Get more in-depth information about current reproductive health and rights issues and see where Planned Parenthood stands.

Right to Choose

Planned Parenthood, the world's oldest and largest not-for-profit reproductive health care organization, is dedicated to the principle that every individual has a fundamental right to decide when and whether to become a parent. In 1970, New York State emerged as a leader in protecting women's health and equality by being the first state in the nation to legalize abortion. In 1973, the Supreme Court followed suit by legalizing abortion throughout the United States with the Roe v. Wade decision. The Court concluded that the U.S. Constitution guaranteed a right to privacy that "is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy." Under Roe, women have a constitutionally protected right to decide whether to continue a pregnancy before fetal viability, or at any point if necessary to preserve her life or health. The decision in Roe built on earlier Supreme Court decisions establishing the right to privacy with respect to medical decisions affecting reproductive health, like birth control and sterilization.

Planned Parenthood believes that women have the right to obtain a confidential, medically safe, legal abortion under the standards set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Roe v. Wade decision. Abortion services must include medically accurate information about the nature, consequences, and risks of the procedure, and counseling on the alternatives available to the woman, so as to assure an informed decision concerning the continuation or termination of pregnancy. Abortion must always be a matter of personal choice. Planned Parenthood recognizes its responsibility to guard equally against coercion or denial of services in connection with a patient's decision about continuing a pregnancy. No one should be denied abortion services solely because of age, economic or social circumstances.

Abortion Access

The United States Congress has used its funding powers to single out certain classes of women (low-income women, federal employees, military personnel serving overseas, residents of the District of Columbia, and women in federal prisons) and restrict their access to legal abortions because their health care is funded in part by the federal government.

Even though the federal government excludes abortion from covered services in the Medicaid program, New York State has ensured that financial hardship is not an obstacle to accessing safe abortion care by providing state dollars to pay for abortion care under its Medicaid program. Planned Parenthood believes that no woman should be denied abortion services and the ability to decide when and whether to become a parent solely because of her economic circumstance. Planned Parenthood supports continued access to abortion services in NYS for women who otherwise could not afford them.

Funding for Family Planning

Every year, more than 400,000 low-income women in New York State access family planning services through clinics that receive public funding from state programs. These women are predominantly young, poor, and uninsured. Publicly subsidized family planning services allow low-income women to get cancer screenings, STI testing, pap tests and other basic health care services. These services also include contraceptive services and family planning counseling, which prevent thousands of unintended pregnancies and abortions each year.

Eighty-eight percent of voters believe the use of contraceptives and other family planning measures is important, while 74% favor increased public funding for family planning services to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies. Yet despite the individual, social and economic benefits, as well as overwhelming public support, family planning remains underfunded. While the number of women seeking these basic health care services and the cost of providing them continues to rise, the funding for family planning services in New York State has remained level for over the last few years. Planned Parenthood supports an increase in family planning funding in New York State.

Funding Without Restrictions

Nationally Planned Parenthood's affiliates operate 875 health centers in 49 states and the District of Columbia, with medical and education services that reach more than 5 million Americans each year. Through its international program, Planned Parenthood also helps meet the family planning needs of women and men in the developing world.

Planned Parenthood receives federal and state funding for many of the services we provide around the world. Federal and state laws restrict the use of these funds for abortion services, but some anti-choice groups and individuals want to prevent Planned Parenthood from receiving any public funding because we use privately-raised funds to provide abortions and advocate for changes in abortion laws. These groups and individuals want the government to adopt a "gag rule" policy whereby any family planning center that receives public funds would be prohibited from providing counseling and referrals for abortion services, and even from using their own private, non-governmental funds to provide abortions.

Planned Parenthood supports public family planning funding that does not restrict or prevent health care providers from talking to women about and providing the full range of reproductive health care options, including abortion. Such a "gag rule" would mandate unsound medical practices, interfere with the ability of women to make informed and voluntary decisions concerning when and whether to become a parent, and deny important information and services to patients and communities served by federally-funded programs. New York State currently has no such restrictions, but only because advocates have worked hard to educate the public and legislators about the harmful effect these restrictions would have on the health of women.

Responsible Sex Education

Planned Parenthood believes that young people need medically accurate, age-appropriate sex education that encourages them to delay sexual activity while also providing them with accurate information about how to protect themselves against unintended pregnancy and STIs, including HIV/AIDS, in order to stay healthy and safe. Responsible sex education must include information on both abstinence and contraception to help young people make informed choices about sex. Planned Parenthood provides sex education through its network of affiliates in New York and nationwide and works to ensure that sex education is offered through other diverse settings including the home, schools, public health facilities, religious institutions, and youth-serving organizations.

Research shows that comprehensive sex education — health programs that are medically accurate, age-appropriate, and include information about contraception in addition to abstinence — is effective at helping young people postpone intercourse, reduce their number of sexual partners and increase the use of condoms and other forms of contraception among young people who are sexually active . In contrast, research has found that abstinence-only-until-marriage education — programs that teach that abstinence is the only acceptable form of behavior outside of marriage (for people of any age) and that only discuss condoms and other contraceptive methods in order to highlight their failure rate — is ineffective .

Furthermore, the public strongly supports medically accurate, comprehensive sex education, as opposed to abstinence-only education. Seventy-seven percent of New York voters believe that age-appropriate, medically accurate sex education should be taught in New York's public schools. Nonetheless, New York State continues to receive and to allot millions of dollars from the federal government to support ineffective abstinence-only education that puts teens' health and safety at risk and does not give them the information they need to make responsible choices. Currently, there are no dedicated public dollars in New York State for comprehensive sexuality education, nor is there a mandate in New York State that sex education in public schools be medically accurate and include information about abstinence as well as disease and pregnancy prevention.

