Opinion: Texas’ war on women

America: land of the free — unless you're a woman who wants to exercise her reproductive rights. Although abortion has been legal in this country since 1973, women are unable to be openly "pro-life" — pro-their life, that is.

Abortion-care providers were unfairly targeted in the state legislative session this summer. About $7 million was cut from family planning services, including Planned Parenthood, which serves Texas' poorest women. The argument was taxpayer dollars shouldn't be allocated to fund a procedure some might not agree with.

Contrary to conservative opinion, defunding Planned Parenthood is not a step closer to the illegalization of abortion. It is, however, class warfare.

The wealthy are shielded from the effects of the cuts, receiving abortions at private-care facilities. Instead, the state legislature targeted those who rely on Planned Parenthood because of economic necessity.

Legislators said they were faced with a mandate from voters: balance the budget and don't raise taxes. Basically, cut as much as you can from wherever you can.

This was a big mistake.

Although government funds cannot be directly spent on abortions, ignorance ran rampant and obstinacy ran supreme.

Planned Parenthood is not just an abortion-care provider. More than 90 percent of its services are based on preventative, primary care. These services — including routine health care screenings, birth control and counseling — are necessary, yet undervalued in our society.

Preventative care, especially, is under-appreciated.

In 2008, the American Medical Association reported the U.S. will face a shortage of about 40,000 primary care physicians by 2025.

Already, more than a quarter of our state's population has no health insurance and is unable to see a primary care physician for routine check-ups and basic services, according to the Texas Medical Association. This means no access to birth control, no cancer screenings, no HIV tests.

Who do they turn to for these services? Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood is one of the few organizations that offers preventative care and should be funded appropriately.

Comprehensive sexual education and birth control can reduce the need for abortions — something anti-abortion advocates claim to want. In this regard, it simply makes sense that Planned Parenthood should be receiving more money from the federal and state government — not less.

Instead, 12 Planned Parenthood clinics in Texas have been shut down as a direct result of misguided legislation. It's a trend in which no one wins, not even those against Planned Parenthood. Low-income men and women will now have nowhere to go for basic health care services simply because legislators would rather attack reproductive rights than serve their constituents.

With fewer centers open and fewer services offered, women are at a severe disadvantage. Less sexual education will lead to more unwanted pregnancies and this will lead to more backyard abortions if safe abortion care — which Planned Parenthood offers — is no longer available to those in need.

Even if Planned Parenthood only performed abortions, it should still be celebrated.

Providing safe abortion care is vital. The Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization focused on sexual and reproductive health, estimated that 200,000 to 1.2 million illegal abortions were performed each year before the passage of Roe v. Wade.

Criminalizing abortion endangers the woman's life and evidently fails to curtail abortion rates.

In her memoir, This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor, Susan Wicklund describes her grandmother's experience performing an illegal abortion more than 70 years ago.

Her grandmother's best friend faced an unwanted pregnancy at age 16.

The two had heard "if you put something long and sharp ‘up there,' in the private place, sometimes it would end the pregnancy."

It worked — the pregnancy was terminated. But so was her best friend's life.

Wicklund's grandmother went on to say of abortion doctors, "People like you do it safely so that people like me don't murder their best friends."

A woman cannot be forced to want to have her child. It should be a decision left to her and her physician. Government intrusion, including the defunding of abortion-care providers, has no place in our free society.

So, let's clarify. Fact: abortion is  legal. Funding Planned Parenthood properly won't increase abortion rates. Instead, it will ensure all women have access to safe abortion care — so we don't end up killing our best friends.

Naila Dhanani is a junior biomedical sciences major and opinion columnist for The Battalion