Planned Parenthood

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), or Planned Parenthood for short , is an American non-profit organization that provides medical services in over 650 clinics across the country, primarily in the areas of sexual medicine , gynecology and Family planning offers. These include pregnancy tests and accompanying measures , certain cancer screening examinations , tests for sexually transmitted diseases and their treatment, contraceptives and abortions .

PPFA is a member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation , to which Pro Familia belongs in Germany .

history

PPFA goes back to the American Birth Control League founded by Margaret Sanger in Brooklyn , New York City in 1921 , which was renamed the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1942 . In its first few decades, PPFA was primarily committed to legalizing contraceptives (this goal was achieved with the 1965 Supreme Court ruling in the Griswold v. Connecticut case for married couples). From the late 1950s onwards, PPFA began to campaign for the repeal of restrictive laws regulating abortion and access to abortion, which have repeatedly driven women into distress by attempting or performing self-abortions . These included the publication of Abortion in the United States (1958) and the appearance of PPFA as an amicus curiae in the Roe v. Wade (1973) and as the plaintiff in the Planned Parenthood v. Danforth (1976) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992).

After Margaret Sanger, obstetrician Alan Frank Guttmacher was President of the PPFA from 1962 to 1974. In 1968 he founded the Center for Family Planning Program Development department , which was later named after him and which became an independent institute. According to Guttmacher, the office of president was held by Faye Wattleton (1978–1992), Pamela Maraldo (1993–1995), Gloria Feldt (1996–2005) and Cecile Richards (since 2006).

For 2017 the organization was awarded the Lasker ~ Bloomberg Public Service Award .

Services

Around 35% of the services offered by PPFA are aimed at preventing unwanted pregnancies. PPFA offers several forms of contraception, including reversible long-term contraceptives, emergency contraception, and surgical methods . The services also include pregnancy tests and prenatal care as well as preventive medical checkups such as mammograms and Pap smears . The early detection and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases make up around 40% of medical services. PPFA is the largest sex education provider in the United States, reaching 1.5 million people annually. 3% of the activities of PPFA are abortions.

In 2013, PPFA clinics received 4.6 million visits from 2.7 million people. Young people make up around 16% of the clientele. PPFA maintains a website that is specifically aimed at adolescents and young adults and enables them to ask questions by e-mail and, since 2010, also by SMS or instant messaging . The services of PPFA are predominantly used by poor people. Almost four in five PPFA patients have an income at or below the poverty line.

financing

Since the passage of Title X (an extension of the Public Health Service Act ) by the US Congress and its signing by US President Richard Nixon in 1970, Planned Parenthood has received direct funding from the US federal government ; these are intended to finance family planning programs. From 2002 to 2008, Planned Parenthood received approximately $  342 million from Title X. Although Planned Parenthood does not (and is legally not allowed to spend) any Title X funds on abortion funding, conservative Republicans like Mike Pence , Marsha Blackburn and Diane Black (mainly from the Christian right and right to life movement ) have made attempts since the 1980s to no longer make funds available from the federal budget for Title X in order to indirectly withdraw funds from Planned Parenthood.

According to its own information, PPFA operated with an annual budget of over $ 1 billion in the 2011/12 fiscal year. More than a third of PPFA's budget is funded by public funds from federal, state or local budgets.

Attacks by anti-abortionists

In 2015, anti-abortion opponents published secretly recorded conversations with employees of Planned Parenthood. The activists posed as representatives of a fictitious biotechnology company and offered PPFA employees to purchase fetal tissue, which was refused. According to the admitted PPFA employees, tissue can only be donated for research purposes at the request of the women. The opponents of abortion accused Planned Parenthood of selling fetal tissue and performing so-called partial abortions in order to keep intact tissue. The Republican Party announced a government shutdown if they fail to block federal grants to Planned Parenthood. Republican leaders claimed during the primary campaign that Planned Parenthood was selling "baby items." Planned Parenthood denied all allegations and saw the allegations as a continuation of the campaign that has been waged by Republicans against PPFA for years. Investigations have been launched in twelve states . Eight other states declined to investigate due to lack of evidence. Three committees in Congress investigated the allegations. The investigators found no misconduct during the removal and handling of the tissue in PPFA clinics. Later analyzes showed that the video recordings had been changed afterwards. In January 2016, two of the abortion opponents involved were charged with manipulating data. During the controversy surrounding the video footage, Planned Parenthood received support from scientists and researchers, including the editorial staff of the New England Journal of Medicine . Although the allegations against Planned Parenthood could not be proven, public funds for Planned Parenthood have been cut in eleven states since June 2015.

