Planned Parenthood and its Repot

 

Five Takeaways from PPFA’s Annual Report

By Dave Andrusko
Later today, after thoroughly digesting Planned Parenthood’s 2012-2013 annual report, NRLC’s Dr. Randall K. O’Bannon will post an overview of an organization that aborted 327,166 American babies in 2012. As a quick but important preliminary, it comes as no surprise that a $1 billion+ corporation built around death would continue to provide even fewer prenatal care services and fewer adoption referrals (slim as they were to begin with).

My emphasis will be on the narrative provided by PPFA’s President Cecile Richards and chair, Alexis McGill Johnson, along with the explanations and headlines interspersed between the charts and texts. Here are five takeaways (there could be 50).

#1. “This is Planned Parenthood’s time,” we’re told in the second paragraph. (This is self-celebration on a massive scale, but that’s okay.) Among the assertions is “after leading the fight to ensure that the Affordable Care Act [ObamaCare] would be a historic advance for women’s health, now we’re making sure its promise is realized in people’s lives.” Put more straightforwardly, PPFA was a key player in getting ObamaCare passed in 2010 and it has been richly blessed in return by the Obama administration which also continues to seek its support in salvaging ObamaCare. (See “ObamaCare: Advancing the Abortion Industry”; “ObamaCare: Takes Planned Parenthood to a Whole New Level”; and “Obama pulls in PPFA and other allies to try to restart failed launch of ObamaCare health care exchanges”)

We’re also informed that PPFA’s political arm (its “Action Fund”) “is using every tool in its toolkit to ensure that we have a political climate that will protect women’s health.” That’s code for demagogic attacks on pro-life candidates that are extreme even by the abortion industry’s standards.

#2.There is commentary and photos alike to assure readers that PPFA is leading a “multicultural majority.” A better description would be that PPFA’s target population—its “clientele”—is disproportionately women of color. The total on minority communities is staggering.

#3. “A Global Reach,” shorthand for “Planned Parenthood’s Global expansion in Africa and Latin America.” PPFA’s boast should be taken at face value and given credence. It is very aggressively pursuing its agenda, not only in countries whose abortion laws are lax but also in countries where the abortion laws are very protective.

#4. Faced with pro-life initiatives all over the nation, PPFA’s annual report attempts to put the best face on what is for them has been an awful two years. Its “proactive legislative agenda around the country” starts (and pretty much ends) with California passing a law that widely increases the range of non-physicians legally able to perform first-trimester abortions. What PPFA doesn’t mention (at least not here) is that another bill made sure that abortion clinics in California remain as minimally regulated as humanly possible. So much for the lessons of Kermit Gosnell.

#5. To no one’s surprise, PPFA recycles the myth that abortion represents “3%” of its services. We have countered that gross distortion many, many times, most recently at “Why the Claim that Abortion is ‘Only 3% of Planned Parenthood’s Services’ is so Radically Misleading.”  Dr. O’Bannon’s concluding sentence summarizes his findings: “Put all this together, largely taken from PPFA’s own reports, and it is clear that the ‘3%’ figure is a myth intended to mask Planned Parenthood’s deep, wide, and lucrative involvement in abortion.”

Source: NRLC News