SIX in TEN women that use facilities such as Planned Parenthood consider it their main source of health care. The defunding of Planned Parenthood would leave over 2.5 MILLION people without their primary source of health care.
Why are we treating health care like it is a luxury? Why is access to affordable/low cost health care being threatened to be ripped away from those who need it so desperately?
It would be impossible for neighboring clinics to accommodate for the millions of people that would be left without a primary care center if Planned Parenthood were to be defunded. (http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2015/09/08/quantifying-planned-parenthoods-critical-role-in-meeting-the-need-for-publicly-supported-contraceptive-care/)
There are not nearly enough facilities, general practitioners or gynecologists in America that would be able to deal with the overflowing amounts of patients that would be left with nowhere to go if Planned Parenthood was no longer an option.
There was a study done in Texas that tracked the results from a cut in funding at Planned Parenthood and other clinics alike. (http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Texas-pregnancy-related-deaths-double-9172022.php)
In relation to this study, IStandWithPP.org says it “found that pregnancy-related deaths doubled after the state stopped reimbursing Planned Parenthood and imposed stringent funding cuts for women’s health — and 54% fewer patients in the state received care.” Now this is only one study in one state, but I know I would not like to see a trend of this. Pregnancy related-deaths can sometimes be avoidable if the woman is seen by a medical professional. There is no reason that women should be dying because they do not have access to a nearby, affordable clinic.
Politicians want people to believe that defunding Planned Parenthood is in everyone’s best interest, but that is incorrect. They are not taking in account for the millions of people that would lose their safety net, PPFA, and have absolutely nowhere else to go. Since most Planned Parenthood clinics are in “rural and underserved communities”, these individuals are cast away to figure out what they are going to do without their primary doctor.
Health care coverage should NOT be a privilege.
Health care NEEDS to be a HUMAN RIGHT.