Some recent studies have begun examining the increasing rate of depression among men. Traditionally, women have higher rates of depression due to many societal as well as hormonal conditions. The economic downturn has seen most of the job loss among men; these men, no longer the traditional breadwinner, must begin to adapt to their new role as a shared breadwinner or a childcare giver.
The United States has a large population of men, the traditional breadwinners, no longer employed, and the government is considering cutting funding for programs directed to helping poor, low-income, uninsured Americans. These programs provide education, medical assistance and testing to at-risk and low-income populations. The economic downturn has placed many Americans in the low-income category.
Is the government cutting programs that could save us more money than is spent on them? Many, including The New York Times, have called these budget cuts “The War on Women;” I call it “The War on Health in America.”
The government is looking at cutting several health care and nutrition programs for poor, low-income, uninsured Americans. These would be programs the newly unemployed bread winner and his family may need to rely on while searching the job market. Planned Parenthood has specifically been put on the chopping block. Planned Parenthood is an organization that receives money from Title X to provide preventive health care and contraceptive services. Recently, a bill was approved in the House to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving anymore federal funding.
Ninety percent of the services provided by Planned Parenthood are preventive health care and contraceptive services to low-income, uninsured and poor Americans. Planned Parenthood has existed for over 90 years, providing countless people with informed, high-quality health care. Planned Parenthood provides educational programs to over a million people per year.
In Mississippi, Planned Parenthood has provided over 1,000 exams for sexually transmitted diseases and has provided almost 1,000 women with birth control. Title X funding provided over 60,000 women in Mississippi contraceptive care. Several studies have shown without Title X funding, the unintended pregnancy rate in Mississippi would be over 40 percent higher. Mississippi has saved over $20 million through the services provided by Title X-supported health agencies.
In rural parts of the country, Planned Parenthood may be the only option for health care available to residents. Without the funding previously provided to Planned Parenthood, these residents would have no access to medical care in their area. Seventy-nine percent of the three million clients served by Planned Parenthood every year are 20 years old and older. Out of every five American women, one has visited a Planned Parenthood clinic at least once in her life.
Another bill would cut the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children by 10 percent. WIC is not an earmarked program; it receives grant money Congress specifies each year. WIC provides supplemental nutritious foods to low-income and poor Americans and serves 45 percent of all infants born in the U.S.
The services provided by WIC have been shown in studies to be linked to lower infant mortality rates and higher birth rates. Over nine million women and children benefit from aid provided by WIC every month.
Other possible slices to the budget are in the form of cutting grant money that provides 30 million children with health care and over two million women with pre-natal care. Another bill presented would provide hospitals receiving federal aid the right to deny a woman the option of terminating a pregnancy even if it were life threatening.
The degree of unemployment and uninsured in the United States at their current level leads me to believe cutting health care related spending isn’t in our best interest as a nation. Removing access to preventive health measures seems very illogical for a nation trying to increase the positive health of its citizens.
Delilah Schmidt is a senior majoring in  sociology. She can be contacted at [email protected].