In her frustration over a BuzzFeed News report about her ascent to president of Planned Parenthood, Dr. Leana Wen declared abortion to be the government-funded organization’s premier mission.
The 35-year-old Wen, the first physician to lead Planned Parenthood in nearly 50 years, took issue with BuzzFeed News’ story, scolding the left-leaning news outlet for “completely misconstru[ing]” her vision for the nation’s largest abortion provider.
First, our core mission is providing, protecting and expanding access to abortion and reproductive health care. We will never back down from that fight – it’s a fundamental human right and women’s lives are at stake.
— Leana Wen, M.D. (@DrLeanaWen) January 8, 2019
Wen made clear in her tweets that not only does she plan to continue “protecting” access to abortion, she also wants to expand it.
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“We will never back down from that fight,” she wrote. “It’s a fundamental human right and women’s lives are at stake.”
Her Twitter thread continued:
Our advocacy work is crucial to delivering on our mission. The 2018 midterms, including the record number of women and the historic pro-reproductive health majority elected to House, prove that Planned Parenthood continues to be a powerful political force across the country.
— Leana Wen, M.D. (@DrLeanaWen) January 8, 2019
Tomorrow I kick off a tour of 20 affiliate in five months where I plan to highlight the ways Planned Parenthood is already doing this in communities across the country, and look for ways we can expand even further.
— Leana Wen, M.D. (@DrLeanaWen) January 8, 2019
Wen’s criticism of BuzzFeed News for seemingly attempting to soften Planned Parenthood’s image came not long after the abortion provider kickstarted a campaign in Iowa complete with billboards boasting about abortion.
There are three different broadsides, which state: “I had an abortion, and I am not ashamed,” “I had an abortion, and it was just health care,” and “I had an abortion, and I am not apologizing for it.”
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In 2017, Planned Parenthood was responsible for performing 321,384 abortions on unborn children. Since 1970, Planned Parenthood abortionists have terminated more than 8 million pregnancies.
Despite these numbers, Planned Parenthood’s leaders tried to claim in their 2015 annual report that abortion counts for only 3 percent of the health services the national clinic provides. Even The Washington Post pushed back on that suggestion.
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“But there are obvious differences between these services,” Post reporter Michelle Ye Hee Lee wrote. “For example, a first trimester abortion can cost up to $1,500, according to the Planned Parenthood website. Yet an emergency contraceptive pill costs around $45 and a urine pregnancy test costs around $10 at a pharmacy.”