Left of College Station

 

In the Brazos Valley there is one organization that has designated itself as the leading anti-choice voice: the Coalition for Life (CFL).

 

During the “40 Days for Life” campaign the CFL ran a television advertisement that was misleading. The commercial claimed that a woman name Holly Patterson died as a result of a visit to Planned Parenthood. Patterson died of an infection in September of 2003 in California after taking prescribed pills for a medication abortion, but the exact cause of Patterson’s death is unknown. Since medication abortions where approved by the FDA in September of 2000 approximately 560,000 medication abortions in the United States have occurred and only six deaths have occurred after the medication abortion (0.001%). However, none of these deaths have been directly attributed to abortion drugs.

 

Also, the same commercial noted that Consumer Reports study ranked Planned Parenthood condoms last in a comparative study of condoms (22^nd and 23^rd rankings), but it does not note that another Planned Parenthood condom was ranked 14^th in the same study. The study used the airburst method instead of the “Gold Standard” water burst method. The commercial states that Planned Parenthood “refuses to take these faulty condoms off the market.” The fact is that Planned Parenthood condoms are FDA approved.

 

The commercial goes on to say that there is “no doctor on sight at their Bryan facilities except for an out of town abortionist.” The Planned Parenthood clinic is staffed with physicians, women’s health nurse practitioners, registered nurses and medical assistants. These are the same people that work in hospitals and clinics, the same people that make up the backbone of the medical community.

 

The CFL is currently running a television advertisement in which they make the claim that Planned Parenthood is unsafe for women and site a Texas Department of Health Services report from 2006. However, what the advertisement fails to mention is that the nature of the report was about paperwork and onsite policies and procedures. These policies and procedures where provided by the Houston Planned Parenthood in a 22 page attachment in the report. More important what the CFL ignores is that the most recent report from the Texas Department of Health Services Planned Parenthood had no deficiencies in any area.

 

The CFL manipulates the statistics about Planned Parenthood, and according to the CFL web site “Planned Parenthood reported doing 264,943 abortions. In the same year, they saw only 12,548 prenatal clients. That means they did 21 abortions for every 1 prenatal visit.” However, the CFL omits the following information: In that same year and from the same report Planned Parenthood saw 14,163 midlife clients, 248 infertility clients and gave 1,040,803 pregnancy tests. The truth is that abortion services represent only 3% of Planned Parenthood services.

 

The CFL describes Planned Parenthood as “about abortion, not choice,” while ignoring all the other services it provides the community. In 2006 Planned Parenthood national statistics show that they tested over 3 million men and women for STD’s including 314,160 HIV tests. In the same year Planned Parenthood provided over 1 million Pap test and almost 900,000 breast exams.

 

The reality is that the Coalition for “Life” does not care about the health of women. Shawn Carney, the CFL Executive Director, is against the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, the first vaccine that can prevent cervical cancer. “If you have to get a vaccine to have sex, you shouldn't be having sex." This despite the facts that 80% of American women will contract HPV by their fiftieth birthday and that world-wide cervical cancer causes 233,000 deaths per year.

 

In 2004 when there was a nationwide shortage of flu shots many local clinics ran out of the vaccine, and while patients were being turned away Planned Parenthood opened its doors and distributed the shot to the older members of the community. According to an article in the Bryan-College Station Eagle the CFL handed out lists of “alternative” health-care providers to clients trying to discourage them from getting the vaccine from PP. The list contained facilities that were no longer giving out the vaccine; CFL did not care about protecting people’s health only about their agenda.

 

The Coalition for “Life” is only interested in promoting a specific interpretation of a religious belief; they are not interested in the health and well being of women. I do not doubt the convictions of their beliefs, and many of those that protest in prayer do so with great respect and vigilance in front of the Planned Parenthood. However, the mission of the CFL is not to promote the health of women or to effectively reduce the amount of abortions; the mission of the CFL is to defeat Planned Parenthood.