Why Quinnipiac’s poll on funding Planned Parenthood is incredibly misleading

Ever since Donald Trump was elected president, Planned Parenthood and its allies have been acting like the end of the world is near, as Trump has promised to defund the abortion giant if it continues to commit bortions. Now that a healthcare bill will be considered in the Senate to do just that, Planned Parenthood has been especially active in its fight to retain the over $550 million that is shoveled in from taxpayer dollars every year.

One of the abortion corporation’s tactics has been to cite poll data which uses misleading questions (though Planned Parenthood is known for doing this regardless of whether its funding is in jeopardy). On Friday, Planned Parenthood boasted on Facebook and Twitter that support for the abortion business “has been consistent,” and that people don’t want Planned Parenthood defunded.

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Planned Parenthood's support has been consistent. People #StandWithPP & don't want politicians to block our care→buff.ly/2ttKALt

7:22 PM · Jun 29, 2017

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Bridget Todd, in writing for Planned Parenthood Action Fund, included a link to the Quinnipiac poll in question, as well as a screenshot of the question. She did not, however, discuss the language of the question, which can only be to her group’s benefit, as it downright misleads respondents. The question asks:

If you knew that federal government funding to Planned Parenthood was being used only for non-abortion health issues such as breast cancer screening, would you still favor cutting off funding to Planned Parenthood?

First and foremost, it is not accurate to say that federal government funding is used “only for non-abortion health issues.” The Hyde Amendment restricting funding for abortions has limitations, and allows for abortions considered to be “medically necessary.” This is important, because this even includes reasons of “mental health” — and to Planned Parenthood abortionists, all abortions are medically necessary.

17 states also allow for taxpayer funding of abortions — states like New Mexico, Maryland, and Minnesota. As an admitted recipient of Title X funding, Planned Parenthood is supposed to offer pregnant women information on all their options — but it’s not entirely cooperative when it comes to the necessary requirements for such funding. It not only fails to offer pregnant women next to nothing besides abortion, but has very few locations which offer prenatal care, and its adoption referrals are also insignificant compared to its abortion numbers.

There’s also the fungibility factor, as best explained here, which means that any amount of money Planned Parenthood gets, for whatever kind of service, its other funding is that much more easily freed up for abortions.

It’s not clear or not as to if the most misleading service was chosen by the pollsters. It’s not even likely that much money is going to services “such as breast cancer screening[s],” as Quinnipiac offers.  There is a difference between breast cancer screenings, of which Planned Parenthood only performed a 1.8 percent market share, and mammograms, which Planned Parenthood does not and has never provided — though one can’t expect the organization to be honest and forthcoming about it.

Planned Parenthood performs only a minuscule market share of such services. In fact, cancer screenings have declined while the organization received even more taxpayer funding (according to Planned Parenthood’s 2015-2016 annual report), and committed more abortions.

If the issue were truly a matter of heath care, and not a political temper tantrum over taxpayer funding, there would be no question. Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) provide the same services as Planned Parenthood, except for abortion. They also outnumber Planned Parenthood by 20 to 1 with their 13,000 locations.

With such a deceptive question, it’s not entirely surprising that 80 percent of poll respondents said “no” to cutting off funding from an organization which they were led to believe provides legitimate health care services.

The poll comes from March, around when the bill to replace Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood was first announced. So why is Planned Parenthood just now reporting on it? Perhaps it is out of fear that its days of using taxpayer funds to stay afloat may be numbered.