There is a stigma that surrounds Planned Parenthood in this country. It’s often assumed to be an organization run to cause harm, but it’s those accusations that can blind people from seeing the good that the organization does.

The help it does give to women is exactly why our country needs Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood’s motto is: “Care. No matter what.” That’s the sensitivity that women need on these touchy
subjects. Women don’t need hatred or shame because of what they choose to do with their bodies.

No woman asks to be put in the kind of situation where she needs an abortion; but when she feels like there’s no other way out, she needs love and support.

More than just abortions and birth control, Planned Parenthood has a much bigger task at hand: education.

In a society that mostly teaches abstinence only sex education, Planned Parenthood’s main objective is to educate Americans on health, sex and family planning.

Remember the joke growing up that “everything kids need to know about sex they can learn on the street.”

It was a joke yet it happened; groups of friends swapping false information they got from their older siblings that pretend to know everything about sex is not the way we should be educating our youth.

While abstinence is a really good idea in theory, our human biology tells us something else.

Our natural, primal instinct is to have sex, we have a subconscious need to procreate and keep our species going.

Parents like to think that their children are all saving themselves for marriage, but the reality is a good portion of young adults are going to be having sex before marriage.

If people are out there having sex, then shouldn’t we at least want them to know how to do it safely? Planned Parenthood has created a safe, judgement-free zone where people can come to educate themselves on being safe.

According to Planned Parenthood’s website, 80 percent of patients receive services to prevent unwanted pregnancy, which prevents approximately 579,000 pregnancies a year. This  reduces the need for women to seek out abortion services, which only account for 3 percent of Planned Parenthood’s health services.

Planned Parenthood isn’t advocating that all women need abortions, it’s actually the opposite. It wants to educate communities about sex and reduce the need for abortions.

Many organizations aim to shut down Planned Parenthood, but without that resource many women would be in a scary situation. Planned Parenthood gives health services to women in need.

A pregnant woman choosing to keep her child can go to Planned Parenthood to get support through her
pregnancy. Shutting down Planned Parenthood would deprive low-income women of the health care they need
to carry and deliver a healthy baby.