AOC Praises Planned Parenthood’s Prenatal Care, But 95% of Its Abortion Clinics Don’t Even Offer It

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   May 7, 2021   |   12:37PM   |   Washington, DC

New York Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez praised the Planned Parenthood abortion chain for “saving” babies’ lives Thursday during a U.S. House hearing on maternal mortality.

Though Planned Parenthood primarily kills unborn babies in abortions, the Democrat socialist congresswoman claimed that Planned Parenthood saves “many babies” by providing prenatal care.

“If we want to talk about Planned Parenthood, let’s talk about how many lives Planned Parenthood has saved,” Ocasio-Cortez said, “and how many babies have been born because of the prenatal care provided by Planned Parenthood.”

A short video of her remarks, shared by Grabien Media editor Tom Elliott, quickly went viral on Twitter, with some joining her in the abortion chain’s defense and others pointing out that Planned Parenthood’s “core mission” is killing unborn babies, not saving them.

Ocasio-Cortez said she was one of those babies because her mother received prenatal care at Planned Parenthood before she was born.

“And if you don’t believe it, and if you’ve never met a Planned Parenthood baby, I’m happy to let you know that I am one,” she told lawmakers.

But the truth is that prenatal care is almost non-existent at the billion-dollar abortion chain. Evidence of this can be found in its own annual reports, women’s testimonies, investigations and studies.

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Planned Parenthood’s primary goal – its “core mission,” as former CEO Leana Wen said in 2019 – is abortion, and it does about 40 percent of all abortions in the U.S.

Earlier this year, it posted record abortion numbers in its annual report, which is publicly available online. Planned Parenthood reported 354,871 abortions, a 3.5 percent increase from the year before. In contrast, its prenatal services decreased from 9,789 to 8,626 (about 12 percent) that year.

In 2017, a Live Action investigation found that just five of the 97 facilities it contacted provided prenatal care — meaning 94.8% don’t offer it.

“Planned Parenthood offers abortions, so they don’t offer prenatal care,” a receptionist at the Planned Parenthood in Tempe, Arizona told a Live Action investigator. Another receptionist at the Albany, New York facility told them, “No Planned Parenthood does prenatal care, hon.” A third in Merrillville, Indiana said: “No, we don’t do prenatal services. I mean, it’s called Planned Parenthood, I know it’s kind of deceiving.”

After the investigation came out, the Pennsylvania Family Institute conducted its own research and found that Planned Parenthood facilities in the state advertised prenatal care but none actually provided it. Eventually, the abortion chain was forced to edit its websites to remove the false information.

Testimonies and research about women who had abortions at Planned Parenthood also provide evidence against Ocasio-Cortez’s claim. Rather than being given pregnancy options, many women say Planned Parenthood pressured them to have abortions.

Research by David C. Reardon, a pro-life expert and founder of the Elliot Institute, asked women about their abortion experiences at Planned Parenthood. According to the study, 60 percent said the counselor very strongly encouraged them to choose abortion.

Sarah Terzo of ClinicQuotes reports more about the study:

Over 90% of those encouraged to abort by their Planned Parenthood counselor said there was a strong chance they would’ve chosen against the abortion if they had not been so strongly encouraged to abort by others, including a counselor

Of the Planned Parenthood patients, over 60% were still hoping to find an alternative to abortion when they went for counseling. Only 25% were already firm in their abortion choice. All felt their Planned Parenthood counselor did little or nothing to help them explore their decision. 89% said the Planned Parenthood counselor was strongly biased in favor of abortion.

Planned Parenthood is primarily an abortion chain, focused on killing unborn babies. Its new CEO Alexis McGill Johnson recently told the Washington Post that she is “proud” that they do abortions because “abortion is health care.