day period, there were four arsons at Planned Parenthood health centers including our own in Pullman, which was one of the worst cases. In mid-October, a minor took a hatchet to a Planned Parenthood in Indiana destroying nearly everything inside. Anti-abortion terrorism expert David S. Cohen, a law professor at Drexel University, spoke to the Southern Poverty Law Center blog Hatewatch about the attacks that have happened since the video release, explaining the videos have motivated a “small contingent of anti-abortion terrorists who are seizing on this moment to further target clinics and providers. “It’s scary to contemplate what might happen next,” said Cohen. It’s important to understand the extremists behind these attacks aren’t just against abortion—they are opposed to birth control, medically accurate sex education, condoms, and a woman’s right to control her own body. In attempting to destroy health centers and intimidate providers, these extremists are taking options away from women based on their extremist political agenda.
Choices are being taken away from women.
Over half of all Planned Parenthood health centers are located in medically underserved or rural areas. When access to healthcare is blocked—either politically or through direct destruction of the health center—people are put in grim situations in order to get the care they need. “I had called to make an appointment for a breast exam. I had discovered a lump on my breast,” Jennifer Murray, one of our patients in Pullman told KHQ News. “The kind of thing I needed to get screened quickly. I came into work Friday morning and learned someone had burned it down.” Jennifer wound up driving 80 miles to Spokane Valley for a screening she should have been able to get just a few miles from her work—a trip that not everyone would be able to make. “Someone took away something I really needed, right then,” Jennifer said, who also added her screening thankfully came back clear. Stories like hers are plentiful in areas where
access to women’s healthcare has been limited or cut off. Planned Parenthood patients fall all across the economic spectrum, but the organization does play a key role in ensuring that no one is left behind when it comes to care— although Planned Parenthood health centers make up just 10 percent of health centers that receive public funding, these centers serve 36 percent of patients who go to these clinics. Removing Planned Parenthood from the healthcare system would cause a tremendous gap for women—we know because it’s been done before. In a 2011 attempt to push out Planned Parenthood, Texas cut out two-thirds of the funding for family planning—which includes services like birth control, STI testing and treatment, and well-woman exams—while also breaking down the state’s network of family planning providers. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have been studying the impact since, which has overwhelmingly targeted low-income women. In a May 2015 study, they published their findings, which included the fact that, “55 percent of women reported at least one barrier to accessing reproductive health care services, including cervical cancer screening or family planning services.” The future depends on access to reproductive healthcare, and these services are fundamental resources every women needs to stay healthy and plan for her future. Birth control alone greatly increases a woman’s likelihood of finishing college and being economically secure, as multiple studies have shown. Federally funded family planning programs have also been found to reduce child poverty rates, according to a 2014 study published in Economic Studies. Women deserve these opportunities, and it’s unacceptable that their tax dollars are going toward systems and measures that are actively working against their advancement. We can’t let the clock be rolled back on women’s rights. Tiffany Harms is the communications manager for Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho. If you have questions about HPV, or would like to schedule an appointment with a healthcare provider, visit www.ppgwni. org.
November_December 2015
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