Women Can Go Elsewhere If Planned Parenthood Closes
Vox claims that if Planned Parenthood were to be defunded, many women would lose access to health care. But they’re wrong.
Vox claims that if the federal government were to pull its funds to Planned Parenthood, many women would lose access to health care. But actually, there really are plenty of federally funded healthcare providers that could fill the void were Planned Parenthood to lose tax dollars or close clinics.
Using statistics from the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice organization that operates as basically the research arm of Planned Parenthood, Vox states that Planned Parenthood is the only publicly funded contraceptives provider in 103 counties nationwide, and that they serve a majority of low-income women in 229 counties.
At first glance, this statistic seems suggest that if Planned Parenthood locations were to close or lose funding, women in hundreds of counties would lose access to contraception — but the situation in Texas discredits that assumption altogether.
Since 2012, the Lone Star State has ceased to fund Planned Parenthood clinics within its borders. Instead, women can rely on the Women’s Health Program, a network of clinics that distribute contraception and provide other health services. The other clinics within the network essentially replaced Planned Parenthood.
“According to a study by George Washington University, this resulted in community clinics increasing their women’s health care services by an average of 81 percent,” The Daily Signal reported.
History tells us that if those Planned Parenthood clinics were to close within those 103 counties as a result of losing federal funds, other clinics would be able to fill in the gap, and eventually replace them. Additionally, there are over 13,000 community health centers in the United States, compared to 900 Planned Parenthood locations, and these health centers actually offer more services than Planned Parenthood, like mammograms.
