Planned Parenthood's Solution Amounts to False Advertising

Planned Parenthood makes a major marketing push about their efforts to reduce unintended teenage pregnancy. In a prominent article on their web site entitled "Reducing Teenage Pregnancy" Planned Parenthood states:

As a result, the United States needs a number of initiatives to reduce its teenage pregnancy rate and the negative outcomes that accompany it. These initiatives should incorporate medically accurate sexuality education and information in the schools and in the media, improvements in funding for and access to family planning services, and youth development programs to improve the life options of impoverished teens.

However, none of these initiatives can succeed without a general reassessment of the attitudes and mores regarding adolescent sexuality in the U.S. Presently, an unrealistic emphasis is placed on preventing adolescent sexual behavior, which overlooks the fact that sexual expression is an essential component of healthy human development for individuals of all ages (Freud; Maslow et al., as cited in Zimbardo, 1992).

[above statement obtained from "Reducing Teenage Pregnancy" located at: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/pp2/portal/files/portal/medicalinfo/teensexualhealth/fact-teen-pregnancy.xml]

Did the second paragraph surprise you? This part of their plan does not get as much attention as the "comprehensive sex education" and easier access to birth control referenced in the first paragraph. Do you think encouraging an increase in teenage sexual activity will result in a reduced teenage pregnancy rate, as long as all teenagers receive the "comprehensive sex education" and easy access to birth control specified by Planned Parenthood?

If you were skeptical of the Planned Parenthood solution, you have good reason to be! Below are examples of information demonstrating that results of "comprehensive sex education" and easier access to birth control are the opposite of Planned Parenthood's claimed reduction in unwanted pregnancies and abortions. [Be aware that since the politically correct wisdom is that "comprehensive sex education" and easier access to birth control will reduce unwanted pregnancies and abortions, mainstream media sources effectively ignore or censor information contrary to that point-of-view, such as the results presented below.]

New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- The Alan Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood, released a report February 28, 2006 grading states on their ability to prevent unplanned pregnancies. The study ranked California as the best state for providing women access to contraception and keeping unintended pregnancies low. Alaska, South Carolina, Alabama and New York are others that rank highest in terms of promoting family planning.

But Concerned Women for American said the report just praises states that spend more on programs that benefit its parent group, Planned Parenthood, but have no evidence of reducing unintended pregnancies or abortions. CWA says it's wrong to assume that greater funding of family planning programs equals fewer unintended pregnancies. Wright also pointed out that New York, one of the state's in the top five in the AGI report, ranks highest in the nation in abortion rate. California also has one of the higher abortion rates in the nation. "So clearly Guttmacher's contrived standard of 'reducing unintended pregnancies' and funding its allies does not result in reducing abortion," Wright explained.

According to AGI, California was rated best because it has a family planning clinic in every county and spends $124 per woman on contraceptive services compared with the national rate of $79 per woman. Nebraska ranked the lowest because it had the fewest centers per capita and spend relatively little taxpayer dollars on contraception. Despite the AGI claims about Nebraska, Dr. Joann Schaefer, chief medical officer for the Nebraska Health and Human Services System, said both abortions and unplanned pregnancies have declined in her state. (taken from http://www.lifenews.com/nat2113.html)

"Without any evidence, the report (Guttmacher Institute report on unintended pregnancy) just asserts that increased access to contraception reduces the number of unintended pregnancies and therefore abortions," said Deirdre McQuade, spokeswoman for the USCCB Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities. "But that assumption is unwarranted. California and New York, ranked among the top states for access to contraception, also have the highest abortion rates in the country. The facts simply don't support what Planned Parenthood and its research affiliate would like us to believe." (taken from http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=85342)

(Extract from: The Current National Picture On Teen Pregnancy by Stan E. Weed, 1999)

By separating the married from the unmarried, and the sexually active unmarried from the abstinent unmarried, we are able to obtain a more plausible explanation based on the current evidence. A more complete explanation of this examination is available in the recent publication by the Consortium of State Physicians Resource Councils entitled "The Declines in Adolescent Pregnancy, Birth and Abortion Rates in the 1990s. What Factors are Responsible" (Jones, Toffler, Bell, et al. 1999). In summary, the estimated non-marital birthrate per 1,000 sexually active females 15 to 19 has gone from 85.2 to 111.8 (between 1988 and 1995) – an increase of 31.2%. And this increase occurred during the highly acclaimed increase in condom use (and commensurate but less touted decrease in pill use). So, for those unmarried teens who are sexually active, birth rates are increasing rather than decreasing! This is not the chorus we are hearing sung by various federal, state and media agencies.

How then do we explain the drop in overall teen pregnancy rates, if the change in contraceptive use fails to account for that drop? The other trend in national statistics which has caught the attention of even the popular media is the change in sexual activity rates. For the first time in recent decades, the trend of increasing numbers of teens engaging in premarital sex has reversed. Data from similar time periods (1988 to 1995) from the National Survey of Family Growth, the National Survey of Adolescent Males and the Youth Risk Behavior Survey all report a clear and consistent trend. More adolescents are abstaining from sexual activity in recent years, and there are now more teens (15-19) who are not having sex as compared with those who are.

The data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey also shows an overall decline in sexual activity rates, but that data indicates more change is due to a decrease for males than for females. In any event, there is a decline in the percentage of 15-19 year old adolescents who have ever had sex. We also see an overall decline in those who have had sex in the past three months, and in the number of partners they have ever had. What once appeared to be an inevitable increase in sexual activity rates each year has now changed direction toward more abstinent behavior. If we are looking for a plausible explanation to account for decreasing teen pregnancy rates, the change in sexual activity is certainly more viable than the argument being made that the drop in teen pregnancies is a function of increased condom use.

The number of abstinence-centered sexuality education programs has increased dramatically in recent years. The recent welfare reform act (Title V) has generated new interest in abstinence education and made new program funds available through block grants to states. Many existing programs have evolved, become more sophisticated, more theory driven, more intensive and of longer duration. And as pointed out earlier, more and more teens are involved as program participants each year.

Planned Parenthood is the nation's largest abortion provider. Their last annual report indicates Planned Parenthood performed 255,015 abortions in 2004. They are now responsible for nearly 20% of the abortions committed annually in our nation. Each year the number of abortions committed by Planned Parenthood increases at rates of 4-10% over the previous year. In the last 20 years their abortion business has grown from 5% of the nation's total abortions to nearly 20%.

Planned Parenthood is promoting one thing to the public (reducing unwanted pregnancies and abortions) while selling the very thing they claim their "family planning" will reduce. Would any business that has increased market share from 5% to 20% over the last 20 years actually seriously intend to reduce the need for that very product? Such a move would be financial suicide!

Teen pregnancies in the UK continue to skyrocket, despite a Ł40million government drive to educate kids in sex-ed. The incidence of sexually transmitted disease has risen so dramatically that everyone is now referring to the issue as an epidemic. (taken from http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/mar/06032701.html)

Since 1988, when the Supreme Court struck down Canada's existing abortion law, termination of a pregnancy has been a private matter between a woman and her doctor. Still, even the most vehement of pro-choice supporters may have been dismayed last month when the latest Statistics Canada figures on abortion were released. They showed that in 1997, 114,648 women had abortions, up almost 3% from 1996 and up 10% from 1990.

"From everything we know, the increase in abortion is not due to irresponsibility about birth control," says Alex McKay, research director of the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada (SIECCAN). (taken from http://www.fathersforlife.org/health/abrtnrs1.htm)