By Theresa Schliep

Attacks on the Planned Parenthood Federation of America are not solely attacks on the organization, but also on women across the nation.

This past year, there have been movements, largely governed by Republican congressmen, to stop subsidizing the sexual health organization. Republicans have justified these efforts with the claims that through taxpayer money, Planned Parenthood maintains an abortion factory and profits off of such services.

These arguments are not only erroneous, but are also malicious, threatening to endanger the health of thousands of women who otherwise would not have access to affordable healthcare.

Planned Parenthood supplies a multitude of services to women, which are not restricted to abortion. This includes tests for sexually transmitted diseases, access to contraceptives, cancer screenings and prevention, family planning and other health services. These services grossly outnumber the abortions performed at Planned Parenthood clinics across the country. Only about three percent of the services provided by Planned Parenthood are abortions.

If defunding the organization is a moral crusade against abortions, then Republicans are fighting the wrong fight. Not only are very few of the services provided by the nonprofit abortion related, but Planned Parenthood cannot use any government funding for abortion services.

A moral crusade would not threaten the healthcare of women in the lowest strata of the socioeconomic fabric of this country. Planned Parenthood largely caters to lower income and rural women. Most private clinics do not accept Medicaid because it is substantially insignificant in compensating for expenses used to run their practices. Nearly half of its patients rely on Medicaid to access the healthcare, according to Planned Parenthood.

Decreasing the number of abortions does not come from restricting access to abortions. Accessibility to contraceptives is irrefutably the most essential component of “preventing abortions.” And Planned Parenthood’s 2013-2014 annual fiscal year report reveals that a startling 34 percent of their services involve providing contraceptives.

Republicans consider videos of Planned Parenthood staff discussing the donations of fetal tissue damning in this moral crusade. Some consider this perfectly legal practice disgusting, and videos released by the Center for Medical Progress, an anti-abortion organization, might disturb viewers. But a forensic experts panel called Fusion GPS reviewed the videos and denied their validity, arguing they were largely altered and missing large portions of time in order to mislead viewers into believing that the organization produces fetuses to sell for profit. Fusion GPS considers these videos to be so misleading that they would not hold up in a court of law.

Again, if Republicans defund Planned Parenthood because of the legal donations of fetal tissue, they are fighting the wrong fight. According to the organization, only one percent of clinics are permitted to donate fetal tissue.

If we are working with the assumption that congressional Republicans are logical politicians, it cannot be an ethical war against the healthcare service, but a political one.

A political war is not surprising. In 2013, a gridlocked Congress could not agree on a budget bill because of bickering over the Affordable Care Act, charmingly nicknamed Obamacare. This shutdown furloughed all non-essential government personnel. Republicans were accused of holding the government hostage because of their disdain for the healthcare bill.

In 2015, we again see efforts made by House Republicans to defund the federal government, this time if Planned Parenthood continues to receive government funding.

This current campaign season appears to be a time of party alignment and radicalization, when liberals become more liberal and conservatives become more conservative. Perhaps, then, Republicans are catering to the most conservative of the conservative, those who deny the freedom of choice to women, even in cases of rape and incest. But this radicalization will come to hurt those running for president in the popular election, when people recall Ben Carson’s comparisons of abortion to slavery or Carly Fiorina references a completely imaginary video in which a fetus’s brain is harvested.

If this is neither an effective moral crusade nor an effective political war, then what are the efforts made by Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood? If nothing else, they are attacks on the marginalized women in America. Some women can afford to go to private clinics to obtain reproductive services, but many others rely on Planned Parenthood for their health services.

This perspective is not unique. A quick search on the Internet reveals a plethora of valid news sources that reflect the same view. How many editorials, research articles and professional testimonies must we publish to establish the heinous nature of these efforts? When will we deny personal bias and subjective morality, and instead, accept objective scientific facts?

Theresa Schliep, FCRH ’19, is undecided in her major from Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey.