Mitch McConnell is waving the “defund Planned Parenthood” flag again in light of a series of admittedly gross, heavily edited videos about fetal tissue donation.
So I thought I’d give you some facts to keep in your back pocket next time your conservative coworker starts talking trash about about Planned Parenthood:
- Their contraceptive services prevent about 516,000 unplanned pregnancies a year – and 217,000 abortions.
- Abortion makes up about 3% of their services. Most of what they do is preventative, primary health care like STD and cancer screenings, contraception, and pregnancy tests – and most of that is for low-income men and women.
- Fetal tissue donation is totally legal – and it helps researchers find treatments for conditions like H.I.V., hepatitis, congenital heart defects, retinal degeneration and Parkinson’.
- One in five women in the U.S. visits a Planned Parenthood at least once.
Defunding Planned Parenthood would mean 400,000 fewer Pap smears, 500,000 fewer breast cancer screenings, 4.5 million fewer STI screenings a year. Let’s not do that thing.