She isn’t joking around this time. Comedian Chelsea Handler is ready to “fight” for “life-saving” abortion giant Planned Parenthood.
The day before Valentine’s Day, Medium published an essay by Handler, “Protect Planned Parenthood,” in which she defended America’s largest abortion provider.
“[W]omen’s health and reproductive rights are under attack like never before,” Handler stressed, pointing to the push to defund Planned Parenthood as well as Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch who likely “won’t defend a woman’s right to choose.”
But she still had hope.
“If you’re feeling demoralized, you’re not alone,” she continued. “But when things get bad, we get loud, we march and we fight — just like we did the day after inauguration.”
Handler was referring to the pro-Planned Parenthood Women’s March on Washington. She hosted a sister march in Utah to “help send a message to the incoming administration that attacks on Planned Parenthood and our fundamental human rights are unacceptable.”
Later on, Handler listed “the facts” about Planned Parenthood, including:
- “60% of patients who receive care at centers like Planned Parenthood consider it their primary source of health care.”
- “In over 20% of the counties where it operates, Planned Parenthood is the only safety-net family planning provider.”
While Handler didn’t say where her information came from, she may have been citing a Planned Parenthood document on the “Urgent Need for Planned Parenthood Health Centers.” Although, it phrased the numbers a little bit differently:
“Ob-gyn providers, including Planned Parenthood health centers, play a critical role in providing primary and preventive care to women in the United States. Nearly 60 percent of women report seeing an ob-gyn on a regular basis and 35 percent view their ob-gyn as their main source of care — this is especially true for low-income women and women of color.”
And:
“In 21 percent of counties with a Planned Parenthood health center, Planned Parenthood is the only safety-net family planning provider…”
She added, “’[N]early all the care offered at Planned Parenthood health centers is preventive services and screenings.”
While she avoided the “a-word” (abortion), Handler revealed just last summer (to Playboy) that she had two abortions at Planned Parenthood as a 16-year-old.
“I’m grateful that I came to my senses and was able to get an abortion legally without risking my health or bankrupting myself or my family,” she wrote at the time. “I’m 41 now. I don’t ever look back and think, God, I wish I’d had that baby.”
Even with that history, Handler hailed Planned Parenthood for its “life-saving” services in her February essay.
“So when some of our elected officials talk about defunding Planned Parenthood,” she insisted, “what they really mean is that they want to deny women, men, and their families access to potentially life-saving medical care.”
“I’m not going to sit back and let future generations be denied the same essential rights we have,” she concluded. (The “future generations” that make it past abortion, that is.)
Both Newsweek and Raw Story republished the Medium piece.
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