In response to what he calls "misconceptions" about his bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Rep. Mike Pence published an "essay" to set the record straight. There's just one little problem with his essay: it's complete bullshit.
While Planned Parenthood asserts that no federal funds are used to provide or promote abortion, a woman entering a Planned Parenthood clinic in 2009 was 42 times more likely to have an abortion than to receive either prenatal care or be referred for adoption.
That's a pretty creative way of interpreting the facts about the services Planned Parenthood actually provides. As Jed previously reported, abortion is actually a tiny fraction of what Planned Parenthood does. It devotes much more of its resources to really objectionable stuff like cancer screening testing and treatment of STDs.
Source: Planned Parenthood 2008-9 annual report
But that's not all. Pence goes on to say that because of "allegations" and a "pattern of apparent fraud and abuse," Planned Parenthood doesn't deserve to receive federal tax dollars. But "allegations" are not the same thing as evidence. In fact, making baseless "allegations" about Planned Parenthood is standard operating procedure for forced birthers. When investigations, prompted by such "allegations," fail to actually show a pattern of fraud and abuse, they present doctored videos as "evidence."
Pence also claims that his bill would not cut funding for women's health services. Wrong again, Mike. See, Planned Parenthood is one of the largest providers of women's health services. So you cut funding for Planned Parenthood, and you're cutting funding for women's health services. Really, it's pretty straightforward.
Pence also claims his legislation will "help protect women who find themselves in crisis pregnancies by ensuring they receive access to unbiased and compassionate health services." Nope. What his bill will do is drive women to crisis pregnancy centers, where they will receive very biased, not to mention factually inaccurate, counseling from anti-abortion activists whose mission is to discourage women from obtaining an abortion.
Pence also insists that there will still be plenty of clinics that provide health care services to women and offers the example of the Open Doors clinics in Anderson and Muncie. Funny thing about that. According to the Open Doors website, if Republicans get their way on cutting $1.3 billion dollars of funding for Community Health Centers, clinics like the one Pence praises will be severely impacted. Guess who voted to do just that? Mr. I-care-about-health-care-services-for-women.
The truth is that for many low-income women in America, Planned Parenthood is the only available resource for obtaining health care services. Cutting its funding means depriving those women of necessary health care. And there's absolutely nothing "pro-life" about that.