Fox News host Bill O’Reilly welcomed viewers to last night’s show (1/8/13) with this: “Aborting babies at taxpayers’ expense.”
As he explained:
We have been taking a very hard look at a disturbing situation that may be a major violation–may be–of federal law.
He told viewers that the Hyde Amendment “forbids federal tax dollars from being used for abortions.” So what’s the problem? Planned Parenthood gets federal money, and–well, follow the logic:
Planned Parenthood says it doesn’t use that money for abortion purposes, but that’s hard to believe. In 2011, Planned Parenthood performed 334,000 abortions–close to half of all the abortions performed in the USA.
Well, that’s not close to half of the abortions performed in the United States: In 2007, the latest year the Census Department has figures for, 1.2 million pregnancies were terminated in the U.S., so Planned Parenthood performs about a quarter of U.S. abortions. (O’Reilly seems to be relying on figures from the Center for Disease Control, whose voluntarily reported figures do not include four states, including California, the most populous one.)
O’Reilly went on:
Now, Planned Parenthood will tell you that they perform prenatal services. Yet in 2011, it’s estimated that fewer than 30,000 women received prenatal care from the organization. So who is kidding who here? Planned Parenthood is an abortion mill.
Actually, what Planned Parenthood will tell you is that around 3 percent of the services they provide are abortions–which wouldn’t really qualify as a “mill.” 
As this graph indicates, most of their work has nothing to do with prenatal care, either. But O’Reilly must think he’s doing a good job of crafting a convincing argument by choosing a big number–334,000–and putting that next to a much smaller number–30,000.
More relevantly, O’Reilly could have compared the number of abortions Planned Parenthood provides to the services it performs involving STDs (4.5 million), contraception (3.4 million) or cancer screening and prevention (1.3 million).
O’Reilly has done this schtick before–claiming last year that Planned Parenthood is “primarily in business to provide abortions.” And this isn’t just about doing O’Reilly-style journalism–he wants government action to result from his misinformation: “We need a congressional investigation into the funding of Planned Parenthood.” Expect to hear more about this from him–and from Republican politicians.
When “pro-life” is on the agenda, facts are optional. This is one of the few articles I have ever seen which actually breaks down Planned Parenthood’s services in their entirety. Thanks for providing it.
And why would O’Reilly confuse his issues with any facts???
The same lies are repeated in the Wall Street Journal.
Freedom of speech at its worst…o’reilly at it again…spreading misinformation
I don’t watch FOX news or Bill O’Rielly. I like FACTS mixed in with my news reports. I also like Science and a heavy dose of Truth mixed in. I’ve never noticed much of any of these on FOX, except to argue against them.
Lies and more lies, from — the best liar of them all, when he’s got his game on. This is the sort of “logic” you get from kids wanting a cookie or avoiding punishment.
No matter HOW good a liar O’Reilly is, however, he CANNOT escape the reach of REAL logic — no matter who holds the brush. The ONLY way he can make the points he WANTS to make is by distorting or even fabricating his OWN “facts.”
So far, he (sometimes) resists outright fabrication, settling for gross misrepresentation of the facts that DO exist, as above. But that may change; and his Droid Army will NEVER know when it does. I see them sliding seamlessly from exaggeration of real facts to outright fabrication of their own — wait, what am I saying? They did that in 2001!
I really do not understand why it is that men are the ones who get to debate what women get to do with their own bodies. I may have an advisory opinion, but I should not be the one to decide. Women should have the final say.
Kind of tough even reading past that line that in 2007(last year we kept records of the slaughter) 1.2 millions children were aborted.Well it matters little what Bills numbers are.What he is saying is hey receive tax dollars.They perform abortions.To say the two are not connected is a joke.Like saying the army coming in gets money ….but they swear they wont use THAT money for drones.
tishido not to be a pain in the ass….but the debate is not the woman’s,or the mans only.There is a silent partner.The baby.Is it a life?Does it have rights(LIFE liberty and the pursuit…..?)Still the question we wrestle with.Pro life…Pro choice are the two ends of this discussion.Where does pro child fall?In law we are given the right to speak before judgement is rendered concerning life or death.if the child was allowed to live and grow and speak…….What would they say?
Actually as much as I hate O’reilly ….He is right !! I worked with planned parenthood for 26 years in Ma and they DO use tax payer money for abortions! He is also right on jessicas law Here in Mass Liberal judges are very soft of child predators! Thank god someone in the media is looking out for children