4 Ways Planned Parenthood Annual Report and Dr. Leana Wen Aren’t on the Same Page

The new president of Planned Parenthood, Dr. Leana Wen, has been making the media rounds and championing to the people her leadership role in the nation’s largest abortion provider. She wants the public to believe that Planned Parenthood is actually interested in helping women and families receive the healthcare that they need.

But is Planned Parenthood really offering more health care to patients? According to the latest annual report, the answer is no.

Here are some of the misdirecting statements of Dr. Leana Wen that are not backed up by the latest annual report released by her own organization:

1. “Let’s refer to reproductive health care as the standard medical care that it is, and be clear that being pro women’s health care is pro-family, pro-economy and pro-life.” Letter to the Editor, The New York Times.

In order to maintain federal funding and media influence, Planned Parenthood likes to exploit concerns over access to reproductive health and some of the public’s ignorance of her organization. Dr. Wen’s statement might sound great and play to her base, but Planned Parenthood hasn’t been in the health care business for at least a decade.

This is especially evident in their mainstay service, contraception. Despite the organization being founded on the promise to provide education on birth control, this isn’t something that the organization has done much with in the last couple of decades. In 1993, contraception made up 59% of all their services, and in the latest annual report it only makes up 27% of all services provided. For an organization known for providing birth control, most people are no longer seeking them out for those services.

2. “And Planned Parenthood was there for her, just like it’s there for women across the country, to provide cancer screenings, to provide birth control.” CBS This Morning.

Earlier this week, Planned Parenthood tweeted showing how they completed 274,145 pap smears in 2017. The post boasted as if that was a great achievement, but in 1992 the abortion business completed 1.7 million pap smears. That’s a decrease of 84%. So how can an organization that claims to champion reproductive rights barely offer any of the corresponding health care (except for abortions).

It’s not just pap smears, since 2009 breast exams are down by 70%, colposcopy procedures 64%, and cryotherapy procedures by 90%. All these services could be instrumental in helping save a woman’s life and identify cancer, but they clearly are no longer a big concern of Planned Parenthood. Instead, the focus has shifted to abortion and STD testing and services.

3. “(People are) coming because they need their vaccinations. They need their well woman exams.” BuzzFeed.

This statement is misleading at best, a blatant lie at worse. People do not go to Planned Parenthood for standard healthcare vaccines–that’s why health departments exist. There are only three vaccines that Planned Parenthood currently offers, and all are related to sexually transmitted diseases.

The most notable of these is the HPV vaccine, which can help protect young people against cancers caused by the human papillomavirus that is transmitted sexually. First introduced at Planned Parenthood clinics in 2006, the number of patients that have received the vaccine at its clinics has steadily decreased since it was first introduced. Last year, it decreased by 33%. Clearly, providing people with vaccines isn’t a priority. The only two other vaccines offered at Planned Parenthood are for hepatitis A and B.

4. “I’d love to say that abortion care is no longer questioned as anything other than the standard medical care that it is.” Rolling Stone.

In the pro-abortion world, the practice of abortion has become something that borders on the sacred. As the new president of Planned Parenthood, Dr. Leana Wen has led the charge of relabeling abortion as “health care” in in an attempt to justify abortion under any circumstances and normalize the practice.

In an effort to identify abortion as health care, nearly every other service, except for STD testing and services, has suffered. From cancer screenings to contraception, there has been a noticeable and often large decrease in the variety of services offered and likely the competency of how they are completed. A recent New York Times article detailing the lack of paid maternity leave for most Planned Parenthood staff members alluded to the fact that most employees are overworked and underpaid. That combination is unlikely to result in good health care services.

Although Dr. Wen might not have been in charge of Planned Parenthood while most of the data for this annual report was compiled, when it was released she did have the opportunity to denounce it and say that the organization would change. But she didn’t. It demonstrates that though Dr. Wen might talk a good game, the focus of her organization remains the same. That abortion is the only thing that matters, regardless of the costs.