Planned Parenthood Action Fund's Core Issues
Family Planning Funding
Each year, approximately five million low-income women receive family planning services from clinics that receive funding from Title X (10), America’s family planning program. These services fill an unmet need for women who often have inadequate or no health insurance. Services funded by Title X include family planning services; family planning counseling; pelvic and breast exams; screening for anemia, diabetes, and high blood pressure; testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections; safer sex information; basic infertility screening; and referrals to specialized health care. Planned Parenthood affiliates provided health care to more than three million women, men, and teens last year alone. Nearly 17 million women need subsidized reproductive health care, and there isn’t enough funding to meet the need.
Internationally, U.S. assistance for family planning and support from the multilateral United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) help provide family planning, maternal and child health care, and reproductive health services to poor women around the world. These programs have long been a target of anti-family planning policymakers, who have succeeded in defunding UNFPA, cutting other types of international funding, and imposing restrictions on U.S. assistance.
Medically Accurate Sex Education
Polls show that 82 percent of Americans support responsible, age-appropriate, medically accurate sex education in schools. Nevertheless, Congress and state governments have diverted $1.5 billion from comprehensive sex education to abstinence-only programs, which prohibit teaching about family planning, contraception, or disease prevention.
Emergency Contraception
Emergency contraception (EC), sometimes known as the “morning-after pill” or emergency birth control, is a safe and effective means of preventing pregnancy. Available for more than 30 years, it contains hormones found in birth control pills and, to be effective, must be started within 120 hours after intercourse. It is crucial in situations such as rape, or when contraceptive methods have failed. In 2006, EC was FDA-approved for behind-the-counter sale to women and men age 18 and older. However, some doctors are not informing patients about it, and some pharmacies are refusing to stock or dispense it.
Contraceptive Equity
Nearly half of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended, and nearly half of those unintended pregnancies end in abortion. Contraceptives have a proven track record of enhancing the health of women and adolescents, preventing unintended pregnancy, and reducing the need for abortion. Although contraception is basic health care for women, many insurance policies exclude this vital coverage.
Abortion Access
Planned Parenthood believes that, in all cases, women and their families and doctors should be able to make decisions that protect a woman's health. Planned Parenthood also encourages parents to talk with their children about pregnancy and STD prevention. Anti-choice organizations have tried to erode access to abortion through intimidation, harassment, and abortion bans. They have also tried to erode the legal underpinnings of legal abortion through legislation that would elevate the legal status of a fetus, at any stage of development, to that of an adult. Some states, including California, have passed legislation codifying Roe v. Wade to guarantee its protections legislatively because of the continuing attempts to overturn Roe.
Affordable, Accessible Health Care
Making health care more accessible and affordable is one of the most important issues facing our country. Planned Parenthood is an integral part of America’s health care safety net. Nationwide, 860 Planned Parenthood health centers receive federal, state, and private funding to provide affordable, quality care to millions of patients a year.
Many women, including many Planned Parenthood patients, rely on their reproductive health care provider as their primary source of health care. Through this relationship, women have access to a broad range of reproductive health care services that promote and protect their general health and well-being.
In recent years, Planned Parenthood’s ability to continue to serve this vital function has been under attack at the federal and state levels. For example, in the 110th Congress, Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) and Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN-06) each offered amendments designed to cut off federal health care funding to PPFA health centers. |
