In a rare spark of abortion-related media integrity, one major news outlet has schooled Planned Parenthood supporters on the mythical nature of their claim that abortion only comprises 3% of the organization’s “health services.” This made-up statistic has been unscrupulously hurled in every direction by Planned Parenthood and friends in their furious attempt to downplay the horrifying content of undercover videos that have tarnished Planned Parenthood’s pretty pink façade since mid-July. In a Fact Checker piece entitled, “For Planned Parenthood abortion stats, ‘3 percent’ and ‘94 percent’ are both misleading,” the Washington Post gave Planned Parenthood three out of four possible “Pinocchios” for their lie. In other words, WaPo found Planned Parenthood’s 3% claim to consist of “significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions.”
Pro-Lifers have long contested the integrity of this statistic, but not until now have mainstream media and abortion sympathizers alike acknowledged the veracity of our contention. Conservative-leaning Breitbart took no pains to mask their opinion of the 3% myth, entitling their August 5 debunking piece, “Planned Parenthood’s Great Big Enormous 3% Lie.”
Long story short, Planned Parenthood arrives at the wildly underwhelming 3% figure by unbundling their services. So if a woman goes to Planned Parenthood and receives five condoms, a pregnancy test, a pill pack, a pap smear, and a blood test, the organization would tally the total number of “health services” provided at nine. An abortion procedure, likewise, counts as one health service. Thus, in Planned Parenthood’s creative method of bookkeeping, a condom and an abortion have the same import. The Washington Post doesn’t buy this overtly self-serving gimmick:
The 3 percent figure that Planned Parenthood uses is misleading, comparing abortion services to every other service that it provides. The organization treats each service — pregnancy test, STD test, abortion, birth control — equally. Yet there are obvious difference between a surgical (or even medical) abortion, and offering a urine (or even blood) pregnancy test. These services are not all comparable in how much they cost or how extensive the service or procedure is.
WaPo provides many statistics and numbers that call into question the legitimacy of Planned Parenthood’s method of counting their so-called services. One example that stands out is that “12 percent of total patients” who visit Planned Parenthood undergo abortions. Here, we should note that not all of Planned Parenthood’s patients are women, so the 12% is not the percentage of women who undergo abortions at Planned Parenthood, but the percentage of total clients. In Planned Parenthood’s own “By the Numbers” report, the group reports that their number of men clients increased by 83% from 2002 to 2012, suggesting that the percentage of women who undergo abortions at Planned Parenthood is possibly much greater than 12%.
Washington Post concludes that Planned Parenthood simply provides too little data for either side to be able to draw informed conclusions about just how big a piece of the pie abortions comprise in the grand scheme of Planned Parenthood’s total operations. The veiled reporting, withholding of crucial numbers, and dishonest unbundling scheme certainly suggest that the group has something to hide from public scrutiny. Thankfully, Pro-Life advocates at the Center for Medical Progress have lifted the curtain and laid the abortion behemoth bare before the nation. Creative reporting will do little to mask the reality of what Planned Parenthood is after the exposé is complete.