Following the Nov. 27 shooting at a Colorado Planned Parenthood center, the growing controversy over Planned Parenthood’s federal funding seemed to blow up into a massive social movement, known as the Stand with Planned Parenthood movement. The hashtag “#standwithpp” was trending on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social media networks, but the movement was not without retaliation. A counter-movement called Stop Planned Parenthood (STOPP) was quickly formed. STOPP’s website includes a petition to cut all federal funding for Planned Parenthood as well as tips on how to keep Planned Parenthood out of schools and communities. With the support of STOPP, House Republicans scheduled a vote for Jan. 6 to block all federal funding for Planned Parenthood, which seems like it will surely pass, according to WTHR news.

Organizations like STOPP, which readily oppose Planned Parenthood and its federal funding, tend to make the mistake of focusing solely on one service that Planned Parenthood provides: abortions. For instance, according to an article from Think Progress, Robert Lewis Dear, the Colorado Planned Parenthood shooter, called himself a “warrior for the babies” and was an anti-abortion activist even before his shooting at the Planned Parenthood center. Indeed, abortion seems to be one of those divisive, hot-button issues which polarizes people to the point where no agreement can be reached. However, people seem to think Planned Parenthood and abortions are the same thing. This is, in fact, not the case.

Planned Parenthood does provide abortions. That is true. However, abortions are only one of many services Planned Parenthood provides. According to its website, Planned Parenthood also provides STD testing and treatment, pregnancy tests, birth control, women’s healthcare, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) services and general healthcare. While defunding Planned Parenthood would defund abortions, which some view as morally wrong or against their religious beliefs, it would also defund all of these vastly important services, which many could not obtain or afford if it were not for Planned Parenthood.

According to Planned Parenthood’s website, approximately 2.7 million men and women visit Planned Parenthood centers each year. Surely some visit for abortions, but since this is only one of the many services Planned Parenthood covers, it cannot be assumed that all of these people come to get abortions. Therefore, equating abortions to Planned Parenthood just to make its funding a more hot-button issue is giving the public false information about the purpose of Planned Parenthood and tricking people into believing that Planned Parenthood is only an abortion clinic, when in reality, it does far more than just perform abortions.

On Jan. 6, Congress voted to get rid of most of Planned Parenthood’s federal funding, according to LifeSite News. The vote was 240 to 181. Although President Barack Obama is likely to veto this act, it saddens me to know that there are so many people who cannot look past one small detail of Planned Parenthood’s purpose and recognize how important and helpful the organization is to so many people across America. Hopefully, Obama will veto this measure and spare the millions of people who rely on Planned Parenthood for care each year.

While Planned Parenthood may be disagreeable to some people because they provide abortions, everyone should support Planned Parenthood no matter what their stance on abortion is due to the fact that it is only one of many services Planned Parenthood provides. I stand with Planned Parenthood in this time of need. America should too.

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach Emily Worrell at [email protected].