Yes you read the headline correctly. Planned Parenthood staff in Roanoke, Virginia told our undercover reporter who said he thinks he might have an STD to go and try to donate blood because they will test him for free. The conversation starts with our reporter asking about “testing”
Undercover Reporter as Pimp: Hi, um, let me see, is there someone I could talk to about testing?
Not long later he shares about his symptoms saying:
Undercover Reporter as Pimp: Ok, so I’m kind of experiencing some slight burning sensation….. is that, I don’t think that’s normal, right?
Planned Parenthood: No. It’s not normal.
Later in the conversation the Planned Parenthood staff offers some eyebrow raising advise:
Planned Parenthood: Well, uh *laughs*, see I tell a lot of people, I say if you know, if you’re not quite sure, you’re not having any symptoms, but for peace of mind, go donate blood – cause if you go donate blood, they have to test for everything anyway. And you know, a lot of plasma places, they’ll test you for free.
Undercover Reporter as Pimp: That’s good information.
Planned Parenthood: And they pay you for your plasma. You know what I mean? So, there’s several different ways around it without having to spend a whole lot of money.
The embedded video below is the entire clinic visit although if you hit play, it jump directly to the above exchange about donating blood:
Today I called a couple blood donation centers and asked them if was good advice for people who think they might have STDs to donate blood. They said that it was very bad advice and that if people think they have an STD or other condition that they should address that condition before attempting to donate blood. I was also told that if one attempts to donate blood and is found to be ineligible through testing, they will only tell you that you are ineligible. They will not tell you the details of your positive result so that blood donation centers don’t get abused as disease testing centers. It appears that they have had to put in policy to prevent the very thing that Planned Parenthood is encouraging. This direction from Planned Parenthood staff is making it harder for blood donation centers to collect good blood and save lives.
So Planned Parenthood, is directing people who might have STDs to blood donation centers an organizational policy? You have watched the video and your public statement about it was that your staff acted “professionally”. I can only assume that means that the advice given in this video is within policy and institutionally acceptable. I think it is becoming clear that Planned Parenthood doesn’t have isolated problems but rather institutional ones and this is the latest shocking example.
UPDATE:
After filing a complaint about Planned Parenthood in Roanoke with the Roanoke City Health Department, the latter told me on March 8th that “[Planned Parenthood] certainly appreciated being notified of that…and they said they had already been made aware of that and have instructed the staff member, and a corrective plan is in place with training.” Planned Parenthood has not returned Live Action phone calls to share this plan. Read more…
