The passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as well as the 2020 Presidential Election, pushes a huge threat to Planned Parenthood. This is partially due to President Trump’s hopes to defund Planned Parenthood, referring to it as “an abortion factory” and is very pro-life.

Pro-life is defined as “opposed to abortion” according to Webster’s Dictionary. Planned Parenthood has dealt with the backlash from pro-lifers since it started providing access to safe abortions in the early 1970s. 

What the citizens who support Planned Parenthood getting defunded do not understand is the extreme variety of resources they provide. It comes as a shock to many that only “about 4% of total services were abortion procedures,” according to Planned Parenthood’s 2018-2019 annual report. 

Junior Jade Pugh said, “If people are really concerned about abortions, then they should fund Planned Parenthood since they help so many women every day. They provide medical help and birth control a lot more than perform abortions.”

Defunding Planned Parenthood would block many women from safe access to not only birth control and abortions, but also important tools such as cancer screening, sexual assault guidance, prenatal treatment, and much more. This creates a sense of fear for many women across the nation who are seeking simple and accessible feminine healthcare. 

“By revoking access to birth control and treatments that have been established to help women’s health, you are creating a system in which we as women do not feel equal as [they] are taking away our basic feminine health rights,” junior Sophia Naintre said.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing leaves the threat of President Trump filling the Supreme Court Justice Chair with an anti-Planned Parenthood conservative Amy Cohen Barrett, leaving the rights to feminine health care at stake. Many pro-lifers see this as something to celebrate, looking past the extreme variation of what Planned Parenthood provides.

“The power Ruth Bader Ginsburg held in regard to her court rulings that all women, [and future] women, the passing of a woman responsible for every single women’s ability to be successful, healthy, independent and equal is obviously going to spark fear in very woman in America for their simple health care rights,” Naintre said. 

Planned Parenthood getting defunded may seem political to a person who will not be affected, but this is a human rights issue. The concern, whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, should be focused on allowing women safe access to tools such as birth control and contraceptives that can prevent preganancy and allow women with conditions like endometriosis a safe way to receive help.