One of CNSNews.com’s longtime acts of deliberate dishonesty when reporting on Planned Parenthood is stating how much federal funding it receives immediately next to how many abortions its clinics perform, while omitting the pertinent fact that no federal funding pays for abortions because it’s prohibited by law.
So it’s not a surprise that CNS has continued to peddle this dishonesty, clearly endorsed from the very top.
CNS managing editor Michael W. Chapman wrote in a June 27 post that “According to its 2015-16 Annual Report, Planned Parenthood performed 328,348 abortions in the year that ended on Sept. 30, 2015, and received $554.6 million in “government health services reimbursements and grants”–money that came from U.S. taxpayers–in the year that ended on June 30, 2016. Chapman didn’t mention that none of that “money that came from U.S. taxpayers” paid for abortions.
Chapman repeated and expanded his claim in a July 5 article:
In its 2015-16 annual report, Planned Parenthood declared that it performed 328,348 abortions in the year that ended on Sept. 30, 2015, and received $554.6 million in “government health services reimbursements and grants”–money that came from U.S. taxpayers–in the year that on June 30, 2016.
In addition, in 2014-15, Planned Parenthood performed 323,999 abortions in the year that ended on Sept. 30, 2014 and received $553.7 million in government health services grants and reimbursements in the year that ended on June 30, 2015.
The dishonesty is spreading to the greater MRC as well. Katie Yoder wrote on May 3 that “According to Planned Parenthood’s most recently published annual report, the organization performed 323,999 abortions and received $553.7 million in ‘government health services grants and reimbursements’ for the year 2014 – 2015,” failing to mention that those government grants do not pay for abortion.
Yoder updated her dishonestly placed statistics for a July 3 MRC item: “According to Planned Parenthood’s most recently published annual report, the organization performed 328,348 abortions and received $554.6 million in “government health services grants and reimbursements” for the year 2015 – 2016.” Again, a refusal to honestly report those numbers.
That lack of honesty undercuts CNS’ and the MRC’s moral authority in attacking Planned Parenthood. Then again, rampant dishonesty seems to be a major part of the MRC’s campaign against the organization.
UPDATE: A July 5 CNS article by Annabel Scott repeated this dishonest claim as well.