January 24, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – A new Live Action investigation debunks Planned Parenthood's oft-repeated claim that it provides prenatal care to pregnant women. Undercover videos and phone calls show that Planned Parenthood regularly turns away pregnant women seeking options other than abortion, which is the focus of their business.
The pro-life group called and visited 97 Planned Parenthood facilities that are part of all 41 regional Planned Parenthood affiliates across the United States where undercover recording is legal. Ninety-two out of 97 turned away women seeking prenatal care. Planned Parenthood workers admitted to investigators that the name “Planned Parenthood” is “deceptive” and “deceiving.” A Planned Parenthood worker in Albuquerque, New Mexico even admitted that the local CareNet would be a better place for a woman seeking prenatal care to go.
This investigation, titled “The Prenatal Care Deception” is part one in a series of investigative videos called “Abortion Corporation.” They show Planned Parenthood’s own employees saying its focus is providing abortions, not women’s health care.
“Planned Parenthood says it’s a champion of women’s health care, yet prenatal care, which is an essential service for expectant mothers, is virtually nonexistent,” said Lila Rose, President and Founder of Live Action. Live Action is investing $500,000 in a digital ad campaign to promote its “Abortion Corporation” videos to the public.
Congress is on the brink of redirecting federal funds away from Planned Parenthood to community healthcare centers that don't commit abortions. Planned Parenthood receives over half a billion dollars in taxpayer money through money streams like Title X and Medicaid. President Trump has promised to sign legislation defunding Planned Parenthood as long as it continues to commit abortions.
Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards told media in 2011, “Prenatal care – these are the kinds of services that folks depend on Planned Parenthood for.”
Live Action's “Abortion Corporation” videos also smash the claim of pro-Planned Parenthood tote bags being sold to benefit the abortion giant.
The tote bags list prenatal care as one of the services offered at Planned Parenthood. Its creator has already had to correct its bags after falsely claiming Planned Parenthood provides mammograms, which it does not.
“Planned Parenthood offers abortions, so they don't offer prenatal care,” a Tempe, Arizona Planned Parenthood worker told a Live Action investigator.
“We specialize in abortions,” a Farmington, New Mexico Planned Parenthood worker says in the video. She admitted Planned Parenthood does ultrasounds “to see how far along” pregnant women seeking abortions are – not to provide prenatal care.
The on-hold message callers to the Virginia Beach, Virginia Planned Parenthood hear the organization can “take care of all your reproductive health needs” such as “prenatal care.” But the Virginia Beach employee with whom Live Action then spoke said it doesn't provide prenatal care, and that neither its Hampton nor Richmond offices do, either.
“I would look around on the Internet,” a Council Bluffs, Iowa Planned Parenthood employee told a Live Action investigator seeking a referral for prenatal care.
“We don't see pregnant women as a way of giving prenatal care,” a Sante Fe, New Mexico Planned Parenthood worker says in the video. “We see pregnant women, um, you know, if they are considering other options.” The Sante Fe employees then told Live Action that they offer medication abortions.
A Bend, Oregon Planned Parenthood worker told Live Action the organization doesn't offer any prenatal care services in Oregon or Washington – and that it's “not licensed to do so in Oregon or Washington.”
“Our investigators who wanted to keep their babies were turned away by 92 out of 97 Planned Parenthood centers,” said Rose. “It’s clear that despite its claims, abortion is the priority and the only option for pregnant women that visit Planned Parenthood.”
Rose said she anticipates “Planned Parenthood will respond as it usually does by denying the overwhelming findings of this investigation.”
Last week, Live Action released public records showing Planned Parenthood failed to report child sex traffickers to local authorities as it had claimed it would in 2011. That year, a series of Live Action stings caught the abortion company aiding child sex traffickers. Other Live Action investigations have exposed Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry providing sex-selective abortions, covering up the sexual abuse of minors, accepting racially motivated donations, and disseminating medical misinformation.