West County Democrats

Alaina Smith with Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri addressed the West County Democrats at our August meeting to clarify the mission of her organization and recent activities concerning reproductive health. 

Planned Parenthood is a 100 year old, non-profit, medical service provider chartered to protect and support reproductive and sexual health, services, access and rights. Because they provide their services on a sliding scale, they are a unique and important resource for low income patients.  Planned Parenthood regional providers function independently of the national organization. The Missouri-based Planned Parenthood group is 85 years old and operates clinics throughout the region.

While targeted as an abortion provider, the majority of the services they offer are treatment for sexually transmitted diseases (growing exponentially in rural areas) as well as birth control or contraception.  Also, to correct a misconception, Planned Parenthood services are paid for with a good mix of private insurance, sliding scale fees, charitable donations, and (traditionally) Medicaid.

Alaina debunked some of the false claims made about the services they provide.  The most common myth heard in our area is that there are 100s of other places from which women can obtain these services.  (Republicans have provided a list of charitable or pro-bono health clinics, but many of these are dentists and others who don’t provide women’s health services.)  In all, only 7% of these can provide the suite of services Planned Parenthood provides, and none are open in the evening or weekends.

Planned Parenthood has been the target for a great deal of legislative action recently, so Alaina discussed the status of these efforts.

• Missouri has ‘defunded’ Planned Parenthood.  This is misnomer because, while the Hyde amendment bans the use of government funds for abortions, Missouri has blocked all Medicaid funds for Planned Parenthood for anything.  (Considering Missouri has not expanded Medicaid in cooperation with the Affordable Care Act, there are many working-poor women for whom this doesn’t apply anyway.)
• Due to the new Title X ‘gag’ order at the federal level, physicians can no longer tell patients about their abortion options even for dire medical conditions.  This blocking is a violation of medical ethics and the best example of government interference with healthcare services specifically for low income women.
• The HB126 (8 week abortion ban) will go into effect in September in Missouri with no exceptions for rape or incest.  Expecting a protracted legal fight, Missouri lawmakers have included cascading bans at 14 and 16 weeks. (Meaning if the court rules against 8 weeks, the others automatically take effect.)  This is the kind of legal trickery that has chipped away at women’s health services for decades.
• The single remaining abortion provider in Missouri is under assault.  This group shares facilities with the Planned Parenthood organization but is chartered  and managed apart from the larger organization.  If it ceases operation, Missouri will be the ONLY state without an abortion provider since Roe v. Wade.

Of course, all of these initiatives are being challenged in court by Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, NARAL and others.  If you believe it is important to have reproductive health services available and affordable by all, considering getting involved with (or donating to) any of these organizations.

In sidebar at the end of Alaina’s talk, the group discussed the status of sex education in our schools.  Most of us are of the age when sex education was a required part of the public school regime.  However, today sex education is not required but, if it is offered, certain topics are taboo and  many schools have outsourced this function to religious organizations.   There is now an absence of quality information being provided to Missouri’s youth.  While Planned Parenthood is blocked in school discussions of human sexuality, they are now an even more critical resource in our community.

–Mark Toenjes, WCD Member