Planned Parenthood is “duping” the media who, in turn, are misleading Americans, pro-life leaders recently warned. But many in the liberal media are all too happy with the fatal relationship.
On September 19, Students for Life of America (SFLA) and other pro-life organizations called for the defunding Planned Parenthood and the reallocation of that funding to Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). The Washington, D.C. event at the National Press Club marked the launch of SFLA’s National #SockIt2PP Campus Tour to expose Planned Parenthood to students at more than 90 colleges across the country.
As the first speaker, Kristan Hawkins, president of SFLA, addressed Planned Parenthood’s relationship with the media.
“Planned Parenthood tries to dupe our nation’s media sometimes,” she began. “They try to tell them that they speak for this generation. That they know what’s going on.”
The evidence is endless, from the media skipping past the Center for Medical Progress videos and boasting a discrepancy in March for Life coverage to promoting interviews with Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards.
But America’s largest abortion provider is wrong, Hawkins urged.
“But they couldn’t be further out of touch,” she continued. “Planned Parenthood doesn’t speak for this generation. This generation is pro-life.”
Furthermore, she added, defunding the abortion giant makes sense to today’s Americans.
“This generation understands – and understands the common sense fact that it’s better to fund 8,000 Federally Qualified Health Centers and pregnancy centers,” she added. “Centers that provide real non-violent healthcare instead of funding an abortion Goliath which puts over 30 million dollars in election cycles.”
According to research by the Charlotte Lozier Institute of the Susan B. Anthony List, there are at least 20 community health centers for every Planned Parenthood clinic. A 2015 report by the pro-life group showed that, in the entire state of Mississippi, there was just one Planned Parenthood location. At the same time there were 377 Federally Qualified Health Clinics (FQHCs) and Rural Health Centers.
But the fight to defund Planned Parenthood meant more than funding.
“This generation understands that abortion kills,” Hawkins urged. “That abortion harms. That women and children deserve better – deserve better than Planned Parenthood and their dirty, corrupt business.”
To expose Planned Parenthood, she said, Students for Life is traveling across the nation in a truck holding more than 328,000 socks to represent the number of babies aborted each year by Planned Parenthood. It will stop at senators’ offices across the country before the socks are divided and taken to college campuses.
According to Planned Parenthood’s most recently published annual report, the organization performed 328,348 abortions and received $554.6 million in “government health services grants and reimbursements” for the year 2015 – 2016.
In an interview with MRC Culture at the event, Hawkins revealed what she would want the media to say about Planned Parenthood.
“Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion vender and they’ve been proven to commit fraud with taxpayer dollars, illegally sell the body parts of babies they abort and operate dirty clinics that kill women,” she said, acknowledging the media-censored Planned Parenthood videos by the Center for Medical Progress.
David Bereit, former CEO of pro-life group 40 Days for Life, also told MRC Culture what he wished the media would report in regards to the event.
“The media, a lot of time, tries to really downplay the impact of Planned Parenthood and its abortions,” he began. “They don’t mention that Planned Parenthood performs one out of every three abortions in America and the number, to most Americans, is staggering.”
According to Bereit, reporting the numbers is vital.
“If most people were actually to visualize and understand how many lives are lost to abortion at Planned Parenthood,” he added, “they would join with the 83% who are already saying we don’t want our taxpayer dollars going to this organization.”
Bereit likely referenced a January Marist poll commissioned by the Knights of Columbus on American opposition towards taxpayer funding for abortions in other countries.
“The media tries to stonewall us, they try to block that information,” he said.” The majority of Americans need to know, and the media has the integrity, they should have the integrity to report the truth: Planned Parenthood is the number one abortion perpetrator in America.”
Other speakers at the event included Concerned Women for America House Legislative Director Jaime Ballew, Alliance Defending Freedom Director of Alliance Relations Alison Howard Centofante, Americans United for Life President Catherine Glenn Foster, Northwest Center Executive Director Susan Gallucci, March for Life President Jeanne Mancini and Catholic University of America Student Samuel Matthews.
