Sen. Chuck Schumer tweeted the fake news that Planned Parenthood offers women “mammograms, maternity care, cancer screenings & more.”
The Senate minority leader observed the GOP Obamacare repeal measure – which he calls Trumpcare – would cut Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding. However, he takes up the false claims that the abortion business provides mammograms and maternity care and, therefore, should continue to be funded by the federal government.
“To try to justify $500 million a year in taxpayer funding for the nation’s biggest abortion chain, Sen. Schumer continues to parrot Planned Parenthood’s false talking points that it provides mammograms and ‘maternity care,’” says Lila Rose, president of national pro-life group Live Action, in response to Schumer’s tweet.
“The reality is, Planned Parenthood does zero mammograms, performs less than two percent of women’s cancer screenings in the U.S., offers virtually no prenatal care, yet does over a third of the nation’s abortions – 887 abortions every day,” Rose adds.
In 2015, during testimony before Congress, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards said, “[W]e do not have mammogram machines at our health centers. And we’ve never stated that we did.”
However, Live Action produced a fact-checking video demonstrating that Richards and even former President Barack Obama made the false claims that the abortion business provides mammograms:
The pro-life group also recently released another investigative video in which Planned Parenthood staff members throughout the country are repeatedly heard informing the investigator that their clinics do not offer “prenatal care.” However, the abortion chain’s officials, including Richards, have touted its prenatal care services.
“Live Action’s recent investigation has shown that women wanting to keep their children who were seeking prenatal care at Planned Parenthoods across the country were consistently turned away, despite Planned Parenthood’s claims that its federal funding goes toward prenatal care,” Rose says. “When subsequently asked, the abortion chain has refused to tell the media how many of its centers actually provide prenatal care.”
“Clearly, Sen. Schumer, it’s time to redirect those federal funds to local health care providers that actually do mammograms, offer prenatal care, and provide more comprehensive health services to women,” Rose asserts.
This week President Donald Trump informed Planned Parenthood it would have to quit performing abortions in order to keep its federal funding for its “other” services. However, Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) rejected Trump’s proposal.
The provision to end Planned Parenthood’s federal funding would redirect it to other federally qualified healthcare centers (FQHCs) that provide more health services, but do not perform abortions.
Nationally, there are 13,000 FQHCs – a figure that outnumbers Planned Parenthood facilities by 20 to 1.
A recent Marist poll found that 61 percent of Americans oppose taxpayer funding of abortion, including 40 percent of those who say they are “pro-choice,” and 41 percent of Democrats.