I Stand with A Woman's Right to Choose
- Dr. Chi
- Mar 31, 2017
- 4 min read
The title may seem torturous, but I wanted it to reflect what is actually at stake at this political moment. At the same time, I do not want to obfuscate my support for Planned Parenthood and other such organizations that provide safe, competent health care to all who seek it.
The moment I'm speaking of is, of course, the passage of the bill in Senate that will allow states to withhold Title X funding from organizations that provide abortion funding just yesterday. Given that a simple majority was needed to pass the bill and there was a 50-50 tie in the Senate, two Republican Senators in opposition, Vice President Mike Pence again broke the tie.
Let me break this thing down a little bit more. Title X, or "Population Research and Voluntary Family Planning Programs," was signed into law by President Nixon in 1970. It is a federal grant program that provides funds for family planning and related health care services. It is especially designed to ensure that low-income Americans have access to family planning and preventive reproductive health services. This is funding that federally-qualified health centers (FQHCs) like the one I work in receive to provide such services as birth control consults, pap smears and other cancer screenings and miscarriage management. Title X funding could also potentially go to other clinics and FQHCs that additionally provide terminations. Under the current Senate bill, Title X will continue to fund family planning and preventive services, but it will be at the state's discretion whether to fund those clinics or practices that offer terminations.
This could mean, especially in states that are hostile to abortion rights, that lawmakers could withhold Title X funding to clinics, practices or individuals that offer terminations, even if they offer other family planning and preventive services as well. This is why the media has focused on Planned Parenthood, because it is the most prominent example. At present, the organization's national clinics provide a variety of family planning and reproductive health services, but they also provide terminations. Just a brief statement of facts here:
Abortion care is a whopping 3% of the services that Planned Parenthood provides. The other 97% at risk of being defunded include well woman exams, pap smears, birth control counseling and placement, STI (sexually transmitted infection) screening and counseling, among other things.
In short, this bill allows states to withhold federal funding for all of Planned Parenthood...including the 97% of health care services unrelated to abortion care, punishing them for providing a service that is a constitutional right upheld by the US Supreme Court.
Maybe someone from the right side of politics can enlighten me, but the overarching message I get from conservatives on this issue is that poor women should not reproduce. They should not have sex and they should die. And if they do choose to have sex, they must bear every child that comes into their womb, and it's their own fault if they cannot feed them. And we shall not be a welfare state and we shall not support them. Am I right?
If I am not right, then why has the GOP made continual efforts to undermine Affordable Care Act (ACA) coverage of women's healthcare? As I stated earlier, the last iteration of the American Health Care Act (AHCA) included additions to attempt to appease far-right members of the party, removing coverage for mammography and maternity care from the list of essential services that should be covered. Why?
How do my taxes going toward funding someone's pregnancy benefit me, a Republican lawmaker quipped.
There is little hope for someone who has reached this age and has no empathy.
Undermine a woman's access to safe abortions, reduce access to reliable birth control, reduce maternity care coverage and reduce access and coverage for cancer screening, all while working to reduce funding for "entitlements," and yes, you are denying the health and happiness of women who cannot afford to pay for their health care.
If a state defunds Planned Parenthood and other such clinics, regardless of there existing other clinics who do not provide abortion care, they are reducing access to health care. I cannot stand by this. As a healthcare provider and a public health practitioner, I am forming a career dedicated to ensuring access to quality health care for all, focusing on the most underserved populations. Religious ideology should not preclude this critical access to quality care.
Not only can I not stand for this legislation (and I am proud to live in a state who also will not), but I stand proudly in support of those organizations, clinics, practices and providers who provide comprehensive reproductive health services to underserved patients, including abortion care.
So yes, I am the only black female physician I know that publicly stands with Planned Parenthood, but I am not the only one.
I stand with them and I stand with all of the other clinics across the country who provide critical care to women in their communities and who travel far because of their lack of access. I stand with these clinics who face an uncertain future when 45 signs this bill into law.
I will admit that I did not arrive at this stance on pregnancy termination easily, and I do not take support of Planned Parenthood lightly. Family planning politics are complicated in the black community, and they have been since Margaret Sanger coined the term "birth control" in the early 20th Century. As such, my support of a woman's right to choose is too complicated for one post. I will try to digest this in pieces in subsequent posts.