There is a segment of American society that doesn’t like abortion. Fine. Don’t have one. I don’t mind that you think abortion is against your religion or whatever, but there’s that little Commandment, you know, the one that says ‘Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor”. It’s #9 in the Big Ten, so I’m thinking it’s considered a pretty important thing not to do if it’s one of the named things you’re supposed to be observing. It’s not me saying it – it’s the Big “G” for all you rabid Fundamentalist Christians out there. If you’re so against abortion, I strongly recommend you abstain from the practice. That said, you might want to stop lying about Planned Parenthood and what it is this non-profit organization does in the name of women and families.
But don’t take my word for it. I came prepared with visual aids and facts and statistics and all of that inconvenient stuff that isn’t based on lies, myths, and what you may have previously been ‘told’. The numbers don’t lie:
35% of all services are devoted to testing and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. 35% of all services are devoted to providing contraception (for women and men) to their clients. Contraception. You know, the thing that prevents pregnancy and thus, prevents abortion? 16% of all services are devoted to cancer screening and prevention. 10% of all services are devoted to other women’s health services. 3% of all services are devoted to providing abortions. 1% of all services fall outside of the above-named categories. Now, I sat there and listened to the talking heads on Fox News blatantly lie and say ‘the primary function of Planned Parenthood is to murder babies – they’re abortionists!” Um, no, they’re not. Even high school students taking a basic Probability and Statistics course will tell you that 3%, does not make it their ‘primary’ function. Look again at the chart. Facts. Last year, Senator Jon Kyl, in an effort to demonize and de-fund Planned Parenthood, stood on the floor of the United States Senate and claimed “over 90% of all services provided by Planned Parenthood is abortion.” Of course, he back-peddled and stated his comment was ‘not intended to be a factual statement’ and then proceeded to have his comments deleted from the Congressional Record. It’s on videotape, Senator Kyl. This is the modern age, Sir. I’ve got it on videotape. But it’s okay, you were only off by 87%, I mean, it was an honest mistake.
Yeah. Videotape. And for the record, given that about 80 percent of Planned Parenthood’s users are over age 20, and 75 percent have incomes below 150 percent of the poverty line, they DO have to go to Planned Parenthood to get their cholesterol checked because in nearly all cases, that is their only source of health care providers. Yeah, Senator, it was a lie from top to bottom. You didn’t just bend the truth. You broke the damned thing clean off.
And then we have the people who claim that Planned Parenthood participates and actively practices eugenics against African Americans. Their proof? Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger was a proponent of eugenics. She was also a proponent of the right to choose and a leading proponent of birth control. They’ve cherry-picked that one thing from her background and made it a race issue. Well, I call bullshit. Yes, Margaret Sanger believed that if birth defects ran in the family or if someone was considered ‘feeble-minded’, they should undergo forced sterilization, something that I adamantly oppose, but abortion was never a part of the equation. But Margaret Sanger’s personal views (the woman has been dead for nearly 50 years) have nothing to do with the modern mission of Planned Parenthood. Perhaps a look-see at just who is actually having abortions is in order here… white women account for 36% of abortions, black women for 30%, Hispanic women for 25% and women of other races for 9%. Referring to abortion as the maafa (Black Holocaust) or black genocide is a blatant lie. In 2009, Planned Parenthood performed 332,278 abortions while its contraceptive services prevented approximately 612,000 unintended pregnancies. So, while they are the largest abortion provider in the U.S., their reproductive health services, including contraception, prevented nearly twice as many unintended pregnancies as the number of abortions they performed. But if white women were the ones actually getting more abortions than any other racial demographic, how can anyone sit there with a straight face and claim Planned Parenthood is participating in eugenics against African American women? The numbers just don’t wash. Me and my damned facts again.
Ultimately, the abortion issue has turned from the common sense fact that, regardless of your personal opinion or mine, women will always seek abortion services. Those of us who remember when birth control was illegal and when 10,000 American women a year died from illegal abortions don’t have to imagine a world without choices. We were there.
