U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania has been going out of his way lately to support the abortion chain Planned Parenthood.
Like his father, pro-life Democrat Bob Casey Sr., a former Pennsylvania governor whose administration fought against Planned Parenthood at the U.S. Supreme Court, Casey Jr. claims to be pro-life. However, the U.S. Senator has fallen far short of his father’s strong pro-life legacy.
On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania senator wrote an op-ed for the Huffington Post in support of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider.
Casey argued that Planned Parenthood should continue to receive half a billion taxpayer dollars each year because it reduces abortions.
“The fact is, Planned Parenthood prevents unintended pregnancies and reduces abortions,” Casey wrote. “Blocking access to care at Planned Parenthood could have the exact opposite effect. By increasing access to all forms of contraception and high-quality contraceptive counseling, Planned Parenthood enables women to choose the methods that work best for their bodies and lifestyles.”
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These claims may look good on the surface, but they are really very shallow when you look at what Planned Parenthood actually says and does.
Planned Parenthood does more abortions than any other group in the United States. In 2015, it performed 328,348 abortions on unborn babies, nearly 5,000 more than the previous year. That same year, its contraceptive services declined. It also receives about half a billion taxpayer dollars that year.
The abortion chain does not want to reduce abortions. It throws pizza parties to reward employees that exceed their abortion quotas, and in 2013, it even gave one of its Colorado clinics an award for “for exceeding abortion visits.”
Earlier this year, Planned Parenthood leaders refused an offer for an increase in tax funding if they stopped doing abortions. CEO Cecile Richards called the offer “obscene and insulting,” making it very clear that abortions – not women’s health care – are essential to Planned Parenthood.
Either Casey missed this or he chose to ignore it to suit his political career. Casey claimed to be a “pro-life Democrat” in the op-ed, but his voting record shows otherwise. So far this year, his pro-life voting record is zero, according to the National Right to Life Committee. In the past five years, Casey opposed pro-life measures twice as often as he supported them, NRLC reports.
He wrote, “I believe we must do everything we can to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions in this country, including increasing access to contraception and helping pregnant women before and after birth by supporting Medicaid, WIC and other critical programs.”
Yet, Planned Parenthood is performing fewer non-abortion services, according to its annual reports from the past several years. From 2010 to 2014, Planned Parenthood reports showed dramatic decreases in the actual health services it provides, including breast cancer screenings, pap tests and STD tests and treatments.
If Casey’s goal is to help prevent unintended pregnancies and abortions, he should support pro-life legislators’ plans to defund Planned Parenthood and redirect tax dollars to community health centers. These federally qualified health clinics outnumber Planned Parenthoods by more than 20 to one, provide much more comprehensive care including contraception and prenatal care, and don’t do abortions.
Casey is up for re-election next year.
