Appearing to be something it is not is an important part of Planned Parenthood’s branding strategy. The last thing it wants is to be pegged as an organization devoted to abortion. This goes far to explain the angst PP is feeling over Muskegon County, Michigan’s decision to evict its local “health clinic” from government office space that it had been renting at a bargain-basement price for years.
“I don’t see why this meeting is even necessary,” the Rev. Bill Randall said at a public hearing on the issue before the Muskegon County Board of Commissioners voted by a 6-2 count to terminate Planned Parenthood’s lease. “You have the responsibility for the use of our buildings and our tax dollars. I’m opposed to Planned Parenthood using county property and confusing people that this agency is somehow connected with our county health department.”
Favorite Camouflage
Evict Planned Parenthood council meeting.
The Rev. Randall hits the nail on the head with the last part of his statement. PP receives some $500 million in federal funding a year, yet was paying only a token $1,500 a year in “rent” for the office space in Muskegon County. More than money would appear to be at issue here. Planned Parenthood dearly cherishes the notion that it is a quasi-official institution dedicated solely to public health. But a check of what the soon-to-be-shuttered PP Muskegon office actually does is in perfect keeping with the organization’s well-worn pro-abortion agenda.
The web page for the clinic prominently lists its chief services as providing abortion referrals and fast-food-style contraceptive service. “If you need emergency contraception (AKA the morning after pill), you can walk in anytime we’re open,” the page reads. “Birth Control Supply Pickup, Condoms, Emergency Contraception during regular business hours,” the listing continues.
Planned Parenthood constantly downplays the abortifacient nature of emergency contraceptives and the risks to women’s health involved in taking them. Supporters of the Muskegon clinic stated repeatedly during the hearing that no pregnancies are terminated there. But with taxpayers footing the bill for the sweetheart lease, the fact that abortion referrals and emergency contraception are the main services the clinic provides should be reason enough to send Planned Parenthood packing.
The clinic also boasts of “[w]alk-in supply pick-up or depo shots [on] Tuesdays.” Depo-Provera is a contraceptive shot that can serve as an abortifacient and also poses significant health to the user. While the national PP website only states that “[s]ome people may get annoying side effects while using the birth control shot,” researchers have found that use of depo can increase the risk of breast cancer for women by a “1.5- to 2.3-fold” count.
Cozy Set-Up
It’s a neat game that Planned Parenthood and its corporate partners play. Depo-Provera is manufactured by pharmaceutical titan Pfizer, which just so happens to be a core financial donor to the organization. The Michigan clinic, in turn, provides “walk-in” shots of one of Pfizer’s most lucrative products to low-income residents while the taxpayer shells out for its office space. “Most birth control… will be covered for free, with no copay,” reads the copy on the Muskegon PP web page. So it can be assumed the taxpayer is on the hook here as well, to some degree.
The clinic does say that it offers STD testing, which would appear to be a public service. If so, PP is failing miserably in doing anything to actually cut down on the problem of sexually transmitted diseases in the area. Kathy Moore, director of Muskegon County’s public health department, says the main reason Planned Parenthood is being ousted is to increase space for her agency’s STD and HIV programs. Moore stated that Muskegon County has some of the highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea in the state, MLive.com reports.
Muskegon residents lined up for hours to express their heartfelt wishes that Planned Parenthood be removed from any perceived connection to official government health efforts. Ripping away the masks that this abortion syndicate has so long hidden behind is the most effective way of toppling its once-mighty empire. Planned Parenthood ends human lives. It is unconscionable that American citizens are forced to subsidize its grisly agenda in even the slightest way.
