President of Planned Parenthood Defends Organization

Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund, advocated for widespread accessibility to reproductive healthcare at the Institute of Politics Tuesday evening.

Planned Parenthood consists of more than 650 health centers across the nation that provide sexual and reproductive healthcare. According to Richards, every month the organization provides healthcare services to two and a half million people in its health centers, and to six million people online.

Planned Parenthood has become highly controversial in the political sphere, largely due to its federal funding and abortion services. However, according to Richards, federal dollars do not fund abortions, which are paid for by other sources, including private donors, foundations, and fees.

“I believe abortion should be safe and legal,” Richards said. “We do more at Planned Parenthood on any given week, right here in Massachusetts, to prevent unintended pregnancy, and the need for abortion, than the people who are outside picketing our health centers.”

Abortions only make up of three percent of Planned Parenthood’s total services, she added. The centers also provide sexual education, contraception to prevent unintended pregnancies, cancer screening and prevention, and tests and treatments for sexually transmitted infections.

“People have very personal feelings about the issue of abortion,” Richards said. “But the vast majority of Americans believe, regardless of their personal feelings, that decisions about pregnancy are best made by women, their families, and their doctors, and not by politicians.”

Richards also discussed the social inequity gap of healthcare accessibility, citing a statistic that low-income American women are five times more likely to have an unintended pregnancy than high-income women.

“That’s the injustice of these laws,” Richards said. “It’s low-income women, and women with the least access to care, that are in the worst shape.”

During the question and answer session, audience members affiliated with the student organization Harvard Right to Life challenged Richards’ arguments.

When Scott Ely ’18, an audience member and treasurer of Harvard Right to Life, questioned the morality of certain motivations for abortion, Richards argued for the right of each woman to make reproductive decision without the oversight of politicians, legislators, governors, and judges.