The Guttmacher Institute, a former research arm and “special affiliate” of Planned Parenthood, recently published its abortion expansion directives or demands for its political allies in Washington, D.C. The report refers to “abortion access” as the “starting point,” urging Congress to roll out “swift and robust federal action” on abortion to create “a bolder, brighter future — one in which everyone can obtain affordable abortion care with dignity and on the timeline that is right for them.”
Abortion is the deliberate ending of a human life, which is not health care, and certainly holds no “dignity” for those whose lives are violently ended for profit. In addition, Guttmacher’s directive is loaded with deceptive terms which falsely link abortion to ‘freedom’ for minorities. This tactic mimics past eugenic, racist, and coercive efforts of population control advocates to appeal to targeted groups.
This makes sense when you understand that the Guttmacher Institute was founded by former Planned Parenthood president Dr. Alan F Guttmacher, who was also a vice president of the American Eugenics Society. Guttmacher was responsible for influencing Planned Parenthood to begin committing abortions.
Below is a summary of Guttmacher’s demands to its allies:
1. Promote abortion as good
“The power of using the bully pulpit to destigmatize and promote access to comprehensive, equitable abortion care cannot be overstated. Congress and the Biden-Harris administration must use their platforms to speak clearly and often about abortion rights…”
2. Federal statutory right to abortion
“Congress must act… to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would establish a federal statutory right for… abortion care free from… restrictions….”
3. Taxpayer-funded abortion
To “promote equitable access to abortion care,” Guttmacher recommends removal of the Hyde Amendment, a rider that bans federal taxpayers from funding most abortions. In reality, is inequitable to force taxpayers to fund abortion.
Guttmacher also suggested Congress pass the EACH Woman Act, which it claims would “ensure people can obtain insurance coverage of abortion whether they get their coverage or care through Medicaid, Medicare, other public programs or private health plans.”
4. Force medical personnel to participate in abortion
Another of Guttmacher’s directives is to eliminate the Weldon Amendment, which protects health care organizations from being penalized for not providing abortion funding.
In other words, part of Guttmacher’s goal is to force physicians and others to be complicit with abortion. Ironically, when promoting the legalization of abortion, Guttmacher’s founder advocated for physician “choice.”
Alan Guttmacher can be heard stating in a 1970 clip from WFAA, “If the physician feels that the elimination of pregnancy… serves you good ends, no question he would do it. On the other hand… the doctor goes in… and discovers these young people haven’t thought it through and don’t realize that the creation of life isn’t always so easy, he may very well counsel them against the abortion. So, I think you have to give the physician the latitude of wise choice.”
“But,” he added, “we need abortion for a back-up mechanism…”
5. Expand access to the abortion pill
A previous Guttmacher report indicated the abortion industry had no plans to relinquish profits from chemical abortions. It is estimated that the abortion industry is grossing nearly $200 million annually in abortion pill sales. Therefore, the industry is pushing to expand access to the abortion pill by removing a safety system called REMS, put in place by the FDA. This would open the flood gates to DIY, at-home chemical abortions. The abortion pill has ended the lives of an estimated 4 million preborn children, but at least two dozen women are also known to have died from it. Thousands of others have suffered adverse events, many serious.
“First, the administration must immediately issue guidance confirming that the FDA will not require in-person dispensing of abortion pills for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. Next, the FDA should review all the restrictions it currently places on abortion pills in light of the full body of scientific evidence and realworld use and modify or remove them accordingly,” Guttmacher wrote.
The truth is that the abortion pill holds potential and sometimes deadly risks. According to Dr. Christina Francis, board chair of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) and a board-certified OB/GYN, “Hemorrhage is actually a major risk of the abortion pill… In fact, the abortion pill has been found to be four times more dangerous than first-trimester surgical abortion.”
