Planned Parenthood: Video portrayal is a lie

At Planned Parenthood, we place the health and safety of our patients as our highest priority, and we know that our health centers provide an irreplaceable resource in our community that must be protected.

Extremists who oppose Planned Parenthood's mission and services have been making outrageous and completely false claims, most recently through a series of heavily edited videos. In addition to showing utter disregard and a complete lack of compassion for women's most personal medical decisions, they are engaged in fraud.

The real goal of these attacks is clear: To ban abortion and stop women from receiving reproductive health care at Planned Parenthood. It's the latest chapter in a decades-long campaign of deception that includes shaming, marginalizing, demonizing, and terrorizing women and their doctors. The vast majority of the public rejects this extreme political agenda and the fraudulent campaign behind it.

The videos released by this extremist group were edited to distort what was actually said. One video was edited to make it look as if a doctor said she would sell fetal tissue for a profit — when in fact she said exactly the opposite, 10 separate times. The phony medical researchers, frustrated by unsuccessful attempts to uncover malfeasance, instead tried to create it.

Planned Parenthood affiliates that donate fetal tissue for research do so with full legal compliance and no financial benefit whatsoever. Any accusations otherwise are flat-out false. Indeed, from all that is known today, the only laws that were broken were by the extremists. In a letter to a congressional committee, Planned Parenthood outlined a pattern of unlawful harassment and illegal activity by the extremists, including possible violations of state and federal recording and tax laws, as well as the use of a false state identification card.

Although none of the Planned Parenthood health centers in Pennsylvania is participating in fetal-tissue donation programs, we recognize their deep value. The polio vaccine was developed from fetal kidney cells, as were vaccines against chicken pox, rubella, hepatitis A, and shingles. So, too, were treatments for diseases that include Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. And thousands of women who chose abortion have found great comfort and a sense of social good from donating fetal tissue to advance medical treatments that save lives. According to an article published by the New England Journal of Medicine, "Virtually every person in this country has benefited from research using fetal tissue. … By using the public's unfamiliarity with the history and realities of fetal-tissue research as a back door for attacking Planned Parenthood, abortion opponents have added millions of people to the collateral damage of the abortion wars."

The true intent of the attack on Planned Parenthood was seen again this month when a bill was introduced in the Senate seeking to block women from receiving preventive services at Planned Parenthood health centers. In fact, the defunding bill sought to eliminate government support for our family-planning programs — the front line of defense against unintended pregnancies.

Some politicians rationalized their stance by claiming that other health-care providers could serve Planned Parenthood's patients. In reality, more than half of Planned Parenthood health centers are in underserved areas. Medical experts have asserted unequivocally that other providers would not be able to fill the gap, resulting in women going without care. The bill was rejected, but we know this won't be the last time Congress attempts to defund Planned Parenthood. Some members are already threatening a government shutdown in order to block millions from getting basic health care.

We extend our thanks to Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D., Pa.) for voting against this dangerous bill. He understands that the only logical defense against unintended pregnancy is unfettered access to contraception. It remains disappointing that Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) refuses to recognize that blatantly obvious fact.

More evidence of out-of-touch politicians' real goal is playing out in Pennsylvania, where a group of House members has called upon leadership to defund Planned Parenthood, again using the rationale that women can go somewhere else for care. We know there are not nearly enough other providers to accommodate more than 100,000 patients that Planned Parenthood sees annually. In a Hart Research survey conducted during the first week in August, 69 percent of Pennsylvania voters opposed defunding Planned Parenthood's preventive health services. An even greater number — 76 percent — rejected shutting down the federal government to block funding for Planned Parenthood.

If we want to reduce the need for abortion, we must have broader access to contraception, and it defies logic to claim otherwise. What is the real agenda behind opposing commonsense preventive measures that are proven to reduce the rate of unintended pregnancy? Is limiting the access to affordable contraception really an attempt to roll back years of women's advancements, which include their ability to plan their families and therefore fully participate in the social, economic, and political fabric of life?

For nearly 100 years, Planned Parenthood has been the nation's most trusted reproductive health-care provider. Every year, 2.7 million women, men, and young people rely on us for birth control, well-woman exams, lifesaving cancer screenings, and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections. You can depend on us to continue to fight for women and their families.

Dayle Steinberg is president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania. externalaffairs@ppsp.org