Planned Parenthood does two-step on telemed abortions
Read the backstory here.
On May 21 IA Public Radio reported:
… Clinics around the country have been inquiring about the [abortion telemed] system, and already Planned Parenthood of East Central IA will also be signing on, making abortion available for the first time at their clinics in Cedar Rapids and Dubuque, which lack full-time physicians on staff.
[PPECI] Dir. of Patient Services Barbara Chadwick says it’s the goal of PP to expand abortion services at its clinics nationwide over the next 5 years….
“We have been looking at initiating abortion service as a core service of all PPs, part of the Federation’s strategic plan for 2015.”
Medical abortions, Chadwick says, will be a key element in that strategy, and signing up for the long distance option will get her organization toward the goal faster….
If you listen to the news story, you’ll hear Chadwick herself speaking. Add that to what PP CEO Cecile Richards said in a May 20 interview with the Iowa Independent:
… I think telemedicine is an incredibly important advance, particularly for women in rural areas…. It’s very safe and very effective. It’s an incredibly important option for women who decide to terminate a pregnancy.
And what former PP director Abby Johnson wrote in a May 30 op ed:
Two years ago, I went to a National Abortion Federation meeting and listened to a nurse from PP of the Heartland brag about the new telemed abortion method. He said it would revolutionize the way medical abortions were conducted, starting in IA and then expanding throughout the nation.
The plan seems clear. But not so fast. Apparently Chadwick let the cat out of the bag before PP had properly greased the skids. PP’s PR machine wasn’t yet prepared for the ensuing uproar, so all it could do at this point was back away. According to THOnline.com on May 28:
A misstatement last week by a PP representative about abortions has set off a firestorm of response from abortion opponents.
Contrary to statements made last week to a public radio reporter, there are no plans to offer the “telemedicine program” (a teleconference-based delivery of drugs to end a pregnancy) in Dubuque, according to PP.
“Chadwick misspoke when she said that telemedicine abortion would be available in the Dubuque and Cedar Rapids health centers,” said Jenifer Vick, director of development and communications for PPECI. “She was speaking broadly, that telemedicine is the way medical care is moving in the country.”…
Well, no, that’s not what Chadwick said at all.
And apparently Vick backed away too far. She should never have said there were “no plans” to offer telemed abortions, because PP could rightfully be called a liar when plans it knows it has are unveiled.
So PP had to follow up Vick’s retraction with a half-retraction. According to THOnline.com on June 6:
The group issued a news release that states, “It’s not that PPECI wouldn’t like to have specific plans to provide abortion care to women in need – it’s just that there is not currently a blueprint developed as to how exactly that could take place….
“There are many considerations that would need to take place before implementing this service – for example, approval by the PPECI Board of Directors is one action that would have to take place, and that has not happened,” the release states….
“I thought it was inappropriate to have any discussion with media regarding any future possibilities of offering the provision of abortion services unless plans were in place,” said… Vick…. “That foundation has not been developed.”
Riiiight. Keep dancing.
[Graphic via IL Federation for the Right to Life]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Professional Liars. We should not even be shocked. Just an illustration of the work that is still necessary to combat this evil.
Is is available in Hi-Def, Blu-Ray?
“So PP had to follow up Vick’s re-traction with a half-retraction.”
In WWII the German army had a vehicle the Allied soldiers called a ‘half-track’.
Is that anything like a ‘half-retraction’?
I have assisted in re-installing a ‘track’ that has slipped off a dozer.
Is that anything like a ‘re-traction’?
The whole ‘abortion telmed’ thing sounds pretty ‘half-*ssed’ to me.
I was watching an info-mercial last weekend that was peddling a DVD of Johnny Carson’s greatest moments as host of the Tonite Show.
They showed one clip of Johnny doing his ‘Carnac the Magnificent’ shtick.
Carnac, dressed in a turban and robe, would hold a sealed envelope up to his head and devine the ‘answer’ to the heretofore unknown ‘question’ contained in the sealed envelope.
Carnac held an envelope up to his head and said, “Butch Cassidy.”
Ed Mc Mahon dutifully repeated the ‘oracle’, “Butch Cassidy.”
Then Carnac opened the letter and read the question out loud:
“The name of the little known daughter of whom Hopalong Cassidy seldom spoke.”
————————————————-
(Imagine the voice of Clif Cleaven of ‘Cheers’ fame relating this story:
“It is a little known fact that the when the Titanic departed on it’s fateful voyage across the Atlantic that it carried in its hold the first shipment of Fleischmans Mayonaise to Mexico.
But the Titanic struck that ice berg and sunk to bottom of the Atlantic with all that Fleischmanns on board.
The Mexicans were so grieved by the loss that every year since they commemorate the anniversary of the loss with a holiday known as ‘Sinko de Mayo’.
But wait, In an article at Iowa Independent.com, dated May 21, 2010, a reporter sat down with Cecile Richards of PPFA and asked this question:
Iowa is the first in the nation to use the video conferencing to administer medical abortions remotely, and numerous women have already chosen this service. Of those women, have there been any who have had complications or problems?
Ms. Richards answered:
“No. In some states medication abortion can be provided by advance practice clinicians. It is very safe. Here in Iowa, of course, women not only are counseled by clinicians… but then they actually have a conference with a doctor about medication abortion. It’s very safe and very effective. It’s an incredibly important option for women who decide to terminate a pregnancy.”
So it appears that these telemed abortions are already occurring, and not just a “future possibility”.
How can any pro-choicers POSSIBLY think this is a good idea? Didn’t they work so that women could have legal abortions under the supervision of legitimate doctors, not take various concoctions in their homes alone?
Also, a friend of mine had to cross the Atlantic to have surgery that would give her a moveable jaw for the first time in her life, so I’m not especially sympathetic to claims that it’s so awful for women to have to drive a few hours to have an abortion. By the way, my friend is blind in one eye, deaf in one ear, has only been able to chew for a few years, goes to an internationally renowned university, and is probably an honest-to-God genius.
Janet, there are 2 PP orgs in Iowa – PP of East Central Iowa, which is already committing telemed abortions and about which Richards spoke, and PP of the Heartland, about which Chadwick was speaking.
Jill, in your last comment to Janet you have the 2 reversed, Heartland is the 1 offering them, PPECI is the 1 that is planning on it.
Anyhow, like I said on my blog, this 2nd statement is PP doing what it does best, trying to misdirect by protesting in a way that tries to get you to look the other way. IMHO Jenifer Vick has all but admitted that PPECI will offer them down the road. I think things have been put on hold only in so far as there is the current problem with the Iowa Medical Board complaint & what might happen there. That is why the “blueprint” isn’t ready for approval yet.
MODS,
please delete my prior response at 9:23 PM.
(Correction below:)
Jill, Al,
Thanks for your responses.
My confusion came from the fact that Ms. Richards was speaking about the PP Heartland while attending an event in the city of Cedar Rapids which is not in the Heartland organization, but in the PPECI organization. Mea culpa. – sorry!
Jennifer Vick said:
“The group issued a news release that states, “It’s not that PPECI wouldn’t like to have specific plans to provide abortion care to women in need – it’s just that there is not currently a blueprint developed as to how exactly that could take place….”
The Heartland PP is already performing telemed abortions so
for the purpose of saving money and improving efficiency of operations, one would think different PP organizations in the USA (such as PPECI) under the Planned Parenthood Federation of America umbrella, would be communicating with each other, right? Why aren’t they? PPFA fund the various PP organizations, no?