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Sen. Reid’s “pants on fire” remark

Aug 3, 2015

By Dave Andrusko

Pro-abortion Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Pro-abortion Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)

Many times NRLC has looked with displeasure on the dubious results produced by self-described “Fact Checkers.” But sometimes the assertion by a pro-abortionist is so absurd, so counter-intuitive that when the Fact Checker–in this instance the Tampa Bay Times’ PolitiFact–looks at it, the conclusion virtually writes itself.

Very briefly, last week during Senate floor debate on Planned Parenthood, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) made this incredible claim, according to PolitiFact:

Planned Parenthood is “the only health care that a significant number of women get. About 30 percent of women, that’s their health care.”

Can that possibly be true? Of course not.

30% of 131 million women age 15 or over — “the primary constituency for Planned Parenthood”–is about 39 million women. PolitiFact writes

According to the most recent Planned Parenthood annual report , the organization saw 2.7 million patients in 2013, completing 10.6 million separate procedures.

That would be 2%, not 30%. But, of course, that’s only half the bogus assertion. PolitiFact observes

Equally problematic, there’s no indication in Planned Parenthood’s data that each of the 2.7 million patients had no other health care resources to rely on, as Reid said was the case.

A spokesman in Reid’s office told PolitiFact “that the senator was speaking off the cuff and had meant to refer to a different statistic.” Of course, this other “statistic” does not bear out Reid’s ridiculous assertion. PolitiFact writes

That is a statistic –often cited by Planned Parenthood itself — is that “one in five American women has chosen Planned Parenthood for health care at least once in her life.” But that’s not what Reid said.

PolitiFact’s “ruling”?

His office acknowledged that Reid, making off-the-cuff remarks, got the talking point wrong. In this case, he really got it wrong. We rate the statement Pants on Fire.

Categories: PPFA