Analysis

Cervical cancer screenings continue to plummet at Planned Parenthood

Pap tests, cervical cancer screenings

No matter what the nation’s number one abortion provider claims, Planned Parenthood is not wholeheartedly in the fight against cervical cancer. The abortion corporation continuously promotes its facilities as necessary health care centers for women, claiming that it provides cancer screenings that underprivileged women can’t get anywhere else. This, however, isn’t true. It’s a lie that has been spread to the public by mainstream media outlets — and unfortunately, it has been repeated so often that many Americans believe it. The truth, however, can be found in Planned Parenthood’s latest 2018-2019 annual report.

According to the report, the number of Pap tests Planned Parenthood provided to women declined nearly seven percent in 2018 from the previous year. Since 2004, the total number of Pap tests performed by Planned Parenthood has dropped an astounding 78.4 percent. In 2004, over 1,183,692 million Pap tests were done at Planned Parenthood locations nationwide, but by 2018, that number had dropped to just 255,682. The overall national decline in Pap tests accounts for only a small fraction of this enormous decline throughout Planned Parenthood’s facilities. Previous Live Action News reports have noted that Planned Parenthood provides less than one percent of the nation’s Pap tests and less than two percent of the nation’s breast exams.

 

The question is, where did those 928,010 other women turn for their Pap tests to check for cervical cancer?

They likely either visited their regular OB/GYN or one of the 9,600 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) in the United States, which vastly outnumber Planned Parenthood locations. FQHCs not only have more locations than Planned Parenthood, but they provide a wider array of actual health care services. They ensure that underserved communities have access to primary health care services, and they have to live up to certain quality standards that Planned Parenthood facilities don’t. According to the Health Resources and Services Administration, these federally funded health centers served over 28 million patients in 2018.

 

 

In addition to Planned Parenthood’s severe lack of Pap tests, manual breast exams (Planned Parenthood doesn’t do mammograms) have dropped 76 percent since 2000. Meanwhile, their abortion numbers have been rising despite an overall national decline, and their abortion market share (how many of the total U.S. abortions they commit) has grown to 40 percent.

Planned Parenthood also pushes so-called “sexual education” on children, including middle schoolers, that includes encouragement towards becoming sexually active along with the use of hormonal contraception. Both early age sex and hormonal birth control, in addition to the lifetime number of sexual partners, are considered “important” risk factors for cervical cancer by researchers. Why would an organization that claims to care about women, encourage behaviors that are linked to cervical cancer?

This is all because Planned Parenthood isn’t focused on health care. It’s an abortion business. Last year, the abortion giant even fired its president and CEO, Dr. Leana Wen, because, as she said, “there was immediate criticism that I did not prioritize abortion enough.” She wanted to prove to America that Planned Parenthood was about health care by increasing services such as prenatal care and mental health care — but as it turned out, Planned Parenthood doesn’t really see it that way. It’s an abortion corporation, plain and simple.

January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month. According to the National Cervical Cancer Coalition, over 13,000 women will be diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer this year. With Planned Parenthood’s numbers as they are, the vast majority of women likely won’t be receiving their diagnoses or help from Planned Parenthood.

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