Guttmacher suggested in its demands that”HHS should also create public health resources to educate pregnant people, medical providers, first responders, social workers and law enforcement officials about self-managed [DIY] abortion.” But the abortion industry simply isn’t telling women about the risks, and those who make money from abortion cannot possibly be an impartial voice in testifying to its purported “safety.”
Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers admit that risks of the abortion pill increase as gestational age advances, yet the abortion industry has rolled out a “no-test” abortion protocol for self-managed abortion, which fails to require an accurate dating of gestational age, fails to rule out ectopic pregnancies, and fails to document blood type and Rh factor — which could impact a woman’s future pregnancies.
Reports on the dangers of DIY abortions from other countries are alarming. In Wales, an at-home abortion protocol during COVID-19 resulted in a 100% increase in ambulance calls, according to a report published by Right to Life UK. A separate report from the UK found that complications, including hemorrhage, uterine perforation and/or sepsis following a ‘DIY’ at-home abortion have likely been vastly underreported.
READ: Guttmacher Institute releases plan to expand abortion in 7 ways
6. Promote abortion to minors
Guttmacher data reveals that younger teens (age 15 and under) accounted for 0.2% of reported abortions, while those 15–19 years accounted for 8.7% of reported abortions. From 2009-2018, abortions decreased among adolescents age 15 or less by 60% and among those aged 15-17 by 43.2%.
Longer-term data (between 1980 and 2017) reviewed by Dr. Michael New revealed that the abortion rate for females aged 15-19 fell by more than 82%, while the abortion rate for those aged 35-39 fell by only 8.5% during the same time frame.
“The large reduction in the teen abortion rate is partly the result of a higher percentage of pregnant teenagers choosing life for their preborn children. According to these new statistics, the percentage of pregnancies carried to term by women ages 15 to 19 between 1980 and 2017 increased by more than 10%. An even more important reason for the drop in the teen abortion rate is that teenagers are now much less likely to become pregnant in the first place. According to Guttmacher, the teen pregnancy rate peaked in 1990 at 117.6 pregnancies per thousand teenaged females (girls 15 to 19). Since then, the teen pregnancy rate has declined by a whopping 73 percent,” Dr. New wrote.
Yet, Guttmacher’s directive claims abortions would, according to them, “benefit adolescents and young adults.” This follows a recent Planned Parenthood affiliate strategy to increase its self-described “bucket of money” by including outreach to minorities and teens. To accomplish this, Guttmacher suggested the federal government should “address the specific needs and barriers facing this age-group, as well as to prioritize young people’s access to confidential and affordable care.”
In other words, do not involve their parents.
7. Create an abortion service corps
Reported abortions recently hit their lowest level since 1973 and as a result the abortion industry is shrinking as facilities — including Planned Parenthood centers — are closing.
To remedy the shortage, Guttmacher wants the taxpayer to finance a pool of abortionists and directed Congress to “[c]reate a reproductive health care provider service corps” to “increase the availability of abortion care.” This new tax funded agency would then “provide incentives and support” to abortionists willing to target abortion to the “underserved areas.”
Borrowing a tactic from Margaret Sanger — the white supremacist founder of Planned Parenthood whose Negro Project sought to use Black leaders to convince the Black community to accept a eugenics agenda — Guttmacher wrote, “This program should… encourage enrollment of bilingual providers and providers of color to reflect the populations they serve.”
These measures do nothing to help women and only serve to further create a boon for the abortion industry.
Editor’s Note: FDA has received reports of serious adverse events in women who took mifepristone. As of June 30, 2021, there were reports of 26 deaths of women associated with mifepristone since the product was approved in September 2000, including two cases of ectopic pregnancy (a pregnancy located outside the womb, such as in the fallopian tubes) resulting in death; and several cases of severe systemic infection (also called sepsis), including some that were fatal. The adverse events cannot with certainty be causally attributed to mifepristone because of concurrent use of other drugs, other medical or surgical treatments, co-existing medical conditions, and information gaps about patient health status and clinical management of the patient. A summary report of adverse events that reflects data through June 30, 2021 is here.
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