Georgia’s Politifact decided to analyze Karen Handel’s book, Planned Bullyhood, on two key points.

Handel is Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s former Senior VP of Public Policy who was falsely accused by feminists and liberals of pushing the organization to defund Planned Parenthood.

Handel’s new book gives an insider’s account of Komen’s original rationale and the naiveté, insurrection, and cowardice that lead the organization to flip flop.

Politifact picked two points from the book to analyze: that Planned Parenthood does not perform mammograms, and that Obamacare includes abortion coverage.

The mammogram question was easy to prove. Although PP was certainly not forthcoming for many years, and had even attempted to confuse the issue, the organization will admit the truth when asked point blank.

In fact, it apparently now feels pressure to jump out in front at times and clarify it does not offer mammograms, as did Dr. Vanessa Cullins, VP of External Medical Affairs at PP, in this August 2012 video, although notice the spin, lumping PP into a category of healthcare providers it is not. Jump to 1:35…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxNYSHN3G24[/youtube]

On the mammogram point Politifact gave Handel an unqualified “True.”

The question on whether Obamacare indeed covers abortion, despite Obama’s claims to the contrary, is harder for MSM to see, since the route is circuitous. In April 2012 Tampa Bay Politifact would only go so far as to say:

The complex funding mechanisms make the question of whether Obamacare covers abortion a little fuzzy. But clearly the law provides some access to the service.

In fact, Politifact has so been notoriously bad on this topic that Douglas Johnson at National Right to Life warned in September 2009 one might “get vertigo” trying to follow its logic.

But Georgia Politifact was more willing to hear Handel and Johnson make their case, ultimately giving Handel a mostly thumbs up:

Basically, abortions can be performed under the health care law, depending on which state you reside in. Because that bit of detail was not mentioned, we rate Handel’s entire claim Mostly True.

Nevertheless, Politifact still managed to play fast and loose with facts surrounding abortion coverage in Obamacare in its story, earning this withering response from Johnson, in an email comment:

A new week, and here we have yet another PolitiFact “factcheck” on an Obamacare-abortion issue – and as you would expect, there are all sorts of things wrong with it.

The reporter (Eric Sturgis of PolitiFact Georgia) concludes that “federal funds” are not used for “abortion services” under Obamacare – in part because a page on the DHHS website says this is so!

He accepts that the Obama executive order “committed to no federal funding for abortion,” despite the detailed materials I sent him refuting this notion – including the statement by the president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, that the executive order was a “symbolic gesture.” He quotes Richards in a manner that leaves the impression that she disapproved of the executive order, but the quote was actually what Richards said months earlier, in an initial reaction to the Nelson-Boxer deal. And so forth.

Still, because of the way Karen Handel stated her charge – she spoke of Obamacare providing “coverage for abortions” – PolitiFact decided that Handel’s statement was “mostly true.” It is nice to see an innocent defendant win acquittal, even though the “judge” got so many things wrong on both the law and the facts.

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