Planned Parenthood Falsely Uses Mammograms to Defend Tax-Funding

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Feb 24, 2011   |   11:35AM   |   Washington, DC

Reeling from a vote in the House of Representatives that would deny any and all taxpayer funding, the Planned Parenthood abortion business is turning to its non-abortion “services” to defend the need for the government dole.

However, it turns out that, in one case, when it comes to mammograms, Planned Parenthood doesn’t actually provide the service.

On February 21, Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards joined the talk show of pro-abortion activist Joy Behar and defended Planned Parenthood against the legislation seeking to de-fund it.

“If this bill ever becomes law, millions of women in this country are going to lose their health care access, not to abortion services, to basic family planning – you know, mammograms, cancer screenings, cervical cancer,” she said.

But pro-life blogger Jill Stanek did some checking and found out Planned Parenthood doesn’t do mammograms.

“The fact is not one Planned Parenthood in America performs mammograms. All Planned Parenthoods do are refer for mammograms,” she said. “So while Richards was technically correct to add the word ‘access’ before citing mammograms as a service Planned Parenthood provides, I guarantee no one understood her to say anything other than Planned Parenthood performs mammograms, when actually all Planned Parenthood does is merely write down the name of a place to go for mammograms.”

In fact, Planned Parenthood’s web site, in a factsheet that references mammograms, tells women to “Ask your local health care provider, health department, or staff at your local Planned Parenthood center about where you can get a mammogram in your area.”

LifeNews.com followed up on the question and phoned two Planned Parenthood centers this morning in two states, New Jersey and South Carolina. In both cases, staff at the centers indicated they do not perform mammograms on site but would be happy to make a referral to another health care provider who does.

As Stanek notes, there are more than 1,200 Federally Qualified Health Centers that do provide mammograms and other legitimate health care and women should visit these clinics as opposed to an abortion center:  “There are 1,200 Federally Qualified Health Centers that provide the same care PP does – plus mammograms – along with providing other health care services for the entire family. FQHCs provide much more comprehensive care.”

Promoting mammograms as a legitimate health care service Planned Parenthood supposedly provides in a defense to cutting off taxpayer funding is nothing new.

On the Fox news program O’Reilly Factor earlier this month, guest host Laura Ingraham devoted two segments to Lila Rose’s latest undercover video showing how Planned Parenthood aiding and abetting the covering up of sex crimes. The conservative talker debated Fox News contributor Jehmu Greene, who defended Planned Parenthood.

“As probably many of your girlfriends are aware, and Lila’s girlfriends are aware, Planned Parenthood is a valuable health care provider for millions of American women in this country, across 820 health centers. I don’t think it is fair to point to the actions of one employee, who was swiftly fired when these allegations came up, and compare that to the tens of thousands of Planned Parenthood employees that provide mammograms,” Greene claimed.

But New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has twice cut off state taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood, seemed to recognize that the family planning “services” Planned Parenthood provides are different from legitimate health care.

“I don’t believe that is a priority in a budget where you have to cut $11 billion,” the governor said, according to the Star-Ledger newspaper. “I believe that women have the opportunity to access health care all across New Jersey. Family planning has nothing to do with mammograms, and don’t put the two of them together.”

The information Stanek revealed showing Planned Parenthood doesn’t do mammograms also has an impact on the debate over the grants the Komen for the Cure Breast Cancer Foundation  makes to the abortion business.

For example, in December 2006, the Aspen, Colorado affiliate of Komen gave Planned Parenthood a $12,887 grant. The reason? Komen says the grants will be used specifically to fund breast exams, mammograms and ultrasounds for uninsured and underinsured women in the Glenwood Springs area. Since Planned Parenthood doesn’t do mammograms, that makes such grants significantly more questionable.

As Stanek concludes: “Pro-lifers need to call Planned Parenthood and its cheerleaders out every time they try to imply Planned Parenthood performs mammograms. Planned Parenthood is trying to make Americans think that poor and minority women in particular will lose access to mammograms if Planned Parenthood is defunded, which is absolutely false.”