Iowa Pro-Life Group Says Planned Parenthood Center Now Giving Abortion Drug
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 2, 2009
Des Moines, IA (LifeNews.com) — The statewide pro-life group in Iowa says a Planned Parenthood facility that previously did not do abortions is now giving women the dangerous abortion drug. Mifepristone, also known as RU 486, has caused the deaths of more than a dozen women worldwide and injured thousands in the United States.
Iowa Right to Life has issued a statement saying the Storm Lake Planned Parenthood center will begin disseminating the abortion drug this week.
Kim Lehman, the president of the group, says staff members at the Planned Parenthood who are upset the abortion drug will be given to women, informed her group of the news.
"We’ve heard Planned Parenthood staff are actually quitting over this, because they never saw themselves actually performing abortions," she said."They know the complications from RU-486 and they don’t want that blood on their hands."
Lehman said the staff told her that a physician will not be on hand at the Planned Parenthood center to oversee the women taking the drug even though the Food and Drug Administration calls for that.
She indicated a doctor will be available only via a webcam to monitor the women and whether they develop any medical complications from using the drug.
According to the Storm Lake Pilot Tribune newspaper, Planned Parenthood communications director Jim Flansburger released a statement saying Iowa Right to Life is wrong. However the comments do not say that the center will not be distributing the abortion drug.
Flansburger accused Iowa Right to Life of being "consistently factually inaccurate" and said the group publishes "ideology, not truth."
Lehman stands by the claims and says everything she has distributed comes from the former Planned Parenthood staffers.
"I’m confident in what we are saying based on what they have told me," she said.
"We will be notifying hospitals and clinics in the area, because we are afraid of what could happen with complications," she told the newspaper.
Lehman told the Tribune the decision adds to the information showing Planned Parenthood is the state’s biggest abortion business.
"Planned Parenthood performs over 85 percent of the RU-486 abortions in the state of Iowa and over 56 percent of the surgical abortions," Lehman said. "Planned Parenthood aborts over 12 children a day in Iowa."
Related web sites:
Iowa Right to Life – https://www.irlc.org
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