How many times do we have to go through this? Planned Parenthood does not provide mammograms! Live Action News has already posted several articles reminding people of this fact, with articles such as this, this, this, this, and this. Other news sites have also reported on it. Casey Mattox, an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, even wrote a piece sharing that the Obama administration has stated that Planned Parenthood does not provide mammograms. In fact, as Mattox also states in the article, since no Planned Parenthood facility is authorized to perform mammograms, if any such facility were to do so, it would be violating federal law.
Yet one would not know this from reading Obama’s interview with Glamour magazine. The piece starts off by mentioning that the interview discusses reader’s priorities: “first and foremost, jobs and the economy.” However, the third topic discussed is “[b]irth control coverage: [i]t’s become a hot-button issue in the campaign, but 91 percent of you say insurers should cover contraception like any other medication.”
When answering a question about abortion laws, the president criticizes Governor Romney, as he has in the past, by bringing up Romney’s statement to “get rid of Planned Parenthood.” Obama, of course, “said no” to the idea. He then goes on to say this:
Precisely because in many of these states Planned Parenthood is your only possible access to not only abortion but Pap smears, cervical cancer screenings, mammograms. It is a place where women who may not otherwise have the means can take care of their own bodies.
There are a few things wrong with this statement, but the main issue is that the president of the United States should know better, especially when his own administration admits that Planned Parenthood is not authorized to perform mammograms. As a supporter of Planned Parenthood and promoter of their agenda, Obama can certainly find a way to portray Planned Parenthood in a positive light while still being truthful.
Women who read the Glamour interview, if they do no further research about what kind of services Planned Parenthood actually provides, are going to assume that the organization provides mammograms, when in fact it does not. And why should readers not believe the president? We expect the leader of our nation to know what he is talking about and to tell the truth, especially when he speaks with such confidence. Women have falsely been led to believe by their President that Mitt Romney will end federal funding of an organization that provides not just abortion, but also mammograms, and that they have no other place to go.
