Remember all that GOP chatter about how if Planned Parenthood shuts down, women can just "go somewhere else"? Well, it's crap. And Vox has
a summation of why based on research, case studies, and interviews with health policy experts.
Turns out Planned Parenthood is not only critical to the country's infrastructure of reproductive care, it's also cost effective. Its clinics make up just 10 percent of publicly funded contraceptive clinics but provide care for 36 percent of patients who use the government birth control programs. And per usual, low-income women would be hit hardest by Planned Parenthood closures.
About one in six American counties — 491 counties in total — have a Planned Parenthood clinic. Taken together, they see about 2.6 million patients annually.
Planned Parenthood exists in many places where other family planning clinics don't: a new analysis from the Guttmacher Institute estimates that there are 103 counties in the United States where Planned Parenthood is the only provider of publicly funded contraceptives. In an additional 229 counties, Planned Parenthood serves the majority of women who are low-income and qualify for government help paying for birth control.
This relates to the other important fact to know about Planned Parenthood: It tends to serve way more women in public programs than do other places, like public health clinics or primary care doctors. They see, on average, 2,950 birth control patients per year, compared with the average of 750 seen at public health centers and 330 at federally qualified health centers.