Taking the war on women to the next step, conservatives are pushing for low-income women to be denied healthcare.
Working based off of false information and videos released by anti-abortion group center for Medical Progress, Republicans are seeking to defund Planned Parenthood.
The organization provides accessible and affordable women’s health services.
Planned Parenthood is only able to use federal funds for abortion in cases of rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother.
But defunding them would be potentially disastrous for millions of women who go to Planned Parenthood for their health care and would mean a loss for medical research.
Although President Barack Obama’s health care law has definitely increased the amount of people who have insurance, many women might be unable to claim their birth control on their insurance, especially if they are underage or still on their parent’s insurance.
Only 3 percent of Planned Parenthood’s services are abortions.
Defunding Planned Parenthood would mean denying many women cancer screenings, STI treatments and tests, and contraception.
Many were shocked about the videos released by the Center for Medical Progress.
Conservatives have used this to fuel a new crusade against abortion.
But the videos were selectively edited to portray Planned Parenthood in the worst possible light.
Watching the full video reveals that fetal organs and tissues were not sold, but that Planned Parenthood was compensated for the transportation costs, which is entirely legal.
Conservatives are using false allegations to impose their ideology at the expense of women’s health care and medical research.
Fetal organs that are the result of legal abortions should be able to be used in medical research in the same way that cadavers are used.
In fact, it’s with this logic that legislators throughout the ‘90s agreed to allow fetal tissue research.
Conservatives know that a ban on abortion is not feasible at the national level.
So conservatives have resorted to going around Roe v. Wade in any way possible and this is just the latest example.
At the state level, Republicans have tried everything from requiring admitting privileges at local hospitals to waiting periods to make it harder for low-income women to get safe abortions.
While the right wing often mocks the idea of a “war on women,” this shows that it is still alive and well.
The state of abortion rights is so fragile in this country that it’s irresponsible to give validity to the videos that were released.
The presence of “crisis pregnancy centers” only adds to the confusion.
Planned Parenthood is a name women can trust knowing that they won’t be tricked or shamed out of having an abortion or taking birth control.
Nicole Dan is a UF political science sophomore. Her column appears on Tuesdays.
