- Planned Parenthood does not sell tissue samples of aborted fetuses. Research programs and other organizations make requests for samples from Planned Parenthood, who is allowed to ask for money only to cover costs of preservation and transportation of the samples, but not for profit.
That is the law, but recent video coverage seems to show otherwise. Compensation to cover “transportation and handling” is a fixed expense yet their people were recorded negotiating payments. If they were merely seeking to cover their “costs” they would just point blank say “this is our cost that needs to be covered.” Instead they gruesomely and sickeningly haggled over payment.
Of course, in the midst of this disgusting activity the fact is lost that the only place human organs can come from is human beings!
- All samples are acquired with the full knowledge and consent of the patient it was obtained from.
Once again, recent video would suggest otherwise. One of their representatives is on tape saying that while their usual technique is one thing they could alter that technique to better preserve organs and tissue. The representative admits this is a legal problem but suggests its one that they can get around.
- No federal money is used to provide abortions.
Also, the Hyde amendment prevents taxpayer money from being used to fund abortion coverage. So taxpayer money only pays for Planned Parenthood’s other services. Private donations, private insurance and patients themselves pay for abortion coverage
That’s not exactly true. For starters, the Hyde Amendment states federal money is banned from being used for abortions
except if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest or if the abortion is performed to save the life of the mother. So there is some federal money used for abortions.
Secondly, while there are certain technical aspects of that that are true it beguiles an ignorance of how budgets actually work. Budgets cover all sorts of expenses. For example, if you cover my electric bill that means that I have more money to buy food since I now do not need to budget any money towards electricity. So, yes, you technically didn’t buy my food by covering my electricity yet I would have only been able to buy half as many groceries if I had to pay for my electricity. Thus
any money given to Planned Parenthood to help with *any *of their expenses, in some way, helps them to provide abortions.
- Planned Parenthood does more in a week to prevent abortions than all the angry crowds waving posters with photos of surgical procedures and threatening to harm patients and staff ever will.
That’s a specious argument since there’s simply no way to add it all up. And, as Catholics, we oppose any threat of harm to patients or staff so its a strawman argument. It also ignores all the work the pro-life movement does to actually support pregnant women.
Abortions account for only 3% of what Planned Parenthood does. The vast majority of time and resources are spent educating people, and providing low cost care (from STI treatments to annual visits to rape kits to cancer sceenings) to men and women who need it.
Sure, they do other things. The problem with their numbers is that they are all self-reported and there are many things that they do not track so getting reliable statistics from them is impossible. Planned Parenthood does not tally the number of woman who come to them for services that are pregnant even though that is a routine doctor’s office question. Its a relatively easy number to track but they are yet to do so. It seems rather odd until you realize that the lack of tracking that numbers permits them to deny that their primary care of pregnant woman is abortion since there’s no way to ascertain the percentage of services they provide to pregnant woman. Its a highly suspicious self serving omission.
The 3% number is also a bit shady due the fact that there are volumes of things that a group can do that are quick and inexpensive. On a pure volume level it accounts for most of their activity but its not necessarily what they spend most of their time and effort or money on. Using dollars spent or hours spent would be a much more accurate yardstick.
Finally, it should be noted that according to Planned Parenthood’s own numbers just 63 out of more than 800 Planned Parenthood centers provide their own prenatal care. Apparently if someone is pregnant and wants to keep their baby Planned Parenthood has little interest in serving their needs…
