Women Don’t Deserve Healthcare, Right?

Why are politicians fighting to gut adequate reproductive healthcare for women? The fact it’s even on the table is inhumane. Women should not have to fight to gain access to reproductive care and removing their right to control their bodies is completely unsafe and irrational. Are we back in the 1800’s, where a woman’s role was to serve her husband and not herself? Unfortunately, that is what our President and many right-wing politicians are making it seem like.

Over the course of Donald Trump’s presidency, his Administration and several right-wing politicians have been attempting to cut funding to certain healthcare facilities, such as Planned Parenthood, in order to put an end to Title X. Putting an end to Title X removes funds that would leave millions of women without access to affordable preventative reproductive care, wellness exams, lifesaving cervical and breast cancer screenings, birth control, STD testing, and numerous amounts of necessary care that have aided millions for years. Facilities would have to jump through difficult hoops in order to obtain the moneys required for these services. They would not be able to fund pregnancy termination and contraception. De-funding Title X also removes the requirement of healthcare providers to explain a woman’s options regarding pregnancy, including adoption, termination, or prenatal care. This is extremely dangerous for people who are able to carry a child, as they will not have the knowledge of what to do if an unwanted pregnancy happens.

The Trump Administration has quietly removed grants that funded teen pregnancy prevention programs, pushing an abstinence-only agenda. Removing sex education programs is completely hypocritical to what abortion-dissenting politicians want. It’s widely known through research that teaching abstinence-only education not only heightens the risk of teen pregnancy and catching an STD, but it increases the risk of illegal and dangerous abortions. Most teenagers engage in sexual activity before marriage, therefore making it more efficient to teach logical sexual education that gives them the tools and knowledge to keep these interactions safe.

Politicians are here to serve the public. They are working to protect the people who put them in office in the first place. Removing programs that educate, protect, and serve women completely disregard any safety. The Trump Administration is being irrational and only acting upon their conservative values. If our President wants to keep America protected, women need services to efficiently advise their health. A halt needs to be placed on what the president is doing before it’s too late, and before women everywhere suffer.