They call it “standing with” Planned Parenthood, but what the abortion giant’s supporters and the media do is more along the lines of covering up. In light of news that Congress has plans to defund Planned Parenthood, New York Magazine’s Dayna Evans is claiming that “correcting… myths” about Planned Parenthood “and bolstering supporters with valuable information is more important than ever.” However, Evans’ “handy guide” of “9 Things People Get Wrong About Planned Parenthood” is wrong in several areas, beginning in her introduction, where she claims Planned Parenthood isn’t involved in the trafficking of fetal body parts, despite a Congressional committee’s investigation and recommendation of Planned Parenthood for criminal prosecution for this issue.
1. Evans’ first point is this: “FALSE: Abortion is the most popular service that Planned Parenthood provides.”
While Evans acknowledges pro-lifers’ concerns with Planned Parenthood, she doesn’t bother debunking the oft-repeated claim that abortion accounts for only three percent of Planned Parenthood’s services. Live Action has explained why this claim is wrong:
To arrive at the 3 percent figure, Planned Parenthood divides the number of abortions by the number of services the facilities provide. These services, which include STI testing, pregnancy tests, pap smears, breast exams, birth control, and others, are counted equally with an abortion procedure. So even though abortion is much more profitable for Planned Parenthood, an abortion procedure is calculated as equivalent to a pregnancy test or contraception.
But it isn’t just pro-lifers who have pointed out the sketchiness of this statistic. A piece from Slate editor Rachel Larimore referred to it as “the most meaningless abortion statistic ever.” The Washington Post, which has similar pro-abortion leanings, has given this claim “three pinocchios.”
Evans tries to emphasize Planned Parenthood’s number of contraception services and STI/STD testing and treatment, at 31 percent and 45 percent respectively. But what she doesn’t say is that Planned Parenthood’s contraception services have been on the decline, just like the organization’s other legitimate health care services.
One hardly needs to look further than the existence of abortion quotas at Planned Parenthood (as revealed by former Planned Parenthood director turned pro-life advocate Abby Johnson) than to understand Planned Parenthood indeed has an abortion business model. An overwhelming majority of pregnant women who visit Planned Parenthood do so for abortions — after all, Planned Parenthood performs one abortion every 97 seconds. And affiliates aren’t exactly willing to help pregnant women who want to keep their babies.
2. Evans also sees the need to debunk the “myth” that “Planned Parenthood only provides services to women.”
First of all, who is claiming this? If anyone is presenting the idea that Planned Parenthood is strictly about ‘women’s healthcare,’ it’s Planned Parenthood!
3. Evans also seems to think there’s a myth out there that “Planned Parenthood is just for wealthy women, so they’ll find health care elsewhere if it were to be shut down.”
Again, who is claiming that Planned Parenthood is for “wealthy women”? I’m not aware of anyone making this assertion. Planned Parenthood boasts about serving those of middle to lower socioeconomic statuses, but an abortion provider shouldn’t have a monopoly on providing care for anyone, whether wealthy or not.
Earlier this month, Live Action News published a selection of comments people made on my personal Facebook page of telling why Planned Parenthood should be defunded. “Just because we are poor or uninsured it doesn’t mean we should be forced to go to an abortion provider for our healthcare,” shared Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa, the founder and president of New Wave Feminists.
While Evans portrays Federally Qualified Health Centers as inferior to Planned Parenthood, these FQHCs outnumber the abortion giant in number of locations and in providing comprehensive care for the whole family.
Abortion, however, is not healthcare; it deliberately takes a human life and it is not medically necessary to save a woman’s life, as affirmed by doctors who signed the Dublin Declaration.
4. Evans also makes this assertion: “FALSE: Defunding Planned Parenthood would be good for taxpayers.”
Nowhere does Evans even acknowledge that there are Americans who don’t want their hard-earned dollars going to a scandal ridden organization which is associated with abortion. She does not acknowledge that defunding would be a good move for conscience protections. Instead, she focuses on concerns that the cost of Medicaid would go up, and refers to Planned Parenthood’s services as “necessary and low-cost health care,” as if it were the only entity providing such services, including contraception. If Evans and other pro-abortion media outlets are concerned with the rise of Medicaid spending, perhaps they should look into all the Medicaid fraud involving Planned Parenthood.
5. Evans lists as “false” the claim that “Teenagers are being indoctrinated by Planned Parenthood to have sex at a young age.” However…
… Evans does not actually debunk this at all. She just gushes about the sex education Planned Parenthood provides. Live Action has documented through investigation videos and articles, Planned Parenthood gives dubious sex advice to minors. It pays for Planned Parenthood to get teens hooked on sex, because it creates customers for contraception or even abortion. In discussing sex education in general, Evans claims that “providing young people with access to sex education is not correlated to an increase in sexual risk-taking.” She fails to note that researchers found providing condoms to students increased teen pregnancies. Her comment that “services offered to teens of all ages are confidential” is particularly concerning, considering Planned Parenthood opposes parental involvement — even notification and consent laws.
6. Another puzzling “myth” Evans lists is that “Planned Parenthood is only available to cis-identifying patients.“
Again, who actually believes this? Planned Parenthood has been quite vocal about its support for the LGBT community. That such “myths” are included causes me to wonder if Evans is just making up issues to ‘debunk’ in order to produce a promotional piece for the abortion giant.
7. Evans is worried people think that “Planned Parenthood could survive on private donors alone,” but…
Planned Parenthood is the one bragging about private donations they’ve received, especially following the 2016 election. In addition to crying over federal funding which hasn’t even been lost yet, the organization preys on women’s fears in order to get these private donations. Evans cites (with emphasis added) the “only $353 million a year” Planned Parenthood made in private donations, according to the organization’s 2014-2015 annual report. “Without federal funding, Planned Parenthood would have little chance of survival,” Evans laments.
Defunding Planned Parenthood does not mean that Big Government would bar Planned Parenthood from ever operating again. It means the organization will have to operate on its own two feet, as plenty of others already do, in order to survive, and fund itself.
8. Evans believes people think “Planned Parenthood only provides services to Americans.“
While Evans is right to point out the international work of Planned Parenthood, pro-lifers have been exposing the abortion giant in this way. When Planned Parenthood President and CEO Cecile Richards testified before the House Oversight Committee in September 2015, the committee raised questions about which countries and overseas organizations received funds. Of particular concern is Planned Parenthood’s involvement with China. Women’s Rights Without Frontiers late last year called for an investigation of International Planned Parenthood, especially since the organization supports China’s One-Child Policy and has been a known partner of the Chinese government in the past.
9. Evans claims it is “false” that “there will be thousands of other clinics available to women should Planned Parenthood be defunded.”
This, as I’ve already pointed out, is far from the truth. Evans fails to point out that Planned Parenthood is outnumbered by federally qualified health centers 20 to 1. She mentions the Guttmacher Institute and claims that 103 of the 491 counties with Planned Parenthood facilities would have no other places for people to access affordable contraception. The Federalist article Evans cites actually disproves her claim.
Overall, Evans’ attempt at setting the record straight on Planned Parenthood did nothing of the sort.