How the social conservatives have framed the issue plays a large part in how they’re so able to lie about the facts. Calling themselves ‘pro-life’ does not make me ‘anti-life’. Calling themselves ‘anti-abortion’ does not makes me ‘pro-abortion’. President Obama said, “No one is pro abortion.” I believe that, but most of America is pro-choice. Calling the termination of a non-viable fetus with no formed brain and thus, no consciousness, murder, doesn’t make that a fact either. I don’t mind that they don’t like abortion. Frankly, I don’t either. I do mind that they use blatant subterfuge to demonize women, encourage the harassment and the killing of abortion providers and force their beliefs on women based on their personal faith. I do mind that they would rather relegate poor women to back alley butchers while wealthy women will always have access to safe, if not legal abortions. Playing the maafa race card is disingenuous when the very people who will be victimized by your lies are poor and minority women. All I’m asking for is a little honesty. Truthfully say that you want to legislate your personal morality and your religious beliefs on all American women. Oh, but you won’t do that, because you know that to do so is blatantly un-American and the truth will set us all free. May I refer you back to Commandment #9…
Carol Baker is a political writer, satirist, and co-host with Vicki Childs of our Here Women Talk weekly internet talk radio show called BROADSIDED. You can hear their show every Thursday at 11 am Eastern/10 Central/8 Pacific.
You say these are facts, but honestly how can I know you’re not like everyone else? For all I know you could be making everything up.
Well, “Godsgirl_11″, I don’t imagine you ever will accept my statistics as the truth. Sometimes facts aren’t wrapped up in Jesus – they’re wrapped up in science and provable statistics. A basic Google search will yield the same results that I posted here. I can live with it if you don’t believe me because my facts don’t fit in nicely with your religious beliefs. I’m okay with that, but please, don’t come here insinuating that I’ve not told the truth. It’s okay to simply disagree.
How many is 3%?
332,278 in 2009?
Two questions, if it is your body and it equals your choice, what about the choice of the one who are aborted?
Second question. If someone was pregnant and was killed by a drunk driver or shot and killed, how is it considered a double murder? It is as if the child only exists, (excuse me embryo), when it is wanted or desired. If not, it is given up because it is to expensive to be a single mother, does not live up to the health standards of a good normal child would be at when born, or even just because of a forgotten day from the pill, or a rip in the condom. Why is it that in the Justice system it only matters when the child, i mean embryo, is wanted? If you could answer these questions for me that would be great.
copy this link below and paste it on a new tab. you might find it interesting.
http://freedomfighterradio.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/p84tfj1310320262.jpg
P,S. I am confused on what you mean by bearing a false witness to your neighbor.. It doesn’t hold much ground when you yourself are denying the welfare of an unborn child. You take away the safety of it from its mother womb and make them into facial products to reduce wrinkles.
I am willing to be you are a full supporter of the Kony 2012 Video that is world wide. If you are not familiar, here is another link for you.
http://vimeo.com/37119711
Children ripped from their homes, killed, rapped or made soldiers.. These Children don’t have a say. how are the un-born any different?
What about the choice of the “one” who are aborted? Since the bulk of abortions take place within the first 12 weeks, they aren’t “one”, as in a fully formed human being. They have no developed brain and thus, no consciousness. They have no developed central nervous system and feel no pain. It’s a clump of cells. It’s not a human being.
Since I’m not an attorney, I can’t answer the second question, as I believe it is a legal question and not a moral one.
As for the link of the photo, since I have no way to confirm the source of that photo, I can only assume it is one more of the propaganda photos of the anti-choice movement designed to create some repulsive response to make me suddenly change my mind. I’m well versed in the mechanism of abortions and in the bulk of them, no such body parts would be recognizable – therefore, I find the authenticity of the photo to be dubious, at best.
