Protests must defend Planned Parenthood and women’s rights

When Wisconsin approved an anti–union bill, protests flared up across the state. These protests soon spread to other states, as well as Washington, D.C., as other state legislatures attempted to pass similar bills. When violence and human rights abuses began in Egypt and Libya, protests erupted in front of the respective embassies. Yet legislation in at least five states and a national bill to limit women’s reproductive rights, have gone without widespread protests.

It seems strange that legislation that affects a woman’s right to her own body, a fundamental human right, has not been physically protested on a wide scale. Over 200,000 people came out to rally against insanity with Jon Stewart, yet few protests on the issue have drawn more than 100 people. On our own campus, dozens of professors and students protested Alvaro Uribe’s short stint as a professor at Georgetown. Where is the outrage from female students or Georgetown’s International Human Rights Clinic now?

I grew up in France, where protests are a part of life. They occur often and are expected. The proposed cuts to funding for Title X, which funds Planned Parenthood is a major piece of legislation. In France, such a large and devastatingbudget cut to an institution that provides numerous social welfare services, would be met with enormous protests throughout many French cities. Why, then, is this not occurring in the U.S.?

There may be a fear of seeming to support abortion, still a somewhat taboo subject. But in the end, this comes down to more than that—it comes down to rights. Republicans are attacking two fundamental human rights, the right to one’s body and the right to healthcare. Planned Parenthood provides prenatal care, as well as STD and cancer screenings, to thousands of women. Twenty percent of American women have used Planned Parenthood at one time or another, or more than 30 million women. This bill denies these women access to this healthcare because its proponents are not willing to allow women to have control over their own bodies, many for moralistic reasons.

But religion needs to be taken out of the debate on Planned Parenthood. We need to look at this as a matter of health. Cutting healthcare for millions due to religious beliefs is wrong and against the American tenet of the separation of church and state. By federal mandate, Planned Parenthood can’t use federal money for abortion services. Therefore, the money that will be cut comes from the cancer screening and pre-natal care, which are needed for women to maintain proper health, especially those who are disadvantaged. Completely shutting off funding due to activities that the government does not fund is not fair, especially when these activities are legal.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi recently came out in defense of Title X, saying, “It’s dangerous to women’s health, disrespects the judgment of American women—I don’t know if they even gave that a thought—and it’s the most comprehensive and radical assault on women’s health in our lifetime.” The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, a UN convention, reaffirms her words as it states that women have the right to family planning, the right to their own bodies, and the right to reproductive healthcare. But tellingly, this convention has not been ratified by the U.S.—along with Iran, Sudan, and Somalia.

As a nation, we need to step back and realize that we are infringing upon fundamental rights. And female students3 need to stand up and fight against this injustice. Our right to healthcare is just as important as our right to education and our right to freedom. The gross injustice in the Republicans’ budget directly discriminates against women. Our rights as women are being assaulted. We need to join together and fight for them. Many great leaders, like Susan B. Anthony and Ruth Ginsberg did  much for women’s rights. We can’t allow our rights to slip away without protest; we can’t let their work go to waste.