Ken Berwitz
Did you happen to see this video, from August 4th, which has angry, emotional, insulting…and thoroughly dishonest….Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) attacking fellow senators who support the defunding of Planned Parenthood?
Please click on the link, watch it all (less than 2 1/2 minutes), and then follow along with me on how many lies Warren told:
-0:17 – Warren\’s first lie: The vote is not to defund women\’s health care centers, as Warren claims. It is to defund Planned Parenthood. There are thousands and thousands of women\’s health care centers other than Planned Parenthood, and presumably thousands and thousands more that would open if Planned Parenthood ceased to exist. Not one of them is threatened by the senate.-0:30 Warren refers to “a highly edited video”. Actually, there are 10 videos, the editing was to cull hours of discussion, much of it meaningless, into the key areas of concern about how Planned Parenthood works…and, in any event, the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), which made the videos, has released the full versions of them all so every second of every tape is available to everyone. The claim, therefore, that this is all about a “highly edited video” is completely fraudulent.-0:40 Warren refers to the proposed defunding legislation as “A “deliberate, methodical orchestrated right wing attack on women\’s rights and I\’m sick and tired of it. Women everywhere are sick and tired of it. The American people are sick and tired of it”. This, of course, is beyond ludicrous. Almost half the country defines itself as pro life. Are they against defunding Planned Parenthood? And almost half of all women are pro-life. Does Elizabeth Warren think these tens and tens of millions of women are against women\’s rights?-0:55 – “Every single year, nearly 2.7 million women, and men, show up for help at Planned Parenthood…..then, 1:17 – “And, yes, 3% of patients visit Planned Parenthood for a safe and legal abortion”. Uh….no. Another lie. According to Planned Parenthood\’s 2013-2014 annual report, a total of 2,727,350 patients were seen in 2013, and 327,653 had abortions. If 3% had gone there for abortions, Planned Parenthood would have conducted slightly fewer than 82,000 that year. In other words, using exactly the numbers Elizabeth Warren invokes, there are four times as many women having abortions at Planned Parenthood as she claims.-1:42 “The federal government is not paying for any of them. Not one dime”. Another lie. Last year, the Federal Government subsidized Planned Parenthood to the tune of $528 million dollars – that is over half a BILLION dollars. Even if an accommodating accountant put all federal monies against services other than specifically abortion, the fact remains that money is fungible in nature, and it freed up the $528,000,000 that did fund abortions. Warren is using an accounting trick to lie to us.-2:00 – “The Republican plan to defund Planned Parenthood is a Republican plan to defund women\’s health care.” Again, Warren lies, by telling us that defunding Planned Parenthood is equal to defunding all women\’s health care, from every source, everywhere.
Let me finish by pointing out that what I just did – the debunking of Elizabeth Warren\’s lies about Planned Parenthood – would have been just as easy for any member of the mainstream media.
Which, of course, is why you saw it everywhere over the past month and a half, since she made these comments. Right?
Oh, wait…….
