While every eighth grader at Manhattan Beach Middle School learns how our government was built on the separation of church and state, members of the United States government today can’t seem to follow this simple standard.
The freedom of religion in the U.S. Constitution gives women of the Christian faith every right to oppose abortions based on their beliefs, but people are forgetting that it also gives women with other perspectives the right to express their ideologies too. Wanting a child born isn’t pro-life, it’s pro-birth. What pro-life should be is wanting a
child to be educated, well-fed, properly housed, and securely protected from gun violence, the leading cause of child mortality.
A current conflict in the court questions whether South Carolina can defund Planned Parenthood, an organization that provides women’s health care including abortions, by by taking away its Medicaid funding. Medicaid is a federal health care program for people of low income. Prior to this, Medicaid patient Julie Edwards won her lawsuit against South Carolina after demonstrating that regular visits to Planned Parenthood for birth control was life-essential, as her diabetes posed serious risks in carrying her pregnancy to term. The state has since appealed to
the Supreme Court.
A Supreme Court decision to cut Medicaid funding would immediately impact the 40% of Los Angeles County that rely on Medi-Cal. Federal law already prohibits Medicaid funds from going toward abortions. What draws patients to Planned Parenthood is the other care they provide and their acceptance of publicly funded insurance. The organization doesn’t just provide abortion access, but other important services such as cancer screening, birth control, sexual education, vaccines, and STD testing.
As of Apr. 1, the Trump administration is also withholding funds from Title X, a family planning program that allows Planned Parenthood to receive government funding. In states like Massachusetts, Planned Parenthood has seen increases in out-of-state patients, with most patients coming from abortion ban states Texas, Georgia, and Florida. On a more practical note, families who rely on Medicaid are already in a tough financial situation; removing access to Planned Parenthood facilities strips them of healthcare and forces women to consider dangerous options, or birth children into challenging circumstances. Over 11 million children are currently living in poverty, and this cycle only continues. Seeing that our current administration and its unelected co-president Elon Musk– who spent $44 billion
buying Twitter when it would cost $25 billion to end hunger in America can’t seem to find sufficient funds for public education, it is doubtful they will provide funding towards children who are placed into the foster system because their families could not access or afford an abortion.
“Freedom of religion also means freedom from religion,” Costa sophomore Ava Panah said. “Religious beliefs should never dictate the rights of someone else, no matter if they are from a background or culture that’s different from yours.”
An increase in birth rates is paired with declining education rates as the administration also slashes public school funding. This is a clear sign of societal regression and a return to systematic inequality and discriminatory practices. South Carolina attorneys who claim patients can easily visit other health centers for care overlook the economic barriers Medicaid recipients face on a daily basis: transportation, flexible work, and childcare are privileges that are difficult to come by, especially for rural areas and the 40% of South Carolina that live in contraceptive deserts. The cost to get from South Carolina to a non-restrictive state could cost hundreds of dollars and hours of travel that may not be feasible for individuals relying on Medicaid.
Individuals advocating for these healthcare restrictions have no real interest in uplifting communities or creating paths of social mobility for the lower class, as limiting abortions and other healthcare programs imposes huge burdens on parents and reinforces a cycle of economic instability. In fact, they only speak from a place of privilege and inexperience to the struggles of poverty, self-interested in maintaining the gap between themselves and the lower class.
As the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood is doing their part to expand access to essential healthcare that everyone is entitled to. One third teenage pregnancies are aborted for all sorts of reasons, a figure only projected to rise in the next few years. Studies show that women who are denied access to an abortion are more likely to live in poverty. Forcing women to birth children they can’t support, then setting that child up for a life of poverty is cruel. Society needs to put religious beliefs aside and recognize that a woman should be the one to decide whether or not she carries a pregnancy to term, and not having this choice is inhumane.
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