Planned Parenthood is in the news again. The recent debate was triggered when two Spokane Regional Health District Board members — County Commissioner Mark Richard and physician Charles Wolfe — spoke against Planned Parenthood’s continuing to provide cancer screening tests to our community’s low-income women through the Breast and Cervical Health Program.

Dr. Wolfe says that Planned Parenthood of the Inland Northwest should not be allowed to continue providing these services because he is against “underwriting the killing of unborn babies.”

His reasoning is flawed. Providing these services does not serve an underwriting function. The provision of care under this contract does not generate revenue. In fact, providing these services is costly to the organization, but most agencies with this contract continue providing these services as part of their mission.

In addition, it seems that the board should ask a straightforward question: Do organizations receiving this contract fulfill its terms and, if so, do they do so efficiently? This decision should be merit-based. Introducing other issues allows unrelated concerns, ideologies and agendas to be injected when they shouldn’t be.

Yes, abortions occur at Planned Parenthood. They represent a small portion of the comprehensive services that Planned Parenthood of the Inland Northwest provides.

One hopes this issue is put in perspective. No one works harder than Planned Parenthood to prevent unintended pregnancy. Planned Parenthood’s mission is to provide age-appropriate, medically accurate reproductive education so informed decisions can be made to avoid unintended pregnancy.

Often lost in emotional debates is the point that Planned Parenthood’s central theme is abstinence. Differences arise because Planned Parenthood utilizes an “abstinence-plus” rather than an “abstinence-only” approach. Planned Parenthood recognizes the complexities of reproductive health and attempts to address these through a comprehensive approach.

While abstinence is the primary message, Planned Parenthood recognizes that abstinence will be difficult for some. This should not surprise us when we consider the sexual content in the media that surrounds us. In order to prepare those who choose not to remain abstinent, Planned Parenthood provides comprehensive education that includes counseling regarding healthy relationships, sexually transmitted diseases and their consequences (including infertility and HIV) as well as contraception.

Some believe that this approach provides a mixed message that covertly encourages sexual activity, which ultimately “allows” Planned Parenthood to do more abortions. Nothing could be further from the truth. Planned Parenthood chooses this approach because it works.

Abstinence-only programs encourage pledges of abstinence but do not provide reproductive education. Unfortunately, abstinence-only programs do not achieve their stated goals. In April, a final report on the effectiveness of government-funded abstinence-only programs was submitted to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. After six years, the participants in abstinence-only programs were equally likely as those who received no intervention to engage in sexual activity.

Among those who did have sex, the age at which sexual activity was initiated was the same in both groups, as was the number of partners.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated finding. Earlier this month an independent group published similar findings in the British Medical Journal. In this study, abstinence-only programs failed to demonstrate decreased sexual activity, number of partners, sexually transmitted infection or pregnancy.

Planned Parenthood has always believed that accurate information and education are good things. Rather than providing a mixed message, Planned Parenthood believes that providing comprehensive reproductive health education recognizes the realities of our society.

Last year Planned Parenthood of the Inland Northwest performed 32,000 visits and services, including 6,700 cervical cancer screening examinations. Against this background there were approximately 2,000 early abortions. The facts speak for themselves: Abstinence-only approaches are not effective, and only a small minority of visits to Planned Parenthood of the Inland Northwest are for abortion services. Because of their efforts to prevent unintended pregnancy, instead of being thought of as an abortion clinic, Planned Parenthood should be thought of as the “anti-abortion clinic.”

The issue that started this debate is the Breast and Cervical Health Program, which provides cancer screening to a vulnerable low-income population. Planned Parenthood of the Inland Northwest has provided this service to its clients since the program’s inception.

Members of the Spokane Regional Health District Board of Directors, both elected and appointed, are at a critical juncture. Will their personal beliefs and agendas take precedence over their duty to oversee and improve the public health for residents of our region? We’ll find out this fall.