Pro-life group Live Action decided to look into that high quality “prenatal care” Planned Parenthood has touted as one of the core services they provide women and a reason why they should continue to get half a billion in taxpayer dollars every year. Unfortunately, after contacting 97 Planned Parenthood centers, the group found a grand total of five that actually provided prenatal care. Five.
As part of its “Abortion Corporation” investigative video series, Live Action uncovered the “The Prenatal Care Deception” that Planned Parenthood has been attempting to put on as part of its argument for deserving taxpayer money. Apparently, like mammograms, Planned Parenthood’s “prenatal care” is largely another mythic service the taxpayer-funded abortion giant claims to offer to divert attention from its real money-maker, abortion.
Live Action reports:
Although Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards told the media in 2011 that “Prenatal care – these are the kinds of services that folks depend on Planned Parenthood for,” Live Action investigators searching for such services at Planned Parenthood were turned away by 92 of the 97 centers they contacted. They received responses like:
“Planned Parenthood offers abortions, so they don’t offer prenatal care.”
– Tempe, AZ, Planned Parenthood
“No, we don’t do prenatal services. I mean, it’s called Planned Parenthood, I know it’s kind of deceiving.”
– Merrillville, IN, Planned Parenthood
“No, see, we don’t see pregnant women as a way of giving prenatal care, we see pregnant women, um, you know, if they are considering other options.”
– Santa Fe, NM, Planned Parenthood
Ed Morissey did some follow-up investigating of his own and found that Planned Parenthood’s online portal for pre-natal care simply takes pregnant mothers to the standard clinic search page, where the term “pre-natal care” doesn’t even appear as an option in the list of services. Curious:
It does list “Pregnancy Testing & Services,” but what exactly does that comprise? It’s not pre-natal care at most of these clinics:
- pregnancy testing
- abortion services
- abortion referrals
- adoption referrals
- fertility awareness education
- pregnancy planning services
- trained staff to discuss your options with you if you are pregnant
- trained staff to talk with you about early pregnancy loss (miscarriage)
So, yeah, Richards can tout the fantastic “prenatal care” her wonderful abortion mill provides all she wants, but, like the mythic mammograms her company offers, women in need of that service are likely going to have to look elsewhere.
President and founder of Live Action Lila Rose drew the obvious conclusion from their investigative efforts. Rather than being concerned with protecting women’s health, particularly pregnant women’s health, Planned Parenthood is really focused on providing one (very lucrative) “service”: abortion.
“It’s clear that despite its claims, abortion is the priority and the only option for pregnant women that visit Planned Parenthood,” said Rose.
“I anticipate Planned Parenthood will respond as it usually does by denying the overwhelming findings of this investigation,” said Rose. “That’s why I encourage media outlets to contact any of the 97 centers that Live Action did – or any others – and ask them if they offer prenatal care, how long they’ve been doing so, and then ask for proof. The media will find results similar to ours: Planned Parenthood’s prenatal care claim is bogus.
“We know from past experience that Planned Parenthood is untrustworthy and lies repeatedly to the public, as it did during Live Action’s 2011 child sex trafficking exposé. Last week, Live Action released public records that show Planned Parenthood failed to report child sex traffickers to local authorities as it had claimed. Planned Parenthood also lied about retraining thousands of its staff to identify and report sex traffickers. Instead, a former manager says the sessions were used to train staff how to identify undercover journalists. You can read the article and see the evidence here.”
