Fact-Check: No, Planned Parenthood Does Not ‘Provide Cancer Screenings’

Darren McCollester/Getty Images
Darren McCollester/Getty Images

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton claimed in the third presidential debate in Las Vegas on Wednesday that Planned Parenthood “provides cancer screenings” and therefore should not be de-funded, in spite of controversy about abortion.

Fact-Check: MOSTLY FALSE

This is a repeated claim deployed in defense of Planned Parenthood, but it is not true, at least as regards breast cancer. 

As the left-leaning Washington Post’s fact-checker wrote in 2015:

When Democratic lawmakers or other supporters assert that Planned Parenthood “provides” mammograms, this is highly misleading language because it could be interpreted to mean that the group directly administers the X-rays. The group does not “provide” mammograms. Rather, the situation is similar to other clinics where patients are referred to a licensed facility that can provide biopsies, X-rays or other specialized services. It is slightly more accurate to say that women have “access” to mammograms via Planned Parenthood, though it’s still slippery language.

The Post awarded Three Pinnochios (out of four) to the claim that Planned Parenthood provides mammograms.

Planned Parenthood does offer Pap tests and HPV tests, which are screenings for cervical cancer.

So the claim is not completely false, but mostly so.

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