Biden's Planned Parenthood Gaffe

At a recent campaign stop in Wisconsin, Vice-President Joe Biden told supporters that Planned Parenthood "under law cannot perform any abortions."



 Really, Mr. Biden? Then how can you explain Planned Parenthood's own "Fact Sheet" noting that they performed over 300,000 abortions in 2010? That's roughly a quarter of the 1.21 million abortions performed annually in the United States.

And how can you then account for the deaths of these women:

• Edrica Goode This 21-year-old aspiring lawyer went to a Planned Parenthood in Riverside, California, on January 31, 2007, for a second-trimester abortion. Despite clear signs of infection, a nurse practitioner inserted laminaria and sent her home.

• Diana Lopez This 25-year-old was 19 weeks pregnant when she went to a Planned Parenthood for an abortion on February 28, 2002. Before the day was over, Diana had bled to death.

• Holly Patterson - This 18-year-old died September 17, 2003, from sepsis caused by a fetus incompletely expelled in a chemical abortion. Holly got the drugs for the fatal abortion at a Planned Parenthood in Hayward, California, on September 10.

• Tonya Reaves - This 24-year-old (pictured, right) left a one-year-old child motherless when she bled to death after an abortion at a Chicago Planned Parenthood.

• Vivian Tran -Vivian was 22 years old, and died December 29, 2003, six days into the abortion process. She'd been given abortion drugs on December 23 at the Costa Mesa Planned Parenthood facility.

• Nichole Williams - Twenty-two-year-old Nicole was the third patient known to have died of abortion complications under the dubious care of Dr. Robert Crist. The others were Latachie Veal and Diane Boyd. Nichole submitted to an abortion at a National Abortion Federation member facility operated by Planned Parenthood.

I'll be charitable and assume that Biden misspoke, and that he meant to say that by law, Planned Parenthood can't bill abortions directly to tax money. But that doesn't change the fact that our tax money is subsidizing the buildings and staff used to perform these abortions. It doesn't change the fact that Planned Parenthood has been caught performing abortions on underage girls at the behest of their sexual abusers. It doesn't change the fact that Planned Parenthood is currently under investigation for massive Medicaid fraud. It doesn't change the fact that Edrica, Diana, Holly, Tonya, Vivian, and Nichole were sadly misled when they trusted Planned Parenthood with their lives. Does Planned Parenthood really deserve to be trusted with our tax dollars?