The new president of Planned Parenthood took to Twitter Tuesday to finally confirm her organization’s “core mission” is abortion.
Dr. Leana Wen tweeted her irritation with what she viewed as an inaccurate headline by BuzzFeed News following an interview with her that was published on Monday.
“I am always happy to do interviews, but these headlines completely misconstrue my vision for Planned Parenthood,” Wen posted.
In the interview focused on Planned Parenthood developing its nonabortion services, Wen seemed to be suggesting Planned Parenthood would be beefing up its menu of basic healthcare services. A logical assertion, since a primary reason the physician was hired to head up the abortion vendor was to tout Planned Parenthood’s role as a basic healthcare provider. In her short tenure thus far, Wen has already mentioned many times that Planned Parenthood provides “lifesaving care.”
But, after the interview was published, Wen tweeted:
“First, our core mission is providing, protecting and expanding access to abortion and reproductive health care,” she said. “We will never back down from that fight – it’s a fundamental human right and women’s lives are at stake.”
For years, Planned Parenthood has gone out of its way to present itself as the trusted healthcare provider of American women – one that is worthy of over half a billion dollars in taxpayer funding. The organization has also insisted – using a since-debunked statistic – that abortion represents only a mere three percent of its services.
Planned Parenthood calculated its deceptive “three percent statistic” by dividing the number of abortions it performs by the total number of services it provides, counting a $10 pregnancy test or a package of condoms as equivalent to a $500 abortion.
Lila Rose, president of pro-life group Live Action, noted Planned Parenthood’s “three percent statistic” is calculated to deliberately deceive the public and minimize the organization’s abortion services.
“Even the Washington Post and Slate.com have called out the abortion chain for its deception,” Rose explained. “Three percent is not a real number, but over 320,000 abortions a year and a 30 percent market share of all U.S. abortions are.”
In her BuzzFeed News interview, however, Wen presented a somewhat confused presentation of Planned Parenthood services. On the one hand, she asserted women are not coming to her organization’s facilities “to make a political statement.” Instead, she insisted, “[T]hey need their vaccinations. They need their well woman exams. They’re getting HIV tests.”
BuzzFeed News further indicated one of Wen’s future projects would be to turn “more Planned Parenthood affiliates into one-stop shops where you can come in for birth control, STI tests, or an abortion, and meet clinic workers prepared to diagnose and treat a range of other problems unrelated to reproduction, from diet to depression to addiction.”
But, then Wen seemed to turn things around again.
“The last thing I would want is people to get the impression that we are backing off of our core services,” she told BuzzFeed. “What we will always be here to do is provide abortion access as part of the full spectrum of reproductive health care, it’s who we are.”
An immigrant from China, Wen has shown herself to be quite political. While she almost always emphasizes she is a “doctor,” she is vehemently opposed to the Trump administration and, according to BuzzFeed, “she and her family could likely not have survived or prospered in the way they did under the policies Trump is proposing, and that she wants to make sure everyone in the US can access Planned Parenthood care.”
BuzzFeed reports Wen is enjoying a “more peaceful time” at Planned Parenthood than her predecessor, Cecile Richards, who was faced with allegations of illegal trafficking of aborted baby parts after an undercover series of videos exposed Planned Parenthood officials haggling over the organs of aborted babies.
According to the interview, “In this new Congress, all legislative efforts to defund Planned Parenthood are likely dead on arrival.”
The outlet observes Planned Parenthood now has “Congress off its back” and “can finally move out of its defensive crouch and focus on new projects.”
Judging from Wen’s statements, however, abortion is the primary project after all, because, to Wen and Planned Parenthood, abortion is “lifesaving” – regardless of the fact it ends another human life.