Last week, New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof raised what should be a non-partisan, legitimate concern. “Why Are 2016 Candidates Ignoring Women’s Health?” he implored.
Abortion is only one part of the issue – and yet, for pro-abortion groups and politicians, the term “women’s health” often means abortion. Abortion and politics are summed up by Kristof in that “Democrats proclaim a woman’s right to choose, and Republicans thunder about the sanctity of human life.”
Kristof gives a sort of disclaimer about him caring even though he’s a man. “It may seem, er, odd for a man to be raising the topic, but the lives of women shouldn’t be a priority for women alone,” he writes. Unfortunately, Kristof takes a wrong turn…
But we’re going backward when states close Planned Parenthood clinics that perform the [cervical cancer] screenings, without even ensuring that there are alternatives in place.
Such a statement may seem well-meaning, but it is Planned Parenthood propaganda, and it’s a blatant lie.
We are not “going backwards,” because to close Planned Parenthood facilities would actually better assist the Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) which are in greater abundance and with more comprehensive services. They also do not perform abortions.
Planned Parenthood touts its health care services, like cancer screenings, but even Planned Parenthood’s own reports show these legitimate services are on the decline. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood remains the nation’s largest abortion provider and earns more taxpayer dollars. Besides this, as Live Action News’s Kristi Burton Brown previously reported, less than 1% of women get breast exams at Planned Parenthood (zero get mammograms there), and less than 2.4% get cervical cancer screenings (Pap smears) from the abortion giant. It seems to me that since approximately 98% of women are already going elsewhere for this type of care, there would be no crisis.
Speaking specifically of contraception, Kristof also notes this:
…Title X-supported clinics prevent three women a day from dying of cervical cancer — and also prevent one million unplanned pregnancies a year and 345,000 abortions. That makes Title X one of the most successful anti-abortion programs, yet Republicans regularly try to defund it. After inflation, Title X now has less than one-third as much money as in 1980.
The only programs Republicans “regularly try to defund,” are programs that provide funding for abortion practitioners like Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. Kristof is not merely misinformed or ignorant when he makes these claims – he’s attempting to further a political agenda.
Kristof’s left out facts are killer ones… literally. Planned Parenthood not only performs the most abortions in the U.S. (323,999 of them, according to their 2014-2015 annual report), but in the world. Planned Parenthood may be a place where birth control can be accessed, but it is not the only place. The organization’s numbers and claims about preventing unplanned pregnancies also don’t add up – certainly not when you consider that 51% of women having abortions were actually using birth control when they became pregnant.
Both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives have both voted to defund Planned Parenthood. The money used to fund Planned Parenthood would have funded the FQHCs, which not only means there already are “alternatives in place,” but there are improvements in place.
Some states are currently defunding Planned Parenthood, instead funneling that funding to FQHCs. A bill was signed into law in Kansas to do just that. And across the country, abortion businesses are closing and staying closed – not because of restrictions, but because of lack of consumer demand. Women don’t actually need them.
Kristof is furthering just what Planned Parenthood and their pro-abortion allies want you to think – that in order to ensure that women have health care, Planned Parenthood centers must remain open. This simply isn’t true.
If Kristof and others truly want to protect health care, it’s time to stop peddling Planned Parenthood’s lies and talking points, and time to start advocating for FQHCs and community health centers.
