August 22, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Fox News anchorwoman Martha MacCallum stated today that Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions in the United States, does not perform abortions, but only refers women to abortion providers if they so wish.
MacCallum made the claim, which she later repeated, in an interview with Fox legal expert and former judge Andrew Napolitano on a recent ruling by a U.S federal judge permitting the state of Texas to withhold funding from Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers and referrers.
“So judge obviously there has been a lot of debate in this country over whether or not the federal government and states should fund Planned Parenthood because they do refer people to and give them counseling with regard to abortion. They don’t perform abortions at Planned Parenthood,” said MacCallum to Napolitano.
“Correct,” replied Napolitano.
Later in the same interview, MacCallum repeated the claim that Planned Parenthood does not provide abortions, as well as the organization’s insistence that most of what it does is unrelated to abortion.
“So Planned Parenthood says that most of what we do is outreach to women who need cancer screenings and basic health care, ob-gyn health care, we do not provide abortions, we do counsel people, and we do help them, if they say that that’s what they want to do, we help them get there,” MacCallum said.
MacCallum may have been confused by reports by the Associated Press that state that Planned Parenthood does not provide abortions to women as part of the Texas Women’s Health Program. However, the organization provides abortions in Texas and throughout the United States, although some smaller clinics only refer for the service. The physically largest abortion clinic in the country is a Planned Parenthood facility in Houston, Texas, which is situated in the midst of four minority neighborhoods..
Nationwide, Planned Parenthood kills approximately 330,000 unborn children every year. A large percentage of its victims are members of ethnic and racial minority groups, particularly blacks and Hispanics.
On its own website, Planned Parenthood gives “Abortion, Birth Control, Emergency Contraception (Morning After Pill)” as the first three items in a list of services provided by the organization.
Planned Parenthood received $487.4 million in government funding in the last year reported, 2010, and has about $1 billion in assets. Its gross income from performing abortions is estimated at over $148,000,000 annually, about 14% of its total, and over 90% of pregnant women serviced by the organization receive abortions. It performs over 27% of the abortions in the United States each year.
Fox News did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication of this article.
Related LifeSiteNews coverage:
* The numbers Planned Parenthood doesn’t want you to know
* Planned Parenthood Sets Record for Number of Babies Killed
* Former Planned Parenthood worker: Planned Parenthood lies about itself
* Exposing the Planned Parenthood business model