Picketing Planned Parenthood is shameful

As many know, CSB/SJU is home to a ‘Students For Life Club’ which, if you ask me, should simply be called ‘Students against abortion’ or ‘Students for fetuses,’ but that’s another conversation. They have an Instagram and, on Oct. 23, posted a photo of four SJU students picketing the St. Cloud Planned Parenthood location. The post celebrated the “activism” of these students. However, activism is the last word I would use to describe this behavior. Instead, it is shameful and contributes to the stigma around reproductive healthcare.

First and foremost, the St. Cloud Planned Parenthood location does not perform abortions, period. Second, Planned Parenthood provides necessary reproductive health services, STD/STI testing, contraceptive measures and screening for cancers. In 2020 alone, a year plagued by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Planned Parenthood served 2.4 million patients, 321,001 of whom were male. Additionally, 395,000 unintended pregnancies were avoided by contraceptive services (this should be of big interest to Students for Life as it literally prevented abortions). On top of this, Planned Parenthood performed 861,664 HIV tests and diagnosed and treated 308,135 STIs.

Your cry to “Defund Planned Parenthood” would rip a life line away from four million Title X Patients in a typical year. For context, Title X is the only federal program that provides low-income and uninsured individuals with family planning and preventative services. Without Title X, these individuals could not afford these vital services on their own. Many of these individuals are low-income and economically disadvantaged. Students for Life was in a sense “rooting” for these individuals to be stripped of vital health care.

On top of that, reproductive healthcare such as pap smears, birth control, breast exams and other important cancer screening tests are already heavily stigmatized. When a woman rolls up to a Planned Parenthood for care and immediately sees male protesters with signs who are yelling at her, the last thing she wants to do is walk into that clinic. For years, men have been trying to deprive women of their bodily autonomy. This is no different. To make matters worse, Students for Life receives student activity fee money that comes from all CSB and SJU students. As a CSB student, I am incredibly uncomfortable with my money going to a student-run club that pickets a place that provides important, and in some cases lifesaving, healthcare.

You see your cause as noble. Standing up for the rights of fetuses, except after they exit the womb you cease to care. These men and women who utilize the services offered by Planned Parenthood have beating hearts too. They are human. They deserve compassion. They do not deserve to be harassed by CSB/SJU students who are protesting a reproductive health clinic.

There are significantly better ways to spread your message and get others to join your cause. Because if this is how you go about advocating for the pro-life agenda, I would never even consider being a part of such an in your face, inconsiderate and disrespectful approach.