I-Controversy Part 2: Should the Government Continue to Fund Planned Parenthood? |
I-Controversy Part 3: Should the Government Defund Planned Parenthood? |
The government needs to continue to fund Planned Parenthood in order for the less fortunate men, women, and children are able to have access to affordable healthcare services. Planned Parenthood offers services such as STI/STD treatment and testing, contraception, cancer screening and prevention, womens health services (prenatal services and pregnancy tests), abortion, and other family services.
Planned Parenthood is an essential organization because it provides affordable health care not only to women, but to men and children as well. Planned Parenthood is also the nation's leading provider of sex education services. One of their main goals is to advocate sexual health and to prevent unplanned pregnancies. The organization does not entirely stand for abortion. Pro-life activists are wanting to defund Planned Parenthood. There is leaked video footage of stillborn babies and of conversations suggesting that they are harvesting and selling fetal tissue which has led people to continue the pro-life cause. However, abortions are only 3% of the services that Planned Parenthood offers (PP Services 3). Those looking to defund Planned Parenthood are accusing the organization of only doing the abortion procedure to harvest tissue. It seems that these people are only looking to promote their anti-abortion beliefs and are trying to limit women’s health care. Defunding Planned Parenthood clinics will leave a large amount women across the United States who are unable to have access to the most effective forms of birth control. This will affect so many women across America. Planned Parenthood offers about 3 million women every year with birth control, breast exams, pap tests, cervical cancer screenings, STI/STD testing and treatment and other health services. All of these services are made willingly with the help of taxpayer money. However, it is illegal for taxpayer money to go towards abortion. Planned Parenthood provides nearly one million pap tests and about 830,000 breast exams each year. Defunding Planned Parenthood could increase the numbers of unsafe and unsanitary abortions and, again, limit men, women, and children’s access to affordable health care. I-Controversy Part 4: Infographic; To fund or Not to Fund? |
The government should defund Planned Parenthood because life begins at conception and the baby has human rights, separate from the mother. The United Nations describes human right as “Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible”. All human beings have human rights, and we hold them by virtue of our humanity, not because they are granted to us by the government or other people. The most underlying human right is the right to life itself.
The news is often filled with stories of humans being killed. There is almost a universal agreement that killing innocent people is wrong. Is it the victim’s age that makes these attacks wrong or is it just their humanity? The age of the victim is not what makes killing wrong. What matters the most is that the victim is human. Recognizing the moment a person’s life begins also distinguishes when their human rights begin. It is proclaimed a scientific fact that human life begins at conception (Agresti 1). Science shows that a new human begins at the moment of sperm-egg integration otherwise known as fertilization. The sperm as well as the egg, only contain half of the genetic material to form a human being. When these cells are combined, a new individual with genetic traits from both parents comes into existence. Since life begins at conception, an individual grows and evolves between the moment that they are conceived and into old age. A human life begins at fertilization. After fertilization, a human begins to develop. Since “human rights” are grounded in being human - not in a person’s age, level of development, or location - human embryos and fetuses have the same alienable and universal right to life as human infants, toddlers, teenagers, adults, and the elderly. But what about “personhood?” someone might ask. “If the embryo isn’t conscious, coherent, or even self-aware, doesn’t that mean it is not a person?” The right to life is grounded in the biological category of “human” not in the legal, or philosophical label of “person”. That is why they are called “human rights” and not “person rights”. Humanity has a hideous history of defining the term “person” with the intention of excluding certain groups of humans. Throughout our lives, we are constantly changing. We get to witness a lot of these changes in ourselves and others. Our most instantaneous developmental achievements take place when we are concealed from the rest of the world in our mother’s womb. defunding Planned Parenthood will save thousands of unborn children as well as thousands of women. |