So, today I found an article from Faux News containing a video from Live Action. (Don;t judge me about the Faux News...it happens) The video is about the 'debunking' of Planned Parenthood's 3% abortion statistic. Here is the video on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtgqxvaV-8U
Please, take the 4 minutes to watch them desperately try to make PP into a monster by counting the service of an STI test or pregnancy test........as a service.
Planned Parenthood counts services they give to a women as services and they count the service of abortion as a service. (Try saying that three times fast) There is nothing sinister about this.
The video makers seems to think that the cost of a service is what should count. Abortions range from $400-$1500, sure, and pregnancy tests can be about $10. Fine. But that doesn't mean that the abortion should count more than the test. Both are services. Try telling your doctor that they don't need to charge you for labs or time spent because the real reason you're there is because of the meds. (wink wink)
And, yes, the 3% abortion statistic makes sense when you divide the number of patients they see by the number of services they provide. Just because you don't like their qualifiers doesn't mean you get to call the math 'bogus'.
Is the number misleading? Maybe. I'll give you that. If abortions were not such a 'hot button' issue then maybe they wouldn't need to have the 3% number. They could easily say that 1 in 8 women go to Planned Parenthood for abortions. They could easily say that 30% of their funding comes from providing abortions. Sure. But, you're right. It's a PR problem.
Because organizations like yours have MADE it into a PR problem.
Also, don't think I didn't notice how you kept saying 'commit' instead of 'performed'. Planned Parenthood performs medical procedures. You don't commit them. You are intentionally trying to make it sound sinister.
The video used The Washington Post's Fact Checking article for some of it's data:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/08/12/for-planned-parenthood-abortion-stats-3-percent-and-94-percent-are-both-misleading/
This article also notes that the anti-choice foundation Susan B Anthony List uses misleading numbers as well. Guess how many times the video mentions this?
This is from that article:
"But Planned Parenthood does not provide the number of pregnant clients it has in a year, or what services they received. So pregnant women may have come to the clinic to receive a service other than (or in addition to) an abortion, prenatal care or adoption referral — the only three services counted in SBA List’s criteria. SBA List also does not include 1.13 million pregnancy tests, a portion of which may be given to a pregnant woman.
"Multiple prenatal services may be offered to one woman, so the prenatal services number may not compare directly to the number of adoption procedures (assuming one abortion per woman). The 2013 report does not identify the number of prenatal clients, but Planned Parenthood numbers from 2009 give us an idea of how these numbers can differ. Planned Parenthood reported 7,021 prenatal clients in 2009, but also reported in its 2010 annual report that it provided 40,489 prenatal services in 2009.
"Planned Parenthood clinics also refer pregnant patients to outside providers for prenatal services. A spokeswoman recently told PolitiFact that the organization does not record the number of such referrals.
"Knowing the full number of referrals for various pregnancy-related services would give a fuller picture. For example, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains partners with a midwifery practice for its Prenatal Plus Program, assigning case managers to help pregnant women with parenting classes, counselors and a registered dietician. Planned Parenthood Mid and South Michigan connects pregnant women with community resources for a variety of pregnancy-related services."
So, it sounds like Planned Parenthood took the actual services THEY provide, divided them by the number of people THEY rendered those services to and came up with the 3%. It sounds misleading. But, the math checks out. Anti-choice people don't like it. And that's fine. But, Roe v Wade granted US women the right to chose what happens to their bodies. That's that. No amount of fear mongering will change that.
Planned Parenthood is providing a safe and legal option for women. They have become to go-to for women because they provide the compassionate care to all income levels. And I will always fight to make sure all women have the right to go there for services.
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