Not one woman in Pennsylvania receives prenatal care from Planned Parenthood. Yet Gov. Josh Shapiro recently posted to social media that Planned Parenthood provides prenatal care to thousands of women in our state, a false statement easily disproved with a single phone call.
Call any Planned Parenthood location in Pennsylvania and you’ll hear what I did: “We don’t provide prenatal care.”
Worse still, most of Planned Parenthood’s abortion sites in Pennsylvania falsely advertise prenatal care on its websites. In 2017, it was caught doing that and removed the claims only after Pennsylvania Family Institute called it out. Now, the deceptive advertising is back.
You’ve probably heard the phrase, “the pot calling the kettle black.” It describes someone criticizing others for a flaw they themselves refuse to acknowledge. Few phrases better capture Gov. Shapiro’s record. He often calls for honesty and accountability, but time and again, his own actions fail to meet those very standards.
Consider just a few examples:
While campaigning for governor, Josh Shapiro publicly supported Lifeline Scholarships to give students better educational opportunities. Once in office, he vetoed the very scholarships he championed; possibly the only governor to veto his own campaign promise. When the measure recently advanced with bipartisan support in the Senate Education Committee, Shapiro claimed to have “no position,” an extraordinary reversal for someone elected in part on that promise.
Gov. Shapiro has repeatedly claimed that his administration takes allegations of discrimination and harassment seriously. Yet his office quietly paid $300,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit involving senior aide Mike Vereb. The allegations surfaced just two months into Shapiro’s first year, but Vereb remained in a prominent role for months until resigning. That secrecy presents another broken promise.
Gov. Shapiro ended Pennsylvania’s 30-year contract that provided aid for alternatives to abortion, a program begun by former Democratic Gov. Bob Casey. The Shapiro administration celebrated the move as “good stewardship of taxpayer resources.” Soon after, former Attorney General Michelle Henry launched a complaint form against pregnancy resource centers — despite no evidence of wrongdoing — citing the need for “truthful and accurate information” about services.
Yet today, Planned Parenthood advertises prenatal care as a service in Pennsylvania, when not a single location in the state provides it.
Planned Parenthood performs half of all the state’s abortions every year, all while receiving millions in taxpayer funding; over $13 million in tax dollars over its last two reporting years (2022-2023). Not only does Planned Parenthood not offer prenatal care, but it also performs zero mammograms, provides zero adoption services, and often fails to pass state health inspections. Additionally, Planned Parenthood is involved in prescribing hormone drugs like testosterone to Pennsylvanians experiencing gender dysphoria. Patients may begin self-injections after just one appointment, and the hormones may be prescribed over telehealth online and not in person.
Gov. Shapiro, you accuse others of deception while promoting it yourself. If you truly value accountability, you should retract your false statement about Planned Parenthood and acknowledge that it does not provide prenatal services. You should also restore funding for alternatives to abortion that help women and families.
But Planned Parenthood is a major campaign donor to Shapiro. He invited the group to the Capitol as soon as he took the Governor’s Office, and he continues to advance its profit-driven abortion agenda.
Sadly, I expect this double standard to continue. Pennsylvanians deserve better.