Planned Parenthood Keystone in Pennsylvania has dropped its in-person birth control and sexually transmitted infection (STI) services, announcing its clinics are open “for abortion services only.”
“At this time, Planned Parenthood Keystone is serving patients in Allentown, Wilkes-Barre, Warminster, Reading, York, and Harrisburg for abortion services only,” states the affiliate’s website.
Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania’s website announces as well: “COVID-19 UPDATE: Our Abortion Centers are open!”
“Everyone’s safety is our top priority,” Planned Parenthood states. “We know that people’s sexual and reproductive health care can’t wait, even in uncertain times like this, and we’re doing all we can to meet our patients’ needs.”
On March 20, the Pennsylvania Department of Health ordered all businesses closed that are not “life sustaining,” yet abortion clinics, which terminate pregnancies, were excluded from the order.
Similarly, the order banned elective health procedures as well, but Planned Parenthood Keystone is continuing elective abortions.
Dayle Steinberg, chair of Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates and President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania, said in a statement that the state health department “confirmed that abortion care is essential, and must remain so during this public health crisis.”
“While Planned Parenthood health centers across Pennsylvania continue to provide critical care during this pandemic crisis and work with our partner health care providers, we know that abortion cannot wait,” she said.
The Pennsylvania Family Institute has urged Gov. Tom Wolf (D) to include elective abortions in his ban on other elective procedures to preserve medical equipment and avoid the spread of the infection caused by the novel coronavirus.
In 2018, however, Planned Parenthood announced it was spending $1.5 million to re-elect Wolf, who has repeatedly vetoed pro-life legislation such as a measure that would ban dismemberment abortions and another that would ban abortions based on a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome.
Though there is a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers caring for the sick during the public health emergency, Lexi Stefani, communications and policy officer of the Family Institute, wrote Thursday, “Every mask of similar PPE used in an elective abortion by Planned Parenthood could have been used by a doctor fighting the coronavirus.”
Stefani added:
The reality is that Planned Parenthood is a business that exists to make money through abortions. And it’s big business for them in Pennsylvania, profiting from 15,000 abortions every year; half of the state’s annual total. Despite what they may say about abortion only being a small part of what they do, it is revealing that in times of crisis their clinics remain open only to provide elective abortions.
Planned Parenthood Keystone has also been seeking protective medical equipment such as “hand sanitizer, home-sewn masks, shoe covers, and surgical hats” to perform its elective abortions:
https://www.facebook.com/PPKeystone/posts/10156930440922665:0
Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement sent to Breitbart News that Wolf’s decision to allow elective abortions is “unconscionable” at a time “when all resources are needed for essential medical procedures.”
Though Planned Parenthood typically refers to abortion as a “choice,” at a time when all medical equipment has been needed for healthcare workers treating patients with the infection caused by the coronavirus, the group is now claiming elective abortion is “essential.”
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