In a recent town hall, Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) told his constituents that he will protect the federal funding of Planned Parenthood.
Heller defended America’s largest abortion corporation by saying he “will protect Planned Parenthood,” and that he has “no problem with federal funding” of the abortion giant.
However, with the help of his communications director, the lawmaker, who considers himself pro-life (though in 2006, he told a news outlet that he “back[ed] a woman’s right to choose abortion,” essentially claiming a ‘personally pro-life’ position) and who is up for re-election in 2018, retracted his pro-Planned Parenthood remarks made at Monday’s town hall.
Heller is “opposed to providing federal funding to any organization that performs abortions and is supported by taxpayers’ dollars,” his communications director said.
Congressman Heller seems to be indecisive on Planned Parenthood and the $550 million it receives annually in federal funding. Maybe if he knew a little bit about Planned Parenthood and its alternative – the Federally Qualified Health Centers that offer real health care for low-income women – he would be less keen to defend the abortion giant.
Here are four facts Senator Dean Heller, and others, should know about Planned Parenthood and Federally Qualified Health Centers:
- Planned Parenthood is America’s largest abortion corporation
While Planned Parenthood touts itself as the brand for women’s health care, looking at simple numbers shows otherwise. The claim that only 3 percent of Planned Parenthood’s services is abortion is false and has been debunked time and time again. As America’s largest abortion corporation, Planned Parenthood commits a third of the country’s abortions; that’s more than 320,000 abortions every year, 887 abortions every day, and one abortion every 97 seconds.
- Planned Parenthood offers little-to-no health care services outside of abortion
Defenders of Planned Parenthood will argue that the abortion giant offers women other services like mammograms, prenatal care, Pap smears, cancer screenings, and STD testing. This is far from the truth.
First of all, Planned Parenthood does not provide mammograms. Period. Here’s a video explaining, in Planned Parenthood’s CEO’s own words:
Secondly, in late January, Live Action released its video exposing Planned Parenthood’s deceptive claim that it offers prenatal care. But the abortion giant offers virtually no prenatal care to pregnant mothers and was forced to take down the term “prenatal” from its websites after the release of Live Action’s video.
97 Planned Parenthood facilities across the U.S. were contacted, and only five of those affirmed that they provide any form of prenatal care. Let’s be clear: Planned Parenthood isn’t in the business of helping pregnant women; Planned Parenthood is in the business of selling abortions to pregnant women.
While it’s true that America’s largest abortion corporation offers Pap smears and cancer screenings (manual breast exams), the services are miniscule compared to other health care providers. Planned Parenthood provides less than 1 percent of the nation’s Pap smears and less than 2 percent of the nation’s breast cancer screenings. Of course, these services are offered by a myriad of other health care providers. Beyond this, other services offered by Planned Parenthood — like STD testing — are readily available at Federally Qualified Health Centers.
- Planned Parenthood covers up sex trafficking
In 2011, Live Action released an undercover video exposing Planned Parenthood’s cover-up of sex traffickers. The video shows a former Planned Parenthood clinic manager advising an actor – disguised as a pimp – to lie about the ages of his 14-year-old prostitutes.
“So as long as they just lie and say, ‘Oh, he’s fifteen, sixteen.’ You know, as long as they don’t say ‘fourteen’ and as long as it’s not too much of an age gap then we just kind of like – then we just kind of play it [stupid.]”
Ramona Trevino, a former Planned Parenthood manager, recalls her time with Planned Parenthood and its cover up of child sex abuse:
- Where will women go if Planned Parenthood is defunded? Everywhere.
Planned Parenthood has branded itself as the only place for women to go to receive health care. This is utterly false and needs to stop. Federally Qualified Health Centers – over 13,500 clinics sprawled across the country – far outnumber Planned Parenthood facilities and offer real health care to low-income women. These health clinics provide women the quality services they need minus the abortions Planned Parenthood pushes.
Here’s a map showing the vast number of federally qualified health centers compared to the tiny placements of Planned Parenthood facilities:
Sen. Heller, please make up your mind about Planned Parenthood and the millions of dollars it receives every year in taxpayer money. Women don’t need Planned Parenthood and its abortion agenda in order to receive quality health care.
Women can visit GetYourCare.org to find their community health centers.
