What options does Planned Parenthood offer pregnant women? Not what they advertise.

A new video just released by Live Action emphasizes Planned Parenthood’s lack of services for pregnant women who need resources to continue their pregnancies, like adoption and prenatal services. When women ask what services are available to pregnant women, abortion is the default answer.

Pregnant women call Planned Parenthood to hear about their options

In part one of Live Action News’ report on the options (or lack of options) Planned Parenthood offers pregnant women, I documented that Planned Parenthood staffers were uninterested in offering callers information about adoption referrals when asked. Callers were not even offered a list of adoption agencies or a chance to speak to trained staff about adoption, despite Planned Parenthood’s website stating that those things would be made available.

In addition, I previously noted that many of the centers Live Action investigators contacted were funded by the federal family planning program, Title X, which requires counseling on all pregnancy options.

In part two of this series, viewers and readers will see that Planned Parenthood’s attitude toward women seeking prenatal services and ultrasound services is similar to those who seek adoption information from them.

Live Action’s previous investigation revealed that prenatal care is virtually nonexistent at Planned Parenthood, despite politicians and other defenders claiming otherwise. Since the release of Live Action’s first investigative video on that subject, Planned Parenthood has been busy purging its websites of the term “prenatal,” which was originally shown in bold text at the top of Planned Parenthood locations’ listings.

Oddly enough, at one time, Planned Parenthood suggested that prenatal care was the organization’s “fastest growing area” (see 1996-1997 annual report). But Planned Parenthood’s short-lived initiative to “implement a comprehensive prenatal care model” appears to have failed.

Abortion is Planned Parenthood’s focus, which might explain why the organization’s once “fastest growing service” of prenatal care plummeted 44 percent between 2010 (31,098) and 2014 (17,419). As of 2015, when Planned Parenthood’s prenatal services were nearly cut in half from 2014 numbers (to 9,419), those numbers have now decreased 70 percent from what they were in 2010.

Planned Parenthood’s website acknowledges that if a woman is pregnant, she has three options to consider: “abortion, adoption, and parenting.”

As was the case regarding adoption, Planned Parenthood’s website states it has “trained educators” that can assist pregnant women considering the “parenting” option. However, in this section, Planned Parenthood attacks pro-life pregnancy centers, claiming that these thousands of community centers — which offer all services free of charge — will “not give you information about all your options.”  The page was recently updated to say “they’re run by people who are anti-abortion and don’t believe in giving you truthful facts about all of your pregnancy options.”

But as viewers can hear in Live Action’s video, Planned Parenthood actually appears to be the guilty party when it comes to not giving pregnant women all the information they are seeking.

In fact, when Live Action investigators contacted Planned Parenthood’s facility in South Austin, Texas, to inquire about prenatal care, the Planned Parenthood staffer responded that they “do not offer prenatal care.” However, at the time the call was made, “prenatal” was clearly listed in bold text at the top of the website (see left side in screen capture comparison below). As you can see, Planned Parenthood purged the term “prenatal” after the previously mentioned investigation.

The South Austin website states, “If you choose to continue a pregnancy, we will provide you with a list of resources to help you obtain prenatal care.” But rather than offering Live Action’s investigator a “list of resources,” the Planned Parenthood staffer suggested that the caller “find that information on Google.”

Then, when the caller asked Planned Parenthood about “adoption” services (also clearly in bold text at the top of the website), the Planned Parenthood staffer clarifies that these services are merely “referrals.”

When asked if the center offers any of the three options, Live Action’s investigator is told that the South Austin Planned Parenthood only offers abortion, despite updated pages still claiming to offer some form of adoption or prenatal assistance.

Trained Staffers

Planned Parenthood facilities in Corning, NY, and Brooklyn Park, MN, state online that they have trained staffers available to discuss all pregnancy options as well.

Yet, the Corning Planned Parenthood (listed as a Title X-funded facility in the state’s 2016 directory) told Live Action’s investigator that the only option they offer pregnant women is abortion: “We tell you you’re pregnant and then we offer at Planned Parenthood to do the abortions.”

The Brooklyn Park, MN, center made it clear to Live Action’s investigator that it offers only “pregnancy tests and then abortion care,” despite being listed in the state’s directory of Title X funded centers.

Despite offering the Live Action investigator no options other than pregnancy tests and abortion, at the time the calls were made, both of these centers deceptively highlighted “adoption” in bold text at the top of their web pages.

The Title X-funded Planned Parenthood facility in St. Paul, Minnesota, also states on their website that they have, “trained staff to discuss your options with you if you are pregnant.” Yet, when a Live Action investigator asked what kind of services are offered in St. Paul for pregnant women “who want to continue with the pregnancy,” the Planned Parenthood staffer responded, “[W]e don’t offer services.”

Ultrasounds

In January, Live Action released two investigative videos that show Planned Parenthood has ultrasound technology available for abortions, but not for women who want to continue their pregnancies and check the health of their babies.

This was also noted in the most current video, when a Live Action investigator contacted Planned Parenthood’s Winston-Salem, NC, facility, which also claims to have “trained staff to discuss your options with you if you are pregnant.”

Yet, when the caller asked if the Winston-Salem, NC, Planned Parenthood center had ultrasound services, she was told, “only for terminations.”

The Planned Parenthood staffer added, “Cause that’s the only service that we do. We don’t do any prenatal care or adoption here.”

Despite telling her this, at the time the call was made, the Planned Parenthood’s Winston-Salem, NC, center’s header clearly showed “adoption” in bold text, while in smaller text further on the site it states that the center offers “adoption referrals” a claim still listed in their update page.

However, no referral was given to the Live Action investigator when she called the center, as was the case in the previous examples.

These phone calls demonstrate that Planned Parenthood is not about health care for pregnant women; it is abortion focused, committing nearly 35 percent of abortions nationally.

Despite the false rhetoric from abortion supporters and politicians, services at Planned Parenthood are decreasing while abortions and government dollars are increasing.

It is time to defund Planned Parenthood.