Newsflash: Planned Parenthood is Corrupt. In Exposing Them, Let’s Promote Something Better
The nation's largest abortion provider gives us ample opportunity to expose its corruption. Let's use those opportunities to promote centers providing actual care.
Dunking on Planned Parenthood isn’t hard. At least, not for those of us who value life from conception and believe that abortion harms women. Planned Parenthood itself tends to make it even easier.
For instance, Fox News recently reported that 37 PP affiliates applied for the Paycheck Protection Program of the CARES Act. They received a collective $80 million. The Small Business Administration wants them to return the money, which wasn’t intended for affiliates of organizations with 500 or more employees. Now Republican senators are asking the Department of Justice to investigate the affiliates. It seems at least some parties at Planned Parenthood knew they were ineligible.
Pro-lifers love this kind of news. Being America’s largest abortion provider is bad enough. Revelations like this suggest Planned Parenthood is also corrupt and greedy for money.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with exposing Planned Parenthood. We must. But if all we ever talk about is how anti-Planned Parenthood we are, we won’t get very far in saving lives. We can’t combat the abortion provider without promoting a real alternative. Thankfully, there are real alternatives. Lots of them.
Letโs Be Clear โ Planned Parenthood Is Corrupt
It’s no secret that Planned Parenthood is in it for the money. Recall the Center for Medical Progress videos released in 2015. In covertly recorded conversations, Planned Parenthood executives discussed selling aborted fetal tissue. That’s illegal, by the way.
Planned Parenthood sued CMP founder David Daleiden, who was involved in doing the recordings. Further, Planned Parenthood claimed the videos were deceptively edited. Forensic investigations have found that to be false. Daleiden is now suing Planned Parenthood and the California actors who prosecuted him for the undercover investigations.
There’s nothing wrong with exposing Planned Parenthood. We must. But we can’t combat the abortion provider without promoting a real alternative.
There’s other evidence that at least some Planned Parenthood facilities sold fetal tissue. CMP revealed an apparent 2010 contract between Stem-Ex and Planned Parenthood Mar Monte in California. Stem-Ex agreed to pay the PP facility $55 per “usable” fetal organ or material.
The Life-Affirming Alternatives
Despite scandals like these, PP does a good job of marketing itself as essential. Many people still see Planned Parenthood as the go-to for contraception, STD testing, cancer screening, and sex education.
Planned Parenthood’s own annual reports show that it overstates the impact of such work. And the claim that abortions are only 3 percent of what it does is demonstrably misleading.
What many people donโt realize is that Federally Qualified Health Centers dramatically outnumber Planned Parenthood facilities. Pregnancy care centers also outnumber Planned Parenthood facilities. More and more of these centers offer the kind of care and support that Planned Parenthood pretends to.
Many of these centers offer pregnancy tests, ultrasounds and judgment-free counseling. Many are directly involved in housing women and children. Others provide referrals for financial and housing aid. Several offer sex education courses. STD testing. Parenting courses. Life skills courses. Basic supplies. And they do much of this for free.
Tear it Down, Build Something Else Up
Planned Parenthood purports to provide basic and necessary care. In reality, it peddles the lie that abortion is needed for womenโs wellbeing. It relies on performing abortions. And it attempts to acquire as much public funding as possible.
Countering Planned Parenthood requires exposing its corruption. The pro-life community does this with zeal. But combating Planned Parenthood also requires an equally zealous effort to promote the work of pregnancy care centers. That includes spreading awareness of their existence. It means supporting them financially. It means ensuring their accessibility. And it means encouraging them to continue providing comprehensive, compassionate care.
Pointing out Planned Parenthood’s flaws will always be easy for pro-lifers. But if we really want to help women and win people over, we can’t do it without promoting something better.
Liberty McArtor, former staff writer for The Stream, is a freelance writer in the great state of Texas, where she lives north of Dallas with her husband and son. Follow Liberty on Twitter @LibertyMcArtor, or learn more about her at LibertyMcArtor.com.