Kentucky senators betray needs of state by voting to defund Planned Parenthood
December 10, 2015
There are two Planned Parenthoods in Kentucky —one clinic in Lexington and one in Louisville – neither of them provide abortions.
Planned Parenthood has long been a hot topic of discussion because people fixate on a service that many locations do not provide.
Congress voted earlier this month to defund Planned Parenthood, and at the helm was Mitch McConnell, the senate majority leader from Kentucky.
President Obama will veto the bill so Planned Parenthood remains safe, but the issue is still at hand. Politicians want to defund a service that provides healthcare to millions of women every year.
In 2014 Planned Parenthood provided breast exams, pap smears, pregnancy testing and other services for 2.7 million women and men, according to its website.
Only 3 percent of people who go to Planned Parenthood receive an abortion, while 80 percent go for pregnancy prevention, including birth control and family planning services.
Planned Parenthood also helps educate young men and women about sexual health and family planning. According to an article from Forbes, defunding Planned Parenthood would put the lives of 900,000 women at risk of cancer, sexually transmitted diseases and other women’s health problems.
Neither of the Planned Parenthood clinics in Kentucky provide abortions, but there is one health clinic in Louisville that does. The clinic is also frequently picketed and vandalized. Only one of the four Cincinnati Planned Parenthoods provides abortion services.
McConnell is not the only Kentucky politician who does not want to provide healthcare to women.
“I am more appalled than ever by Planned Parenthood’s complete disregard for the sanctity of human life,” reads a statement from Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul on his website. “I plan to do whatever I can to stop them and will introduce an amendment to pending Senate legislation to immediately strip every dollar of Planned Parenthood funding.”
According to the CDC, 47 percent of Kentucky high school students in 2013 did not use a condom during sex. Also 41.5 percent of the births in 2012 were to mothers the age of 15-19 in Kentucky
It is hard to believe that a state with such high rates of pregnancy in young teenagers would not want to fund an organization that can provide inexpensive care and education to our young people. Kentucky needs to continue to support Planned Parenthood as does the rest of the nation.
And finally, a friendly reminder – abortion is legal in the U.S. and no one is forcing these women to get an abortion.