Coordinated Anti-Choice Attacks on Planned Parenthood: Frequently Asked Questions
What is H.R. 1? What would happen if Planned Parenthood were defunded? What is Title X funding? Why is Title X funding essential? What will happen if Title X funding is taken away? What is Live Action? Did Planned Parenthood staff act appropriately in the Live Action videos? What does Live Action have to do with the anti-choice bills that have been introduced in Congress?
What is H.R. 1?
H.R. 1 is the Continuing Resolution that represents the most devastating assault on women’s health in Planned Parenthood's 95-year history. The FY 2011 Continuing Resolution completely eliminates the nation’s family planning program, Title X. This program has provided millions of American women with lifesaving health care since Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1970. In pursuit of his extreme political agenda, Representative Mike Pence, with the full support of Speaker John Boehner, also offered an amendment to prohibit all Planned Parenthood health centers from receiving any federal funds for any purpose, including providing affordable cancer screenings, birth control, HIV testing, and testing and treatment for other sexually transmitted infections.
The House Republican leadership is also proposing to completely eliminate the recently established teen pregnancy prevention community grants, which provide evidence-based sex education to American teenagers. These programs ensure that teens have the accurate information and the necessary tools they need to avoid unintended pregnancy and lead healthy and productive lives. In addition, the Continuing Resolution eliminates American contributions to UNFPA, the United Nation's Population Fund, cuts essential international family planning and reproductive health services by more than $200 million, and re-imposes the Bush era global gag rule on international family planning providers. The reinstatement of the Bush-era policy would once again cripple the ability of organizations around the globe to provide lifesaving care to the most vulnerable populations in the world.
UPDATE: On March 9, 2011, the Senate defeated H.R. 1. However, the budget negotiations are not yet over and we expect conservative members to continue to push to include the amendment to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funds in upcoming continuing resolutions.
What would happen if Planned Parenthood were defunded?
Planned Parenthood’s 83 affiliates operate more than 800 health centers nationwide, providing health care to three million Americans a year — including men, women, and teens. Planned Parenthood health centers help women prevent an estimated 612,000 unintended pregnancies and 291,000 abortions every year.
Planned Parenthood plays a critical role in providing health care to low-income women. Six in 10 patients who access care from a women’s health center like Planned Parenthood consider it to be their main source of health care — including routine gynecological exams, STD testing and treatment, and lifesaving cancer screenings. For many women, especially those in rural areas and underserved communities, Planned Parenthood is the only source of health care.
Many of these women would be forced to go without health care if Planned Parenthood were defunded.
What is Title X funding?
Title X (“ten”) of the Public Health Service Act is the nation’s family planning program, which was signed into law in 1970 by Richard Nixon. It provides lifesaving and preventive care to more than five million Americans.
Why is Title X funding essential?
Family planning keeps women and children healthy. Studies have shown that when women have better access to family planning, it leads to healthier outcomes for both mother and child.
When women plan their pregnancies, they are more likely to seek prenatal care — improving their own health and the health of their children.
The Title X program improves health, saves lives, empowers women, and combats poverty — all while saving the government nearly four times what it costs.
What will happen if Title X funding is taken away?
Without Title X, more women will experience unintended pregnancies and face potentially life-threatening diseases that could have been prevented. Health centers funded through Title X now prevent nearly a million unintended pregnancies every year. They save women's lives through cancer screening, immunization, and blood-pressure testing.
Family planning keeps women and children healthy. In fact, access to family planning is directly linked to declines in maternal and infant mortality rates. Publicly supported family planning even saves the government money — $3.74 for every dollar invested.
This legislation would also have a devastating impact on Latinas. Thirty-nine percent of Latinas are uninsured, the highest rate of any ethnic or racial group in the U.S., and more than a quarter of Latinas are living in poverty. Barriers to care in Latino communities result in Latinas having a 50 percent higher mortality rate from cervical cancer than non-Latina white women.
What is Live Action?
Live Action is an extreme anti-choice organization with a stated goal of outlawing abortion in this country. To achieve that goal, they’ve targeted Planned Parenthood. Live Action’s leader has said that she wants to “take down” Planned Parenthood over the next 10 years by creating “controversy” in the organization and making Planned Parenthood “not feel safe.”
For the past five years, Live Action has used deceptive tactics and doctored videos to try to undermine Planned Parenthood. Live Action has connections to extreme right wing groups and the discredited activist James O’Keefe, who was arrested for attempting to wiretap the office of Senator Mary Landrieu.
Live Action’s latest hoax was to use fake actors posing as sex traffickers. Over a five-day period in January 2011, at least 11 Planned Parenthood health centers in six states were visited by a man claiming to be in the sex trade, involving minors.
At that time, Planned Parenthood officials alerted local and federal authorities, including sending a letter dated January 18 to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. As a result, the FBI began an investigation.
Did Planned Parenthood staff act appropriately in the Live Action videos?
The week of February 1, a series of the secretly recorded Live Action videos were publicized. The first one showed a Planned Parenthood staff member engaging in behavior that is appalling, inconsistent with Planned Parenthood’s practices, and in violation of Planned Parenthood’s policies. Planned Parenthood took swift action, and the employee was immediately terminated for violating Planned Parenthood’s high standards of health care and ethical conduct.
Other videos that were publicized since then were shot at four different health centers in Virginia. They followed a similar pattern, showing a man posing as a sex trafficker. The videos all show Planned Parenthood staff reacting professionally to a highly unusual person posing as a patient.
Planned Parenthood insists on the highest standards of care, and safeguards the trusted relationship we have with patients, families, and communities. We have a rigorous accreditation process to ensure quality health care for patients by monitoring and evaluating operations and all medical services at our 84 affiliates and more than 800 health centers across the country.
What does Live Action have to do with the anti-choice bills that have been introduced in Congress?
Live Action is working closely with anti-choice members of Congress as part of a coordinated, highly political effort designed to undermine Planned Parenthood — with dangerous implications for women and families across the country.