With the Inauguration and first month with our new president underway, many controversial issues are once again being argued. Recently Trump issued an executive order defunding planned parenthood.

“Whether or not you are pro-choice or pro-life, government defunding of Planned Parenthood is not about the debate of when a life beings but it is about rights our citizens have to basic healthcare needs. PP is a century old organization that has served millions of people across America for decades and this barely scratches the surface,” senior Jessica Narum said.

This fact about Planned Parenthood is important to know, people who claim to stand with planned parenthood are not necessarily standing for abortions. Planned Parenthood provides contraceptive options, sex education, STD screenings and other sexual relationship counseling as well as body image counseling according to their website. These services are crucial to our society especially as Planned Parenthood is most frequently used by those living in lower income areas.

Regardless of your stance on abortions, it is important to know what you are supporting. Planned Parenthood is key to the safety of millions of women and should have a place in today’s America, in order to remain it requires government funding.

Whenever abortion issues come up, the Roe v. Wade case is always mentioned. The case was passed in 1973 at the supreme court level and ruled the previous law, that stated that abortions could only be performed to save the mother’s life, unconstitutional.

This, in turn, legalized abortions in the U.S. An abortion, by definition, is purposefully ending a pregnancy within the first seven months. This does mean that the fetus is killed and does cause distress amongst most pregnant women who opt for abortions. What’s important to keep in mind about abortions, however, is that 92 percent occur within the first 13 weeks (three months) or first trimester according to Planned Parenthood. At three months the fetus is three – four inches long, the size of a car key and weighs about an ounce as stated on WebMD.

Let it be clear as well that no one is pro abortions, just pro options for women. An abortion should be one of those options.

It is a personal decision on whether you consider this fetus to be it’s own person or not. The fact is that without the mother, there is no chance it could survive, it is inside her, a part of her. More often than not this is where the argument turns to religion, and in a country that practices freedom of religion, I am not going to tell you that your feelings and beliefs are invalid. However, because we are country that is built on these ideals, I do not believe it can be used as an argument to ban someone else from using abortion as an option because the fetus is a part of them and could not survive without them.

“Personally I think that’s it’s not for the judgment of the government to determine what a woman can and cannot do with their body. I understand the religious ideologies embedded against abortion. But there’s also the Bill of Rights which is created to protect the people against over reaches such as this. Roe V Wade is a case and point,” senior Ben Kaiser said.

According to a book by A. Chandra, Adoption, adoption seeking, and relinquishment for adoption in the United States, in 1973 (the year Roe v. Wade passed) nine percent of infants born to single mothers were put up for adoption. The same source went on to state that in 1982 that number decreased to two percent and then to less than one percent in 1989.

This was the time of the spike in abortions, the number of abortions have since decreased and in 2013 reached the lowest number recorded. Part of this can be attributed to the increase in availability of birth control and health care services such as those provided by Planned Parenthood, however the number of children being placed for adoptions have stayed the same. By keeping Planned Parenthood around and getting contraceptives and birth control to more individuals the rates of abortions could possibly decrease even more.

These facts make it clear that unwanted children are not being born as often and that the health care we currently provide is effective in keeping unwanted pregnancies from happening. If abortions were to become illegal not only is it true that the number of children being placed for adoption would triple, its probable adoption services and foster care would not be able to handle the growing demand for care.

In 2012, according to the National Adoption Center, of the 399,546 kids who were in foster care only 52,039 were adopted which is only around 13 percent. Of the children who exited foster care (for clarification this does not necessarily mean adoption) in 2012 over half had been in the system for over a year. The foster care system is not meant to be a long term solution. Without abortion available more children would be entering the system due to being unwanted by their birth parents, and the rates of exiting foster care could be expected to remain the same as those seeking children would not increase, leaving the system with far more children.

To further see the damage making abortions illegal would cause to the US population, it’s important to consider the demographics of those getting abortions. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 49 percent of those who opt for abortions live below the poverty line and 26 percent are considered to be low income. This puts 75 percent of women who get abortions in the range of poverty/low income. These women are women who either already have more children than they can adequately provide for or are already struggling to provide for themselves.

“I agree with pro choice because if abortion was no longer an option for women, first off it would take away women’s rights. Women then would be forced to go back to old ways and unsafe medical conditions. It is a women’s body and a law shouldn’t tell her different,” senior Anna Serino said.

Before Roe v. Wade the number of home abortions was not recorded as it was an illegal activity and according to an article published by the New York Times, Legal or Not, Abortion Rates Compare, a study confirmed that the number of abortion rates in countries where abortions are offered and those where they are not are about the same. This means that although abortions may soon be illegal the amount of women seeking abortions probably won’t decrease drastically and fatality of those pregnant women may increase because no safe affordable option is available, resulting in a world with more unwanted children and more endangered women.