Pro-life group Live Action is accusing Planned Parenthood of “pushing profitable abortions, often at the expense of health care services for the women it claims to serve,” releasing a new investigative video this week that purports to provide evidence of that very claim.
“Planned Parenthood’s own numbers show that it performs less than two percent of U.S. women’s cancer screenings, zero mammograms, and offers virtually no prenatal care for women who want to keep their babies,” reads a description of Live Action’s new video effort.
In a clip, titled, “The Prenatal Care Deception,” Live Action said it contacted 97 facilities across 41 of Planned Parenthood’s affiliates, and found that only five facilities offered prenatal care for women who wished to carry their pregnancies to term.
A number of recorded conversations included in the video yielded audio that seemingly shows staff members across numerous Planned Parenthood facilities telling callers that there is no prenatal care available. On two occasions, staff members also purportedly said that Planned Parenthood’s very name is “deceptive.”
“No, we don’t do prenatal services,” said one staffer who reportedly works at a clinic in Merrillville, Indiana. “I mean, it’s called Planned Parenthood, I know that’s kind of deceiving.”
Other audio purportedly shows staffers saying “no Planned Parenthood does prenatal care” and that ultrasounds are solely tied to abortion services. One staffer reportedly said, “We specialize in abortions, you know. That’s what our ultrasounds are for. To see how far along, the, um, patient is.”
Here’s the transcript of another such conversation:
Woman: “Hi, I was hoping to make an appointment for prenatal care?”
Planned Parenthood: “For what type of service?”
Woman: “Um, prenatal care. Pregnancy care.”
Planned Parenthood: “We don’t have prenatal care here. … Planned Parenthood offers abortions, so they don’t offer prenatal care.”
Woman: “Okay, just abortions.”
Watch the video below:
It should be noted that Planned Parenthood has around 650 health centers that are operated by 57 affiliates, with Live Action saying it contacted facilities associated with the majority of those affiliates.
After the video’s release, The New York Times reported that Planned Parenthood’s own annual 2014-2015 report indicated that just eight of the organization’s 59 affiliates at that time had offered prenatal services. And according to that same report, of the 9,455,582 total services that Planned Parenthood offered, just 17,419 were “prenatal.”
Planned Parenthood responded on Tuesday to the Live Action video, with a representative for the controversial women’s health care organization telling The New York Times that the organization is being held to a standard that it never set for itself.
“It is safe to say that not every single one of our health centers provides prenatal care, and we’ve never said otherwise,” Planned Parenthood spokesperson Mary Alice Carter told the Times. “This is obviously part of a continued campaign to try to discredit us even though investigation after investigation found no wrongdoing in any of our health centers.”
Carter added that all of Planned Parenthood’s clinics would offer services seen as aligning with what an initial prenatal visit would typically include. That said, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards has, indeed, mentioned prenatal care in the past. In fact, she did so last January in a speech endorsing Hillary Clinton for president.
“They want a president who understands that being pro-choice also means being able to choose to have a child — and a president who will fight for prenatal care, head start, health care for kids and first class public schools because it takes a village!” she proclaimed at the time.
Of course, that could have been more of a general sentiment not tied to Planned Parenthood’s services per se. Either way, Live Action founder Lila Rose pushed back against Planned Parenthood’s response, issuing a statement to Faithwire that casted doubt on the organization’s claims.
“Planned Parenthood is misleading the public — its own employees say that its focus is providing abortions, not women’s health care,” Rose said. “The Live Action video ‘Abortion, Not Prenatal Care at Planned Parenthood’ contains footage of Planned Parenthood’s President Cecile Richards falsely touting prenatal care services by her organization.”
The pro-life activist said that Carter’s statement essentially shows that purported past claims about offering prenatal care are “false and exaggerated.”
“Using deceptive and discredited attacks against Live Action does not change the fact that prenatal care is virtually nonexistent at Planned Parenthood,” Rose continued. “Planned Parenthood committed 323,999 abortions, 30.6% of all U.S. abortions (in just one year).”
The latest video comes as a government debate over defunding Planned Parenthood forges on.
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