Several attacks have been carried out against PPFA clinics, including bombings, arson and vandalism . In 1994, two people died and five others were injured in an armed attack against a clinic in Massachusetts . In the 2015 attack on Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs , the perpetrator killed three people and wounded nine others.

Web links

See also

Margaret Sanger

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kathryn Cullen-DuPont: Encyclopedia of Women's History in America . 2nd ed. Facts on File, New York 2009, p. 202.
  2. ↑ Tiffany K. Wayne: "Planned Parenthood", in: Mary Zeiss Stange, Carol K. Oyster, Jane E. Sloan (eds.): Encyclopedia of women in today's world . Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, California 2011, p. 1108.
  3. ↑ a b c Debra Goldschmidt and Ashley Strickland: Planned Parenthood: Fast facts and revealing numbers . In: CNN , August 4, 2015.
  4. ↑ a b 2013–2014 Annual Report . Planned Parenthood, pp. 2 and 17.
  5. ↑ a b Planned Parenthood at a Glance: Who We Are . Planned Parenthood. Retrieved July 15, 2016.
  6. ↑ Thomas Richards: Spotlight on: Planned Parenthood . In: Children's Legal Rights Journal . 27, No. 2, 2007, p. 57 f.
  7. ↑ MM Giorgio, LM Kantor, DS Levine, W. Arons: Using chat and text technologies to answer sexual and reproductive health questions: Planned Parenthood pilot study. In: Journal of medical Internet research. Volume 15, number 9, 2013, p. E203, doi: 10.2196 / jmir.2619 , PMID 24055754 , PMC 3785953 (free full text).
  8. ^ A b Erik Eckholm: Planned Parenthood Financing Is Caught in Budget Feud. In: The New York Times. February 17, 2011, accessed July 30, 2013 .
  9. ↑ Felicia Sonmez: Sen. Scott Brown: I oppose defunding Planned Parenthood. In: The Washington Post. March 22, 2011, accessed July 30, 2013 .
  10. ↑ Bob Smietana: Anti-abortion lawmakers take on Planned Parenthood. In: USA Today. January 22, 2013, accessed July 30, 2013 .
  11. ↑ Julie Rovner: Planned Parenthood: A Thorn In Abortion Foes' Sides. NPR, April 13, 2011, accessed July 30, 2013 .
  12. ↑ PPFA Annual report
  13. ^ The Campaign of Deception Against Planned Parenthood . In: The New York Times , July 22, 2015.
  14. ↑ Planned Parenthood says video part of decade-long harassment . In: Chicago Trubune , July 20, 2015.
  15. ↑ a b The State Assault on Planned Parenthood . In: The New York Times , March 28, 2016.
  16. ↑ a b Claus Hulverscheidt: Video heats up the abortion debate . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , July 16, 2015.
  17. ↑ Maya Rhodan: Republican Presidential Contenders Slam Planned Parenthood. July 14, 2015, accessed on July 23, 2015 .
  18. ↑ Dawn Laguens: The great deception behind the anti-Planned Parenthood videos . In: USA Today , February 3, 2016.
  19. ↑ Jackie Calmes: Planned Parenthood Videos Were Altered, Analysis Finds . In: The New York Times , August 27, 2015.
  20. ↑ Manny Fernandez: 2 Abortion Foes Behind Planned Parenthood Videos Are Indicted . In: The New York Times , January 25, 2016.
  21. ↑ George P. Topulos, Michael F. Greene, and Jeffrey M. Drazen: Planned Parenthood at Risk . In: The New England Journal of Medicine , August 12, 2015. doi: 10.1056 / NEJMe1510281 . PMID 26267451 .
  22. ↑ Christopher Hewitt: Political violence and terrorism in modern America: a chronology. Praeger, Westport 2005, ISBN 978-0-313-33418-4 , pp. 113-169 .
  23. ↑ Elizabeth Mehren and John J. Goldman: 2 Killed, 5 Wounded in Shootings at 2 Abortion Clinics . In: Los Angeles Times , December 31, 1994.
  24. ↑ rampage in the women's clinic . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , November 29, 2015.