extremely difficult to access.  The Trump administration is expected to announce that it will ban federal funds for clinics that offer abortion-related services.  Family-planning clinics like Planned Parenthood rely on federal funding for things like STD testing, cancer screening, and birth control consulting.  Because of this ban, they will lose federal money to offer any service, all because they also offer abortions in the same clinics. I don’t think I need to tell you what kind of negative consequences this could have for women.

Known as Title X, it is a family planning program that was originally enacted under Richard Nixon in 1970.  Title X is aimed at low income and uninsured people.  It was designed to make sure that every person has access to basic and preventative reproductive health care.  Which is why it’s no surprise that Trump is walking it back.  I mean, it’s almost like he’s going through the alphabet and walking back (or rolling back) every regulation that was ever put in place.  Title X is just one of them.  Is it because he doesn’t believe in a woman’s right to choose?  Or he doesn’t believe in birth control? What are his opinions on STD’s?  I guess what I’m trying to understand is whether or not he’s just walking back any regulation, or does he actually believe that they’re not good for America?

Here are the hard numbers.  Planned Parenthood receives $50-$60 million under Title X each year.  This covers an estimated 41% of their services.  What will happen if the money isn’t available?  There will be an increase in unwanted births and the possibility of poor health in children.

But you don’t have to take my word for it.  When the cost of birth control doubled in Chile, in 2008, approximately 183 to 265 extra individuals were born each week.  This was due to the lack of access to contraceptives.  And no, this isn’t just internet fodder, this information came from a joint study from Purdue University, the University of Maryland and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

To draw a straight line from Donald Trump to defunding Planned Parenthood, I think we have to look at it this way.  If abortions aren’t easy to get, more people will be extra careful when it comes to contraceptives.  But that might not be the case.  Oral contraceptives can cost about $600 a year.  Implanted contraceptive devices can cost as much as $800, and an IUD could cost as much as $1,300.  Which means, in some cases, women aren’t going to be able to afford birth control.

But this isn’t just about access to birth control.  Defunding family-planning clinics is essentially taking rights away from women.  Maybe that seems like a harsh statement, but when it comes to sex, women are usually the ones who have to pay for it.  Both literally and figuratively.  Which means that this regulation is sexist towards women.  But the Trump administration doesn’t really care about these kinds of things.  I mean, they take away rights from individuals all the time, how is this any different?