By Jim Sedlak
Planned Parenthood likes to tout its work in ads, e-mail releases, op-eds, and fundraising pieces. These are always fluff pieces, often with exaggerations, that present PP in the best possible light and leave out all the contradictory facts. As a service to all those fighting Planned Parenthood across the United States, STOPP will be bringing you suggestions on how to answer some of its outrageous claims.
On Wednesday, November 4, 2020, the day after Election Day, Planned Parenthood sent the following e-mail to its list:
Right here, with you. No matter what.
Even in these uncertain days, here’s one thing you can count on:
Planned Parenthood is here for you, always.
We’ve faced uncertainty before, and worse. Through it all, Planned Parenthood has always done everything we can to provide and defend access to health care—and that will never change. We’ll continue to do it the way we’ve always done it: together.
No matter the outcome of this election, the reality is—patients are counting on Planned Parenthood, and we’re counting on you 2020 has been a tumultuous year for our communities. It’s put our work to the test and we’ve stretched ourselves to get through it. But these challenges have only made clearer the urgency of our mission. From expanding telehealth, to providing sex education, to defending abortion, the health of our communities is our number one priority—and that includes you.
Our unwavering commitment to patients is why we’ve been standing strong for 100 years. Give now to make sure we’re here for 100 more »
We’re not going anywhere.
Sincerely,
Alexis McGill Johnson, President & CEO
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
As we evaluate this e-mail, the first thing that pops out is the basic lie. Planned Parenthood operated 938 medical centers across the country in 1995, and at the beginning of 2020 it operated only 587. That’s 351 communities where Planned Parenthood isn’t “here” for anyone. PP hopes you won’t point that out.
Then Planned Parenthood says that “patients are counting on Planned Parenthood.” Again, Planned Parenthood leaves out the fact that its patient numbers have dropped dramatically since 2007. Based on the numbers presented in its own annual reports, it has gone from 3,020,651 customers in 2007 to 2,400,000 in each of the last four years; that’s over 600,000 customers who don’t count on Planned Parenthood any longer.
Note the “health services” Planned Parenthood chooses to mention in this e-mail: telehealth, sex education, and abortion—NOT breast cancer screening or cervical cancer awareness or any of the other minor services it trots out to defend itself from defunding. Telehealth is expanding at Planned Parenthood, but the main area of expansion is selling its own birth control products (made by Afaxys) at huge profits—many of which actually kill babies in the womb by preventing implantation. Planned Parenthood’s sex education programs are designed to do one thing—get young people involved in a sexual lifestyle so PP can sell them birth control. Finally, abortion is not healthcare, and no matter how many times Planned Parenthood says it, abortion is always the murder of an innocent preborn child.
NOTE: STOPP has established an effort to help people across the country rebuke Planned Parenthood’s falsehoods. If you receive an e-mail or letter from PP, or see one of its ads or letters-to-the-editor, send us a copy (to jsedlak@all.org) and we will be happy to suggest how you can rebut the false information. We will select some of them for publication in our Wednesday STOPP Report.
Jim Sedlak is executive director of American Life League, founder of STOPP International, and host of a weekly talk show on the Radio Maria Network. He has been successfully fighting Planned Parenthood since 1985.