In August and Septemer, the University ofMissouri cut its ties after 26 years with Planned Parenthood after canceling 10 of its sites agreements with clinics in five cities in four states. Before this decision was made, the nursing and medical students were given the option to receive training on women's health services at Planned Parenthood.
Although the university does not come out and say that this decision was because of political pressure, the move followed the Missouri's Senate Interim of the St. Louis Planned Parenthood affiliate this summer, under the leadership of Missouri Republican Senator Kurt Schaefer. Since then, Chris Koster, the Missouri Attorney General, said in a report that he finds no evidence to support the claim of the facilities wrongdoing. Schaefer has said the report was "incomplete" and he would continue his investigation.
Mary Jenkins, the spokes person for the University of Missouri Health System, wrote an email to the Columbia Missourian that one medical resident shadowed a nurse practicioner at Planned Parenthood in Columbia back in 2010 but no students have worked there since that year. She confirmed that the College of Human and Environmental Sciences and Planned Parenthood still have an active contract for social work students interested in completing fieldwork in policy-making.
The cancellations may not last long. Teresa Snow, a spokesperson for MU Health Care, confirmed that since the announcement of the cancellations earlier this year, the Sinclair School of Nursing has formed one new site agreement with a Planned Parenthood clinic in Independence, Missouri and is negotiating two more in Columbia, Missouri.
With the constant politicized pressure surrounding women's health care, many students are concerned about their education will look like without the Planned Parenthood option.
Melanie, a 26 year old second year medical student, said:
"From the schools that I looked at, [MU] has a very progressive, patient-centered curriculum... Of course I was forgetting that the public funding was coming from the state of Missouri that can sometimes be a little, let's say, not progressive about health care thinking."
Evan, a 23 year old second-year medical student, said:
"If you're a guy and you say, 'I want to do ob-gyn,' some people are like, 'Oh, that's creepy; why would you want to do that?' But if you're interested in that as a physician, it's because you want to provide that type of health care. Just from a medical standpoint and also socially, women face many more issues than guys have to worry about, and those health concerns often get left behind. They also have a bunch of old white guys telling them what they can and cannot get. I think there's a wide agreement on that across medical students. I have conservative friends; we disagree on many things, but we agree that women's health care and health care for everyone should be our upmost priority. Planned Parenthood recognizes that priority, and it's important medical students have the option to study somewhere that puts women first."
PREACH IT GUYS!
Will they shut it down or will Planned Parenthood win this fight?
xoxo, Kaila
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