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Jennifer Fannin

Augenbaugh

English 12

6 February 2017

Planned Parenthood and abortion

A life is a life, but what about an unborn life? That is the question of many abortion

activists around the world. Anti-abortion activists say that an unborn fetus is human, no matter

how early in development it is. Pro-abortion activists say that only when a child is born is it

fully human. Many anti-abortion activists say that the organization Planned Parenthood is

behind the epidemic that is abortions. But this is simply not true. Based on a statistic taken in

2015 by Planned Parenthood themselves, only 3% of what they perform is abortions. Planned

Parenthood provides inexpensive reproductive care to thousands of women and men every day,

such as cancer screenings, contraception classes, infection treatments, and free contraceptives.

Defunding Planned Parenthood could get rid of the one place where people of poor background

can get the care they need at a cost that is reasonable.

Taking a look at what Planned Parenthood does is one step, but what really needs talked

about is why they are justified in doing what they do. Abortions can be a very morally gray area,

and very easy to get tangled up in both sides of the argument, but some women want to wait to

have a family. On one hand, a woman should have the choice to decide when she wants

children. On the other hand, if a woman decides that she doesnt want the baby late into the

pregnancy, she should have to give birth to it, unless the baby has serious deformity or disease.

In 1969, television actress Sherri Finkbine was pregnant with her fifth child when she learned

that thalidomide tranquilizer she had taken for sleeping problems had caused serious birth
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defects that would severely cripple, if not kill, the child upon being born. Her doctor advised she

have an abortion, to which she agreed. She shared her story with a journalist, hoping to inform

other pregnant women about the dangers of thalidomide. When the story was published, she

received hundreds of letters, most praising her for her bravery, but others condemned her for

ending her childs life. Mrs. Finkbine was only one of the 10,000 reported cases of thalidomide

pregnancy deformities, of which only 40% survived. These sorts of stories are not uncommon.

Many women seek Planned Parenthoods help when theyve taken a dangerous drug and are

afraid of deformities, miscarriage, or stillbirth. Pro-life activists are against this, saying that the

woman should have known about the dangers of taking the drug while pregnant and should have

to live with the consequences. This is simply not true, however. Many women take medicine to

relieve their morning sickness or insomnia, thinking its just common sickness, like the flu or a

stomach bug, and not a pregnancy. Many women dont want the burden, emotional and

financial, of having a suffering child rather than a healthy one.

Anti-abortion activists say that from the moment of conception, a person is created. They

say that a life is there, and abortion is the murder of an innocent life. But this is simply untrue.

With every pregnancy, a fetus has to go through numerous growths. For an organism to be

thought of as sentient, it must have complex brain synapses. In a fetus, the brain does not start

proper brain synapses until the sixth month of growth, the point where a fetus can hear and feel

changes in its environment. This is also the point where the fetus can feel pain. Anti-abortion

activists consider it a crime to end a pregnancy, even if the woman had no way of knowing she

was pregnant. The earliest a woman can know that she is pregnant is about six weeks, a month

and a half, after the moment of conception.

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In conclusion, Planned Parenthood is a legal facility that deserves to be kept open. Not

only does it provide valid and affordable reproductive healthcare to both men and women, but it

also gives women a choice on when to have a family. If a woman has no way of supporting both

herself and a child, then she deserves to have the choice whether or not to have a baby. In poor

neighborhoods, a Planned Parenthood center is really the only place that provides affordable and

quality care for those of low income. Planned parenthood is not just a place for abortions, its a

facility that is the cornerstone of womens healthcare.

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Works Cited

Marzilli, Alan. Fetal rights. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2006. Print.

Perkins, Tony. Planned Parenthood: Making a Killing. http://www.frc.org 8 Jan.

2013. Rpt. in Women's Health. Ed. Lynn M. Zott. Farmington Hills, MI:

Greenhaven Press, 2015. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in

Context. Web. 25 Jan. 2017.

Peters, Thomas. Birth Control Has Resulted in an Increase in Abortions. Birth

Control. Ed. Margaret Haerens and Lynn M. Zott. Detroit: Greenhaven Press,

2012. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from Busting the Birth-Control Myth, Once

and For All. CatholicVote.org 2011. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 25

Jan. 2017.

Who we are. Planned Parenthood | Official Site. Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Inc, 2017. Web. 25 Jan. 2017.

Political Attacks on Planned Parenthood Are a Threat to Women's Health. Scientific American

30.6

(1 June 2012). Rpt. in Women's Health. Ed. Lynn M. Zott. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven

Press, 2015. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 25 Jan. 2017.