On Planned Parenthood's Central Lie

Sunshine State Sarah (of Texas) was at the Capitol Friday night and got disgusted enough with the lies of Planned Parenthood that she addressed them specifically; money quote:

Regarding the message itself, note the language PP suggests that you send to your state senator:

Please oppose all efforts to restrict women's access to the Pap tests, breast cancer screenings, and access to birth control that are important to our health. These attacks on women's health will deny access to basic care to thousands of women and will limit access to safe, legal abortion in Texas.

First of all, HB2/SB1 have nothing to do with Pap tests, breast cancer screenings, or contraceptives. Not a darn word of the bill addresses those issues. There is also nothing in the bill that "denies access" to health care for women. In fact, during this year's regular session, the Legislature actually increased state funding by $179 million dollars for women’s health services including annual visits, preventative screening, and contraceptives. 

It's doubly ironic for them to make this argument because it's been well-documented that Planned Parenthood doesn't actually perform any mammograms at any of their facilities nationwide. Not a single one. Never have. 

What the bill actually requires is for abortion clinics to meet the same safety standards as ambulatory surgical centers. Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, the fact is that abortion is a medical procedure and, like with all medical procedures, there can be risks and complications. The bill requires clinics offering abortions to meet the same standards as clinics that remove your tonsils, perform cataracts, or other similar outpatient surgical procedures.

....

Anyway, if a clinic doesn't want to invest the resources necessary to comply with the bill, they can still continue to remain open and provide women’s health services such as obstetric care, annual gynecological visits, and  (gasp!) even contraceptives. 

Planned Parenthood's ad is beyond misleading: it is a blatantly false representation of what HB1/SB2 actually do, and is an egregious attempt to scare women.

 Read the whole thing here.

-----

In other Texas Abortion News, Students for Life (with whom we were holed up) has posted their account of Friday Night:

The sound in the rotunda was like nothing we have had ever heard before. It was inhuman, almost demonic. They chanted slogans like, “Whose choice? My choice” and “Pray, You’ll Need It, Your Cause will be Defeated” while periodically breaking into primal screams that echoed around us. As we watched from the top floor with a group of pro-life students, surrounded by a deluge of orange shirts, we could see DPS officers move into the crowd below to remove the blue shirts that had been peacefully praying amongst the crush of angry protesters.

....

As the situation grew uglier, DPS directed all pro-lifers to leave the rotunda for their own safety. The mob did not care for or respect the well-being of anyone wearing blue. Pro-life senators and representatives were offering their offices as safe places for us. Most of the Students for Life of America students and staff had already left the rotunda. And as our team directed the retreat, some of our staff found themselves stranded on the top floor with a few students, looking for a way out. They took the elevator to the bottom two floors, but found their paths blocked both times and had to ascend back up to the top of the building. They then found a side staircase that brought them down to the ground floor. But, as they rounded the final curve to the landing, they stopped dead in their tracks; they were again confronted by a sea of orange shirts.

Confident in the presence of news cameras to keep them safe, our team managed to slide along the railing, cut through the swarm of angry pro-aborts and escape behind them. Texas Representative Bryan Hughes offered our team and students safe haven in his office (guarded by DPS officers), where we gathered to watch the end of the debate and anxiously awaited the final, victorious vote on the Senate floor shortly after midnight.

 Read their full account (and watch the videos) here.

----

Update: Candy Noble has another fantastic account of the week here.