Fox presenters seem to have no clue what Planned Parenthood actually does

Fox, possibly the main source of intelligence for President Trump, recently displayed its in-expertise with regard to Planned Parenthood.

This point was made best on Tuesday when the hosts of Fox's The Five discussed the implications for Planned Parenthood.

As per President Trump's policy to 'repeal and replace' the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Congressional Republicans have removed health insurance for millions of Americans, and are setting about creating a new bill.

Opponents of ACA, Fox News among them, often criticised what it did for Planned Parenthood.

The blog Media Matters has torn apart the claims made by the Fox hosts during their 7 March broadcast.

Myth: Money from ACA funded abortions at Planned Parenthood centres.

In the broadcast Kimberley Guilfoyle repeated a claim made by White House aide Kellyanne Conway:

The problem they have is that it is morally objectionable to millions of Americans that some of the federal funding from the United States government is allotted for abortion services.

So the president is saying, you also take in a tremendous amount of money from private resources and donations.

Perhaps you should earmark those funds that are private, do with it what you will, that's their business for their organisation.

But federal funds should not be marked for that.

Another of the hosts, Greg Guttfield also referred to the idea that US taxpayers were funding other citizen's abortions.

Well, I mean. It comes to down to, if you believe that abortion is the taking of a life, then forcing you to pay for somebody else's abortion is a moral intrusion.

Yet the federal government is already prohibited from funding abortions.

Since 1977.

In that year the Hyde Amendment, was passed by Congress, which explicitly forbids any federal funds in Medicaid (a form of state healthcare) to be used for abortions.

In January 2017, the US House of Representatives codified the Hyde Amendment and expanded it to create incentives for insurance providers to drop abortion coverage from their insurance plans.

The expansion also removed tax credits from small businesses which offered health insurance plans that included provision for abortions.

The Hyde Amendment therefore already prevents federal funding for abortions.

Myth: Abortions can be otherwise accessed at community health centres.

According to Media Matters, 60 per cent of patients at Planned Parenthood clinics are from low income families, and receive healthcare through state services such as Medicaid.

Shifting funds from Planned Parenthood to Medicaid would not provide the same service.

For instance most community health centres (CHCs) do not provide access to any kind of contraceptives.

Host Dana Perino suggested CHCs would be better suited to 'handle' this area.

Well, the money [from Planned Parenthood] would go to community health centres, and arguably the community health centres would say, ‘Oh, well we can handle this better than Planned Parenthood.’

Perino also stated that contraceptives currently provided by Planned Parenthood could be accessed over the counter instead.

The money, instead they [Republicans] are saying, will go to community health care centres... I think what will actually end up happening is Republicans will put on the table that they believe that access to contraception should be available easily over the counter.

And that that would be a way to maybe try to get this funding pulled but be able to provide access to the kind of products that they provide there.

Similarly moving contraceptives from an insurance based payment to over the counter makes them more expensive, and less accessible for low income families.

The only member of the panel to challenge any of these claims was former Democratic political operative Bob Beckel.

You're not asking the taxpayers a single thing for an abortion.

Planned Parenthood does among other things, a lot of screening, a lot of mammograms, they save a lot of lives.

And the idea that he would take on all of this -- first of all he was pro-choice when he was thinking about running for mayor 15 years ago.

And the other thing, he has no idea. He doesn't know what Planned Parenthood does.

For the full video, see below:

HT Media Matters

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