planned parenthood: debunking the myths

Planned Parenthood is a badass organization that empowers women and men to be in charge of their own bodies. But, unfortunately there is a lot of incorrect information about Planned Parenthood, so, let’s and talk about what Planned Parenthood actually does.

Planned Parenthood offers resources for both women and men to make healthy and educated decisions about their reproductive health. All Planned Parenthood health centers offer birth control visits, annual exams, STI testing, pregnancy tests, and diagnostics visits, while a handful of health centers also provide abortion care. 75% of Planned Parenthood patients receive services to help prevent pregnancy, resulting in the prevention of over 515,000 unwanted pregnancies each year. This means that while a lot of people who are anti-abortion are trying to ban abortions, Planned Parenthood is actually taking steps to prevent them. Abortion care only makes up 3% of the services provided by Planned Parenthood each year. So, can you be anti-abortion and support Planned Parenthood because their goal is to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

Planned Parenthood also accepts Medicaid and patients who do not have medical insurance, unlike most doctors’ offices. Without insurance, most healthcare providers will not see you and many private practices will not accept Medicaid. This makes it extremely difficult for Medicaid and un-insured patients to get the medical care that they need. Therefore, Planned Parenthood helps to provide reproductive healthcare to some of the most underserved populations. 79% of Planned parenthood patients live on incomes at or below 150% of the poverty level. So, next time you find someone opposing Planned Parenthood you might want to check their privilege because a lot of people wouldn’t have access to reproductive healthcare without them.

I don’t think there should be anything political about supporting Planned Parenthood. They provide reproductive health care to everyone that walks through their doors no matter what their income, race, ethnicity, or gender identity is and that is pretty amazing. They train their staff on inclusivity and how to provide the best care to every single patient. Planned Parenthood also has a major focus on education and research to help ensure that everyone can make the most educated decisions about their sexual health. Planned Parenthood is an organization that we all should be thankful for because they have fought so hard since they first opened their doors to keep those doors open and provide care to anyone and everyone. 

Care No Matter What (The Planned Parenthood motto)

Author: Nina Paris