Planned Parenthood Does NOT Offer Mammograms – NPR Perpetuates Falsehood

NPR’s health policy correspondent Alison Kodjak stated that Planned Parenthood clinics may be the closest places in rural areas for women to get mammograms. But the fact is, Planned Parenthood is not licensed to do any such thing.

The Washington Post revealed in the past that these clinics don’t even have mammogram machines. Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood president said the clinics do breast exams, but do not have mammogram machines.

Since this is the case, Kodjak lied about the organization’s services while on NPR’s All Things Considered.

“Well, it depends a little bit on the make-up of the states, obviously. It’s states that are run by Republican legislatures with Republican governors who are likely to support this kind of legislation. States with rural – a lot of rural areas are likely to see a lot of impact because these clinics aren’t everywhere. So if Planned Parenthood is the closest clinic where you can get family planning services — and when I say that, I’m talking about pap smears, mammograms, birth control and in some cases obviously abortions — you might have to travel very far to get those services. You might not get them at all,” said Kodjak in response to a question about what states will be impacted by President Donald Trump’s recent move to reverse former president Barack Obama’s measure to preserve Planned Parenthood’s funding.

Brit Hume, longtime journalist, was quick to call out NPR for poor fact-checking. 

It seems a little late in the game to be getting this well-eastablished falsehood wrong, tweeted Hume with a linked to a Media Research Center’s NewsBusters report that said “NPR spreads old lie that Planned Parenthood offers mammograms.”

“On Friday’s ‘All Things Considered,’ NPR health policy correspondent Alison Kodjak was the offender as she reported on President Trump’s reversal of Barack Obama’s attempt to preserve Planned Parenthood subsidies in [GOP] states that moved to defund them,” writes the report.

Not only did NPR feature a guest who obviously doesn’t actually know what services Planned Parenthood provides, the program with the ironic name of All Things Considered, did not offer all perspectives, like the counter anti-abortion viewpoint.  

The public is probably pretty confused at this point to what services Planned Parenthood clinics actually offer. Richards has said on record that her organization is “essential” due to its prenatal care. However, the nonprofit Live Action revealed in a video investigation that 92 out of 97 clinic contacted in their research refused to offer any prenatal care. 

“Planned Parenthood says it’s a champion of women’s health care, yet prenatal care, which is an essential service for expectant mothers, is virtually nonexistent,” said Lila Rose, president and founder of Live Action. “Our investigators who wanted to keep their babies were turned away by 92 out of 97 Planned Parenthood centers. It’s clear that despite its claims, abortion is the priority and the only option for pregnant women that visit Planned Parenthood.”

Author’s note: We did some digging on our own and called a few of our local Planned Parenthood clinics. All of them said they only offer mammogram referrals and don’t offer the service at the clinic. So again, a liberal media outlet is failing to properly fact-check. How much clearer can it get that Planned Parenthood, actually has nothing to do with parenthood? It seems like strictly a pregnancy preventive organization.

Editor’s note: The argument that Planned Parenthood is the only place to get a mammogram has been thrown at me so many times, I really did believe it. I’m grateful to the writer for clearing this up.