Planned Parenthood is facing the very real chance of being defunded, with the Republican replacement to ObamaCare. The new bill includes a provision that would ban abortion providers from receiving taxpayer funding. President Trump offered them the chance to keep their funding if they stopped providing abortions and focused solely on providing actual health care, but Planned Parenthood refused, later arguing that abortion is just as vital to their mission as anything else is.
Now, the Abortion Corporation is launching a $1 million ad campaign to convince Americans that they’re a vital health care provider, focusing on cancer screenings. In the ad, which will air nationwide and online, a quote from President Trump praising the abortion chain (prior to his election) is the first thing people hear. “Millions and millions of women, cervical cancer, breast cancer, are helped by Planned Parenthood,” he says. It then cuts to cancer survivors talking about how Planned Parenthood’s cancer screenings helped to save their lives.
Dawn Laguens, Executive Vice President of Planned Parenthood, explained that Planned Parenthood specifically commissioned the ad to air in places like West Palm Beach, where Trump has his Mar-a-Lago resort, to show that “it’s not just a liberal or urban issue.” She explained, “We want to hit in the heart of the Trump coalition.” She then tried to claim that 10% of Planned Parenthood’s work goes towards helping cancer patients, and repeated their favorite lie that only 3% of their services involve abortion.
These numbers could not be further from the truth.
Planned Parenthood performs 30% of the country’s abortions, approximately one every 97 seconds. They get the 3% figure by equating abortion with any other service that they provide — including a pregnancy test or a packet of birth control pills. Even though abortion is what is profitable for Planned Parenthood, and even though it is what takes up the most time, Planned Parenthood will count an abortion the same as handing a woman a pregnancy test that she goes in the restroom and takes herself. The Washington Post has given Planned Parenthood’s 3% claim “three pinocchios” for its blatant inaccuracy.
While Planned Parenthood performs the majority of abortions in the country, when it comes to health care, they serve a very small percentage of women. Current numbers show that they perform less than 2 percent of all cancer screenings, less than 1 percent of all pap exams, and less than 2 percent of all breast exams. They do not provide mammograms, despite repeatedly telling the public that they do.
Even former Planned Parenthood staffers testified that Planned Parenthood does not make health care a priority. Looking at their annual reports over the past 10 years, you can see that Planned Parenthood’s health care services have plummeted: breast exams dropped by over 60%, pap tests by 77%, and cancer screening and prevention by over 68%.
“There was no prenatal care, there was nothing we could offer women who were pregnant. There was nothing that we could offer women seeking fertility treatments or who were trying to conceive… When women would come in who had a legitimate problem…we could not diagnose,” said Ramona Trevino, a former Planned Parenthood manager. Trevino admitted that one of the major problems that led to Planned Parenthood’s inability to diagnose problems was the lack of quality ultrasound care: “There were no ultrasound technicians or any type of ultrasound other than the ultrasound that is available at the abortion facilities.” Planned Parenthood’s ultrasounds are focused on abortion, not actual health care.
What makes Planned Parenthood’s ad campaign truly appalling, however, is that while their priority and focus is abortion, they are trying to fool the public into believing they are helping millions and millions of women fight cancer. Not only is this not true, but it’s also now known that abortion increases the risk of cancer. Multiple studies have found a link between abortion and breast cancer; women who have abortions are also known to have increased risk of getting liver, cervical, and ovarian cancers. Yet Planned Parenthood is campaigning to keep their taxpayer funding by pretending they’re some kind of cancer warrior.
Planned Parenthood is not an organization that is good for women. They should be defunded — their priority is not saving lives, it’s taking them.
