Friday, October 12, 2012

Biden's Planned Parenthood Gaffe

At a recent campaign stop in Wisconsin, Vice-President Joe Biden told supporters that Planned Parenthood "under law cannot perform any abortions."



 Really, Mr. Biden? Then how can you explain Planned Parenthood's own "Fact Sheet" noting that they performed over 300,000 abortions in 2010? That's roughly a quarter of the 1.21 million abortions performed annually in the United States.

And how can you then account for the deaths of these women:
  • Edrica Goode This 21-year-old aspiring lawyer went to a Planned Parenthood in Riverside, California, on January 31, 2007, for a second-trimester abortion. Despite clear signs of infection, a nurse practitioner inserted laminaria and sent her home.
  • Diana Lopez This 25-year-old was 19 weeks pregnant when she went to a Planned Parenthood for an abortion on February 28, 2002. Before the day was over, Diana had bled to death.
  • Holly Patterson - This 18-year-old died September 17, 2003, from sepsis caused by a fetus incompletely expelled in a chemical abortion. Holly got the drugs for the fatal abortion at a Planned Parenthood in Hayward, California, on September 10.
  • Tonya Reaves - This 24-year-old (pictured, right) left a one-year-old child motherless when she bled to death after an abortion at a Chicago Planned Parenthood.
  • Vivian Tran -Vivian was 22 years old, and died December 29, 2003, six days into the abortion process. She'd been given abortion drugs on December 23 at the Costa Mesa Planned Parenthood facility.
I'll be charitable and assume that Biden misspoke, and that he meant to say that by law, Planned Parenthood can't bill abortions directly to tax money. But that doesn't change the fact that our tax money is subsidizing the buildings and staff used to perform these abortions. It doesn't change the fact that Planned Parenthood has been caught performing abortions on underage girls at the behest of their sexual abusers. It doesn't change the fact that Planned Parenthood is currently under investigation for massive Medicaid fraud. It doesn't change the fact that Edrica, Diana, Holly, Tonya, Vivian, and Nichole were sadly misled when they trusted Planned Parenthood with their lives. Does Planned Parenthood really deserve to be trusted with our tax dollars?

8 comments:

clb03091 said...

Laughable. All surgeries carry a risk of complication. How about we make a touching little collage of the tens of thousands of people who have died due to a cardio bypass surgery and try to stop federal funding to the hospitals that perform them?
I've got a better idea. How about we create a collage of the millions of underserved and/or uninsured women who have recieved free or affordable reproductive care from PP, including mammograms, pap smears, birth control, STI screenings and care, cervical cancer screenings, help after a sexual assault, references for a rape kit, neo-natal care and pregnancy/birth counseling,etc.? How about those women? Those who didn't die- those whose lives were saved by these services? Those who outnumber those who died by a margin so great, I can't type it because of all the zeroes after the decimal point.
When you so callously talk about defunding Planned Parenthood, you talk about putting their lives at risk. It sickens me that the pro-life movement values the lives of fetuses over the lives of walking, breathing, struggling women and girls. It's despicable. It's disgusting. Planned Parenthood does more every day to improve the health of women AND their children (born and unborn) than the pro-life movement can shake a stick at.

The bad judgement and negigence of some doctors is not justification for putting those women and their families at risk.

Christina Dunigan said...

Let's just go through an discuss your points one at a time:

All surgeries carry a risk of complication. How about we make a touching little collage of the tens of thousands of people who have died due to a cardio bypass surgery and try to stop federal funding to the hospitals that perform them?

Cardiac bypass is performed on older patients who have been in deteriorating health for a long time, and are now medically fragile. The operation is a lengthy, complicated procedure involving a vital organ.

An abortion is a quick, straightforward, simple outpatient procedure performed on a young, healthy patient, involving an organ that is not vital to the patient's survival.

Are you really asserting that the abortion death is just as much to be expected as the death during cardiac bypass?

clb03091 said...

You discussed one of my points and discussed it badly. The elderly are certainly not the only people who undergo bypass surgery.

I am "asserting" that using the faces of four unlucky dead girls to advance an agenda that includes denying affordable, good reproductive care to underserved populations is unconscionable.

I am asserting that thousands of people die during medical procedures every day, and the vast majority of the time not one of them is an abortion.


So no, I am not asserting that abortion death "is as much to be expected as death during bypass surgery." Just the opposide. While there are risks as with any procedure, abortion is incredibly safe in the U.S. Much safer than a bypass surgery or most other medical procedures. So why don't you crusade for all the women who will be killed during those procedures? It would make a lot more sense. Unless, of course, the lives of women aren't truly your concern.


I am "asserting" that using the faces of four unlucky dead girls to advance an agenda that includes denying affordable, good reproductive care to underserved populations is unconscienable.

I am asserting that your point is moot. abortion is a procedure which has been all but perfected. Statistically, more women die during or as a result of childbirth than die from an abortion. And if it weren't for PP, which provides so many women with prenatal care, even more women would die during chidbirth.

clb03091 said...

You discussed one of my points and discussed it badly. The elderly are certainly not the only people who undergo bypass surgery.


