Term Paper on "How the Loss of Planned Parenthood Funding Will Affect Poor and Disadvantaged Women"

Term Paper 5 pages (1404 words) Sources: 10

[EXCERPT] . . . .

cuts to Planned Parenthood funding affect poor and disadvantaged women?

Topic Background and Issue Introduction

Created in 1952, the International Planned Parenthood Federation is a worldwide organization created as part of the family planning movement (Claeys, 2010). The Planned Parenthood Federation of America is one of IPPF's affiliates and PPFA originated in 1916 through the work of birth control advocate Margaret Sanger (Devins, 2009). The work of PPFA and IPPF aim to increase the use of family planning services and have expanded to meet needs in areas of decreasing child and maternal mortality, increasing the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, such as HIV, and providing information and education and reproductive and sexual health (Claeys, 2010).

Planned Parenthood has often been the center of political controversy because of strong opinions for and against use of certain services (Devins, 2009). For example, the introduction of oral contraceptives was not well-received by Catholics (Claeys, 2010). In the United States, the Supreme Court has protected reproductive rights and freedoms, including the use of abortion services such as those provided by Planned Parenthood (Devins, 2009). Despite the controversy of many of the services offered by PPFA, the organization receives about a third of its funding, or $362 million from federal funds (Tanne, 2011).

Over the past few years, there have been several moves to reduce or withdraw public funding for Planned Parenthood. In 2005, the federal Deficit Reduction Act was passed and it scaled back on various government programs and cost Planned Parenthood 20% of its revenues (Damewood, 2008). In New Hampshire in 2009, an unsuccessful move was made to cut nearly $1 million of funding from the New England branch of PPFA (Berry, 2009). Currently, Republicans in Congress are looking to cut all of Planned Parenthood's funding by cutting Title X program funding, which was created to help low income Americans (Tanne, 2011).

The goals of Planned Parenthood cannot be fulfilled without sufficient funding for low income women. Such a funding cut will adversely affect poor and disadvantaged women by decreasing their access to a range of health services. Part II of this brief details the impact of federal cuts and Part III of the brief proposes a solution and discusses implications before concluding this brief.

II. Analysis and Evaluation of Issue

Planned Parenthood provides a number of reproductive and sexual health services to women. It provides free and low cost services to those that cannot afford to pay for necessary care (Damewood, 2008). Funding cuts will affect poor and disadvantaged women because the cost of services will likely increase unless alternative funding is found. The impact will be seen in contraceptive use, sexually transmitted disease detection, unwanted pregnancy rates, and preventative care and education.

A. Contraceptive Use

Cuts to funding have caused people to stop using contraception because these services are no longer covered and they cannot afford to pay for it out-of-pocket (Damewood, 2008). The impact of a reduction in free and low cost contraception due to funding is compounded with the recession's impact on individual's incomes and financial resources. A 2009 survey of women aged 18 to 34 with household incomes of $75,000 or less found that nearly one-fourth had difficulty paying for contraception and had put off visits for reproductive health because of costs (Gold, 2010).

In addition to providing contraception for drastically reduced prices, Planned Parenthood also meets the birth control needs of teens (Damewood, 2008). A reduction in funding would impact women that are disadvantaged because of their age and have difficulty procuring needed contraception (Berry, 2009). While condoms purchased in stores are still an option, this method does not allow women to have control and may be too costly (Harper et al., 2010). In sum, reduction in funding for Planned Parenthood would decrease contraceptive use in young and low income women.

B. Sexually Transmitted Disease Detection

Sexually transmitted disease may be prevented with contraception and education. However, because abstinence is the only 100% effective means of preventing sexually transmitted infections, early detection is essential for treating STIs and STDs (Klerman et al., 2007). Planned Parenthood provides testing for HIV and other STDs for free or a reduced price. A reduction in funding for Planned Parenthood… READ MORE

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