Bringing new meaning to “Black Friday,” Planned Parenthood’s south Florida branch offered a “one-day deal” promising up to $10 in savings to customers who came in the day after Thanksgiving:
2012-11-23_0842-e1353681763405
The Friday after Thanksgiving begins our popular anticipation of Christ’s Nativity, and so an abortion clinic discount might strike some as an odd way to mark the day. Then again, if abortion is what its defenders claim—a standard procedure, a legitimate lifestyle choice—there’s nothing to object to here.
Happy Holidays!
Via Patrick Brennan
November 24th, 2012 | 2:33 am
This sounds like PP is rather business savy. Therefore it hardly needs to be helped financially by our government.
November 24th, 2012 | 7:25 am
Only 3% of the services Planned Parenthood provides are abortion-related. The fact that the religious right decides to focus on that changes that not one bit. Here is what this particular branch of Planned Parenthood does:
Birth Control
Emergency Contraception
Breast/Pap Exam
STI Testing and Treatment
HPV Vaccine
Men’s Health Services
Pregnancy Testing & Options
Abortion Services
Rapid HIV Testing & Education
Other Women’s Health Services
November 24th, 2012 | 7:28 am
Bret: This sounds like PP is rather business savy. Therefore it hardly needs to be helped financially by our government.
I’m saddened to see that you want to cut off funding for contraceptive services, and breast and cervical cancer screenings for poor women. You should not complain when the former leads to an increase in abortions. And the latter does not sound like a very “pro-life” abortion, if pro-life applies to non-embryos, too.
Come January, we will celebrate Roe v. Wade’s 40th anniversary. It’s quickly approaching the point where even conservative justices won’t touch it. Now that should be a day for Thanksgiving.
November 24th, 2012 | 8:51 am
Maybe they give gift cards, too.
November 24th, 2012 | 10:22 am
The Friday after Thanksgiving begins our popular anticipation of Christ’s Nativity, and so an abortion clinic discount might strike some as an odd way to mark the day.
The Friday after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, is traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. December 2 is the beginning of Advent, the time of preparation for the coming of Christ at Christmas and the start of the liturgical year in the Roman Catholic Church.
The Christmas shopping season is not the “popular anticipation of Christ’s Nativity.” It is about as secular (and, some might argue, anti-Christian) as a day can get.
November 24th, 2012 | 10:30 am
Maximillian please read this archived article on PP financials as they relate to abortion. Abortion may be only 3% of visits to PP (and I stress may – it’s a oft-repeated talking point that I have never seen backed up with actual statistics), but it’s how they make their money. http://www.firstthings.com/…/why-planned-parenthood-wonrsquot-provide- mammograms
November 24th, 2012 | 10:57 am
If abortion is only a tiny percentage of PP’s business, then why don’t they just stop providing them, and almost totally defuse the pro-life objections to PP?
November 24th, 2012 | 11:21 am
I’m pretty sure “Emergency Contraceptives” falls under the category of abortion. If it’s not a big part of business, then why promote it?
November 24th, 2012 | 11:46 am
This sounds like PP is rather business savy. Therefore it hardly needs to be helped financially by our government.
Whether you love or hate Planned Parenthood, I think it is a bit misleading to think of it as being “helped financially by our government.”
The relationship of the federal government to Planned Parenthood is exactly like the relationship of the federal government to Catholic Charities. Both Planned Parenthood and Catholic Charities are non-for-profit organizations that are awarded government contracts to provide services the government wants.
November 24th, 2012 | 12:16 pm
Max,
Bundling reimbursable services (inc. birth control at 4x markup charged to the government under Title X) and giving them to abortion patients, whether they ask for them or not, is one of the many clever ways to PP gets to that 3%. http://www.aul.org/aul-special-report-the-case-for-investigating-planned-parenthood/
http://www.sba-list.org/ppwaste
November 24th, 2012 | 1:08 pm
Mary B: Abortion may be only 3% of visits to PP
That’s exactly the point. Anyone entering a Planned Parenthood clinic has a 3% chance of wanting to get an abortion. Given the prices, these discounts are only meaningful when applied to Planned Parenthood’s other wonderful services. So it’s absurd to try to connect this to abortion.
Erin: If abortion is only a tiny percentage of PP’s business, then why don’t they just stop providing them, and almost totally defuse the pro-life objections to PP?
Because we do not require anyone’s permission. And we do not particularly care about “objections”. America has already decided that abortion should be legal, and in fact, Florida voted down 55.1-44.9 an amendment that would have prevented public funds from being used for abortion. And that was even though it contained the three exceptions. Another reason to thank Florida.
Nor will we sacrifice people’s rights, because others think that it is against their religion. We do not outlaw anti-Islam speech, even though it’s only 0.0000001% of all free speech and it would “almost totally” defuse Muslim objections. That is freedom.
November 24th, 2012 | 1:34 pm
I’m pretty sure “Emergency Contraceptives” falls under the category of abortion.
