True Colors: Planned Parenthood Calls Abortion 'Critically Important' Despite Previously Downplaying It
If anything good has come of Alexis McGill Johnson’s tenure as president of Planned Parenthood, it is the honesty she has brought to the organization.
For years, Planned Parenthood has claimed abortion only accounts for three percent of its overall services, and its primary concern is providing women with affordable health care.
Multiple outlets across the political spectrum, from Slate to Live Action, have actually debunked this statistic from Planned Parenthood.
Despite that, the organization has persisted with this lie to earn the support of people who think abortion is a “necessary evil.”
The organization’s marketing strategy on this front appears to have changed, however, thanks to Johnson.
In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Johnson said she no longer wants to “marginalize” abortion by insisting it is only a “small part” of what Planned Parenthood does.
Johnson also added that she is “fine” with people associating her organization with the procedure.
“Planned Parenthood proudly serves all forms of sexual and reproductive health care, including abortion, and I think when we try to exclude it, we’re excluding a critical part of and a critical option for health care,” Johnson said.
She then went on to admit that abortion is a “critically important” part of what Planned Parenthood does for women.
Johnson also took it a step further by blaming previous top Planned Parenthood officials and leadership for “stigmatizing” abortion by calling it a “small part” of what they do.
The admission may seem strange to some, but Johnson’s statement is, without a doubt, consistent with the information revealed in Planned Parenthood’s annual reports.
The organization’s 2018-2019 annual report revealed that it had performed over 345,000 abortions — the highest number ever reported in a single year.
Writing an analysis of the report for Live Action, pro-life researcher Carole Novielli noted that, while abortions increased, health care services such as pap tests and breast exams had fallen by 72 and 68 percent respectively within the previous ten years.
In a sense, this almost explains Johnson’s candor regarding the level of importance Planned Parenthood places on abortion.
Instead of downplaying the number of abortions the group performs while simultaneously playing up the organization’s declining health services, Johnson leaned into the pro-choice rhetoric that abortion is a form of health care.
“We are a proud abortion provider,” the executive said. “We believe that abortion is health care, and we believe, fundamentally, that self-determination begins with being able to control your own body and freedom begins with being able to control your own body. So I don’t like to marginalize it in that way.”
Of course, Johnson is — first and foremost — incorrect. Thousands of health care professionals have signed on to documents like the Dublin Declaration, which argues that abortion is never medically necessary.
Johnson has assumed, without evidence, that abortion does not involve the deliberate termination of innocent life.
But abortion is the deliberate termination of innocent human life — something that will always render abortion deserving of stigma.
The topic of abortion is a contentious subject because a living human being is killed in the process, and Johnson is not doing women any favors by denying this fact.
And while she may at least be honest about Planned Parenthood’s overall goals, her rhetoric proves that her organization’s agenda is unconcerned with the well-being of women and their families.
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