If you think Roe v. Wade is purely about abortion rights, you’d be mistaken.
Planned Parenthood‘s new President Dr. Leana Wen recently spoke with The Cut about the very real possibility of Roe v. Wade overturning, especially with Brett Kavanaugh confirmed.
Dr. Wen explained that Roe is a much bigger conversation about women’s reproductive health. She said,
“Abortion is part of the full spectrum of reproductive health care, this is also about attacks on reproductive health care, on women’s health, because these laws, depending on the outcome of various court decisions, could result in dozens of clinics closing around the country that are safety net clinics. Already dozens of safety net clinics have closed, and for hundreds of thousands of women, their primary source of care has been taken away.”
She added,
“For me, as a physician, I am deeply concerned by what happens when we silo out, stigmatize, and specifically attack women’s health. It’s not good medical care, and the direct result is the cost of women’s lives.”
But even with Roe intact, that doesn’t mean that abortion access is always readily available. We know, many conservative states have done everything they can to limit abortion access, shut down clinics, and more in order take away a woman’s right to choose. Planned Parenthood is actually constantly suing state governments for their attempt to restrict abortion access.
But as Dr. Wen explains, that’s precisely what Planned Parenthood is set up to do.
“Planned Parenthood is about providing access to health care, and fighting to protect access to that care — those two things together. It’s providing access to care to our nearly two and a half million patients a year, while at the same time recognizing that the ability to deliver that care depends on policies, and we have to be fighting with everything we have, or else women and families and vulnerable individuals won’t have access to life-saving and life-changing care.”
As you may or may not know, Planned Parenthood clinics provide a lot more services than abortions. Other services include general gynecological wellness exams, birth control, HIV/Aids testing, UTI treatments, vasectomies, and more. Planned Parenthood aims to be a full-range health care clinic where people of all ages, genders, sexualities, and more can go and feel comfortable getting treatment.
To donate to Planned Parenthood, you can head to their website here.
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