Once in a while, the mainstream media does something useful — even if it’s just saying the quiet part out loud.

I came across a New York Times piece from earlier this month that makes some startling revelations about one of the left’s biggest sacred cows: Planned Parenthood. Reporter Katie Benner begins her piece by telling the story of a woman who went to Planned Parenthood for an abortion.

The single mother still experienced bleeding and cramps after the procedure, so she returned to Planned Parenthood, where clinicians told her that she was fine and that nothing was wrong. She later delivered a stillborn baby at 12 weeks. It’s a heartbreaking account, but it’s also a worthwhile springboard to Planned Parenthood’s failures.

Benner reports:

Planned Parenthood is synonymous with the fight to preserve abortion rights. But it is also the health care provider of last resort to millions of the poorest Americans. Its clinics offer cancer screenings, birth control, annual gynecological exams, and prenatal care, regardless of whether patients can afford to pay. The organization is unique in its reach, one of the few health care providers with a presence in all 50 states.

But a New York Times review of clinic documents and legal filings, as well as interviews with more than 50 current and former Planned Parenthood executives, consultants, and medical staff members, found that some clinics are so short of cash that care has suffered. Many operate with aging equipment and poorly trained staff, as turnover has increased because of rock-bottom salaries. Patient counts have shrunk from a high of five million and 900 clinics in the 1990s to 2.1 million patients and 600 clinics today.

Planned Parenthood has massively fundraised off the Dobbs decision in 2022, to the tune of nearly $500 million that year alone. However, the organization’s bylaws require that the vast majority of that money go toward lobbying for baby-killing. Thus, the functions of Planned Parenthood that genuinely help people go underfunded or totally unfunded.

Recommended: Georgia Supreme Court Deals a Blow to the Pro-Abortion Movement

Benner points out that much of the funding for healthcare at Planned Parenthood clinics comes from Medicaid, and that varies from state to state. To be fair, the disjointed nature of state funding hurts the healthcare side of the organization.

However, another one of the left’s sacred cows is at odds with this part of Planned Parenthood’s mission. Obamacare is giving poor women more options for healthcare, which means that fewer of them go to these clinics for procedures other than abortion.

Clinics are running out of money for healthcare options, so they’re running out of supplies, failing to properly keep up facilities, and laying off staff. But can you guess which aspect of Planned Parenthood thrives? You guessed it: abortion.

“There are bright spots, especially in areas of the country that support abortion rights,” Benner reports. It’s tremendously sad to see the phrases “bright spots” and “abortion rights” in the same sentence.

She continues:

Planned Parenthood in Illinois recently opened an 11,200 square foot, state-of-the-art facility in Carbondale, a few hours drive from the borders of Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri, which have banned or severely restricted abortion. The affiliate boosted salaries for staff and improved benefit packages as it prepared to welcome women from nearby states who were seeking abortions.

An affiliate in Ohio made substantial upgrades to an abortion clinic, and clinics in Southern New England have kept wait times low.

In conservative media, we often use the clickbait phrase “saying the quiet part out loud” in headlines. In this case, the New York Times did just that. 

In lamenting Planned Parenthood’s trouble with healthcare funding, Benner reveals that the organization is keeping the main thing the main thing and focusing on abortion. That has always been Planned Parenthood’s primary mission and always will be — regardless of how hard the left tries to push the myth that Planned Parenthood is all about healthcare.