Confused by what I mean by “bearing false witness”? I think when someone posits that Planned Parenthood is actively engaging in eugenics, it qualifies as an outright lie when the statistics don’t bear that out. Again, you are determined to call this clump of cells an “unborn child” when, outside the womb, this would look nothing like a child and could not survive without the incubator. You are not being honest by stating that all of the tissue from these aborted embryos are being used to make cosmetics. Prove it.
As for the video you posted, there is no correlation to the video and the subject at hand unless I accept your premise that at the moment of conception, we have a fully conscious human being, which I do not.
Sadly, you believe that I support a murderous act when in truth, I don’t believe that early termination of a pregnancy is murder. I do believe that with proper education and free contraception for all, abortion would be far more rare. I would like for it to be even more rare. I will fight to my last breath, however, to keep it safe and legal. Criminalizing the act – making criminals out of women who, for whatever reason choose not to bear a child at that time, will do nothing to stop it. It will only move abortions back to the back alleys just like it used to be – when far more women died in the aftermath. You want an unformed fetus to have a say, but a woman should have none. Shaking my head. You’re granting “personhood” to a clump of cells while denying personhood to a grown woman. Shaking my head.
Thank you for clearing up the #9 commandment question i had.
Why do they want to end lethal Injection on those in the death penalty? why do people want to make is legal for same sex marriage? Make owning a Gun illegal? Environmental law? Anyone who advocates a new law seeks out the reasons behind it. How is any law not moral or have some moral reason to it?
Since you brought up the fact that that photo could be fake, how can I believe your pie Chart? Have you ever seen an abortion take place? do you have personal experience in what things look like at that stage of life? It could be made up and totally fake. Why then should i believe it?
Taking your statistics into consideration, 3% is still a lot of abortions. You bring up facts that they arent fully formed, and dont have a developed brain, how do you know if they are conscious? I am not doing this as a dig of any kind, but have you experienced a non concise state of mind? How do you know that they do not have a Central nervous system that will not be able to feel pain? Aren’t we all just a clump of cells? aren’t we just built out of cells? If they are not one, what happens when someone looses a limb? Are they no longer human? what about a concussion? seizure? Are they no longer Human? What is next? Heart attack? I know you are going to say those people will actually be a person instead of a clump of cells, but where does it end when is a clump of cells a human? When does the clump of cells actually form into a human being?
Every Child who has been born has a form of dependency. They need to be fed, burped, changed. If they do not receive a feeding every few hours, they will die. You would have died if your mother put you aside and gave to her own needs.
You say you are well versed in the mechanism of abortions. I have documents, diagrams, pictures, and written testimonies of people who used to do abortions but since then has had a change in heart. where are your documents? I would love to read up on it. I could be miss informed. If you could send me a link, or a book link on amazon, or something, that would be great!
The only thing I was advocating we should define an actually form of when life begins. When does life start?
After this is all said and done, i know changing someones mind is impossible. I can not do it, but it is up to the reader to believe. Everything comes from faith. We trust that our legs wont buckle under us when we stand up, that our computer is plugged into the wall and is maintaining a good state without blowing up in our faces. My point is, evaluate what you believe.
I was just making a statement about the cosmetics. I know that is hard to prove, and is basically non existent at this stage of our world.
i know you do not believe that it is murder, nor can i come to you thinking that it is murder. If you did, we would not be having this conversation.
I am not denying the person hood of the women. If you have sex, you have a chance of getting pregnant. If they are not aware of those risks, I can not help them, but they made the decision to sleep with someone, later regret it, find they are pregnant, have an abortion to save the embarrassment, or if raped, have one out of protection of there self esteem or whatever valid argument they may have.
They made the decisions, they need to be ready and able to deal with the consequences. Men need to step it up and be ready to help the women they have slept with. It is just as much at fault and are not above excuse in anyway or form. Our society strives for the easy way out. Sadly that comes at heavy prices.
