Planned Parenthood: Reproductive Health Access from the 1980s to Today

The first Planned Parenthood clinic opened on October 16, 1916 in Brownsville, Brooklyn under the leadership of Margaret Sanger, Ethel Byrne and Fania Mindell. It was the country’s first birth control clinic, and women lined the block that day trying to get their hands on birth control and reproductive health information. 

Unfortunately, nine days later, the clinic was shut down after a police raid, and police charged the three women with crimes related to sharing birth control information. Sanger was sent to jail for 30 days after refusing to pay the associated fines. While imprisoned, she focused on educating other inmates about birth control and reproductive health.¹

A few years later, in 1921, Sanger founded the American Birth Control League, which published a magazine called “The Birth Control Review.” This magazine contained 5-10 articles per issue from birth control professionals, as well as book reviews, notes and advertisements, and an editorial, usually from Sanger herself.²

By 1938, there were 300 clinics in the United States, which is nearly half of what there is today. The American Birth Control League later became the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1942, which is what the organization still is today.³

My name is Sophia Neilson, and this is “Planned Parenthood: Reproductive Health Access from the 1980s to Today” 

Today’s podcast will compare the access to reproductive healthcare in the 1980s, after Roe v. Wade made abortion a constitutional right, to today, when Roe has been overturned and states now have the power to decide abortion laws. To guide this discussion, I will be focusing on the work of Planned Parenthood, and how they have remained committed to providing reproductive health resources even when the odds have been against them.

In 1980, Planned Parenthood published “The Planned Parenthood Issues Manual” to help guide employees on how to answer difficult questions from patients. The topics covered in the manual range from sex education, to contraception, to abortion access. 

One chapter of the manual featured information about when abortion was legalized, as well as the federal rules regarding abortion access in different stages of pregnancy. The page even included a blank-lined area for care providers to write in the specific laws in the state they were practicing in. 

Another segment of the same chapter said “Recent Surveys indicate that a majority of Americans believe that abortion should remain legal, and that only a woman and her doctor should be involved in the decision whether to have an abortion.” I find this very interesting, since 40 years later, abortion rights were suddenly under attack again in the United States. 

In this same chapter, the manual also discusses the Hyde Amendment, which was passed in 1976 and prohibited the use of Medicaid funds to cover abortion costs.⁴ This made access to abortions extremely difficult for low-income individuals, who unfortunately would likely be unable to support themselves through a pregnancy, let alone care for a child. 

The manual pointed out that there were 2 “companion cases” related to the Hyde amendment, Harris v. McRae and Zbaraz v. Quern. Harris v McRae essentially said that the federal government was not obligated to fund abortions, even when medically necessary to save the life of the person carrying the pregnancy. Furthering this, Zbaraz v. Quern said that individual state governments were also not legally obligated to fund abortions, again, even when deemed medically necessary.⁵

These two rulings are what generated the creation of the Hyde Amendment, restricting who could access abortions. However, these financial restrictions are nothing compared to the restrictions on abortion access today. 

On September 1st,  2021, Texas enacted S.B. 8 also known as the Texas Heartbeat Act. This act banned abortions in Texas past six weeks, a point at which many women don’t even realize they are pregnant.⁶ S.B. 8 is a unique type of law, as it is not enforced by government officials. Instead, it relies on a sort of “bounty hunter” type situation with citizens. Any private citizen can file to sue someone who they suspect aided in or had an abortion, and walk away with $10,000 in their pocket for each successful lawsuit. Laws like these are considered “Vigilante Laws,” because they are enforced by individuals or groups without existing legal authority. 

Despite its challenge to then-established constitutional rights, the U.S. Supreme Court repeatedly declined to block S.B. 8 and ultimately ruled that federal courts lacked the power to intervene in citizen-enforced measures or vigilante laws.⁷ 

Almost a year later, on June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to overturn Roe v. Wade and end the federal constitutional right to abortion. Since Roe was overturned, other “vigilante laws” like S.B. 8 have been passed in multiple other states, and abortion is currently completely illegal in 13 states.⁸

Since the overturning of Roe, Texas now has a different state law in place that completely bans abortions. Physicians in Texas can potentially be charged with life in prison for performing an abortion.⁹  

In April of 2023, a federal judge in Texas ruled in favor of anti-abortion organizations that aspired to end access to mifepristone, a safe and commonly used abortion drug which has been approved by the FDA for over 20 years. This ruling would have made mifepristone unavailable in every state, but The Supreme Court issued a stay that protects access to it, at least for now.¹⁰ But with other reproductive rights under attack, and the election of Donald Trump and his notoriously anti-abortion cabinet, who knows how long access to abortion pills will be protected. 

The stark contrast between what the majority of people believed in the 1980s to the widespread attacks on reproductive rights today is appalling to me. How have we gone backwards in time these past few years, to how things were when Planned Parenthood first got their start? Citizens and the U.S. government are protesting abortion rights now just as much as they were back when the first Planned Parenthood opened, truly taking us back not only decades, but a full century. 

In the 1980s, even the financial restrictions of the Hyde amendment didn’t pose nearly as much of a threat to abortion access. Privately funded abortions, whether out-of-pocket or covered by private insurance agencies, were still completely legal in every state, and organizations such as Planned Parenthood dedicated time and money to providing low-cost affordable abortions to people who needed them, doing everything in their power to lessen the financial burden.

Over the years, Planned Parenthood has worked to provide affordable to no-cost sexual and reproductive health care, as well as sexual education. Today, there are over 600 Planned Parenthood clinics in the United States, which provide care to more than 2 million people annually.¹¹ Planned Parenthood is committed to doing everything they can to keep reproductive healthcare affordable and accessible to everyone, even under the Trump administration. Planned Parenthood has not stopped fighting for abortion access since Roe was overturned, and they don’t plan to anytime soon.

On November 7th, the day after the election, Planned Parenthood posted on their Instagram saying “Planned Parenthood has always fought to ensure everyone has access to the healthcare they need. Today is no different. Tomorrow won’t be either.”

Coleman, E. “Birth Control Review: A Communication Tactic.” August 15, 2013. https://sangerpapers.wordpress.com/tag/birth-control-review/

McCann, A., & Walker, A. S. (2024, December 3). Abortion bans across the country: Tracking restrictions by state. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/us/abortion-laws-roe-v-wade.html 

Ness, Immanuel. (2004). Encyclopedia of American Social Movements. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/smith/reader.action?docID=3569966&ppg=346 

Planned Parenthood Issues Manual: What It Is and How to Use It, approximately 1980. Planned Parenthood Federation of America Records Group II records, Sophia Smith Collection of Women’s History, Smith College Special Collections. Box 139. https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/252374 

The History & Impact of Planned Parenthood. (n.d.). Planned Parenthood. https://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/our-history 

Ray, Nat. “Texas Court Rejects Vigilante Lawsuit against Doctor.” Center for Reproductive Rights, December 9, 2022. https://reproductiverights.org/texas-sb8-vigilante-lawsuit-doctor-braid/#:~:text=More%20than%20nine%20months%20before,LLP%20and%20Susman%20Godfrey%20L.L.P.  

Ray, Nat. “Three Years of Texas S.B. 8.” Center for Reproductive Rights, September 5, 2024. https://reproductiverights.org/three-years-texas-sb8-abortion-ban/.