Politifact Accuses Bishop Tobin of Lying
Bishop Thomas J. Tobin wrote in a recent edition of The Rhode Island Catholic newspaper in a column entitled "The ‘Throwaway Culture’ that "abortions account for 94 percent of the services provided for pregnant women by Planned Parenthood."Now, Politifact has taken him to task over this statement, accusing him of making a "false" statement based on what Planned Parenthood tells them. But what the abortion giant tells them is pretty illuminating. Here's the facts via Mallory Quigley of the SBA List.
Mallory E. Quigley, a spokeswoman for the Susan B. Anthony List, referred us to numbers taken from page 18 of Planned Parenthood’s 2013-2014 annual report."There are 3 options/responses to pregnancy for Planned Parenthood," Quigley said in an email.Abortion services: 327,653Prenatal referrals: 18,684Adoption Services: 1,880Quigley said the sum of those three numbers -- 348,217 -- represents "total pregnancy services." She said the total number of abortions -- 327,653 -- is 94 percent of that total.
Seems pretty cut and dry, right?But Planned Parenthood seems to counter these facts by saying that Bishop Tobin isn't taking into account that many women might come into Planned Parenthood who could be pregnant without Planned Parenthood's knowledge. Seriously.
When we contacted Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, which encompasses Rhode Island, Susan Yolen, the vice president for public policy and advocacy, faulted that calculation -- and Bishop Tobin’s conclusion -- as misleading.Planned Parenthood health centers do not compile the pregnancy status of all their female patients, she said. Nor do they tally the number of pregnant women staff refers to outside obstetricians or other health-care providers, she said.In other words, the number of women receiving "pregnancy services" is not simply the sum of those getting abortions or receiving adoption or prenatal services.Other figures on page 18 of Planned Parenthood’s annual report show that the agency conducted 1.1 million pregnancy tests and another 3.7 million tests for sexually transmitted diseases (for both men and women). Presumably, there were pregnant women in each of those groups who aren’t represented in the Susan B. Anthony lists’ tally.
Presumably.But on the data they've accumulated, 94 percent of the pregnant women who they knew were pregnant and came into a Planned Parenthood had an abortion.And it's interesting to note that they don't accumulate statistics on those women who they say they refer. Something tells me they won't start keeping those statistics either because then they would be pinned down and they don't want that. So they'll keep calling any statistic from their own annual reports "inconclusive" precisely because they refuse to accumulate or release definitive statistics.Oh, and the media will play along willingly.*subhead*Planned Parenthood.*subhead*
