Planned Parenthood

1916年一个晴朗的十月早晨，玛格丽特·桑格在布鲁克林布朗斯维尔开设了一家小诊所。招牌上简单地写着：节育诊所。几天之内，警方就突袭了该诊所。桑格被捕入狱，并因违反《康斯托克法》而受审，该法规定分发避孕药具甚至相关信息均属犯罪。那家诊所只存在了九天，但它点燃了导火索。

如今，美国计划生育联合会在全国运营着600多家健康中心，每年服务超过两百万患者。该组织提供广泛的生殖和性健康服务：节育、性传播感染检测与治疗、癌症筛查、妇科检查以及堕胎护理。它也是全国最大的性教育提供者。诊所接待青少年和祖父母、有保险和无保险的人、来自各行各业的患者。大约一半的患者依赖医疗补助或其他政府项目。

计划生育联合会长期以来一直是美国政治中的避雷针。支持者视其为基本医疗保健的重要安全网。反对者，特别是反堕胎团体，几十年来一直致力于削减其资金、限制其服务并关闭其诊所。该组织经历了纵火袭击、立法斗争以及2022年最高法院推翻罗诉韦德案的裁决。尽管如此，计划生育联合会仍然保持开放，调整其模式以满足患者的需求。[编辑]

计划生育联合会的使命是提供全面的生殖和性保健服务，提供基于科学的性教育，并倡导确保所有人获得这些服务的政策。该组织旨在使个人能够就其身体和生活做出明智的选择，无论其收入、保险或所在地如何。[编辑]

The story begins with Margaret Sanger, a nurse who watched her mother die after 18 pregnancies. In 1916, she opened that first Brooklyn clinic with her sister Ethel Byrne. The clinic was shut down, but the trial that followed turned Sanger into a national figure. In 1921, she founded the American Birth Control League. Two years later, she opened the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau in Manhattan, which not only provided contraceptives but also collected data on their safety and effectiveness.

In 1939, the two organizations merged to form the Birth Control Federation of America. It was renamed Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1942, a name chosen to sound less controversial and more family-focused. The 1960s brought major changes: the FDA approved the birth control pill in 1960, and the Supreme Court legalized contraception for married couples in 1965 in Griswold v. Connecticut. Planned Parenthood expanded rapidly, opening clinics in underserved communities.

The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion nationwide, and Planned Parenthood began offering the procedure. That decision also galvanized the anti-abortion movement. In the 1980s and 1990s, clinics faced protests, blockades, and violence. In 1993, a Planned Parenthood clinic in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was destroyed by arson. The organization responded by strengthening security and pushing for laws to protect clinic access.

Under Cecile Richards, who became president in 2006, Planned Parenthood weathered a 2011 attempt in Congress to defund it and a series of undercover videos released by anti-abortion activists in 2015. The videos, which were heavily edited, sparked investigations that ultimately cleared the organization of wrongdoing. In 2022, the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision overturned Roe, and Planned Parenthood shifted its focus to helping patients travel for care and expanding services in states where abortion remains legal. [编辑]