“Americans back federal funds for Planned Parenthood health services,” Reuters claimed this week in a report published on the same day that a pro-life activist group released another jarring undercover video.
The problem with the article, however, is that its conclusion is disputed by the very data it cites.
Americans “broadly support” federal funding for free women’s health exams, screenings and contraception services, the report said, citing data from a Reuters/Ipsos poll. The poll results suggest that there are “risks for Republicans criticizing Planned Parenthood as part of the 2016 campaigns.”
“Support for federal funding of Planned Parenthood itself to provide those services was even stronger,” the report added.
But buried at the bottom the article lies a very different story.
The Reuters survey found that 73 percent of survey respondents said they “supported federal funding for an unnamed group to provide women’s health exams.” Sixty-nine percent said they supported federal funding for prenatal services, while 59 percent said they favored it for contraception — but again, all for an unnamed agency.
When asked about specific federal funding for Planned Parenthood, the number shrank a bit, as just 54 percent of respondents said they supported federal funding, while only 26 percent said they opposed it.
After that, the headline and the story’s supposed conclusion part ways.
In the last few paragraphs of the report, the story admitted that 44 percent of respondents who saw the controversial videos “now have a more negative view of Planned Parenthood, compared with 34 percent who said their views were unchanged.” And by the time information from the videos was described to survey respondents, the number of people saying tax dollars for Planned Parenthood should end was bigger than the number of people saying federal funding was acceptable.
“After the videos were described to poll respondents, 39 percent said Planned Parenthood should not receive government funding and 34 percent said federal dollars should continue,” the report concluded.
So much for those risks of criticizing Planned Parenthood.
The Center for Medical Progress released its latest Planned Parenthood video, the seventh so far, at around 9:00 am Wednesday morning. The Reuters report was published soon thereafter.
The pro-life group’s newest video shows a former staffer at a Planned Parenthood affiliate, Holly O’Donnell, discussing her experiences harvesting a brain from a live baby.
O’Donnell is seen on camera saying that an abortionist that she used to work with once showed her he could start and stop an unborn child’s heart during the abortion process, saying, “Hey, Holly, come over here. I want you to see something kind of cool. This is kind of neat.'”
“The moment I see it, I’m just flabbergasted. This is the most gestated fetus and the closest thing to a baby I’ve seen,” she added. “[The abortionist] has one of her instruments and she just taps the heart and it starts beating. And I’m sitting here and I’m looking at this fetus and its heart is beating, and I don’t know what to think.”
The Center for Medical Progress’ videos have focused mainly on Planned Parenthood’s methods for procuring fetal organs, including hearts, kidney and brains, for donation to various medical groups.
One video shows a Planned Parenthood executive discussing “doing a little better than” breaking even for donating body parts. Another video shows Planned Parenthood affiliates seemingly discussing performing partial birth abortions so as to procure specific organs undamaged.
It is illegal to profit from the sale of fetal tissue. It is also illegal to perform partial birth abortions.
Reactions to the videos have ranged from defensive to outrage.
Planned Parenthood and its supporters in the press, for example, claim that the videos have been “selectively edited.” The group’s supporters have also attacked the Center for Medical Progress, accusing the pro-life group of being staffed with dangerous “right-wing extremists.”
All of the complete and unedited undercover footage is readily available online.
Republicans in Congress, on the other hand, have responded by taking up efforts to remove Planned Parenthood’s federal funding. Committees in both the House and Senate are investigating the “women’s health group” for potentially illegal behavior.
The press, which has offered mostly meager coverage for the scandal, seems fairly certain that efforts by the GOP to defund Planned Parenthood amounts to little more than politicking.
“[T]he strong support for federal funds to help Planned Parenthood provide pregnancy tests and other services indicates Republican presidential candidates should tread carefully,” Reuters warned.
For Politico, Planned Parenthood is “under assault from conservatives.”
“The threat of a government shutdown combined with the 2016 GOP presidential primary guarantee a protracted battle for Planned Parenthood and its allies,” the Virginia-based political website opined.
Meanwhile, the New York Times, which has mostly avoided the scandal except to say that it’s mostly nonsense, reported this week that the undercover videos have “spurred the most energized campaign to ‘defund’ the nonprofit organization in several years — joined by Republicans in Congress; state capitals, especially in the South; and the 2016 presidential field.”
