Cable TV news satirists Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert mocked Arizona Senator Jon Kyl Monday for the way he overstepped in making the case against Planned Parenthood on the floor of the Senate last week. Kyl’s wild exaggeration about Planned Parenthood and abortion, however, served to underline the distortions at the heart of the broader campaign waged against Planned Parenthood since January.
If Sen. Kyl and the Fox News friends are shaky on the facts about Planned Parenthood, Kyl’s women colleagues in the Senate can enlighten them.
One in five American women will have visited a Planned Parenthood in their lifetime. The vast majority of those women have gone to Planned Parenthood for checkups and consultations, not to receive abortions. No tax money pays for Planned Parenthood abortion services.
More Planned Parenthood facts:
Three million women and men in the United States annually visit Planned Parenthood affiliate health centers.
Planned Parenthood health centers focus on prevention: 83 percent of clients receive services to prevent unintended pregnancy.
Planned Parenthood services help prevent more than 612,000 unintended pregnancies each year.
Planned Parenthood provides nearly one million Pap tests and more than 830,000 breast exams each year, critical services in detecting cancer.
Planned Parenthood provides nearly four million tests and treatments for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
Three percent of all Planned Parenthood health services are abortion services.
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