Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood
The state has a legitimate role in providing health-care funding

December 27, 2001

Colorado Gov. Bill Owens’ decision to cease all state funding to Planned Parenthood has implications beyond those envisioned by its supporters.

Citizens have the right to specify that their tax dollars not be spent on abortion, which is one of the services Planned Parenthood provides. But the argument that any funding provided for other aspects of the agency’s mission frees up money for abortion is oversimplified and misguided.

Planned Parenthood’s mission is not specifically to provide abortion services but to ensure that healthy children are born to families willing and able to welcome them. Providing contraception convenient and medically appropriate for individual patients, so that it will be used effectively, reduces demand for abortion services. It also helps women who would never consider an abortion but who do not want to conceive a child.

Not all of those women are teens who would be well-advised to save sex for marriage. Some of them are married but want to postpone starting a family until they and their husbands are finished with school, financially stable, over a health problem or marital rough spot, not likely to be called up to fight the War on Terrorism — any of a number of good reasons for preventing conception. Some already have all the children they plan to have, or intend to have more but want to space them carefully. Some don’t want children at all.

And yes, some are sexually active outside of marriage. That’s a reality, and it’s not a new one. Both unplanned pregnancies and abortions took place before the advent of Planned Parenthood. Women involved in sexual activity need accurate information about all the ramifications of sexuality, including pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease.

The argument that Planned Parenthood enables teens to engage in sex when they otherwise might not would be more convincing if condoms weren’t available in gas-station restrooms, but it still wouldn’t be true. Teens have always experimented with sex, and they will continue to do so. Adults can try their best to dissuade them from such behavior, but if and when they fail, they have a responsibility to help young people make responsible, informed choices.

Other women’s health services should not be ignored. Reproductive health includes affordable exams and pap smears, services that may not be otherwise accessible to women who do not have a regular patient-provider relationship — not a rare circumstance in today’s health-care climate, particularly in Cortez.

Helping women stay healthy and welcome healthy, wanted children is fiscally sound policy for the state. The high costs of state-funded health care for the indigent, education and criminal justice can all be reduced if parenthood is planned responsibly.

Unwillingness to fund abortion services does not automatically extend to unwillingness to fund contraception or women’s health services. Many, many people who have moral or religious objections to abortion favor contraception, and many believe it is entirely appropriate for the state to support such services.