Letter to the editor responding to calls to defund Planned Parenthood

In his letter “Planned Parenthood should not receive taxpayer money” Robert Cornwell urges defunding Planned Parenthood because they offer safe, legal medical procedures. Apparently Mr. Cornwell either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that Planned Parenthood provides a wide range of reproductive health services to women who would otherwise have no such care at all.

Planned Parenthood programs help to prevent nearly one million unintended pregnancies each year, almost half of which would otherwise end in abortion.  For every public dollar invested in family planning, $3.74 is saved in Medicaid-related costs. That’s savings to both federal and state governments.

Planned Parenthood and similar programs provide lifesaving and preventive care to millions of women. In 2009 alone they performed 2.2 million Pap tests and 2.3 million breast exams. If Mr. Cornwell gets his way more women will experience unintended pregnancies and face potentially life-threatening cancer and other diseases that could have been prevented.

According to a January 2011 CBS/New York Times survey found that by a margin of 67 percent to 27 percent, Americans oppose cuts for health care and education as a means of reducing the deficit.

Finally, the undercover videotape session Mr. Cornwell refers to was produced by a group that even Glenn Beck doesn’t find credible so consider the source before passing judgment.