Trump defunds International Planned Parenthood

In the Oval Office on Monday Jan. 23, President Trump signed a temporary bill that was formed in the 1980s and, in effect, defunds International Planned Parenthood and any other government-funded organization that performs or promotes abortions overseas, even if they do not use their government funding to pay for abortions.

Math teacher Cheryl Ruffin feels that President Trump’s action reflect the views of his political base.

“[Planned Parenthood] is necessary for people that would need the services. The political views of his base are pro-life mostly,” Ruffin said. “Since Planned Parenthood offers abortion information and referrals, they’re definitely against it.”  

The Mexico City Policy was initially created by Ronald Reagan in 1984, and has since been repealed and reinstated with each new administration. Bill Clinton repealed it in 1993, George W. Bush brought it back in 2001 and Barack Obama repealed it again in 2009.

“It would be much less controversial if it was not a matter our government was involved in and it was rather a private organization doing these things,” junior Ethan Birch said. “But since it has my tax money going toward it, I’m much more concerned with it.I support Trump’s decision in his gag order. I know what he did is basically cut the United States funding toward international abortion.”

Trump vowed to defund Planned Parenthood on the campaign trail, and has taken a step closer to defunding the entire organization, along with similar organizations. International Planned Parenthood received an annually stipend of $100 million from the United States government, which it is willing to give up in order to continue practice as usual in regards to abortions.

“I believe it to be a vital organization in today’s America, in that it provides women’s health services to the less well off way more than any solely private organization really can,” junior Christian Marroquin said. “By reinstating the global gag rule as Trump has done, he has disallowed the U.S. to extend these cares worldwide. America can’t be the world leader Trump wants us to be if we purposely keep ourselves out of the world and decide that women around it shouldn’t be given proper healthcare.”

Many remain divided over both presidential decisions. Some feel that organizations which perform abortions should not receive government funding, while others feel that abortion–being a medical procedure–should be covered similarly to other procedures.

“I don’t believe Planned Parenthood is an entirely terrible thing, I do think they do some charitable activities and I would be perfectly fine if they continued doing that,” Birch said. “Maybe I’d even support giving them government funding, but as long as they’re doing things like abortion to innocents who don’t deserve the fate they’re given, I don’t support it.”