In 2009, Planned Parenthood provided 22,560 abortions in Texas. If you want that stat in context, in 2007, Planned Parenthood provided 24.6 percent of the 80,886 [abortions in Texas that year]. We see 3 million patients each year across the country. For 97 percent of them, we provide preventive care. Three percent are abortions. That pretty much holds true from state to state. What is obviously nonsensical is, the best way to prevent an abortion or the need for an abortion is to prevent unwanted pregnancies. We share a common goal: to help women get family planning services, to reduce unintended pregnancies and to reduce the need for abortion. To eliminate the nation’s largest family planning provider would be the worst thing you could do.
Questions:
1. Why should we "reduce the need for an abortion"? If abortion is not killing a human being, then it should be on the same level as pulling a tooth right? What is the difference? Why should something be "rare" (as Obama says) if it is not wrong? Is there really an essential difference between having your haircut and having an abortion? Both removing something from your body and throw it away.
2. Why does she highlight that only 3% of what they do is abortion? Does she need to apologize for abortion? If it is not wrong and should be fully legal for every woman at anytime, then would it not be ok to fully embrace a statistic that said that PP does 50% abortions? If it is not a human being in the womb then who cares how many abortions they do.
2 comments:
Good questions, that reveal yet again some inconsistencies in the abortion-rights rhetoric. They are indefatigable in trying to have their cake and eat it, too, by arguing that an abortion is morally insignificant and that it should be rare.
When I saw the numbers in the quote, they didn't seem right. When I clicked through and skimmed some numbers from the interview, the numbers didn't seem quite right.
According to Ms. Richards, only 3% of the PP patients receive abortions. With her statistics of approximately 3 million patients a year across the country, this would compute to approximately 90,000 abortions across the country, of which 22,560 took place in Texas, or 25% of all the abortions. Now, perhaps Texas does have 25% of the PP abortions in the country, but on the face of it, that seems high. Additionally, she said that in 2009, PP saw 263,000 patients in Texas (in the interview), and provided 22,560 abortions. With a patient total of 263,000, and an average abortion rate of 3%, we should expect 7,890 abortions, not 22,560. In Texas, the abortion rate, according to her statistics, was just over 8.5%.
I want to be clear that I am not claiming Ms. Richards is lying or providing false information. I am merely calling attention to the selective and deceptive use of statistics. She seemed well informed about the statistics of PP in Texas, yet chose to give the national percentage.
Playing Devil's Advocate here:
#1 - Abortion should be rare because it is a medical procedure with inherent risk to the patient. I am thinking about all of the consents you need to sign befire having any type of surgical procedure. Maybe her argument is sort of like saying "People should have free access to xyz medical procedure but xyz medical procedures should be rare."
#2 - It seems that in PP's fight for gov't fuinding, their opposition is mostly against funding abortion. I guess they are saying that they the main issue of which they are opposed is only a very small portion of what they do.
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