Current presidential debates often mention Planned Parenthood, and how the government needs to defund it. The Republican party’s majority supports this idea, with candidates like Ted Cruz openly supporting the defunding of this helpful and much needed health care provider. Planned Parenthood sees women, often on low-income budgets, about their personal decisions on health, sex, and family planning.

Contrary to popular belief, women use Planned Parenthood for more than just pregnancy issues. They receive information about breast health and receive cancer screenings. According to the 2013-2014 Planned Parenthood annual report, their health centers provided more than 487,000 breast exams. Out of these exams, 87,988 cases of cancer or abnormalities were identified early. Taking away these health centers would force women without insurance to live not knowing about their body. Although Planned Parenthood helps women stay informed and receive crucial medical care, the main fight against it still involves abortions. The same report states that a mere three percent of patients went for abortion services.

To some, an abortion equates to killing a child. People like to say that the woman could always give the child up for adoption. Although this proves true, according to a AFCARS report there are 397,122 children in the U.S. living without a permanent home. Children living in foster homes often fall victim to many injustices. These children may deal with physical and emotional abuse as well as unnecessary psychotropic (mental health) medications. Everyone likes to speak out on what a woman should do, but when the country has hundreds of thousands of homeless children they suddenly go quiet. The Enrichment Journal states that once a fetus can self-sustain biological processes the medical community deems it a human being. Yet people seem to care more about a cluster of cells than an actual child suffering in the American foster system.

Not only has Planned Parenthood helped women across the country in person, they now made accessing their services easier and more crucial than ever. Their Chat/Text program allows teenagers to quickly reach out to specialists through their phone or computer. They reached 1.5 million young people through programs like this and other sex education, causing teen pregnancy, birth, and abortion rates to drop to their lowest level that they have reached in 20 years. Defunding Planned Parenthood proves a huge mistake, surely to push these numbers back up once more.

This giant political topic makes its way to social media. Many public figures are using the trending hashtag #StandWithPP to state their support of Planned Parenthood. Not only are presidential candidates tweeting about it, young people from all over the nation voice their opinion. People forget that teenagers often follow politics and should have a say in what will affect their near future. The upcoming generation must deal with the consequences of the next president.

In these election times, it seems as though primarily male figures are trying to control what a woman does with her body. Bill Nye says it best, “When it comes to women’s rights with respect to their reproduction, I think you should leave it to women.” In the end, a woman’s body remains something she should should be in sole control of, not having to fear that men in government could take away her right to critical medical care.

In the aftermath of the recent Planned Parenthood scandals, defunding the business stands as a major problem in the US Congress. With the argument comes a number of factors and a large amount of emotional appeal, but it needs one less emotional and more logical.

In the hopes of transparency, I want to make it clear that I am a member of the Catholic church, and my faith as well as my worldly experience does influence my opinion on abortion. That said, this opinion, and the debate overall, does not concern the morality of abortions. Those who support Planned Parenthood tend to fight all of their battles with emotional appeals. This battle cannot rely on pathos; it must be fought with logos.

Republican taxpayers want to defund Planned Parenthood because they refuse to pay for abortions. In simple terms, they do not want to pay for services they do not believe in. This makes sense; even if one does support abortions, can one support forcing someone else to pay for them if that person finds them morally incorrect?

The problem hinges on Planned Parenthood’s organizational structure. In the opinion of most conservative Republicans, they will defund the healthcare organization if it does not change the structure.

I am not one to point out flaws without suggesting a solution so I cannot leave it there. A solution brought up by Republican Presidential Candidate Ted Cruz, and recently put into place by his state of Texas, consists of one idea: Planned Parenthood can receive its taxpayer funding as usual if it completely cuts off its abortion services.

Planned Parenthood claims in their 2013-2014 Affiliate Medical Services Data that abortion accounts for only three percent of their overall services. Not taking into account the accuracy of the statistic or its exemplification of the ease of swaying statistics to one side, if it stands, then cutting off the services should prove easy.

Now just because Planned Parenthood cuts its abortion services does not mean they lose the income that they gain from that. They can create a new business that does solely abortion services, which will not receive taxpayer funding. Therefore, Planned Parenthood’s women’s health services continue on with taxpayer funding, while the abortion services remain unfunded. Besides, Planned Parenthood does not exactly need the funding for their abortion services as they are making money off of selling fetuses anyway.

This move also allows the less morally challenged parts of their business, including women’s healthcare services and STD testing, to shake off the stereotype of America’s number one abortion provider.

While splitting their business comes with a significant cost, the financial outcome of continual funding for 97 percent of their business should outweigh it. Furthermore, as a non-profit business that does not pay to shareholders and focuses all income on their own business, they have more resources available for ease of split than other for-profit businesses.

Defunding Planned Parenthood does not mean taking funds from all of its services. Nevertheless, it must take into account that taxpayers paying for what they do not believe in will never be acceptable, especially not in a country that favors freedom over all else.