Bizarre, Congress, Politics, Religion

Sen. Jon Kyl’s False Claim About Planned Parenthood

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

Jon Kyl

During the budget debate, Congressional Republicans have targeted Planned Parenthood because it provides abortion services. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) even took to the Senate floor to claim that well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does is provide abortion services. That is a lie and Kyl couldn’t care less. In what must be some kind of spin setting record, Kyl said his remark was “not intended to be a factual statement.” So he lied intentionally.

Planned Parenthood has received federal funding since 1970 and abortion services are funded exclusively by private donations.

A few months ago Live Action, an anti-Planned Parenthood organization that uses surreptitious videotaping and manipulative editing for media and political campaigns, targeted Planned Parenthood. A well organized counter-campaign ensured that the story got the zero traction it deserved.

But this isn’t about abortion.

Planned Parenthood spends 35% of its budget on contraception as shown in this chart:

Contraception is very effective in preventing unwanted pregnancies, the dominating reason for abortions. Contraception prevents abortions hence, Planned Parenthood prevents abortions. Strangely, social conservatives are opposed to contraception even though it prevents abortions.

If abortion is the great evil that the Religious Right claims, then contraception would seem a logical solution to reducing this great evil. Since the Religious Right doesn’t support this reduction of evil, this isn’t about abortion. It’s about control of the uterus. Planned Parenthood helps women control their own uteri, that is their sin.

Kyl and the Republicans are using Planned Parenthood as a political bargaining chip. They find something the Democrats care about, target it, threaten to cut funding, and trade that chip for funding cuts elsewhere. This gives the appearance of compromise.

H/T: Ezra Klein, Steve Benen, Think Progress.

27 thoughts on “Sen. Jon Kyl’s False Claim About Planned Parenthood”

  1. Kyl Aide: My ‘Not Intended To Be A Factual Statement’ Statement Was Not Intended To Be A Factual Statement
    Think Progress, 4/15/2011
    http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/15/kyl-aide-not-intended-to-be-a-factual-statement/

    Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ) has been lampooned in recent days after his office clarified his wildly inaccurate comments about Planned Parenthood on the Senate Floor last week by telling CNN it was “not intended to be a factual statement.” Yesterday, Kyl walked back his walk back, saying he “misspoke” on the floor and that the “factual statement” statement “was not me — that was my press person.” Now, that very press person is falling on his (non-factual) sword, admitting to the Arizona Republic that his statement “made no sense“:

    Ryan Patmintra, Sen. Jon Kyl’s Washington, D.C.-based press secretary, today issued a statement to The Arizona Republic taking responsibility for his office’s widely lampooned claim that a public Kyl misstatement about Planned Parenthood was “not intended to be a factual statement.”

    “Senator Kyl misspoke when he incorrectly cited a statistic on the Senate floor last week regarding Planned Parenthood,” Patmintra said. “Rather than simply state that in response to a media inquiry, I responded that his comment was not intended to be a factual statement; a comment that, in retrospect, made no sense. Senator Kyl neither saw nor approved that response.”

    So neither Kyl’s original statement nor his press aide’s refutation of it were intended to be factual statements.

  2. “it wasn’t meant to be factual” – I think he may have come up with a replacement for “Fair & Balanced”.

  5. He’s just a lying sack of ka ka. A pathetic excuse for an anything running anything in this country.

  7. Senator Kyl is a great guy … but that’s not meant to be a factual statement …

Comments are closed.