Planned Parenthood and its allies often mislead the public about what defunding the abortion giant would mean. A recent, dramatic example can be seen in comments from Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), whose Twitter account recently posted her screed against Republicans who aim to defund Planned Parenthood through the proposed healthcare plan:
Women aren’t fools. We know the difference between reality & lies. That’s why we’re fighting back to stop the @SenateGOP healthcare bill. pic.twitter.com/GHTsPpIJn2
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) June 21, 2017
It’s ironic that Warren should mention “reality & lies” when so much of what Warren claims is far from reality. She claims to be “sick of coming down to the Senate floor to explain to Republicans what Planned Parenthood does,” but she’s the one who could use a refresher.
1. Planned Parenthood doesn’t provide as much contraception or cancer screenings as they want you to believe.
According to Warren, Planned Parenthood “provides millions of women with birth control, cancer screenings, and STI tests every year.” But the total number of clients Planned Parenthood sees is just 2.4 million, a decrease from previous years, and means they serve only a small fraction of the American population.
When it comes to services such as those listed above, which are accessible elsewhere, the numbers are even more unfavorable to Planned Parenthood’s narrative.
Planned Parenthood just recently released its 2015-2016 annual report. As Live Action News’s Carole Novielli analyzed, cancer screenings overall dropped to 665,234 of their services, a 2.4 percent decrease from the 2014-2015 report. Worse, the previous numbers of 682,208 cancer screenings were already small to begin with. Planned Parenthood performed only 1.8 percent of all breast cancer screenings (not mammograms, which Planned Parenthood doesn’t perform at all), and those were using 2014-2015 numbers.
Novielli also pointed to a 4.6 percent drop in contraception from Planned Parenthood’s most recent annual report since the one before it. As Susan Michelle-Hanson explains, however, this does not fit with Planned Parenthood’s crusade for contraception without a co-pay. Instead of an increase in contraception and decrease in abortions, Planned Parenthood decreased their contraception services and increased abortions.
While Planned Parenthood did see a slight increase in STI testing and treatment, from 4,218,149 tests to 4,266,689, this shows a nearly 5 percent decrease since 2011.
2. Planned Parenthood supporters claim taxpayer dollars don’t fund abortions… but this isn’t true.
Big abortion continually claims that the Hyde Amendment prohibits federal dollars from going towards abortion, and the abortion industry makes it clear they don’t agree with this policy. Warren herself is “sick of pointing out, again and again” this oft-cited and misunderstood claim.
But the Hyde Amendment is a federal law, and it does have exceptions. State taxpayer dollars fund abortions in 17 states. Aside from this, the Hyde Amendment permits funding for abortions if they are “medically necessary.” Planned Parenthood, however, which commits the most abortions in the country, believes that all abortions qualify as “medically necessary.”
There is also a fungibility factor to funding Planned Parenthood, as explained best here. Funding Planned Parenthood in any amount means that other funds flowing to the organization are that much more freed up to support abortions and abortion-related services.
Further, as Planned Parenthood admits, certain facilities are “funded in part by Title X” family planning grants. The big problem with this is that Planned Parenthood doesn’t seem to abide by Title X requirements to discuss all pregnancy options with women — instead, the organization pushes for abortion.
Warren also makes another oft-cited pro-abortion claim that women will die in “back-alley abortions” if we don’t fund Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry. This is a debunked myth, admitted by Planned Parenthood. If abortions are not paid for with taxpayer dollars, as Warren claims, why bring this up at all?
3. Accusations about certain parties “playing politics” ring hollow in light of Planned Parenthood’s own political activism.
Warren repeatedly claims Republicans are playing politics, claiming that they “would rather base health care policy on politics, than on facts.”
But Planned Parenthood and its supporters are the ones engaging in politics. Planned Parenthood Action Fund has spent millions hoping to get pro-abortion politicians elected, including in the latest special election, in which their candidate, John Ossoff, failed to win despite efforts from the abortion industry. It’s not merely the so-called health centers, which also involve Planned Parenthood’s political agenda and take in taxpayer dollars. As a Congressional committee found, Planned Parenthood’s political affiliates receive taxpayer funding as well.
If all this were truly a matter of “health care” and “facts,” rather than “politics,” there would be no question as to whether Planned Parenthood deserved taxpayer funding. An increase in money toward Planned Parenthood doesn’t seem to be doing much good, as the organization’s legitimate health services are declining, and have been for years. Defunding Planned Parenthood means that money would instead fund Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), which outnumber Planned Parenthood 20 to 1, instead. That’s not politics, it’s common sense.
4. Claims that defunding Planned Parenthood would be “mean” or wouldn’t be “pro-life” are ridiculously off the mark.
Warren did not mince words in calling the health care plan “mean.”
She neglected to mention that it’s mean for Planned Parenthood to advocate for abortion for any reason, without any regulation or restriction, to the tune of performing 900 a day. It’s mean to refuse services for pregnant women who choose to parent or do adoption, and to coerce them into abortions through biased “counseling,” because that’s the only option pregnant women have there. It’s mean to help rapists and sex traffickers instead of underage girls.
Warren also implied that pro-lifers, and their health care plan, are not really pro-life, and that to call the plan pro-life “is just the biggest play of all.” Because again, Planned Parenthood doesn’t engage in politics?
It’s a lazy argument to claim that pro-lifers aren’t really pro-life without certain other stipulations. Even more tiring is how these points are made from the likes of Warren, a pro-abortion Planned Parenthood supporter. Being pro-life means supporting the fundamental right to be born, from which all other rights follow.
5. Women deserve better, yes. Better than abortion and a predatory abortion industry.
Warren ends her rant by wishing to be “blunt,” as if she hadn’t been already, claiming that “women and their children will die” because of the health care plan. Shes notes that “American women deserve better than this,” meaning “this mean Republican bill.”
Here’s what women deserve, Ms. Warren: Women deserve better than abortion, and they deserve better than Planned Parenthood, an institution that seeks to profit from them in their time of dire need.
