The Planned Parenthood Controversy

Videos released by the anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress over the summer, allegedly showing Planned Parenthood executives discussing fetal tissue donation, resulted in many Republicans insisting on cutting an estimated $500 million in public funds to the women’s health nonprofit organization.

The footage, edited by the pro-life Center for Medical Progress, has been the subject of heated debate in Congress. Pro-choice activists contend the footage has been heavily edited, but Republicans were threatening to vote against any bill that funds Planned Parenthood and shutdown the government if needed, as reported in such media outlets as The Washington Post.

By 2-1, funding for Planned Parenthood is supported, a Suffolk University poll published in USA Today said on Tuesday, September 29, 2015. “Two-thirds of those surveyed, 65%, say funding should continue for the group, which provides contraception, cancer screening and other health services to women; 29% say it should be cut off,” USA Today wrote.

The UMHS Endeavour is not taking sides in this issue, but below we will summarize the women’s health services that Planned Parenthood provides and the funds it receives, so the public and students at American and Caribbean medical schools can make up their own minds on where they stand. We will also include information on the video footage and the pro-life and pro-choice viewpoint, with excerpts from op-eds in the Washington Examiner and Media Matters.

Planned Parenthood Facts

• The Washington Post reported that only 3% of Planned Parenthood’s services are abortions.
• Defunding Planned Parenthood could have a negative impact for low-income women who rely on such subsidized services as birth control.
• Planned Parenthood currently receives $500 million annually in public funds.
• Government funds are the main source of Planned Parenthood’s revenue.
• 80% of Planned Parenthood clients receive “services to prevent unintended pregnancy,” according to Planned Parenthood data
• Although Planned Parenthood advocates say the organization provides women’s cancer screening, no Planned Parenthood office actually provides such services as mammograms. If a health-care provider feels a patient needs a mammogram, the woman will be referred to a radiologist.
• Most women who say they need contraceptives offered through public funds live in an area with a Planned Parenthood office, according to a report released by the nonprofit reproductive health organization The Guttmacher Institute.

Sources: The Washington Post and The Guttmacher Institute

About the Footage: Views from Both Sides

There has been much talk about the Planned Parenthood footage being heavily edited. Here’s a quote from the conservative Washington Examiner in an op-ed by Timothy P. Carney published September 29, 2015. Mr. Carney discussed Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina’s much-ballyhooed discussion of the footage during debates aired on CNN in September.

Mr. Carney quotes Ms. Fiorina’s comments during the debate: “I dare Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama to watch these tapes, watch [A] a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking, while someone says [B] we have to keep it alive [C] to harvest its brain. This is about the character of our nation. And if we will not stand up and force President Obama to veto this bill, shame on us.”

Mr. Carney writes, “It turns out she sort of blended together three different parts of one video:

1. Footage of a baby who survived an abortion — notably, this baby may not have been at Planned Parenthood*, and we have no reason to think he or she was cut up for his or her organs.
2. Abortion clinic officials saying things that could suggest they may deliver live babies, rather than abort them, in order to preserve the value of the body parts.
3. The first-hand account of former biotech worker Holly O'Donnell, who described an aborted baby boy whose heart was still beating and who was cut up for his brain.”

The pro-choice website Media Matters lists the following claims debunking the video footage in the article “5 Things to Know About the Center for Media Progress’ Seventh Attempt to Smear Planned Parenthood," published August 19, 2015.

“The seventh video from the anti-choice Center for Medical Progress (CMP) falls flat in its attempt to smear Planned Parenthood, once again showing no clear evidence that the Planned Parenthood clinics broke any laws in obtaining fetal tissue donations from consenting patients,” Alexandrea Boghun writes on Media Matters. “The latest video again relies on footage already debunked as highly edited, features conversations with third-party providers who acted as the middlemen between researchers and clinics, and relies heavily on the account of a technician who did not work for Planned Parenthood and who has been accused of violating her employment agreement with a third-party provider.”

Ms. Boghun made the following points about the video:

1. Video still shows no clear evidence of illegality and key witness provides no evidence that Planned Parenthood broke the law.
2. Video features more third-party tissue procurement companies.
3. Video uses highly edited clips of Planned Parenthood officials already debunked as deceptively edited and showing nothing illegal.
4. Video again largely relies on third-party technician who did not work for Planned Parenthood, but worked for a middleman company that sold fetal tissue donations to researchers.
5. StemExpress says technician featured in video violated employment agreement.

(Top image) PLANNED PARENTHOOD: Pie chart showing services provided. Image: FactCheck.org

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