Planned Parenthood: Abortion ‘No Matter What’
Planned Parenthood is living up to its slogan as it attempts to portray itself a victim of the Trump administration’s rule asserting that abortion is not family planning.
“No matter what,” Planned Parenthood repeats its catchphrase, apparently in an attempt to show its dogged pursuit of ensuring women and girls can have all the abortions they want. The nation’s largest abortion business has even tried to sell their primary service as “health care.”
I want our patients to know that we’re pulling out all the stops to fight this dangerous and unethical rule. #CareNoMatterWhat#ProtectXhttps://t.co/g9wAhmTtKt
— Alexis McGill Johnson (@alexismcgill) August 14, 2019
The Trump administration’s Protect Life Rule requires Planned Parenthood to end referring women and girls for abortions if the organization still wants to receive some $60 million in federal Title X family planning funds. The Trump administration has made it clear that abortion is not health care and not family planning.
Planned Parenthood asked a federal appeals court to block the rule so that it could continue to receive federal funds as it still refers women for abortion – its primary moneymaking enterprise.
The organization said it “will be forced to withdraw” from Title X by Monday unless the court blocks the Protect Life Rule – which it refers to as a “gag rule”:
We just told the Ninth Circuit: unless the court steps in, @PPFA health centers will be forced out of the Title X program due to the Trump admin’s gag rule — putting access to birth control and other essential care at risk for millions who get care through Title X. #ProtectXpic.twitter.com/x0E858hwbY
— Planned Parenthood (@PPFA) August 14, 2019
As Politico reported, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has rejected Planned Parenthood’s request.
“Trump’s administration is trying to force us to keep information from our patients,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, acting Planned Parenthood president. “The gag rule is unethical, dangerous, and we will not subject our patients to it. We are considering all of our options.”
Prior to the court’s decision to allow the rule to continue, however, Planned Parenthood indicated nationally that it would rather withdraw from the Title X program and use other funding available so that it might continue to refer for abortions.
The new rule prohibits the use of the funds to “perform, promote, refer for, or support abortion as a method of family planning.”
Planned Parenthood’s annual reports show it performs about 330,000 abortions each year, as many of its other services have been in decline.
In a report released in 2017, the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI), the research arm of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, confirmed Planned Parenthood obtains 35 percent of the U.S. abortion market – a figure that well overtakes the market shares of leaders in other industries.
“The level of market dominance for abortions demonstrated by Planned Parenthood could be taught in business schools as the ultimate example of strategic planning and execution,” wrote CLI President Chuck Donovan and Vice President Dr. James Studnicki. “It is a defining activity.”
The report also observed that Planned Parenthood provided less than 1.4 percent of the nation’s HIV tests and less than 1 percent of pap tests, and that, in the previous five years, service-to-client ratios for breast exams and pap tests had declined by 37 percent.
Mia Heck, spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) responded to Planned Parenthood’s objections to the Protect Life Rule on Friday, reported the New York Post:
To the extent that Planned Parenthood claims that it must make burdensome changes to comply with the Final Rule, it is actually choosing to place a higher priority on the ability to refer for abortion instead of continuing to receive federal funds to provide a broad range of acceptable and effective family planning methods and services to clients in need of these services.
Catherine Glenn Foster, president of Americans United for Life, said in a statement to Catholic News Service, it was “no surprise” that Planned Parenthood would withdraw from Title X.
Planned Parenthood knows its decision to withdraw “will feed its reality distortion field that, despite being one of the most generously tax-funded nonprofits in America, it is somehow being attacked simply because the Department of Health and Human Services wishes to respect congressional intent,” Foster said. “And Congress was clear: Title X was never meant to fund abortions. The law is clear.”