Planned Parenthood Action Fund (PPACT), Planned Parenthood’s political arm, which helps elect pro-abortion politicians through a political money laundry scheme, has accused President Trump and other pro-life politicians of lying about late-term abortions. This is nothing new. Here are a list of facts that everyone should know, minus Planned Parenthood’s spin:
False Claim #1: Anti-abortion politicians and activists push inflammatory lies about abortion.
The fact is, abortion itself was based on a series of lies:
- Lie: The preborn baby is not a human deserving of protection. The science of fetal development proves that preborn children are living human beings. At just six weeks, a fetal heartbeat can be detected and a baby will move away if his or her mouth is touched.
- Lie: Thousands of women died every year from illegal abortions. Those statistics were made up. The real number was a mere fraction of this. According to the CDC in 1972, the year prior to Roe, there were 39 deaths due to illegal abortions and 24 deaths from legal procedures.
- Lie: Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff in Roe v. Wade, was gang raped. The truth is that “Roe” – Norma McCorvey – was never raped and never even wanted an abortion. In fact, Norma became pro-life and sought to overturn the infamous decision.
False Claim #2: A small minority of Americans want to ban abortion, and most people support abortion access abortion without interference from politicians.
These are the facts:
- Most Americans have never been confronted with what abortion actually is and have no idea that Roe and its companion cases made abortions legal in all trimesters of pregnancy, for any reason, under the so-called “health” exception.
- A recent Marist poll found that “overwhelming majorities support substantial restrictions on abortion,” with 61 percent of those who identified as “pro-choice” stating they wanted abortion allowed only in the first three months of pregnancy — at most.
- An analysis by Real Clear Politics found that “[a]lmost two-thirds of Americans (65 percent) say they want the Supreme Court to revisit Roe in a substantial way. This includes 16 percent who want the court to rule that abortion should be illegal, and about half (49 percent) who say that restrictions should be allowed as determined by each state.”
- Gallup has also found a majority of Americans favor restricting abortion.
READ: Planned Parenthood lies to women about fetal development while harvesting fetal body parts
Claim #3: Anti-abortion politicians are making bogus claims not based in fact or science about the tiny percentage of abortions that occur later in pregnancy.
Here is the truth:
- What Planned Parenthood fails to state is that roughly 100,000 abortions occur in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters of pregnancy every year. By the abortion industry’s own reported numbers, approximately 12,000 occur after 21 weeks. There is no federal requirement to report abortions by weeks of gestation.
- Defenders of late-term abortion frequently make the assertion that late-term abortions are “almost always” carried out in cases of severe fetal abnormality or danger to the mother’s life,” according to a February 2019 report published by the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI). But a study form the pro-abortion Guttmacher says, “Most women seeking later abortion fit at least one of five profiles: They were raising children alone, were depressed or using illicit substances, were in conflict with a male partner or experiencing domestic violence, had trouble deciding and then had access problems, or were young and nulliparous.”
- An analysis conducted by Live Action News in 2018 found that of 16 states which report abortion by reason, only a fraction of abortions generally (all trimesters) are committed for reasons of rape, incest, or mother’s health.
- Late-term abortion measures allow abortion for reasons of the mother’s “health.” That language comes from the broad language of Roe v. Wade’s companion decision, Doe v. Bolton, which ensures that abortion can be done for virtually any reason. The text of Doe reads: “We agree with the District Court, 319 F. Supp., at 1058, that the medical judgment may be exercised in the light of all factors – physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age – relevant to the wellbeing of the patient. All these factors may relate to health….”
Lie #4: Trump lied about how abortions work in his State of the Union address, and used outrageous rhetoric that vilifies women….
Trump said, “Lawmakers in New York cheered with delight upon the passage of legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from the mother’s womb moments before birth.” (See video of that cheering here.)
The facts:
- There were cheers, at the time the radical measure passed and was signed — including from abortion corporation, Planned Parenthood.
- Pro-abortion Virginia Delegate Kathy Tran herself admitted her failed measure allowed for abortion even after a woman goes into labor.
- Late-term abortion measures reviewed by Live Action News offered no prohibitions or criminal penalties for abortions committed just prior to birth. In fact, one measure removed abortion from the criminal penal code altogether and others removed protections for babies born alive following the abortion attempt.
- Planned Parenthood spokesperson Erica Sackin was recently asked when late-term abortions should be illegal, and she refused to say. Years prior to this, a Planned Parenthood lobbyist was asked by Florida lawmakers, “What happens in a situation where a baby is alive, breathing on a table, moving. What do your physicians do at that point?” She responded, “That decision should be between the patient and the health care provider.”
Despite PPACT’s attempt to vilify pro-lifers and confuse the public, they included statistics which pro-lifers would see as good news:
- 22 states have laws… that would ban abortion if Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
- 16 abortion-related cases are moving through federal courts… one step away from Supreme Court.
- More than 420 state restrictions have gone into law since 2011.
- In 2017, 19 states passed 63 laws restricting abortion [the most] since 2013.
- So far in 2019… 10 states introduced six-week abortion bans.
Planned Parenthood is invested in abortion, with president Leana Wen calling it their “core mission” with plans to “expand abortion” in 2019. The abortion corporation commits over 320,000 abortions each year while receiving half a billion dollars in taxpayer funds.
Editor’s Note: 4/18/21: The FDA has received reports of serious adverse events in women who took Mifeprex. As of December 31, 2018, there were reports of 24 deaths of women associated with Mifeprex since the product was approved in September 2000, including two cases of ectopic pregnancy 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 December 31, 2018 is here.
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