By Jenifer Bowen
I would be remiss to allow Joy Corning’s letter to the editor in The Des Moines Register yesterday to go unchallenged, the one she said will “quell misconceptions about Planned Parenthood.”
Pro-lifers can agree with one thing Corning says: “Sometimes we humans avoid facing facts that should shed light on topics we have opposed because of tradition and orientation.” How else could one explain how Planned Parenthood apologists turn a blind eye to overwhelming facts that prove Planned Parenthood hurts women more than it helps?
Corning stated Planned Parenthood’s abortion services are “less than 2 percent of services provided.”
This begs the question: Is Planned Parenthood of the Heartland’s current Medical Director Dr. Jill Meadows a specialist in HIV or other STD testing? Is she a specialist in cancer screenings? No. Dr. Jill Meadows specializes in late-term abortions, as does LeRoy Carhart. Her grisly methods of dismembering babies without anesthesia are well documented. (Please see Iowa Right to Life News, September 2011, which can be found at: http://iowaRTL.org/irlc/what-s-new/)
Corning stated, “More than 97 percent of the services Planned Parenthood provides are prevention services that help women, men and families stay healthy.”
It’s time to end the misconception that Planned Parenthood is about “prevention.” The truth is, Planned Parenthood’s Education and Contraception feed its profitable abortion business. The numbers don’t lie. Planned Parenthood’s abortions are increasing exponentially in Iowa.
Let’s Look at Two Areas: Planned Parenthood’s Education and Contraception
1) Planned Parenthood’s educational materials, far from being about prevention, are designed to sexualize children at a young age. Here is Planned Parenthood’s informationfor teens to promote “safer” sex: “… there are many types of sex play that are considered lower-risk activities. These include: mutual masturbation, erotic massage, body rubbing, kissing, oral sex, vaginal intercourse with a latex or female condom, anal intercourse with a latex or female condom…”
(See Planned Parenthood’s www.Teenwire.com)
The central feature on Planned Parenthood’s page for teens is a video: “Find out whether your breasts, penis, or vulva look normal.” On a side navigation bar, “Pregnancy” is number four. It comes after “Sex and Masturbation.”
Planned Parenthood’s “Breasts, Penis and Vulva” video for teens features graphic images of a woman’s vulva on an Etch A Sketch® (you know, those toys for children where you twist the knobs to create a design on the screen?) Planned Parenthood uses tactics like this to target children even younger than teens all the time. Do you think Etch A Sketch® actually approved Planned Parenthood’s use of its product to promote its pornographic sexualization of children? Contact Etch a Sketch®’s parent company if you disapprove: Phone: 1.800.800.3141; Email: customerservice@ohioart.com; Mailing address: The Ohio Art Company, 1 Toy Street, Bryan, OH 43506.
There is a reason many of the school systems in Iowa do not use Planned Parenthood’s sex ed program. (For more information, see IRTL’s feature, “Take the Planned Parenthood Sex Ed Quiz” at www.iowaRTL.org)
Planned Parenthood’s Contraception Programs fuel their abortion business.
One would think contraception prevents unwanted pregnancy. Right? Yet 54% of women having abortions used contraception that month, according to Planned Parenthood’s research arm, The Guttmacher Institute.
Planned Parenthood gains financially by giving women a false sense of security. The more condoms Planned Parenthood gives out, the more birth control pills it provides, the more inter-uterine devices Planned Parenthood implants in women (and we should add teens, without the knowledge of their parents), the more its abortion business will increase. Planned Parenthood can never claim its “prevention services” reduce abortions in Iowa, because Planned Parenthood’s abortion business has been growing steadily.
Planned Parenthood counts every condom as a “service” in order to downplay its abortion business. That’s why it claims “less than 2 percent.”
Corning stated Planned Parenthood placed nine babies in adoptive homes in one year.
It’s stunning that Corning would see that as a bragging factor, when Planned Parenthood kills more than nine children in a few hours at a single location. Planned Parenthood in Des Moines on Army Post Road, kills as many as 30 children in one day.
Corning stated, “Planned Parenthood prevents those untold, undocumented, unsafe and often disastrous self-inflicted or unprofessional abortion attempts.”
Just a few years ago, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland’s former Medical Director Dr. Meryl Severson almost killed a woman at a Planned Parenthood in Lincoln, NE, because he punctured her uterus and she lost 80 percent of the blood in her body. When the woman later sued, Planned Parenthood attorneys said in court. “The woman was well aware of the risks associated with the procedure before it was performed on her at the Lincoln clinic this summer.”
Planned Parenthood has a history of botched abortions and cover-ups from sea to shining sea. Planned Parenthood is the new back alley.
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland’s current abortions by webcam, where a doctor is not there to examine the woman in person, show even greater disregard for women’s safety. With the webcam abortions, women take the first drugs to kill the baby at Planned Parenthood and then they take a second set of drugs at home that expels the baby – so women are forced to deal with the blood and the dead baby at home – alone. In addition, Planned Parenthood goes against FDA protocol and offers women a cheaper set of drugs that allows Planned Parenthood to make more money.
Corning stated Planned Parenthood’s founder, Margaret Sanger “held some viewpoints that did not survive our ongoing tests of justice and liberty.”
Talk about jumping the shark. This shows Planned Parenthood’s incredible ability to push euphemism to new lows. Margaret Sanger was a proponent of the Eugenics movement. She wanted to purify the human race through birth control, sterilization and abortion. In writings and lectures, Sanger dehumanized the poor and disabled as “human weeds,” “parasites,” “defectives,” “mistakes” and “a dead weight of human waste.”
Sanger thought parents should be required to submit an application to the government in order to have a child. How can Corning possibly classify Sanger as for a woman’s right to “control her body and the ability to decide when, or whether to have a child?”
It’s time to stop the lies. Planned Parenthood is not about prevention. All of Planned Parenthood’s services fuel its profitable abortion business. Planned Parenthood hurts women, hurts families, hurts communities and kills our unborn children.
Jenifer Bowen is the Executive Director of Iowa Right to Life