Lena Dunham is at it again. Earlier this week, the actress and pro-choice activist published another celebrity-studded video promoting Planned Parenthood. Featuring Judd Apatow, Jennifer Lawrence, Gloria Steinem, and many more, the short video urges viewers to call their Senators and “demand they do what’s right for women’s health.”
The claims made in the video are based on many of the same false premises that Planned Parenthood has hounded us with for far too long.
Let’s look at a few of these extremely harmful and false claims:
“The right to decide our own bodily future is the most basic of all human rights.”
Here, Gloria Steinem is making one of the most absurd claims of… well, the century. First, what does she really mean by “bodily future?” Do we now have the right to use our bodies however we like? What if I want to use my body to do harmful drugs? Steer a car into oncoming traffic? Purposefully end the life of another human being?
She is asserting that having the “right to decide our own bodily future” (i.e. end a pregnancy through abortion) is more of a human right than the right to life.
The right to live — a right that Planned Parenthood denies 900 unborn human beings every single day.
“If Congress cuts funding to Planned Parenthood, millions of people will be left without access to birth control, life-saving cancer screenings, and other basic care. Many of them will have nowhere else to go for the health care they need.”
It doesn’t take much research to learn that defunding Planned Parenthood would, in fact, do very little to block access to health care. As we have pointed out time and time again, the (approximately) 650 Planned Parenthood locations provide 34.9% of the nation’s abortions and a very small percentage of the nation’s screenings.
Live Actions News states that “Planned Parenthood performs less than 2% of all breast exams, less than 1% of all Pap tests, and less than 2% of all cancer screenings for women. Prenatal care is so rare that it’s practically non-existent.”
You may be wondering, “But why then does Planned Parenthood say that millions rely on them for health care? Where are these people actually going for life-saving care?”
The answer lies in the 13,540 Federally Qualified Health Centers and Pregnancy Resource Centers around the country that provide resources and support to those who need it most. These centers provide resources like cancer screenings, pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, prenatal care, STI testings and more.
Planned Parenthood and their supporters continuously use fear tactics in convincing American’s that, without their “resources,” millions would, quite literally, die.
This could not be further from reality. And in hiding the truth about Pregnancy Resource Centers and Federally Qualified Health Centers, they are hindering women from actually receiving the quality health care they deserve.
“This is nothing more than a blatantly political attempt to do whatever it takes to attack women’s health and rights and take health care away from the people who need it most.”
That’s actually not what this legislation is about at all. The Republican Senators ran on the campaign promise to repeal and replace Obamacare, which is what this legislation is about. It includes the defunding of Planned Parenthood, but as we’ve outlined previously, that wouldn’t really make a dent in true health care services available to women, because Planned Parenthood doesn’t offer true health care services to women. They offer abortions.
The bill isn’t about attacking women’s health or rights. It’s not trying to take healthcare away from anyone. It’s trying to halt taxpayer funding of abortions, something many Americans find reprehensible and unwarranted.
Really, Planned Parenthood and its supporters don’t want the federal funding of their abortion business to go away, and they’re hiding that motive behind politically charged language. So if anyone is playing politics with women, it’s Planned Parenthood.