I am "asserting" that thousands of people die during medical procedures every day, and the vast majority of the time not one of them is an abortion.


So no, I am not asserting that abortion death "is as much to be expected as death during bypass surgery." Just the opposide. While there are risks as with any procedure, abortion is incredibly safe in the U.S. Much safer than a bypass surgery or most other medical procedures. So why don't you crusade for all the women who will be killed during those procedures? It would make a lot more sense. Unless, of course, the lives of women aren't truly your concern.


I am "asserting" that using the faces of four unlucky dead girls to advance an agenda that includes denying affordable, good reproductive care to underserved populations is unconscienable.

I am asserting that your point is moot. abortion is a procedure which has been all but perfected. Statistically, more women die during or as a result of childbirth than die from an abortion. And if it weren't for PP, which provides so many women with prenatal care, even more women would die during chidbirth

Christina Dunigan said...

I didn't say that only the elderly had bypass surgery; I was pointing out that bypass patients are typically much older than abortion patients, who are usually in their 20s.

But let's leave that aside for a moment and address what we're supposed to do about the "four unlucky dead girls."

I would suggest that perhaps the prochoice movment would be more credible in their assertion that they're all about women's well being if they were more proactive when abortion facilities do things that are frankly inexcusable. Review the circumstances of these women's deaths again. Nichole's death might have just been a flukey thing, but the deaths of Edrica, Diana, Holly, Tonya, and Vivian all happened because of actions Planned Parenthood staff took that they knew were dangerous but chose to do anyway. What would be wrong with saying, "We're about safe abortion care! These people did not provide safe care. They provided slipshod care that cost young women their lives. This is our plan to address these failings."

To just shrug and say, "So? All surgery has risks," sounds pretty callous. And if you can dismiss "safe and legal" abortion deaths under the mantra of "all surgery has risks," why doesn't that apply to illegal abortion deaths as well? Why is the death only an unacceptable thing if the abortionist who kills her gets arrested for it?

Christina Dunigan said...

As for your assertion that Planned Parenthood "provides so many women with prenatal care," can you get some statistics to share with us? How many women rely on Planned Parenthood for their prenatal care?

clb03091 said...

Not every single PP clinic provides full prenatal care, but all provide screenings, ultrasounds, sonograms, counseling, and references on a SLIDING SCALE (very important). I don't know what the statistics are, and I'm not going to do the research at this moment. But I do know (from experience and due to my profession) that prenatal care is available at different levels at all PP's, some more than others, and that they help and counsel pregnant women to make healthy decisions for their pregnancy. Three of my cousins went to their local PP in NH for prenatal care, as they were young and in school when they had their chidren. ALL PP's offer pre-natal care. That is just common knowledge. As a pro-lifer and apparently an adamently anti-PP woman, I suspect you know that they provide prenatal care to patients. Or you should know.

I recognize that the actions of those few PP empoyees and doctors were inexcusable and shouldn't have happened. I never said otherwise. However, actions on the part of a few people is not grounds to upend an entire institution, especially one which helps so many women and families every day. Every organization has bad apples. Every. Single. One. No matter how much good they do. No matter how careful they are. There are always bad apples. In the health industry, the unfortunate fact is that a few bad apples lead to deaths. it may sound callous, but whenever you go in for a procudure, you are taking a risk. and it ought to be your CHOICE whether or not you take the risk.

In the case of PP, the risk is pretty minimal. Their record is very good and abortion is safer than an appendectomy. Abortion is actually safer than giving birth.

what happened to those women is not acceptable. It is unavoidable. It's unavoidable whether or not abortion is legal. However, if abortion is legal, the families of those killed can take legal action. If abortion is legal, the doctors and nurses who committed malpractice can be brought to justice. If it's legal, it's a lot harder to sweep deaths under the rug and for bad doctors and nurses to continue practicing medicine. Now that it's legal, these women are victims. When abortion was a crime, they would be criminals as well as the doctor.

Christina Dunigan said...

I was looking for stats on Planned Parenthood and prenatal care and I found something I consider pretty creepy.

This Planned Parenthood information page about prenatal care covers:

*What is prenatal care?
*What will happen during my first prenatal care visit?
*How often will I have prenatal care visits?
*What will happen during my follow-up prenatal care visits?
What is prenatal testing?
*What is an untrasound?
*What is multiple marker screening?
*What is CVS (chorionic villus sampling)?
*What is amniocentesis?

*What changes can I expect during pregnancy?
*How will I know if something is wrong?

Of the 11 areas they address, five are focused on finding something wrong with the fetus.

Let's compare that with a web site not associated with an abortion provider:

*What is prenatal care?
*Why do I need prenatal care?
*I am thinking about getting pregnant. How can I take care of myself?
*I'm pregnant. What should I do -- or not do -- to take care of myself and my unborn baby?
*I don't want to get pregnant right now. But should I still take folic acid every day?
*How often should I see my doctor during pregnancy?
*What happens during prenatal visits?
*I am in my late 30s and I want to have a child now. Should I do anything special?
*Where can I go to get free or reduced-cost prenatal care?

That's nine points, none of which are geared toward finding some reason to abort.

Interesting, nu? I'm gonna have to do a blog post just about this.