January 9, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Planned Parenthood’s new president took to Twitter on Tuesday to rebuff impressions that she’s less committed to abortion-on-demand than her predecessor, but in the process undermined one of the abortion giant’s most common talking points.
The day before, BuzzFeed had published an interview with Leana Wen, a former Baltimore Health Commissioner and George Washington University physician, about her use of her medical background to rebrand the abortion giant as more of a healthcare provider than a political lightning rod.
The interview carried the headline, “Planned Parenthood’s New President Wants To Focus On Nonabortion Health Care,” to which Wen objected the next day for “completely misconstru[ing] my vision for Planned Parenthood.”
First, our core mission is providing, protecting and expanding access to abortion and reproductive health care. We will never back down from that fight – it’s a fundamental human right and women’s lives are at stake.
— Leana Wen, M.D. (@DrLeanaWen) January 8, 2019
Our advocacy work is crucial to delivering on our mission. The 2018 midterms, including the record number of women and the historic pro-reproductive health majority elected to House, prove that Planned Parenthood continues to be a powerful political force across the country.
— Leana Wen, M.D. (@DrLeanaWen) January 8, 2019
“Our core mission is providing, protecting and expanding access to abortion and reproductive health care,c Wen declared, prompting scores of pro-lifers to take notice.
For years, Planned Parenthood and its defenders have claimed that “abortion services” comprise just three percent of its medical services. The percentage is derived from counting as separate services that are normally grouped together, such as giving the same woman contraceptives, a pregnancy test, and an abortion, without regard for the varying costs or complexity of particular services.
Abortions make up over 90 percent of Planned Parenthood’s pregnancy-related services.
In 2013, Rachael Larimore of the left-wing Slate admitted that such methodology makes the figure the “most meaningless abortion statistic ever,” writing that the organization “gets at least a third of its clinic income—and more than 10 percent of all its revenue, government funding included—from its abortion procedures.”
Further undermining the abortion giant’s healthcare claims is the fact that Planned Parenthood’s annual abortions rose almost 11 percent from fiscal years 2006 to 2016, while during that same period breast cancer screenings declined 62 percent, pap tests declined 72 percent, and prenatal care declined 30 percent.
Wen’s tweet received a decidedly negative response on social media:
Ummm…core mission… 3%…core mission… 3%…core mission… 3%…
— Laura Klassen (@LauraKlassen14) January 8, 2019
Sooo, professionally you are primarily a team of baby killers. Its hard for me to believe anyone picks that from the list on career day. It's the 21st century and you are advocating for 19th century medicine/hokum. Killing babies is not a solution to unwanted pregnancy.
— katymom (@debross123) January 8, 2019
Pretty high-falutin' way to describe a purported three-percent of your business.
— Chuck Vipperman (@ChuckVipperman) January 8, 2019
Certainly, that is where the largest profit resides.
— Kenneth Kessner (@irishinidaho) January 9, 2019
Fundamental human right… unless of course you are still in the womb or something of the sort.
— Jose Guilarte (@Joseg_nj) January 8, 2019
This isn’t the first time the new Planned Parenthood chief, whose selection to replace Cecile Richards was announced last September, accidentally undermined pro-abortion talking points. Last fall, video surfaced of Wen testifying before the 2016 Democratic National Convention, during which she accidentally referred to the preborn as “unborn children” in a discussion of the Zika virus.