The Justice asked the president of Brandeis Democrats, Jacob Edelman ’18, and the president of Brandeis Conservatives, Mark Gimelstein ’17, about a variety of polarizing issues. Their back-and-forth dialogue about Planned Parenthood is included below.

Jacob Edelman: Planned Parenthood is one of the most widely known, recognized and available health providers in our country for the public. … It is illegal for them to receive funding from the government that goes toward their three percent of services which are abortions, but, yes, that funding goes toward making sure that people don’t have sexually transmitted illnesses. It goes toward making sure people understand the nature of their bodies, of their sexuality. It goes toward saving lives in terms of providing people with cancer screenings … They are a public service to our country.

Mark Gimelstein: … It’s been documented that [Planned Parenthood has] committed numerous federal crimes, including the selling of baby parts. I don’t think that a criminal enterprise should be funded federally because of that. … I also believe that money is fungible … and because Planned Parenthood does do abortions, because we have … Americans who are against abortions … Planned Parenthood should not be funded. … I’m totally in support of all the other things that Planned Parenthood provides for women, but there are other means to do it. You can fund local pregnancy centers; you can fund institutions other than Planned Parenthood to provide those services. …

JE: … The tapes that were taken at the Planned Parenthood clinics were totally twisted and misrepresented … In terms of talking about the fungibility of money, there are plenty of times … when money is fungible in other areas of the government, too, and when you’re talking about not funding Planned Parenthood, you’re also talking about not funding numerous other services which exist.

MG: In terms of those videos being distorted … they were truncated for time because they wanted to be produced onto T.V., but nobody ever addressed the simple fact that the entire interactions were taking place in which different doctors were laughing about selling baby parts, while also sipping wine. …. In terms of your other point about not funding all the other services that Planned Parenthood provides … you can have a scenario where you fund all the good things you’re talking about while keeping money away from the aspect that should just never be touched by public money. …

JE: ... Mark and I can both agree that the comments that the doctors made, yes, were absolutely despicable; however, … there has been no judgment passed that has made Planned Parenthood into a criminal organization. … Planned Parenthood should receive funding for the millions and millions of people who receive STD and STI testing, who receive cancer screenings, who receive health information — they depend on this organization because of its high level of accessibility. … Funding organizations on an individual basis … is oftentimes not possible. Planned Parenthood can do things that many other organizations cannot, and overall, they’re an extreme public good.

MG: … I’ve seen the evidence. I think that it’s pretty obvious that there are laws where you cannot profiteer and sell baby parts … And I also believe ... there is no contradiction with being in support of the 97 percent of things that Jacob says Planned Parenthood does, and we can reallocate that money to centers across the country that provide those things without the abortion. There’s no contradiction there. You can have both.

—Mark Gimelstein’17 is a columnist for the Justice.