Planned Parenthood gave woman seeking abortion a deceptive ultrasound

Former Planned Parenthood workers have sometimes admitted that they lied to pregnant women about fetal development. For example, former abortion worker Catherine Adair said the following in an interview:

We never discussed fetal development. The baby was referred to as the “contents of the uterus” or a “clump of cells.” On the rare occasion a woman asked about the size of the baby, I would tell her it was about the size of the tip of my pencil, regardless of how many weeks into her pregnancy she was.

Another former Planned Parenthood worker was quoted as saying:

Since Planned Parenthood is the foremost abortion provider in the US, they have a responsibility to tell women the truth about fetal development and subsequent risks involved in pursuing abortion as an option. I know for a fact they do not.

Workers have even been caught on video giving false information about the developing baby:

So it should come as no surprise that Planned Parenthood deceived one woman about her baby’s development when she made her appointment for an abortion.

Pro-life activist Pamela Whitehead was sidewalk counseling outside a Planned Parenthood abortion facility on February 21, 2017. Whitehead approached the car of a woman leaving Planned Parenthood and the woman, who I will call Amara, stopped to talk to her. Amara told Whitehead that she was a recent immigrant from Ghana and already had an eight-year-old daughter. She had just started a new job. She didn’t think she could raise another child.

Amara had just left the abortion facility after her consultation, and had an appointment to abort her baby. Whitehead spoke to Amara about the heartbreak she herself had experienced after her own abortion in 2001, and asked the young woman if she could pray with her. Then Whitehead noticed an ultrasound print-out on the seat next to Amara.

Whitehead says:

I looked on the seat of her car and there was her ultrasound picture. This was unusual, as most patients don’t receive a picture of their ultrasound when leaving.

The ultrasound, which you can see below, showed only a round blob.

Whitehead says:

I asked if I could see her ultrasound and she handed it to me. As a medical professional, I knew exactly what I was looking at when I saw it. I asked her how far along she was and she said 16 weeks (it was on the bottom of the ultrasound, but I wanted to hear if the clinic had told her).

At 16 weeks, Amara’s baby was fully formed, with arms, legs, fingers and toes. According to the Endowment for Human Development, a baby at 16 weeks has “a highly complex brain”, is already left or right-handed, breathes amniotic fluid, and has fingerprints that are unique and different from those of any other human being who has ever lived. He or she responds to touch and pressure and can suck his or her thumb. Yet the ultrasound only showed a round circle.

This is what a 16-week-old preborn baby really looks like:

Whitehead explains:

An untrained eye, looking at her ultrasound, would have only seen a blob of tissue. No one had shown this woman her baby. They simply showed her the cranium. Why would Planned Parenthood take an ultrasound image of the diameter of the cranium (the head)?

Because this is the largest part of the baby’s anatomy that needs to fit through the canulla and it is this measurement that determines what size canulla is used.

The ultrasound was showing a picture of the baby’s head, taken from above. All it showed was the round head. Even though the child at this stage had arms, legs, fingers and toes, Planned Parenthood led Amara to believe that her baby was only a blob, by showing her an ultrasound taken at a deceptive angle.

Whitehead offered Amara the chance to have another ultrasound at a mobile ultrasound unit parked outside Planned Parenthood. The unit was staffed with pro-lifers who were there to do ultrasounds on women to show them the truth about fetal development before they had abortions. Amara agreed to have another ultrasound done and Whitehead escorted her to the mobile unit.

Below is the picture that the mobile unit printed out and gave Amara. You can clearly see the head, body, arm and hand of Amara’s preborn baby.

Amara came out of the mobile unit with a big smile on her face. She showed Whitehead the picture of her baby, exclaiming: “I can’t believe it! Look! It’s a whole baby!”

Before pro-lifers showed her the truth, Amara had no idea her baby was fully developed. Planned Parenthood had led her to believe her 16 week old child was just a circular blob of tissue.

Amara decided she could not have an abortion. She exchanged phone numbers with Whitehead and they stayed in touch for a while. Although pro-lifers in the area offered Amara ongoing support and a baby shower, Amara became confident that she could handle parenthood on her own. She eventually cut ties with pro-lifers and dedicated herself to raising her two children.

Planned Parenthood deliberately deceived Amara about her baby. If pro-lifers had not been there to tell Amara the truth, she would’ve had her abortion without ever knowing how developed her child was.

The vital role that pro-life sidewalk counselors, mobile ultrasound units, and crisis pregnancy centers serve is to counter the misconceptions and lies perpetrated by the abortion industry. Simply showing women the truth has a powerful impact and can save the lives of preborn babies as well as saving their mothers a lifetime of heartache.

The people who run Planned Parenthood and other abortion facilities know that women who see their children on an ultrasound are more likely to choose life. This is why they fight tooth and nail against laws allowing women to see ultrasounds of their babies. It is truly revealing of the character of abortion providers that not only fight laws that mandate that a woman must see the ultrasound, but also spend countless amounts of money and effort fighting laws that simply say a woman must be given the option of seeing it. Even being required to ask a woman, “you have the a right to see your ultrasound; would you like to see it?” is anathema to the abortion industry, which thrives on deception and lying to women.

Here are the two ultrasounds, side by side (left: Planned Parenthood; right: mobile ultrasound unit):