Since its formation in 1916, Planned Parenthood has helped millions of men and women worldwide  in family planning, access to cancer screenings, STD testing, sexual education, and providing birth control. It has 650 clinics nationwide and partners with twelve countries globally, making it the largest provider of reproductive health services.

    Our president, since the start of the election, has maintained his conservative stance when it comes to women’s reproductive rights. He announced his plan to defund Planned Parenthood early on, as well as overturn Roe v. Wade, which passed in 1971. Since then, he has halted funding to countries who offer abortion as a way of family planning, giving those countries no choice but to stop providing abortions.

    Just recently, Trump attempted to negotiate with the organization, promising to continue funding as long as abortion goes.

    “Let’s be clear: Federal funds already do not pay for abortions,” Dawn Laguens, the executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said on Monday. “Offering money to Planned Parenthood to abandon our patients and our values is not a deal that we will ever accept. Providing critical health care services for millions of American women is nonnegotiable.”

    Our Vice President, Mike Pence, also poses a threat to women’s reproductive rights. While the governor of Indiana, he signed a bill prohibiting abortion because of a disability of the fetus. This bill also held doctors liable for performing the procedure under these circumstances, and required aborted fetuses to be given something akin to a funeral service. He also vowed to send Roe v. Wade “to the ash heap of history”.

    The biggest threat, however, might be their acrimony towards the Affordable Care Act, which is currently in the process of being reformed by Trump’s administration. Since his election, there has been a spike in birth control, specifically IUDs- a long term birth control form. Women are afraid that soon, they will have little to no access to such protection.

    Of course, all of this doesn’t necessarily mean the end of Planned Parenthood for the women of the United States. The organization has known opposition ever since its inception. Despite all of that opposition and attempts to defund or delegitimize it, it has stayed strong in its vow to help to Women (and Men) all around the world.