Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez sparked outrage again Thursday when she claimed that the largest abortion chain in America “saves” babies’ lives.
Ocasio-Cortez, a pro-abortion Democrat socialist from New York, defended Planned Parenthood during a U.S. House Oversight Committee hearing on maternal health disparities in the African American community.
A short video of her remarks, shared by Grabien Media editor Tom Elliott, soon went viral on Twitter, with some joining her in the abortion chain’s defense and others pointing out that Planned Parenthood’s “core mission” is killing unborn babies, not saving them.
“If we want to talk about Planned Parenthood, let’s talk about how many lives Planned Parenthood has saved,” Ocasio-Cortez said, “and how many babies have been born because of the prenatal care provided by Planned Parenthood.”
Ocasio-Cortez said she was one of those babies because her mother received prenatal care at Planned Parenthood before she was born.
“And if you don’t believe it, and if you’ve never met a Planned Parenthood baby, I’m happy to let you know that I am one,” she told lawmakers.
Soon afterward, Planned Parenthood praised her for highlighting its work, writing on Twitter, “Thank you, @RepAOC, for sharing your story and bringing the FACTS to an immensely important hearing on the #BlackMaternalHealth crisis today.”
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But the truth is that prenatal care has become almost non-existent at Planned Parenthood. Its primary goal – its “core mission,” as former CEO Leana Wen said in 2019 – is abortion.
The billion-dollar abortion chain does about 40 percent of all abortions in the U.S. Earlier this year, it posted record abortion numbers in its annual report, which is publicly available online.
Last year, Planned Parenthood reported 354,871 abortions, a 3.5 percent increase from the year before. In contrast, its prenatal services decreased from 9,789 to 8,626 (about 12 percent), and adoption referrals dropped 40 percent to 4,279 that year.
Even its cancer screenings and contraception services, perhaps Planned Parenthood’s most widely-touted service, have dropped steadily over the past decade. At the same time, it has reported record revenues, including taxpayer funding.
Notably, Ocasio-Cortez’s story also serves as a reminder of Planned Parenthood’s history and its growing focus on aborting unborn babies. When the congresswoman was born, not all of Planned Parenthood’s affiliates did abortions. However, that changed about a decade ago when its national headquarters issued a mandate requiring that all affiliates provide abortions. Some affiliates left as a result.
Planned Parenthood is primarily an abortion chain, focused on killing unborn babies. Its new CEO Alexis McGill Johnson recently told the Washington Post that she is “proud” that they do abortions because “abortion is health care.”
