Planned Parenthood has worked very hard to convince Americans that it is a health care provider. The corporation focuses on the services it claims to provide, such as mammograms, cancer screenings, and providing low-income women with health exams that they wouldn’t get otherwise.
A new video by Live Action, however, breaks down how Planned Parenthood’s own abortion numbers show that women’s health care is not its focus; Planned Parenthood is in the business of abortion. The organization is America’s largest abortion chain, committing over 30 percent of the nation’s abortions.
Statistics show that one in eight clients who go to Planned Parenthood gets an abortion. Guttmacher, the former research arm of Planned Parenthood, estimates that approximately 1.06 million abortions were committed in 2011, the lowest rate since abortions became legal in 1973 — and Planned Parenthood committed the lion’s share.
Most abortions take place during the first trimester of pregnancy. Many of these are medication abortions, a non-surgical procedure where a woman takes a combination of pills — mifepristone and misoprostol — during the first trimester to end the life of her preborn child. These pills, called RU-486, were only approved by the FDA in 2000, so long-term risks are still being determined. Women can typically expect to experience nausea, vomiting, severe cramping and abdominal pain, and headaches; 5 to 8 percent of women experience severe bleeding and need to undergo surgery to stop the bleeding.
Women also might undergo an aspiration abortion, which is the most common abortion procedure in America. After dilating the mother’s cervix, a catheter is inserted into the mother’s uterus to suction out the baby. The abortionist then uses a tool called a curette to scrape out any parts of the preborn child that remains. Women undergoing this procedure risk injury to the cervix or uterus, hemorrhaging, infection, and even death. It also can make it difficult for women to successfully carry a future pregnancy to term.
But Planned Parenthood doesn’t want you to realize how many of these abortions it commits every year. The corporation claims abortion is only 3 percent of their services, but this is a myth that has been debunked by the Washington Post, Slate, and other news outlets.
The facts show that Planned Parenthood lies about providing mammograms, underplays the number of abortions it commits, and works hard to convince the country that it focuses on providing legitimate health care to low-income women. But Planned Parenthood’s number one priority is abortion. Prenatal care, health screenings, and cancer testing all take a backseat to abortion at Planned Parenthood.
It’s clear that the abortion business downplays their abortion-first ideology, but the numbers don’t lie.
