Zach Robinson

Professor Courtney
English 2010
September 29, 2015
Final Report
Planned Parenthood
The main focus of my report is to expose the issue that Governor Gary Herbert
has with the Planned Parenthood organization, as well as conducted research on how he
was wrong in de-funding the Planned Parenthoods here in the state of Utah. In this report
you will find the plausible cause for why Herbert took away the funding as well as his
bad reasoning behind his decision. Planned Parenthood is an organization that provides
many common needs for young teens, or any age group for that matter, as well as
educational information on practicing safe sex. Planned Parenthood provides
contraceptives to those who do not have health insurance or people who want to stay
anonymous in abortions or other procedures to prevent teen pregnancy. Teen pregnancy is
an issue here in Utah and according to Americas Health Ranking; Utah is ranked number
13. The following chart shows what Planned Parenthood does as an organization and the
services they provide to its users. As you can see, abortion services is a mere 3 percent of
what they do, therefore, Herbert jumped to conclusions about their services and took
away its funding. Planned Parenthood clearly spend most of its time to providing
contraception and STD testing, which are both some-what expensive without health
insurance. This pie chart was provided by the Alliance Providing Freedom.

Utahs Governor Gary Herbert chose to cut all federal funding towards the
Planned Parenthood program. The governor Claims that it won't effect educational
programs for preventing teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. The cut of
federal funding created an outrage amongst Utahs people, which is completely
understandable. The governors reasoning for cutting the funding is because a planned
parenthood in Houston, Texas sold fetal tissues to promote researchers worldwide.
Research that needs to be done and it makes sense that Planned Parenthood could make a
little money off of providing fetuses to the researchers. I would like to find out if it was
Planned Parenthood who reached out to the researchers, or if it was the researchers who
reached out to Planned Parenthood. It would make sense for the researchers to reach out
to Planned Parenthood, because they have resources that they need to conduct their
research. A good portion of Utah is outraged with the cut of funding towards the program,

while there are others out there who are astonished at the fact that Planned Parenthood
would sell the fetal tissues from aborted babies.
Planned Parenthood argues that they should not be punished for something that
happened in Texas because they that abortion is against the law in Utah and that the state
of Utah and that the government audits and checks what their money goes to every year.
The government can see that all the money funded to them is going to health care and
education for women. According to New York Times, the Planned Parenthood program
only gets around a quarter millions dollars a year to fund their program, and now that the
state stopped funding them they have to find their money elsewhere. They state that just
because that Planned Parenthood got their funding cut doesnt mean they are going to
stop the program. The C.E.O of Planned Parenthood says, We have made womens lady
parts a political football. Women have rights just like everyone else and their bodies
shouldnt be treated like a game.
Planned Parenthood provides the majority of the diagnoses and treatment of
sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy in the state of Utah. Planned Parenthood is
most disappointed that the funding has been cut for the educational program. The
education program provides education for high school kids, middle schools, boys and
girls clubs, and many more groups. They dont understand why they are being effected
for something another state has done. The Planned Parenthood here in Utah has never
spent their money on anything illegal or not condoned by the Utah government.
I talked to my girlfriend on her thought of the issue, and she made a good point.
She has never used Planned Parenthoods services and receives her birth control through
an OBGYN at Alta View. She said that it is a womans choice whether or not they want to

have an abortion; her and I are both pro-abortion. Some people just shouldnt have kids
or are not in the right spot/time in their life to have kids, and that is completely up to the
woman or couple, whether or not they want to have a baby. She complained about how
the government should not be able to decide what to do with a womans body, and that no
one should have a say about an abortion besides the woman who is pregnant and her
significant other. She mentioned how last semester in her history class, the professor told
the class about how the United States Government used to sterilize people. People who
were dumb and moronic, and they had no say whether or not they should be sterilized.
Now a day that would not be tolerated, so why should the government control abortion?
Everyone has the right to choose what he or she does with his or her body, and if abortion
is what the woman wants, then that is her own decision. What the facility does with the
fetal tissues has nothing to with Utah since abortion is legal in Texas at multiple stages
during pregnancy.
In conclusion, a woman should have the choice of what she does with her own
body, not the government. Most people feel this way about a lot of topics: drugs,
pregnancy, health issues, and plenty of other issues. The governor Gary Herbert should
relook the reason why he restricted the program because it is for political issues and not
helping the people. On the other hand the government should deal with Texas as their
own state and not define Utah as a part of them. Planned Parenthood does good deeds for
the community and helps teenagers with practicing safe sex. Although Texas may have
sold some fetal tissue to conduct research, it was not done here in Utah; therefor they
should not be affected by the decisions of Planned Parenthood in other states.

Works Cited:
http://gephardtdaily.com/uncategorized/breaking-news-utah-gov-bans-funding-forplanned-parenthood/
http://www.sltrib.com/home/2848056-155/utah-gov-says-cutting-funds-to
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/18/us/states-move-to-cut-funds-for-plannedparenthood.html?_r=0
http://www.americashealthrankings.org/UT/TeenBirth