Planned Parenthood supports funding the teaching of responsible, age-appropriate, medically accurate sex education, including information about both abstinence and contraception, in public schools. That's why Planned Parenthood supports the Healthy Teens Act (A.6619/S.5121), a bill currently before the New York State Legislature that would create a grant program for comprehensive sexuality education.

Emergency Contraception (EC)

Emergency contraception (EC) describes several methods of preventing pregnancy after unprotected intercourse. Known by many as "the morning after pill," emergency contraceptive pills are the most commonly used emergency contraceptive method. Emergency contraception pills are a high dose of birth control pills. If taken within five days of unprotected intercourse, they can prevent up to 75% of unintended pregnancies. Widespread use of emergency contraception could prevent an estimated 1.7 million unintended pregnancies and 800,000 abortions each year in the United States. It is a safe and effective method of contraception. EC is not the same thing as RU-486 ("the abortion pill") and has no effect on an existing pregnancy . It is a safe and effective method of contraception.

In light of EC's safety and effectiveness, both the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have endorsed more widespread availability of it. EC is not yet available over-the-counter in the U.S. An FDA advisory panel found that EC is suitable for over-the-counter sale because it is safe, non-addictive and can easily be self-administered. However, the FDA has yet to act upon the advisory panel's recommendations. Planned Parenthood supports increasing access to emergency contraception by authorizing pharmacists and nurses to dispense EC to women without a patient-specific prescription . That is why Planned Parenthood supports the Unplanned Pregnancy Prevention Act (A.0116/S.1576), a bill currently before the New York State Legislature.

Access to Birth Control

There is a growing nationwide trend of pharmacists refusing to fill valid, legal prescriptions for contraceptives, including emergency contraception. Some pharmacists insist that they should be able to deny women access to basic contraceptive care on the grounds of religious or moral objections. In addition, states around the country are adopting legislation that explicitly permits pharmacists to refuse to fill such prescriptions, even if the patient has no other options for care. It is the policy of Planned Parenthood that any allowance for an individual pharmacist to refuse to fill a prescription for birth control be met with the employing pharmacy's commitment to ensure that someone else is available on site to fill the patient's prescription.

A woman, not her pharmacy, should decide whether or not she is ready to become a parent. Laws permitting pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions that do not require the pharmacy to ensure that the patient is able to access her medication are dangerous to women's health because they interfere with the doctor-patient relationship and ignore a woman's medical needs and decisions.

Public opinion is overwhelmingly in favor of ensuring prompt access to legally prescribed medications. A poll conducted for the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project revealed that 88% of people oppose "allowing pharmacies to refuse to fill prescriptions they object to on religious grounds." Planned Parenthood supports policies requiring pharmacies to ensure that valid, legal prescriptions, including emergency contraception are filled in a timely manner.

Bans on Abortion

Planned Parenthood believes that a woman and her doctor should be able to make decisions about what medical care is best to protect her health. Anti-choice groups have attempted to erode the rights established in Roe v. Wade by supporting broad, vaguely worded, and deceptive laws, such as so-called "partial birth abortion" bans, that criminalize doctors for providing what may be the safest, most appropriate care for their patients.

These laws would prohibit a variety of safe abortion procedures (not just one) that are performed as early as 12-15 weeks in pregnancy — well before fetal viability. They would also prohibit women and their doctors from deciding which abortion procedure is safest and most appropriate for a woman's specific medical needs. Indeed, they would criminalize physicians for using their best medical judgment to protect the life and health of women. Planned Parenthood supports a woman's right to choose the abortion method she and her physician deem safest for her individual health and needs.

Protecting Our Teens' Health

Planned Parenthood believes that minors' health and safety is best protected by ensuring their confidential access to reproductive health services, including family planning, disease prevention, and abortion. Some individuals and organizations believe that the government should mandate parental notification or consent for teenagers to access reproductive health care. While Planned Parenthood supports and promotes communication between parents and their teens, requiring parental notification or consent would reduce the numbers of teens seeking care and put them in danger. We believe it is important for teens to have access to safe health care, even if they can't come to their parents for whatever reason.

Planned Parenthood believes that parent-teen communication is crucial to good decision-making, but not all teens can go to their parents. If a young woman were afraid to talk to her parents about reproductive health care needs, including an unintended pregnancy, most parents would still want their daughter to be safe and to have access to professional medical care and counseling in a timely way

Planned Parenthood opposes government-mandated parental consent and parental notification requirements.

Honoring Women's Decisions

Planned Parenthood fully supports a woman's right to decide when and whether to become a parent, including her right to carry a pregnancy to term, and believes it is crucial to protect all women, including pregnant women, from violence.

In New York State, there have been recent legislative attempts that claim the objective of protecting a pregnant woman from violence, but actually have the true purpose of undermining reproductive rights. These legislative proposals, such as the "Unborn Victims of Violence Act" (UVVA), would make it a separate crime to harm a fetus during the commission of a crime against a pregnant woman. The dangerous reality of this legislation is that it elevates the legal status of a fetus — at any stage of gestation — to that of an adult, which could be used to undermine legal access to abortion, preventing women from getting necessary health care that conflicts with the "interests” of the fetus. Planned Parenthood opposes legislation that creates separate legal rights for fetuses, distinct from those of the pregnant woman.