From Alternet: Rep. Mike Pence's volatile attacks on Planned Parenthood continued over the weekend [April 11, 2011], when he appeared on This Week and spread lies about the organization. The Indiana Republican asserted to host Christiane Amanpour that 'Planned Parenthood's clinics focus mainly on abortion.' That is an outright lie; only three percent of Planned Parenthood's activities are abortion related. (Read this great piece detailing exactly what some of those services are.)
Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood President, hit back with a passionate retort, observing that 'Pence and House Republican leaders have made it clear that they simply don’t care about the health and safety of American women.'
Having failed for now to eliminate breast exams, cancer screenings and birth control that millions of American women count on, Representative Mike Pence continues his misleading and outrageous attacks on Planned Parenthood and the preventive health care our doctors and nurses provide. Representative Pence well knows that for over 30 years not a dollar of federal funding that Planned Parenthood has received to provide preventive and basic health care has paid for abortion, but he continues to mislead everyone he talks to. Thankfully the media is beginning to hold Mr. Pence accountable for his intentionally misleading words.
As ThinkProgress points out, Pence also lied about the GOP's willingness to shutdown the Government over Planned Parenthood, telling Amanpour that was 'nonsense' -- which was a lie, as he said he was willing to shut it down earlier in the week on MSNBC. Watch:
Mike Pence: One Man’s War on Planned Parenthood
02/16/2011 BY STEVE
SOURCE: Planned Parenthood is not just having to fight off selectively edited videos and smear campaigns form the likes of extreme anti-abortionist Lila Rose, they’re also having to fight the constant barrage of attacks from Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) who sees the group has nothing less than Satan’s tool for killing babies.
Pence is waging a war to cut-off all of Planned Parenthood’s federal funding and put them out of business. For the third year in a row, Pence has introduced legislation to chip away at the group’s ability to provide affordable health services for women. Pence wants to outlaw any group performing abortions from receiving federal funds through Title X, the federal reproductive health program.
Pence’s latest effort is H.R. 217, the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act. The bill would deny women’s health centers the ability to provide life-saving and critical services like contraception, cancer screenings and breast exams.
“We should end the day when the largest abortion provider is the largest recipient of [Title X] federal funding,” [Rep. Mike Pence]
The fact is that Mike Pence is going to destroy every women’s health center and forbid them from providing all types of health services, like cancer screening and breast exams, in order to stop Planned Parenthood. This is one man who has the arrogance to believe that he knows what’s best for women than the woman herself.
The fact is that Planned Parenthood does not receive federal funds in order to provide abortions, and the abortions they do provide only make up an estimated 3% of their entire patient services. But the group does rely on Title X funds to provide pelvic exams, breast exams, and counseling.
