Planned Parenthood should be defunded. Despite all its scandals over the years, the pro-abortion mainstream media has largely kept the evidence of this from taxpayers. Perhaps it’s because the media approves of Planned Parenthood’s agenda, and the agenda of the politicians who defend the organization.
The media manipulates the American public by refusing to tell the truth about Planned Parenthood’s abuses, a fact Live Action News previously documented. Instead, the media repeats Planned Parenthood’s PR-approved talking points while failing to report important investigations exposing Planned Parenthood’s lies and deceptions.
Here are some facts about Planned Parenthood that mainstream media has failed to report:
Fact #1: Planned Parenthood is a private corporation whose political action committee contributes heavily to the same politicians sending them millions of dollars each year — over half a billion annually. PP is a master manipulator and marketer politically and this drives the dollars politicians send them. Planned Parenthood’s CEO, Cecile Richards, was not hired for her health care “experience” but for her political savvy, as Live Action News’ Rebecca Downs has explained:
Planned Parenthood may claim to be a health organization, but Richards herself has no health experience — her background is in politics, a background which even the Planned Parenthood website emphasizes. In addition to running Planned Parenthood, she also runs Planned Parenthood Action Fund, which is — you guessed it — a political organization. After Richards spoke before Congress in September 2015, the Oversight Committee expressed concerns that there was an overlap in where Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer money was going. Are Planned Parenthood and Planned Parenthood Action Fund really so different?
Fact #2: Planned Parenthood masquerades as a health care provider. This scheme to reinvent themselves was developed years ago, as Live Action News has detailed here, to mask the fact that they are the largest chain of abortion facilities in the United States.
Fact #3: There are thousands of federally qualified health centers which provide far superior health care to Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood has lost more than half a million patients (600,000) since 2011. Yet, taxpayer-funded health centers, as identified by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), increased patients by over 2 million by 2015, providing care to 24,295,946.
Fact #4: Planned Parenthood services are on the decline despite major increases in government funding. Except, of course, when it comes to abortion, where Planned Parenthood garners nearly 35 percent of the market share.
- MAMMOGRAMS: Planned Parenthood performed zero, because Planned Parenthood facilities do not have mammogram machines. Yet, in 2015, federal health centers performed mammograms on over 521,000 patient, an increase from 470,000 in 2014.
- BREAST EXAMS dropped 12 percent in 2015 at Planned Parenthood, and between 2004 and 2015, breast exams at Planned Parenthood declined by more than 65 percent.
- PAP TESTS: Planned Parenthood’s 2015 report reveals that Pap tests declined 75 percent from 2004. Yet, in 2015, federal health centers administered over 1.8 million Pap tests to patients — an increase from 1.7 million in 2014.
- CANCER SCREENINGS declined at Planned Parenthood from last year’s figures, and, between 2004 and 2015, cancer screenings there plummeted 69 percent.
- PRENATAL CARE: Planned Parenthood is deceptive about providing prenatal care, which was nearly cut in half in 2015. Since 2010, prenatal care at Planned Parenthood has decreased nearly 70 percent. Yet, in 2015, federal health centers cared for a total of 552,000 prenatal patients — an increase from 528,000 prenatal patients in 2014.
Fact #5: Planned Parenthood claims defunding their organization will hurt poor women yet Planned Parenthood’s own officials rake in hefty six digit salaries, getting regular raises. An analysis of CEO compensation at Planned Parenthood by STOPP revealed that the top 68 people at Planned Parenthood take home $18.1 million combined.
Fact #6: Planned Parenthood has been netting a profit for many years, exceeding its expenses — not just by a few dollars, but by tens of millions of dollars (yearly surpluses range from $12.2 million in 2001 to a high of $155.5 million in 2010).
Fact #7: Women can die after receiving Planned Parenthood’s “services.” Cree Erwin-Sheppard recently died after her abortion at a Michigan Planned Parenthood. Tonya Reaves was left bleeding inside Planned Parenthood’s Chicago facility for hours. She died later at a hospital.
Abortion deaths and injuries at Planned Parenthood (image by Operation Rescue)
Fact #8: Emergencies at Planned Parenthood are on the rise. The pro-life watchdog group Operation Rescue (OR) has documented that a number of Planned Parenthood centers have had to call for emergency transports of patients. OR reports that “since January 1, 2016, Operation Rescue has documented 40 such incidents at Planned Parenthood abortion centers alone.”
Fact #9: Undercover footage from the Center for Medical Progress caught Planned Parenthood haggling over prices for aborted baby parts. Planned Parenthood’s CEO admitted they still participate in fetal harvesting, saying at the time, “Planned Parenthood is proud of its limited role in supporting fetal tissue research.”
The House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives‘ final report into the fetal parts industry found several disturbing issues with Planned Parenthood. Live Action News contributor Susan Michelle-Hanson reviewed the 471-page report and noted that Planned Parenthood “committed systematic violations of the HIPAA Privacy Rule from about 2010 to 2015, and that “violations occurred when the abortion clinics disclosed patients’ individually identifiable health information to StemExpress to facilitate the [tissue procurement business]’s efforts to procure human fetal tissue for resale.”
Fact #10: Planned Parenthood has violated the trust of patients by violating patient privacy, as stated above. In addition, an analysis by Live Action News found many other instances of privacy leaks by the government funded abortion business.
Fact #11: Planned Parenthood has been cited for overbilling abuses and has been accused of Medicaid fraud.
A 2017 report, conducted by the Charlotte Lozier Institute and Alliance Defending Freedom, looked at publicly available audits and discovered several egregious examples of fraud and abuse associated with Planned Parenthood.
Among other abuses, the study found:
- Planned Parenthood affiliates have been identified as the source of at least $12.8 million in waste, abuse, and potentially fraudulent overbilling and penalties.
- One audit uncovered $5.2 million in overbilling by two California Planned Parenthood affiliates; the average overbilled amount per audited year in a single audit was $94,409.
- Three federal audits specifically identify Planned Parenthood – and only Planned Parenthood– as the problem in state family planning program overbilling.
Fact #12: Planned Parenthood has been caught failing to report child sexual abuse (a violation that alone should result in the organization losing millions of taxpayer dollars granted to it under the federal Title X Family Planning Program). Reports also found that victims of sex trafficking are sometimes taken to Planned Parenthood centers for forced abortions by their pimps.
So, when it comes to health care for women, Planned Parenthood is far from the worthy organization it claims to be. The bottom line is that American taxpayer should not be obligated or forced to hand millions of dollars to an abortion corporation with fraud and serious abuses on their record.
