It's Your Choice - Not Mine.

Abortions and Planned Parenthood have been a strong topic for sometime now. After reading this article  " Tax Payer Funded Abortions" and the facts listed within, I would have to disagree with the writer. A low income woman should have some sort of assistance for an abortion if needed but also some of the information that is provided to support this article was not correctly expressed.

In this article Margaret Sanger, who is the founder of Planned Parenthood and was awarded Humanists of the year in 1957, was portrayed as a racist. Margaret was a traveling nurse who was working with immigrants in the slums in the early 1900’s. She saw several women die because of self-induced abortions and couldn't fathom the thought of one more, so she sought to change that. 

Margaret contributed to many judicial cases (Griswold v. Connecticut) to legalize contraception in the United States as well as opened the first birth control clinic. She fought long and hard for contraception and safe abortions for women of all races, not just African-Americans. She traveled all over the world to educate women of many nationalities and ethnic backgrounds. 

This statement quoted in the author’s article “Even fewer know that she consistently pushed racist beliefs and is responsible for the intentional placement of many Planned Parenthood facilities in low-income, predominately African-American communities. On a statistical scale she radically lowered the African-American population by making abortions so easily accessible to those communities.”  is somewhat exaggerated . She initially opened clinics in predominantly white neighborhoods. However, shortly after she was asked by leaders within the African American community to collaborate and extend her services to predominantly black neighborhoods. Clinics were then opened to assist with safe abortions and the use of contraceptives just as she first did in the predominantly white neighborhoods. Later the Margaret Sanger Award was established to honor champions of human rights.  In fact, Martin Luther King Jr. was the first recipient of the award in 1966.

Lower income women should have access to assistance if requested. If these low income women don't have the financial means to subsidize an abortion on their own, then they likely don't have the financial capability to support that child after it is born.  This could lead to much greater government assistance down the line if welfare is required to support that child. The Government assisting with 50% of abortion cost, approximately $250.00 (half the cost), is less of a financial impact than supporting that family for 18 years with welfare assistance. However, if women were allowed assistance it should not be treated like an open bar where you just keep going back for more because you can. It would need to be regulated to prevent frequent use and should be utilized as an emergency intervention, as opposed to a frequent measure. If assistance is not available we might as well forget everything that Margaret Sanger fought for. Lower income women will look for unsafe alternatives or “back-alley abortions” because it’s unaffordable, or perhaps even worse, they will bring a child into this world that they are unable to support and care for.

Fortunately, everyone has the right to chose for themselves if they support abortion and it seems obvious that less children in lower income families means less tax payer money going to welfare. It would be different if lower income women were being forced to have an abortion to control welfare spending but they are doing so at their own will. They are deciding to have an abortion, so why not assist them to benefit the system and encourage safe abortion practices.