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By Vivian Greentree

Have you had a pap smear lately? If not, it is hardly surprising. Texas has one of the lowest rates in the country of women who have had a pap smear in the last three years. That is why it is shocking that Planned Parenthood - which provides such vital services as pap smears that are crucial in detecting cervical cancer, along with other fundamental health care services - is constantly under attack

Two such recent attacks by the Texas Department of Health and Human Services include a huge budgetary cut for Planned Parenthood reallocating more than $10 million in state family planning funds at the same time as $2.5 million in grants are being awarded to two "crisis pregnancy centers" that promote childbirth over abortion. Planned Parenthood wasn't allowed to apply for these funds. What a great way to decrease the soaring teen pregnancies and births to teenagers in Texas – cut funding for the very programs that are aimed at educating them…and then deny them treatment unless they believe in the fundamentalist rhetoric of what essentially equates to church volunteers.

The Heidi Group, one of the two crisis pregnancy centers that will be receiving part of the $2.5 million in grants, is a Christian-based group that offers pregnant women hope "through a relationship with Christ." That, along with their "limited medical services" is supposed to make up for the loss of high quality, affordable and confidential health care for women provided by Planned Parenthood? I wonder if they will dispense emergency contraception?

No one does more to prevent abortion than Planned Parenthood. However, most conservatives and religious fanatics are continually assailing this organization that has done more to protect and improve the lives of women than any other organization in history. While some fixate on one issue so complex and intimate that it has been debated over for generations, many more realize the essential nature of Planned Parenthood and its mission to provide and protect the sexual and reproductive health care for both women and men as they provide the information people need to plan their families and their futures.

Planned Parenthood already operates on a shoe-string budget while providing things like: diabetes and hypertension screenings, cervical and breast cancer screenings, birth control, emergency contraception, testing & treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, gynecological exams, pap smears and evaluation for abnormal pap smears, pelvic exams, male sexual health examinations, menopause care, mammogram referrals, abortion care, and referral for adoption and prenatal care.

Which one of these imperative medical tests will be cut and how many Texas men and women will suffer for the pseudo-morality of others? If we took a tenth of the energy and money put into the melodramatic demonstrations of transparent political ideology and devoted it to improving the lives of children who have been born into lives of poverty, violence, and neglect, we could actually solve some problems. If we took the $2.5 million in grants and actually used it for real sexual education programs (not just abstinence-only programs) that could be a start.

Planned Parenthood fills a gap, a wide gap, for people with lower incomes. It takes on clients without the ability to pay, and it provides them medical treatment with dignity and quality of care. It can do this because of federal and state funding and donations by patrons and patients. Without state funding, Planned Parenthood will either have to curtail its services or charge the patients more money they don't have. Either option is unacceptable to the people of this state.

Vivian Greentree graduated from the University of Georgia with degrees in Political Science and Public Relations. After serving as a Supply Officer in the U.S. Navy for four years, she is currently pursuing her Masters degree.