Planned Parenthood has launched yet another lewd campaign in an effort to protect legal abortion. This new initiative, titled “Bans Off My Body,” features nude women talking about why abortion is necessary for women’s equality.
The campaign clearly paints President Trump and Brett Kavanaugh as the radical anti-abortion villains, stating, “Now, with the Trump-Pence administration in the White House and Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, state politicians feel emboldened — and have made plain their intent to ban access to safe, legal abortion outright.”
This is ironic for two reasons. First, despite having a Republican Congress for two years, Trump signed the “omnibus crap sandwich” in 2018, giving Planned Parenthood over $500 million per year in federal funding. If I was Planned Parenthood and a president gave me that much money, I’d be a little more gracious.
Second, while painting Kavanaugh as the anti-abortion bad guy is an understandable tactic given his name recognition, it is laughable. Many conservative commentators, including Ben Shapiro, are not optimistic in the least about Kavanaugh overturning Roe. Portraying Justice Clarence Thomas as the anti-abortion supervillain would be much more appropriate, as he already tried to overturn Roe in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, and it was only a couple weeks ago that he slammed abortion as a tool of eugenicists.
Additionally, Planned Parenthood claims that “1 in 3 women of reproductive age lives in a state where abortion could be outlawed if Roe is overturned.” Planned Parenthood backs up this claim with a map of the country, which color codes each state by abortion restrictions.
Or at least that was the idea. But that’s not what the map actually is, because Planned Parenthood seems to be terribly out of the loop on state abortion law.
The color coded system on the map has five different categories, ranging from abortion on-demand states such as New York and Illinois to states classified as “eliminated,” which would accurately describe Alabama if Roe is overturned. However, within the “eliminated” category, Planned Parenthood included states that don’t even have a prayer of banning abortion anytime soon.
For example, Planned Parenthood placed Kansas in the “eliminated” category. But in April, the Kansas Supreme Court struck down a 14 week abortion ban with an overwhelming 6-1 majority. This abortion restriction will not be enforced in the near future, and even if it did, it’s a fairly moderate restriction — far away from completely “eliminating” abortion. This alone proves Planned Parenthood is off the mark, but a closer look shows that there is truly no justification for the organization’s claim that abortion will soon be illegal in Kansas.
The strong pro-choice majority of the Kansas Supreme Court is explained by the state’s judicial appointment method, known as the Missouri Model. In this system, rather than picking a Supreme Court nominee of his pleasing (as the president does), the governor must choose from a list of judges given to him by a nominating commission. The majority of the seats on the Kansas Supreme Court Nominating Commission are chosen by the state bar association, which is a trademark of the Missouri Model. National Review describes state bar associations as “far-left leaning,” and this is how pro-choice judges can have a strong majority in a pro-life state like Kansas. Evidently, Planned Parenthood is unaware of this, as it seems to think Kansas has an Alabama-style ban in place.
The abortion giant also implies that abortion access is currently more restricted in Wyoming than it is in Arizona. If anything, the opposite seems to be the case. According to Americans United for Life’s comprehensive 500-page 2019 report, Arizona has an informed consent law, minimum health and safety standards for abortion facilities, and a requirement to report abortions to the CDC, none of which are present in Wyoming. Meanwhile, Wyoming doesn’t seem to have any restrictions in place that Arizona lacks, so it’s not at all clear why Planned Parenthood would assert that the former is so much more stringent than the latter.
And if they got that wrong, who can even guess what else they got wrong?
Planned Parenthood is the best-funded organization (mostly through exploitation of the taxpayer, unfortunately) on either side of this issue. Providing accurate policy info wouldn’t take Planned Parenthood too much time or effort. But it appears the staff is too busy filming nude women and creating racy apparel to keep up on the issue that keeps their doors open.
