“Planned Parenthood. Care. No matter what.”
So it says on the front page of the official website but Planned Parenthood doesn’t practice what it preaches and it certainly doesn’t deserve our tax dollars – $542 million to be exact.
That’s how much money Planned Parenthood received from the government this past year.
Just last month, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, which spans Texas and Louisiana, forked over a total of $4.3 million to the state of Texas and the federal government after whistleblower Karen Reynolds accused Planned Parenthood of fraud. Planned Parenthood insisted that its agreement to settle the claim did not mean it committed a crime; it simply did not want to spend the time and money on a case that would distract it from focusing on helping poor women.
That’s a nice sentiment, but let’s get real. This was not the first lawsuit against Planned Parenthood for fraud.
Integrity is not on their side.
Only a few months prior to this, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast began building a new facility in New Orleans, just an hour and a half from LSU, that will include abortions in their list of services.
Planned Parenthood is America’s leader in abortions—over 333,000 in 2011 according to their annual report. The abortion argument boils down to one question. What is the unborn?
“If it’s not a human life, then no justification for abortion is necessary,” says pro-life advocate Greg Koukl, “but, if the unborn is a human life then no justification is adequate.”
Planned Parenthood recently mandated that all affiliates must provide on-site abortions. Its abortion-to-adoption referral ratio is 145 to 1, according to numbers in their annual report.
Of course that couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that adoption referrals mean no revenue for Planned Parenthood.
Though still contested, many researchers say the unborn can feel pain at 20 weeks gestation. Planned Parenthood consistently defends late-term abortions, 20 weeks and on.
Even more unbelievable, in March, Planned Parenthood sent a representative to Florida to lobby against House Bill 1129 which would defend the rights of infants born alive during or immediately after an attempted abortion. When asked what Planned Parenthood would want to have happen in the case of a child struggling for life on a table due to a botched abortion the representative answered:
“We believe that any decision that’s made should be left up to the woman, her family and the physician.”
Seriously? Why are we even arguing about this? There’s a helpless, living, breathing child on the table fighting for life and we are going to discuss whether or not we have the right to let him or her die? This is disgusting.
If that wasn’t enough, Live Action conducted investigations and reported catching Planned Parenthood employees “aiding and albetting child sex trafficking, sex-and race-based abortion and covering up the abuse of underage girls.” Planned Parenthood fired employees after the tapes came out and claimed these actions do not reflect the views of the organization,
But Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood director, claims these things “happen all the time” and that she allowed it to happen in her facility.
She explained that Planned Parenthood tries to create the idea of tolerance and by tolerating these different lifestyles — e.g. a 13-year-old in a relationship with a man twice her age — they forget they have a duty to
protect their patients.
But Planned Parenthood provides invaluable healthcare and family planning resources to poor women who would have nowhere else to go to get their basic healthcare needs
met, right?
Wrong.
First of all, Planned Parenthood provides extremely limited services compared to other Medicaid healthcare providers. Contrary to the words of Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood does not provide mammograms.
According to former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson, Planned Parenthood also does not provide the following: prenatal care, diabetes treatment, treatment for elevated cholesterol, treatment for elevated blood pressure, care for HIV positive individuals, holistic medicine, obstetrical care, infertility treatments, miscarriage management, bladder disorders and urinary problems, bone density testing, treatment of pelvic pain and
pediatric care.
The list goes on.
At Federally Qualified Health Centers poor women on Medicaid can get affordable and higher quality care and a much more extensive list of services.
And yes, that includes family planning services.
“Planned Parenthood cares?” Their actions prove otherwise.
America deserves better.