Political Science Power Point

 

America’s Healthcare Issue 1

 

America’s Healthcare Issue 3

America’s Healthcare Issue

There is a lot of controversy surrounding the issue of reproductive rights and abortion specifically in relation to Planned Parenthood, a non-profit organization providing cancer screenings, annual examinations and other health care services such as birth control, pregnancy tests and abortion at lower costs. The debate has been centered on two perspectives, where one side considers access to reproductive rights and abortion services a basic human right that women should be granted access to, while the pro-life side views abortion as morally wrong and has been urging the government to defund Planned Parenthood entirely and use the taxes elsewhere. According to a CNN news article by Merica (2017), ‘3% of the services it [Planned Parenthood] provides are abortions’, thereby suggesting the remaining 97% are related to other health care service that majority of the American population benefits from.

Perhaps instead of focusing on restricting funding to organizations that provide these services, two simply but far more effective strategies that could be used as a means of resolving the conflict are those of increasing access to birth control and ensuring the provision of a comprehensive sexual education. According to an article by Cartas (2016), 27 states across the U.S are never exposed to the concept of using birth control and are simply taught about abstinence. They never formally learn about the realities of unplanned pregnancies and STD’s. Furthermore, the implementation of a nation-wide initiative that helps in the expansion of the eligibility of free contraception. A Brooking Institution policy brief revealed that states that used this this policy were ultimately experienced a significant reduction in the number of sexually-active women who have unprotected sex hinting at a significant reduction in the number of unplanned pregnancies and abortions. (Douthat, 2009)

While providing sex education is a great strategy to increase the overall awareness amongst the general public, unplanned pregnancies and abortion cannot be reduced unless an improvement is made in the access of birth control. An active collaborative effort is necessary on the part of federal, state and local government in order to put such an initiative in to action. The federal, state and local governments need to devise a strategy that specifically allocates more funding towards birth control strategies, rather than eliminating centers/ organizations that already provide access to healthcare to a vast majority of the population.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Merica, D. (2017). Trump privately signs anti-Planned Parenthood law. CNN. Retrieved 15 April 2017, from http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/13/politics/donald-trump-planned-parenthood money/

Caratas, N. (2016). A Solution to The Abortion Debate. Odyssey. Retrieved 15 April 2017, from https://www.theodysseyonline.com/solution-to-abortion-issue

Douthat, R. (2009). How Do You Solve a Problem Like Abortion? The Atlantic. Retrieved 15 April 2017, from https://www.theatlantic.com/personal/archive/2009/02/how-do-you solve-a-problem-like-abortion/55991/