(The Lion) — The usually abortion-friendly New York Times published a shocking report Saturday revealing numerous examples of Planned Parenthood’s alleged malpractice in performing abortions and other procedures.
The report comes as abortion rights activists worry that Planned Parenthood could lose taxpayer funding through Medicaid and federal grants, amid the Trump administration’s efforts to cut waste, fraud and abuse across the government.
Lila Rose, president and founder of Live Action, drew attention to the report on the X platform:
Allegations uncovered by the Times through a review of clinic documents and legal filings include abortion clinics that are operating with “aging equipment” and “poorly trained staff” who, in addition to ending the lives of unborn babies, have also endangered the lives of women.
The report cites one malpractice complaint involving a woman who underwent an abortion at about eight weeks of pregnancy at New York’s Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood clinic. She apparently continued to bleed heavily for some time after the abortion and, finally upon a visit to an emergency room, discovered she was still pregnant, even though the clinic staff had assured her they had seen the aborted baby.
“Twelve weeks after the failed abortion, Ms. Alston went into labor and delivered a baby who quickly died,” the Times noted.
Other examples of complaints against various Planned Parenthood affiliates include a California woman who accused the clinic of malpractice after she experienced nerve damage following the insertion of a birth control device in her arm; a woman who delivered a stillborn baby in an emergency room after a Nebraska Planned Parenthood clinician fitted her with an intra-uterine device (IUD) – apparently without awareness she was already pregnant; and clinic failure to upload positive sexually transmitted infection (STI) results to charts so that patients could be informed – leading them to believe, instead, the lack of feedback from the clinic indicated negative results.
Additionally, the Times reported that in the Omaha affiliate, “sewage from a backed-up toilet seeped into the abortion recovery room for two days, leading staff to “shove[d] exam table pads under the bathroom door to block the leak.”
In its most recent annual report for fiscal year 2022-2023, Planned Parenthood reported receiving nearly $700 million in taxpayer funds as it also performed 392,715 abortions – the highest number recorded to date and an increase of 18,560 more unborn babies’ lives ended than the previous year.
The Times observed, however, that since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, Planned Parenthood “has enjoyed a fund-raising boom, with $498 million in donations” in that year alone.
“But little of it goes to the state affiliates to provide health care at clinics,” the report revealed. “Instead, under the national bylaws, the majority of the money is spent on the legal and political fight to maintain abortion rights.”
Former Planned Parenthood director-turned pro-life activist Abby Johnson said in comments reported at Lumen-News that the Times’ discoveries are actually nothing new.
“Even though I left Planned Parenthood years ago, the same things are still happening inside their clinics across the country that I witnessed: using expired medications, high turnover, horrendous working conditions, unqualified staff, huge sums of money not being used for patient care, and disgusting conditions of the clinics,” she said.
In remarks to the Times, Planned Parenthood CEO Alexis McGill Johnson blamed the reported atrocities on a lack of funding.
“Planned Parenthood works relentlessly to fill gaps in a broken health care system,” McGill Johnson said.
“Every day, Planned Parenthood health center staff go to work and navigate obstacles few providers have to face: personal threats, intimidation, misinformation and politically motivated barriers. They do so because they believe in reproductive freedom. The critical care they provide is deeply undervalued and inequitably reimbursed across the country.”
But Abby Johnson, now the CEO and founder of And Then There Were None and ProLove Ministries, said Planned Parenthood has received “hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars every single year and apparently the best they can do is give terrible care to the people they serve and fail to uphold even the bare minimum standard of care.”
“It’s no wonder turnover at Planned Parenthood is upwards of 50%,” she added. “We can do better for women and defunding Planned Parenthood is a great place to start.”
Other pro-life leaders weighed in on the Times report on the X platform.
The American Association of Pro-Life OB/GYNs (AAPLOG) drew attention to the excuse of lack of funding for the alleged malpractice.
“[D]espite getting hundreds of millions in donations, the organization funnels that money into pro-abortion advocacy, leaving little for actual healthcare,” AAPLOG noted.
“After Dobbs, PP had a ‘fund-raising boom’ with $498M in donations in 2022,” the X account of Secular Pro-Life similarly observed, adding, “But little of it goes to providing health care. They spend most of it … on legal and political fights around abortion.”
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, noted the report of horrific conditions in Planned Parenthood clinics is coming from a well-known abortion-friendly news source.
“When even the ‘New York Times’ says Planned Parenthood is bad at their inhumane ‘job’ of killing people for money, you know it’s time to get fired,” she wrote. “President Trump, it’s time to defund & debar your political adversaries.”
