Media coverage of Planned Parenthood is largely favorable, but the same can’t be said for pro-life healthcare organizations. Media bias was evident in a recent Washington Post report about the pro-life Obria Group, focusing on a Title X grant recently issued to Obria following the Trump administration’s HHS rule change. While the changes prohibit taxpayer funds from going to facilities that commit abortions, HHS allows funding to groups which offer, according to the HHS website:
- Preventive health services that include natural family planning methods.
- Infertility services.
- Services for adolescents.
- STD and HIV prevention education, counseling, testing, and referral.
- Adolescent abstinence counseling.
- Other preventive health services.
Obria Group comprehensive health care
Obria’s website states that the health care agency provides prenatal care services, STD testing and services, well women visits, as well as sexual risk counseling, among other services. According to Washington Post writer Ariana Eunjung Cha, HHS granted Obria $1.7 million (2019), and if renewed, the grant could total $5.1 million — and that’s what the Washington Post doesn’t seem to like: Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, is potentially losing Title X taxpayer funding because they refused to drop abortion services… and pro-life groups are now receiving the funding. Below is Live Action News’ analysis of the WashPo‘s claims, and a list of what the WashPo and other media outlets fail to point out about Planned Parenthood even as they critique pro-life centers.
Washington Post’s statement:
WAPO bias against pro-life Title x recipient
1. Claim: Obria “appears to be modeled after faith based crisis pregnancy centers but–with a twist.”
Media fails to mention PP appears as a health care organization while it is highly political and abortion driven, and founded on eugenic philosophies.
2. Claim: Obria counsels teens to “move away from sexual risks.”
Media fails to mention, as Live Action exposed, Planned Parenthood counsels teens toward sexual promiscuity and BDSM.
3. Claim: Obria is designed to “persuade” women to continue pregnancies.
The use of the word persuade by WashPo implies that women are being swayed against their wills to carry their babies to term. Media fails to mention:
- Planned Parenthood is focused on abortion.
- Planned Parenthood has few prenatal services offered by almost none of its centers.
- Planned Parenthood’s recently ousted president admitted the “priority of Planned Parenthood moving forward is to double down on abortion rights advocacy.”
Washington Post’s statement:
WAPO bias against pro-life Title x recipient not PP
5. Claim: Obria offers “abortion pill reversal,” which ACOG claims is not scientific.
- Media ignores studies showing abortion pill reversal is scientific and has resulted in over 700 successful reversals.
- Media refuses to admit that the ACOG is decidedly pro-abortion.
- Media fails to mention Planned Parenthood has not been factual, especially about fetal development.
- Media rarely, if ever, quotes pro-life OBGYN groups such as the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) when reporting about Planned Parenthood.
Washington Post statement:
WAPO bias against pro-life Title x recipient Obria not PP
5. Claim: Obria is pro-life.
Media rarely, if ever, notes that Planned Parenthood is strongly pro-abortion, instead downplaying its abortion business and advocacy.
6. Claim: Planned Parenthood is valuable resource for “4 million low-income women.”
Media failed to mention that Planned Parenthood doesn’t serve anywhere close to four million patients yearly — it’s the entire Title X program that serves 4 million.
In fact, Live Action News previously documented:
- 87% of Title X family planning services providers are NOT Planned Parenthood facilities.
- 59% of patients getting Title X services are NOT getting them from Planned Parenthood.
- Planned Parenthood’s Title X qualified services have DROPPED 60% over eight years.
- Overall patients and healthcare services at Planned Parenthood are plummeting while abortions are steadily rising.
- Planned Parenthood garners 35% of the abortion market share.
- Poor women deserve better than being forced to visit an abortion business for health care.
Washington Post statement:
WAPO bias against pro-life Title x recipient groups criticize CPC
7. Claim: Crisis Pregnancy Centers (a.k.a pregnancy resource centers) have been criticized by “mainstream medical groups” as “deceptive.”
- Media failed to note how previous 2014 requirements allowed faith based organizations that taught fertility-based awareness methods (natural family planning) to apply for grants.
- Media failed to state which “medical groups” have criticized pregnancy centers and failed to define what makes these groups “mainstream.”
- Media failed to mention Planned Parenthood has been repeatedly exposed (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here) as “deceptive,” “misleading,” and “false” by mainstream media outlets including even the Washington Post (here and here) and former Planned Parenthood staffers (here and here).
Washington Post statement:
WAPO media bias against pro-life Title x recipient calls out HHS#
8. Claim: HHS grant to Obria is opposed by “women’s rights groups.”
Media fails to mention that many of these groups are actually strictly abortion rights groups.
9. Claim: Obria’s Title X application was initiated when abstinence advocate Valerie Huber was “in charge” – and was approved by former PRC leader Diane Foley.
Where has the Washington Post ever published the “abortion views” of HHS staffers who have approved Planned Parenthood grants?
Washington Post statement:
WAPO media bias against pro-life Title x recipient quotes pro-abortion Campaign for Accountability
10. Claim: Obria’s vision was revealed in “Documents obtained by Campaign for Accountability (CFA)”
Pro Abortion Campaign for Accountability Themis Project against pro-life groups
Media failed to mention that CFA is pro-abortion and its express purpose is to “use[] research, litigation, and aggressive communications to hold the anti-choice movement accountable.”
Washington Post statement:
WAPO bias against pro-life Title x recipient quotes pro-abortion Campaign for Accountability
11. Claim: Obria “could mislead patients,” according to the pro-abortion CFA spokesperson and is “driven by a very narrow ideological view on birth control and reproductive health.”
- Media fails to quote pro-life groups on Planned Parenthood.
- Media fails to mention Planned Parenthood misleads patients — even the corporation’s president admitted Planned Parenthood is driven by an ideological view that prioritizes abortion.
12. Claim: Obria’s website doesn’t disclose its “opposition to abortion.”
Media fails to mention Planned Parenthood’s website published deceptive claims about prenatal care.
13. Claim: Obria’s website details abortion risks without noting “it is a safe and common procedure.”
Media fails to mention the abortion section of Planned Parenthood’s website fails to disclose scientifically accurate fetal development information.
Planned Parenthood has received approximately $60 million per year from the taxpayer-funded Title X program. According to Bustle other abortion agencies have also been funded:
- Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center – $500K/ year.
- Maine Family Planning (MFP) – $800K (2018) and $1.8 million (2020).
- Women’s Health Center of West Virginia.
Media outlets willingly recite Planned Parenthood’s talking points without seeking comment from pro-life groups. But when media outlets such as WashPo highlight pro-life organizations like Obria, they tend to quote biased, abortion-leaning organizations (which do not back up false claims) in an effort to appear balanced. Planned Parenthood rarely receives similar scrutiny. Where is the balance for the pro-life side?
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