How Limiting Access To Abortion Limits Access To Birth Control

Planned Parenthood has been controversial since its 1916 founding, but the latest wave of political battles against it began in earnest in 2007, when then-Rep. Mike Pence introduced an amendment to a House of Representatives’ appropriations bill to block federal funds from going to the organization’s nationwide network of reproductive health clinics.

Planned Parenthood was targeted because it’s the largest abortion provider in the United States, but it wasn’t its abortion services that were on the chopping block. Federal law already prohibits federal funds from being used for abortion services. Instead, the bill would have ended payments to Planned Parenthood for other health services, like cancer screenings, testing for sexually transmitted infections, regular reproductive health exams and contraception. 

The goal of Republican pro-life lawmakers like Pence has long been to put abortion clinics out of business. But what the long-running fight against Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers shows is that access to abortion and birth control are often linked. In fact, almost all clinics that provide abortion services also provide contraceptive services.