I watched a CBS News video clip about Planned Parent’s decision to opt out of Title X Federal grant funds because it could not comply with President Trump’s executive order requiring that anyone using those funds could not counsel women to have an abortion (see Federal Register for the actual order, WORLD Magazine, and Politico articles among others) . In the video, it was stated that President Reagan also issued a similar executive order and with was upheld by the court system. However it was eventually overturned by the Clinton administration before it could take effect. Planned Parent sees abortion as a viable birth control option rather that the ending of a pre-born life and ultimately sees abortion as a political issue rather than a health care issue (see the NY Times article on the ouster of their president earlier this year).
The history of Planned Parenthood has it’s roots in the eugenics movement back in the early 1920’s (see the wikipedia articles on Planned Parenthood and Margaret Sanger). So, it shouldn’t really surprise anyone that they would see abortion as a means of birth control rather than the taking of a pre-born life. One of the other criticisms of Planned Parenthood is their locating of many of their clinics in poorer neighborhoods.
Of course Planned Parent is saying and will continue to say that many women will likely now either for go or postpone needed medical care if they are pregnant because of these new Title X rules. Planned Parenthood does offer many other services to women related to a woman’s health issues that have nothing to do with counseling women toward abortion as an option. It’s interesting that for an organization that is so concerned about women’s health issues they appear to be more unwilling to comply with a simple thing, not counseling people that they could get an abortion, in order to be able to continue to offer the various other health care services they provide, many for free or at extremely reduced prices.
This is one that we’ll have to keep watching.
