I am in favor of any company or organization that strives to serve the needs of women and children. With that being said, however, the reality of Planned Parenthood is that they provide limited services to women and they focus on abortion, which obviously does not benefit the child.

While running for office, President Trump “vowed to defund Planned Parenthood.” Recently, Republicans announced their plans to defund Planned Parenthood as part of the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. According to an article on CNN, “Republicans have tried for years to zero out all federal funding for Planned Parenthood because the group provides abortion services.”

In an undercover investigation conducted by Live Action, 68 Planned Parenthood centers across the U.S. were contacted and asked if they would provide a pregnant woman with an ultrasound to check the health of her baby. In all but three cases, the woman was told that ultrasounds were only provided to women who wished to abort their child and only then to see the age of the fetus.

According to CNN, 323,999 abortions were performed by Planned Parenthood in 2014. During the same period, they provided 17,419 people with prenatal services. These numbers clearly show that the focus of the organization is on abortions and not helping woman get the care they need such as regular check ups and prenatal testing.

Former employees of Planned Parenthood have also revealed that the organization requires its centers to meet quotas for the number of abortions that they perform. According to an article in The Washington Times, centers that consistently met their quota goal were rewarded with pizza parties and paid days off. “Employees were trained to manipulate women into choosing abortion by bringing up the costs associated with raising a family,” one employee said. Another revealed, “I felt more like I was selling abortion sometimes than treating people.”

While federal funds sent to Planned Parenthood cannot be used to directly finance abortions, the funds provide them with money that they can use to cover other services. This money is funding the other services offered, so it indirectly allows Planned Parenthood to finance abortions with other forms of income. If the government did not fund the organization, they would have to allocate all other forms of income to all services, limiting the amount spent on abortions.

Because of this, it is a positive change that the federal funding for Planned Parenthood is being cut since the funding indirectly enables abortions. If the government wishes to help mothers and children get the care they need, it would be better for them to divert funding to community health centers.
Planned Parenthood has also been accused of fraud. According to The Washington Times, “the organization deliberately submitted $6 million in fake Medicaid claims.” This is a clear misuse of taxpayer funds and proves that it is appropriate to cut funding to prevent future abuse.

There are also numerous allegations currently being investigated regarding other questionable and potentially illegal activities that are being conducted by Planned Parenthood. The government should not involve itself in funding an organization that has a high potential for having unethical and illegal business practices.

With many questionable practices, Planned Parenthood should not receive funding from the federal government. The government is moving in a more positive direction by cutting funding.

Taylor Bynion is a Copy Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.