Geneva,
There are two major emergency contraceptives, Plan B and ella. Both work primarily by preventing ovulation, and when ovulation is successfully prevented, there is no question of abortion. The best current evidence is that Plan B works only by prevention of ovulation. The evidence for ella is more ambiguous. Ella works primarily by preventing ovulation, but if it sometimes works by preventing implantation, then those who consider pregnancy to begin at conception would consider it to sometimes work as an abortifacient.
In cases of rape, the Catholic Church does not object to emergency contraception, as long as it is truly contraception—that is, the prevention of conception.
November 24th, 2012 | 3:57 pm
David:
Per the FDA, yes, emergency contraception may act as an abortifacient. The matters of when one enters into a PP and is counseled to that method over others, how it may impact the woman and latest/next embryo, and the intentions may vary, but it’s not preventative. Hence, its names Plan B and morning/days-after pills. It is commonly marketed as reactive care. To hype its contraceptive effects is as silly as hyping birth control’s effect on acne. It completely ignores that other, more readily available and cheaper options are available for contraception and acne; and that the choice for them has little to do with addressing contraception or acne.
And, no, PP is not like CC. They may receive grant funds and be subject to similar grant requirements, but CC doesn’t have those willing to hold up budget votes or take away a state’s Medicaid funding like PP does. CC doesn’t have an entrenched misinformation scheme and media allies to threaten a grantee away from its decision to refocus its grants to better efficacy like PP did with Komen. And if CC is subject to an audit or their first state health inspections in 15-20 years (recently in IL, MD and Philly), you won’t hear CC claim its rights are threatened. PP is very different. They are politically protected entity and fight hard to infiltrate organizations to direct precious health funds, public and now private, to them, largely at the expense of others more deserving (low-income clinics, places more likely to reach women 35+ in need of mammograms, family planning programs that build actual families).
Max, no.
Anyone entering a PP clinic receives a set of bundled services, of which may include their primary need from PP, abortion. Abortion accounts for 3% of the services distributed. Not of those patients ‘wanting’ (ugh) to get an abortion. Not per patient or per visit, but in total. So cram a few more condoms or a few pamphlets in the bag at the end, and you can get that number down to 1%. Wouldn’t that sound better for PP’s PR?
November 24th, 2012 | 7:16 pm
Charles: They may receive grant funds and be subject to similar grant requirements, but CC doesn’t have those willing to hold up budget votes or take away a state’s Medicaid funding like PP does.
This is incredible. Planned Parenthood can’t defend itself against attacks, or you’ll complain. How about the *fact* that no state specifically attempts to ban Catholic Charities from receiving funding? How about the *fact* that there is no need for Catholic Charities to hold up budget votes, because it’s not unfairly targeted?
Charles: CC doesn’t have an entrenched misinformation scheme and media allies to threaten a grantee away from its decision to refocus its grants to better efficacy like PP did with Komen.
Really? I thought it was because of the ‘investigation’ started by Rep. Cliff Stearns (who was humiliatingly defeated by a newbie with no money this year). I guess I should have looked up the most recent updates to the ever-shifting excuses and explanations Komen offered, before it returned to its previous stance that Planned Parenthood was providing valuable services to low-income families.
Charles: And if CC is subject to an audit or their first state health inspections in 15-20 years (recently in IL, MD and Philly), you won’t hear CC claim its rights are threatened.
Of course, there are no politically motivated attacks intent on destroying Catholic Charities. Even so, Catholic Charities will complain when its insurance companies are required to provide contraception to its non-Catholic workers.
Charles: Anyone entering a PP clinic receives a set of bundled services
You have provided no evidence, beyond links to anti-abortion organizations and mortal foes of Planned Parenthood. I’m sorry, I’m not willing to buy whatever claims you copy from anti-abortion organizations hook-line and sinker. How about providing some actual evidence for your claims?
November 25th, 2012 | 5:30 pm
Per the FDA, yes, emergency contraception may act as an abortifacient.
Charles,
If you do a little research, you will see that the two main drugs used for emergency contraception are quite different, and Plan B is thought to work only by preventing ovulation. See Wikipedia, for example, on levonorgestreol (Plan B):
And, no, PP is not like CC.
Of course, I didn’t say it was. I said, “The relationship of the federal government to Planned Parenthood is exactly like the relationship of the federal government to Catholic Charities.”
November 25th, 2012 | 9:26 pm
Better alert both the FDA and Plan B’s manufacturers, because they still claim Plan B can prevent implantation.
“Plan B® One-Step works primarily by:
- Preventing ovulation
- Possibly preventing fertilization by altering tubal transport of sperm and/or egg
- Altering the endometrium, which may inhibit implantation”
November 26th, 2012 | 3:21 pm
@Maximilian
Please don’t presume to speak for all poor women, who, I might add, disproportionately long to keep their babies. It’s the secular world that has (intentionally) foisted abortion upon them.
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