Sea Coast Online - Editorial: Defunding Planned Parenthood endangers women and children

Op-Ed

By Sen. Maggie Hassan

Defunding Planned Parenthood endangers the health of millions of low-income women and children in this country and if Congressional Republicans go through with it, they should be held accountable for every person hurt by their action.

Specifically, every U.S. Representative and Senator who votes for this outrage should be thrown out of office by voters in 2018.

Planned Parenthood provides quality health care to women and children (and a small percentage of men) who often have no place else to turn. Planned Parenthood served a total of 2.7 million individuals in 2014, according to factcheck.org.

Among the many services Planned Parenthood provides, which include family planning, contraception, screenings for cancer and sexually transmitted infections, and health and wellness visits, Planned Parenthood also provides abortion services. Planned Parenthood estimates abortions account for about 3 percent of the health services it provides each year to women.

In its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, the Supreme Court ruled that abortion is a legal medical procedure protected by the 9th and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The ruling allows states to regulate the medical procedure after the first trimester. Those ideologically opposed to abortion believe they can reduce the practice by eliminating funding to Planned Parenthood.

This is a flawed and vindictive approach to a highly personal medical decision that should be made by each woman and her doctor. Women don't have abortions because of Planned Parenthood or other abortion providers. Women have been terminating pregnancies for thousands of years. Debates about the topic from the Greek and Roman eras have been well documented.

Some pregnancies threaten the life of the mother. Others are forced on women through rape and incest. Some developing fetuses are not viable or could face extreme suffering if brought to term.

"Maternity, or additional offspring, may force upon the woman a distressful life and future," Justice Blackmun wrote in Roe v. Wade. "Psychological harm may be imminent. Mental and physical health may be taxed by child care. There is also the distress, for all concerned, associated with the unwanted child, and there is the problem of bringing a child into a family already unable, psychologically or otherwise, to care for it."

Unlike today's debate, however, throughout history the focus was on the health and life of the mother, not the rights and legal standing of the unborn. In other words, abortions were restricted by states because they were dangerous to the mother. As late as 1965, illegal abortions caused one-sixth of all pregnancy and childbirth-related deaths. Keeping abortion legal, at a time where medical advances have rendered the procedure safe or safer than childbirth, protects the health of American women.

If the anti-abortion crowd gets its way, abortions won't stop. They'll just be forced back underground and more women will be medically injured or killed.

Defunding Planned Parenthood will not only make abortions more dangerous, it will also deny vital medical care to millions of women and children. The argument that other subsidized health care organizations could provide the care instead of Planned Parenthood simply isn't true. Quality healthcare providers for Medicaid recipients are few and far between. Those in our region like Families First and Lamprey Health Services already serve thousands of patients, have missions that are not the same as Planned Parenthood, and view the organization not as a rival but as a valuable partner.

Planned Parenthood takes care of many of the most vulnerable women and children in our nation and for that it deserves our gratitude, not threats of defunding.

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