The Los Angeles Times released an article titled “Crossing the ‘abortion des-
ert’: Women increasingly travel out of their states for the procedure.”
The article highlights the harsh reality of a 22-year-old woman named Pearl who couldn’t book an abortion in her home state of Oklahoma due to availability issues.
As a result of the limited access to resources, Pearl was forced to travel four hours away to Kansas in order to have the procedure.
Pearl is just one example of the many women who are met with this complication.
“Anti-abortion politicians like Mike Pence target Planned Parenthood health centers be- cause they provide abortion,” according to IStandwithpp. org. “But it’s already federal law that patients cannot use federal funding, like Medicaid, for abortion (except in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the woman is at risk).”
But abortion services are just one of the many services offered by Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood is a health care provider for women and men in the United States.
“Planned Parenthood operates nearly 650 health centers,” according to the organizations official website, plannedparenthood.org.
The assistance Planned Parenthood offers is seemingly limitless, but the organization also plays the role of “an informed educator, a passionate advocate, and a global partner helping similar organizations around the world.”
With a growing number of clinics shutting down across the nation, women are beginning to face the stressful and inconvenient dilemma of finding access to affordable health care.
Services despite abortion include assistance with general health care, men’s sexual health care, emergency contraception, sexual orientation and gender, pregnancy, relationships, sex and sexuality, women’s health, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), relationships, and birth control.
In March 2016, I recognized a need for birth control.
At that time, I was a full-time student with a part- time job and no health insurance. I was struggling.
After doing research and making phone calls, I realized that I couldn’t afford medical insurance to cover my birth control. A friend of mine recommended I schedule an appointment with Planned Parenthood.
So I made a phone call that lasted under five minutes.
A few days later I was seen by a nurse.
I was able to finally get the care I needed in a reasonable amount of time, with very little difficulty. I recognize this is a privilege that not every woman, or man, in the United States has.
I am privileged to have had received help from Planned Parenthood, because not all of those in need were or are able to.
If Congress was to defund Planned Parenthood, “2.5 million people a year would lose access to birth control, cancer screenings, STD tests and more.” according to IStandwithPP.org, along with women and men around the world are standing together in solidarity with Planned Parenthood to take a stand against the opposition; and to keep Planned Parenthood’s doors open for the people who need the services that they provide.
#IStandwithPP because I once needed Planned Parenthood too, and although I don’t need their services anymore I believe in protecting the health and rights of men and women across the United States.