Why We Must Fight the Attack on Planned Parenthood
(COMMON DREAMS) Robert Reich — On Thursday, right-wing extremists in the U.S. House of Representatives will vote to try to defund Planned Parenthood, one of the nation’s largest providers of women’s health care and family planning services.
Planned Parenthood is under attack and it’s up to all of us to fight back. Any society that respects women must respect their right to control their own bodies. There is a strong moral case to be made for this — but this video isn’t about that. This is about the economics of family planning — which are one more reason it’s important for all of us to stand up and defend Planned Parenthood.
Reproductive rights, family planning, and women’s health are all interrelated. All girls and women need full information and access to family planning services, including abortion — regardless of their income level–so they can determine if or when they have children.
Public investments in family planning — enabling women to plan, delay, or avoid pregnancy — make economic sense, because reproductive rights are also productive rights. When women have control over their lives, they can contribute even more to the economy, better break the glass ceiling, equalize the pay gap, and much more.
Take the state of Colorado’s highly successful family planning program. Over the past six years, in Colorado health department has offered teenagers and low-income women free long-acting birth control that prevents pregnancy over several years. Pregnancy and abortion rates plunged–by about 40 percent among teenagers across the state from 2009 to 2013.