© NCSU Student Media 2012
Various birth control products, including patches and pills, can easily be purchased with a prescription and can cost anywhere between $15-80 a month. Photo by Brett Morris
The proposal of the Affordable Care Act incited an enormous outcry from various groups across the country. The act required all employers, including those who are religiously affiliated, to provide female employees with birth control and other contraceptives free of co-pay. However, President Barack Obama revised the act, and in a recent press conference said religious groups could not be forced to pay for services against their principles.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. has received aid from the federal government since the 1970s , but many pro-life groups are now calling for federal funding to it to be halted. The protesters’ argument is this: taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay taxes to benefit an industry that essentially violates their beliefs.
Planned Parenthood provides cancer and STD screenings, contraceptive counseling and GLBT counseling, but is currently receiving attention for its most controversial service: abortion care. According to Melissa Reed, vice president of public policy for Planned Parenthood-Raleigh, the ongoing fight regarding abortion overshadows the services most commonly used.
“Society has a misperception of what Planned Parenthood does,” Reed said. “Abortion cases only account for about three percent of what we do. What shocks people most is that women use birth control for things other than contraception — acne or menstrual cycle-related dysfunctions.”
Approximately 80 percent of Planned Parenthood’s patients are over age 20, and 75 percent of them are at or below the poverty line. Planned Parenthood estimates its clinics prevent more than 620,000 unintended pregnancies annually and prevent roughly 220,000 abortions. Federal law already bans Planned Parenthood from using government funds for abortions.
About one-third of Planned Parenthood’s money comes from government grants, approximately $300 million each year. One-quarter is from from private donors, while patient fees and insurance claims bring in the remaining funds.
Derek Spicer, senior in political science and history, has strong opinions about who and what the government should or should not be paying for.
“I don’t believe the government should be funding much of anything, let alone a private company that provides abortions,” Spicer said.
When it comes to the economic impact, Spicer thinks that federal funding of Planned Parenthood and other private companies will eventually result in a distortion of the private free market, bad investments and, ultimately, economic crashes.
“Our national debt is an economic and national security crisis waiting to happen,” Spicer said. “We need to take all the necessary steps to significantly reduce government spending.”
Reed said the services Planned Parenthood provides save both the federal government and taxpayers a lot of money.
“Taxpayers end up bearing a lot of the expense for unintended pregnancies among people who are too poor to care for their children,” Reed said. “The same goes for preventable cancers and sexually transmitted diseases.”
Though the funding fight over Planned Parenthood might be about abortion, Reed asserts Planned Parenthood itself isn’t about abortion. It’s primarily about contraception and reproductive health.
Currently in a legal battle with the state and set to go to trial in the spring, Planned Parenthood is waiting to hear whether or not they will maintain the funding they already receive from the government. July 2012 marks the congressional date of the funding decision. Until then, the women and men who are cared for by Planned Parenthood walk on pins and needles.
“Taking our services away from low-income men and women would be a huge disservice,” Reed said. “Without us, these people have neither the ability nor stability to plan their own families—these people can’t win. Planned Parenthood is like a safety net for their goals and aspirations.”