On Friday, Planned Parenthood responded to the new report from Americans United for Life, “The Case for Investigating Planned Parenthood.” Their response leaves a lot to be desired. What is especially interesting is what is missing: Planned Parenthood does not respond to AUL’s allegations that Planned Parenthood 1) failed to report instances of statutory rape, 2) failed to follow parental-involvement laws, 3) encouraged minors to circumvent parental-involvement laws, 4) provided misleading information about fetal development to abortion-minded women, and 5) failed to report instances of sex trafficking,
In their response, Planned Parenthood mostly takes issue with the allegations that they fail to provide complete information about the health risks involved with abortion. Here Planned Parenthood is able to hide behind the fig leaf of sympathetic academic and governmental organizations. Regardless, there is a significant body of peer-reviewed evidence indicating that abortion can lead to a range of physical and psychological health problems. Furthermore, even if medication abortions are successful 97 percent of the time, as Planned Parenthood claims, a small failure rate can have very serious consequences, since medication abortions take place without constant medical supervision.
Interestingly, Planned Parenthood’s response to AUL appears nowhere on Planned Parenthood’s website. In fact, on the Newsroom section of its website, Planned Parenthood is highlighting a series of benefit events by comedienne Lizz Winstead. It is unfortunate that Planned Parenthood’s media relations team apparently places a higher priority on publicizing a stand-up comedy tour than responding to AUL’s report. After all, serious allegations of fraud and criminal misconduct are no laughing matter.
— Michael J. New is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Alabama and a fellow at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, N.J.