The Church of Planned Parenthood
I'm a media critic who specializes in religion coverage. Over at GetReligion, we produce daily critiques of how well the mainstream media handle religion news. It's been a weird couple of weeks. There was, for instance, the CBS slideshow of "March for Life activists" that somehow managed to avoid capturing a single picture of, well, a March for Life activist (despite their being, literally, hundreds of thousands of them). Instead, a dozen or so pro-choice activists were photographed and rephotographed.
And there has been the surprisingly restrained coverage of the Obama Administration's aggression against Catholic and other religious charities. They have one year to choose the impossible -- whether to stop serving the poor or violate their conscience. Neither option is fair. When the HHS rule was met with a huge backlash -- literally 80% of bishops have issued personal communications to their dioceses condemning the intrusion on religious freedom -- most media outlets ignored it. Some still haven't even covered the general rule!
But this week? Whoa. If you thought that the media were irreligious, you were proved wrong. They couldn't be more religious. It's just that their church is Planned Parenthood. Their sacrament is abortion. Any attack against their church, such as Susan G. Komen's decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood, has been met with the most fervent defense of the faith I've ever seen. Never mind that Planned Parenthood doesn't even do mammograms. Never mind that the money in question is a small fraction of either organization's budget.
Over at GetReligion, I look at some of the more egregious examples. But even these are only a small fraction of what's coming down the pike in an unrelenting barrage in defense of Planned Parenthood.
And the Church of Planned Parenthood reigns supreme. They have vanquished their enemies and accomplished what they wanted. Komen funds will once again be funneled to a $1 billion organization that terminates 330,000 pregnancies a year.
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Dec '10
Re: The Church of Planned Parenthood
Daniel Foster has a good take on the situation at the Corner.
Jun '10
Re: The Church of Planned Parenthood
Give me an "A"!!!
Mar '11
Re: The Church of Planned Parenthood
Instead of restoring their contributions to Planned Parenthood, Komen should give them referrals for contributions, telling where Planned Parenthood can go to get actual funds.
I know I'd like to tell Planned Parenthood where they can go..
May '10
Re: The Church of Planned Parenthood
If I were you, I'd call and demand they return it.
May '10
Re: The Church of Planned Parenthood
O sorry. I see others beat me to the point.
Jan '11
Re: The Church of Planned Parenthood
I long ago surrendered the hope that the media would be fair and objective reporters. The canard that really throws me, though, is a comment I heard the other night on some cable show ... that this Administration has been "remarkably free from scandal."
I guess it isn't a scandal if they don't report it.
May '10
Re: The Church of Planned Parenthood
Had this exact same thought after slogging through the endless diatribes and links on my Facebook feed. Thank you for articulating and focusing the point. It just makes me so very weary. And I'm not even reacting to the substance of the thing; just to the angry, uncivil, self-righteous, frankly hate-filled tone of the outcry.
Sep '10
Re: The Church of Planned Parenthood
I watched the late, local, network news in Houston yesterday evening and I saw the 1 minute or so long story they ran on this item. The visual background to the story was the outside of planned parenthood clinic and an exam room showing a mammogram in progress. I wondered then, where does the local news affiliate in Houston get this footage? Do they get it from the network folks in NY or do they get it from planned parenthood directly?
I realize it would not be ratings gold to show an abortion on the news, but is this one of those stories where the truth basically cannot be told on TV because they need an image to run and the only representative image is not palatable to their viewers.
May '11
Re: The Church of Planned Parenthood
Several years ago I walked with and in support of a friend in a Komen event here in Palm Beach. It was a HUGE affair with several thousand participating. I was glad when it was over. But it got me to thinking about the size of the SBK Foundation and wondering about what percentage of the donations actually went to cancer research.
The SBK Foundation has gotten much bigger since then. It makes the question even more relevant.
You have to wonder how many people donate but have no idea where the money goes. Yet another reason to put your dollars in the collection basket on Sunday.
Nov '11
Re: The Church of Planned Parenthood
Ah, I should have considered your piece, Mollie, before expressing my confusion on the Member Feed. It's a strange world where some folks take money flowing into the coffers of Planned Parenthood as an article of faith.
Nov '11
Re: The Church of Planned Parenthood
Love this from the comments on your GetReligion piece (everyone go read it!):
Nov '10
Re: The Church of Planned Parenthood
I notice you don't mention Project Veritas' investigation into Planned Parenthood. I did my own simple investigation -- a site-specific search of plannedparenthood.org's national website for "mammogram". I found not a single reference to the provision of mammograms as a service, but thousands of instances of the phrase "mammogram referrals"
Planned Parenthood performed 800,000 "breast exams" in 2009 and 300,000 abortions -- a little over two "exams" per abortion. But their "exams" are the familiar manual exams similar to the self-exam performed at home. Comparing the costs, equipment and medical expertise required for abortions to that for performing manual breast exams, it is clear what Planned Parenthood's relative priorities are between these two services.
Even if Planned Parenthood performed actual mammograms, however, this would not justify Komen funding. Komen is a charitable organization dedicated to funding cancer research. Last I heard, no breast screening exams of any type fall into the category of cancer research in any sense that applies here.