A couple of blocks from where I taught at the Margaret Hudson Program (MHP), and a few hundred yards from the Head Start program our students’ children attended was the office of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. It was tucked into the far end of a nondescript strip center, set back from the main road.
Our onsite nurse referred our students to Planned Parenthood for birth control after their babies were born. Most opted for either the Mirena vaginal implant or the Nexplanon implant in their arm. Both are long-lasting, which was a benefit for students who didn’t intend to have a second pregnancy before graduating—most of them didn’t.
On several occasions, students developed rashes or pain at the injection site on their arm and had to apply ice for a few days. It was a small inconvenience, which students complained about loudly, but all recognized the greater good. However, birth control implants must be removed, and some students feared that procedure. Consequently, not all students opted for implants.
We had at least one student each year who became pregnant a second time—never a third, thank goodness! This was often because they chose to take birth control pills and were haphazard about taking them, or the pills failed to prevent a pregnancy. The nurse was steadfast in informing students that some medications interfere with a contraceptive’s effectiveness, but unplanned pregnancies still occurred.
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland is now permanently closed in Broken Arrow. In ruby red Oklahoma, where very limited abortions were legal, even during the Roe v. Wade years, Planned Parenthood did not perform them in the state. In fact, fewer than half of Planned Parenthood sites had abortion clinics even when the procedure was legal. Since Roe v. Wade was struck down, there are even fewer. In 2024, they provided about 38% of all abortions in states where it is permitted.
Although the organization is synonymous in most people’s minds with abortions, Planned Parenthood provides numerous services to women, many of them critical. In fact, many women would get no gynecological healthcare, cancer screenings, or pregnancy prevention education if it weren’t for the affordable care Planned Parenthood offers.
Some of the lesser known services they provide are adoption referrals, telemedicine appointments, annual wellness exams, breast and cervical cancer screenings, HIV services, hormone replacement therapy, Pap smears, treatment for UTIs and STDs, vaccinations, and birth control. With OB/GYN specialists in short supply in many counties, Planned Parenthood might be the closest service a woman has access to.
I now live in Texas, and I discovered recently that in addition to the services listed above, Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas offers programs for teens and their parents. As well as educational services geared toward teen girls about their bodies and reproductive systems, there is education offered for parents of teens who have questions about how to approach sexuality topics with their teens.
In Texas, as in other states, teens younger than 18 can’t access Planned Parenthood services without parental consent, but there are some services that don’t require it. For instance, no consent is needed to receive condoms or information about other forms of birth control. Teens can request a pregnancy test or testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. Consent is not required for teens who are married or emancipated from their parents. In states where abortion isn’t legal, Planned Parenthood also can help a client find a provider elsewhere.
Essentially all the MHP students accessed some of Planned Parenthood’s services with parental consent. No parent could be in the dark about their daughter’s pregnancy and most agreed to some form of birth control. Our nurse regularly dispensed condoms to students if requested. In fact, she encouraged girls—on the sly—to take condoms just before our Mom Prom!
Unfortunately, Planned Parenthood has been in the crosshairs of anti-abortion zealots for decades. Despite the many valuable services they provide to support women’s health, the organization is being strangled financially for supporting a woman’s right to choose abortion. Their funding is more precarious than ever in 2025, as funds for many, many essential programs for women and low-income Americans are being cut.
The ability to plan if or when a pregnancy should occur is historically a characteristic of higher income nations. In lower income countries, due to inaccessibility of birth control or attitudes toward them in patriarchal societies, women have no control over childbearing. Such attitudes inevitably lead to higher infant and maternal mortality rates, characteristic of lower income nations. This is where we’re headed.
When supporters of the current administration rave over dragging American women back to the glorious past, pre-birth control and pre-civil rights, they’re essentially hijacking women’s futures. Many of these same supporters struggle to feed the families they already have. Do they sincerely wish for more children they can’t adequately care for? Is this what makes America great?
When I taught pregnant and parenting girls as young as 13, it was clear most had not given enough thought to pregnancy prevention. When they enrolled in our program, decisions had already been made to continue their pregnancies, and our job was to support them in graduating from high school so they had the tools needed to find decent jobs and care for their children.
Teachers in our program were dedicated to promoting graduates’ healthy choices in the future, and most have done phenomenal jobs at creating loving, stable homes for their children. With the support they received from all the programs devoted to their care, including Head Start, Planned Parenthood, and many others, they have thrived. Their communities thrive as a result.
I’ve written before about the maxim that we all do better when women do better, and this fact is supported by generations of international data on birth and death rates, educational attainment, income levels, etc. Ignoring the well-being of women will lead to a decline in our collective well-being as a nation. This kind of short-sightedness does not bode well for America’s greatness.
Janice Airhart 