PRINCETON: Planned Parenthood head: Politics out of women’s health

By Ellis Liang, Special Writer
   Politics have interfered with women’s health care for too long, and it is time for Planned Parenthood to fight back, according to Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
   Ms. Richards, who has served as president since 2006, spoke to a full house in Robertson Hall at Princeton University Wednesday afternoon on “Keeping Politics Out of Women’s Health.”
   With almost 800 centers across the nation, Planned Parenthood provides reproductive and health services to three million people each year. In addition, it offers sex education to more than 1.1 million young people.
   Despite these successes, women’s health care in the United States is severely lacking, said Ms. Richards. According to her, 385,000 women die of pregnancy related issues each year, and the United States has one of the highest unintended pregnancy rates of any Western country.
   ”(The United States) is on the forefront of so many things. Heck, we even invented the iPad,” said Ms. Richards. “But we are one of the most backward countries when it comes to sexual and reproductive health care.”
   Ms. Richards attributes some of these failures to political barriers, including laws that threaten to restrict access to health care and cut funding for Planned Parenthood.
   ”We are now literally fighting for the right to give preventative care in this country,” said Ms. Richards. “Does a politician have the right or somehow better information than a woman’s health care provider to make better decisions about her health care?”
   But improving technologies provide new tools for overcoming political barriers. Planned Parenthood’s recently launched website attracts more than 33 million visitors each year. And this past year, Ms. Richards observed the power of social media to impact women’s health when 1.3 million Tweets were sent over the course of three days, urging the Komen charity for breast cancer to reinstate funding for Planned Parenthood.
   But the Web also breeds inaccurate information. Referring to a Yahoo! Answers post she saw in which “the best answer” suggested that a plastic glove could be substituted for a condom, Ms. Richards realizes that there is a need for better information.
   ”Teens live online, on their Smartphones, where they’re looking for information about sexual and reproductive health care,” said Ms. Richards. “We have to be there for them.”
   Ms. Richards is currently extending Planned Parenthood’s outreach through three ways: allowing people to communicate with Planned Parenthood nurses through text messaging, having physicians hold videoconferences with patients and providing sexual education.
   Of the three, Ms. Richards believes that texting will be the most effective at protecting young people. Not only is texting becoming the primary way through which youth communicate, but texting also provides immediate answers for teens who might be too scared to visit a Planned Parenthood clinic. Since the advent of the texting pilot program in December, Planned Parenthood has received texts from 65,000 people.
   But with the 2012 election approaching, Ms. Richards believes that young people must take on the fight for health care themselves.
   Especially in light of Republican presidential candidates who want to “end the national family planning program,” Ms. Richards said, “There’s never been a greater opportunity and a greater need for young people to stand up to fight for health care.”
   ”Public health is a good. We have to value it,” she said.