Planned Parenthood's Services

You will also commonly hear that Planned Parenthood provides many other extremely important reproductive healthcare.

Well buckle-up and let's dig into the facts!

We'll look at Planned Parenthood's claims and see what the facts have to say about them.

Abby Johnson - a Planned Parenthood Director's view on PP's Services

Ramona Trevino and Sue Thayer - former Planned Parenthood manager's inside experience with PP's services.

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Planned Parenthood "Provides access to Mammograms" 

In a news release, the Los Angeles-based group Live Action claimed that “opponents of defunding Planned Parenthood have argued in Congress and elsewhere that the organization provides many vital health care services other than abortion, such as mammograms. Most prominently, Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards recently appeared on The Joy Behar Show to oppose the Pence Amendment to end Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer subsidies, claiming, ‘If this bill ever becomes law, millions of women in this country are gonna lose their healthcare access — not to abortion services — to basic family planning, you know, mammograms.’” (WA Post)

See Cecile Richard's interview with those exact words: 

Conservative activists jumped at this answer, saying that Richards falsely claimed that the organization offers mammograms. Planned Parenthood immediately denied that, saying it offers referrals, not actual mammography.

What they do say is they provide "access" - the key word here - to mammograms. Meaning after a breast exam they will refer to a facility that offers them.

The FDA’s list, updated weekly, of certified mammography facilities does not list any Planned Parenthood clinics.

Okay, so PP doesn't offer Mammograms - but breast exams and referrals. How many breast exams do they actually do and how many referrals does this amount to? 

Despite the ongoing emphasis on Planned Parenthood’s mammogram referrals, this service does not reflect the core clients of the organization — certainly not clients in the reproductive age.

Facts:

Mammograms are recommended once a year for women 40 to 49.

Every other year for women 50 to 74 years.

 Referrals are less commonly made for women under 40.

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93% of Planned Parenthood's Patients are UNDER 40 years old. 

So only 7% of PP clients even need a breast exam in the first place. 

Further, "less than 3 percent of the breast exams offered at Planned Parenthood resulted in mammography referrals. Out of 487,029 breast exams in 2013, about 14,000 resulted in a client referral for mammography and other specialized providers, according to Planned Parenthood" (WA Post - read more)

PP only accounts for 1.8% of the Nation's Breast Exams

It should be noted that the Washington Post is certainly not holding the stance of a "Pro-Life" viewpoint - but reporting on the facts they came to this conclusion:

"We... award Three Pinocchios (the highest rating for falsehood) to Planned Parenthood supporters’ continued use of misleading language to suggest that it directly administers mammograms. In fact, supporters should drop this talking point, given that less than 3 percent of Planned Parenthood breast exams result in a referral for a mammogram and other specialized services."

The good news is the CDC has launched an extensive affordable, and easily accessible program for under-privileged women to provide these necessary health care tests and screenings.  This link will take you to a list of their services offered in every state of the US - CDC - National Breast Cancer and Cervical Screening Early Detection Program

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Planned Parenthood Provides PAP Smears 

Now this is one of the true claims PP will state

According to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s annual report for fiscal year 2014-2015, its affiliated clinics around the United States conducted 271, 539 (down from 378,692 in 2013) cancer-screening tests (Papanicolaou tests, commonly known as Pap tests) while also performing 323,999 abortions.

That's approx. .83 pap tests performed - per abortion.  

In other words:

Planned Parenthood does 30% of the Nations Abortions

Only 0.98% of the Nations Pap tests 

Furthermore, there is medical concern for the cause of cancer from many of PP's services. 

This is taken from the CDC's breast cancer pamphlet. 

"If you are taking, or have been told to take, hormone replacement therapy or oral contraceptives (birth control pills), ask your doctor about the risks and find out if it is right for you."
Also many studies have shown a link between abortion and breast cancer. Calling for laws for PP to give "informed consent" about the risks associated with abortion and breast cancer. 
Taken from Cancer.org "I'm convinced that the weight of available evidence suggests a real, independent, positive association between induced abortion and breast cancer risk."

(mammacare.org, CDC - Breast Cancer, CDC - young women breast cancer fact sheet, American Cancer Society - Breast Cancer, Cancer.org - Abortion, miscarriage and breast cancer) 

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Planned Parenthood Provides Prenatal Care

From PPFA's CEO Cecil Richard's you will hear these words, "Prenatal care... that is what folks depend on from Planned Parenthood." 

Really the only way to find out if their claims are true are to hear it from their own clinics and staff right? 

So we contacted 97 facilities across all 41 Planned Parenthood Affiliates and only 5 provided prenatal care. 

The rest of the responses sounded like this: 

"Planned Parenthood offers abortions, so they do not offer prenatal care.."

"Uh...we do not offer any prenatal care..."

"We don't offer prenatal care at Planned Parenthood..." 

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Planned Parenthood Provides Ultrasounds

Yes, another true claim you will find from PP.  

However - What do they use them for??

In this video you will see:

"We asked 68 facilities about their ultrasound services, and only 3 said they could check the health of the baby."

"The remainder did ultrasounds for abortion or didn't do them at all."

In the words of many PP staff members, "We only offer ultrasounds if you are terminating.." 

"We only use ultrasounds for the abortion procedure - not for prenatal care."