To answer your questions: 1. I don’t think we look at the “morality” of a law, necessarily. We look at the legality of a law. Morality is subjective. I’m betting you’d say my morality and yours are 2 different things. Whose is more valid or important? 2. How do you know my pie chart isn’t fabricated? http://tinyurl.com/6x6t5lv. I can verify the source. Can you verify the source of the photo and prove to me it has not been tampered with in any way? Unless you took that photo and own that photo, the answer is no. The stats on the pie chart are verifiable. 3. Yes, that 3% is a lot, I never said it wasn’t. 4. It’s science. Medicine. Doctors say the brain isn’t formed and the central nervous system isn’t formed in the first trimester. Again, not making it up, it’s science. No, we’re not all just a clump of cells. You have a fully formed brain, central nervous system, heart, lungs and can breath on your own without the aid of another human incubator to keep you alive, so please, don’t make these kinds of comparisons, it only weakens your position. 5. You’re not interested in being informed on the mechanism of abortion because all of the information I have is available to the general public. You’ve made up your mind that is painful, mindless murder. I can live with your position but will not play a time-wasting game with you (all due respect – I have a job to go to this morning). 6. The *only* thing you’re advocating is when life begins? Hardly. You’re advocating a whole bunch of things here, which is fine, but let’s be honest about it, okay? 6. When does life begin? When the woman says it does. You see, Allen, as a man, you don’t give birth – ever – so, what makes you think you get a say in what I do with my body? 7. Yes, I have evaluated what I believe based on science, not on religion or belief in a God. I believe in science. I’m funny that way. 8. “I was just making a statement about the cosmetics. I know that is hard to prove, and is basically non existent at this stage of our world.” Then why say it at all unless you were trying to make people believe something that wasn’t true? 9. Correct, I don’t believe it’s murder. 10. Yes you are denying the personhood of the mother. You’re saying that a clump of cells that couldn’t survive outside the host incubator, at the moment of conception, has more rights that the incubator. By definition, you have. And it’s interesting how only the women have regrets. 10. See, here’s where you run your position right off into the ditch. Women make the decision to have sex and should deal with the consequences. They didn’t get themselves pregnant now, did they? Men need to be ready to step up to the plate? When exactly is that supposed to start? Unless and until the burden for pregnancy, finances, food, housing, education, is shared equally between the sexes, your point is moot. It isn’t now and never will be shared equally – which is why that whole “personal responsibility” lecture for the girls, especially coming from a man, rings hollow and hypocritical. If you wish to continue this ad nauseum, fine, please start a new thread.
Complete eye opener. Thank you!
You rock Carol! Thank you for this article. Planned Parenthood is for the good of women. And the stats support that.
I had no idea that only 3% of Planned Parenthood’s services were abortion services. Or that white women account for the largest percentage of abortions. Thanks for your research and statistics.
The people who want to demonize Planned Parenthood count on the fact that most people have no idea that only 3% of their services are devoted to providing abortion. Given that, it makes it pretty easy for them to block the doors of Planned Parenthood clinics, keeping women from having access to important health services like cancer screenings, contraception or STD testing. Without Planned Parenthood, I shudder to think how many women a year would needlessly die from lack of health care. I am proud to support the hard work of this organization.
Right on Carol. If the anti abortion folks want to see more abortions, just end the birth control services that Planned Parenthood provides. Also, if you want more women in emergency rooms with gynecological problems that they can’t pay for (and we have to) just end PP. If you want more STDs in this country spread around without control, just end PP. It is stupid to even have this conversation. If PP provided almost 100% male health services, we would NOT be having this conversation.
It was the blatant racial aspect – the false claim that Planned Parenthood was actively participating and promoting eugenics against the Black Community that enraged me. And to promote such a false claim on Martin Luther King Jr. Day is an affront to women and the truth – the truth – something Dr. King so revered…
Carol. Thank you. You said it all. People just don’t have their facts straight. Even worse, they make it up so they can keep the lies going.