On June 15th, 2020, Planned Parenthood Action Fund announced their endorsement of presidential candidate, Joe Biden. Due to Joe Biden’s history as an abortion advocate, Planned Parenthood’s endorsement should not come as a surprise. However, by endorsing Joe Biden, Planned Parenthood has exposed hypocrisy within their organization.
According to Business Insider, Joe Biden has been accused of sexual misconduct and assault a total of eight times. While only one woman, Tara Reade, formally accused Biden of sexual assault while working for his office, the other seven reported that he touched them and invaded their personal space in “ways that made them feel uncomfortable.” To read more about Biden’s allegations of sexual misconduct, check out Business Insider’s article.
This is where Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s hypocrisy comes into play. Planned Parenthood has been regularly posting on their social media advocating for consensual sex and for victims of sexual assault.
Further, on Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s website, after sharing different statistics on sexual assault, Planned Parenthood stated “politicians across the country are rejecting policies that would help to end sexual assault in our communities. These politicians would rather have us quietly tolerate the unacceptable. Not on our watch.” While this statement is not bad and there undeniably should be measures placed in order to prevent heinous sex crimes, it is clear that protecting innocent people from sex crimes is not Planned Parenthood’s prerogative. Planned Parenthood’s endorsement of Joe Biden exposes their lack of watchfulness and shows that they do not care about the value of consent enough to consistently uphold its importance.
An alternative example of Planned Parenthood’s hypocrisy is shown in the way they attacked Brett Kavanaugh, one of the current United States Supreme Court Justices. While in the process of being appointed as a Supreme Court Justice, Kavanaugh was wrongfully accused of committing a sexual assault on a woman while he was in high school. The court case was inevitably closed, as the information posed against him was in now way credible. However, during his case hearings, Planned Parenthood openly spoke against him.
While Planned Parenthood already disliked Kavanaugh for his history as a pro-life advocate, they called for a full investigation into the allegations of his sexual misconduct. According to a prepared statement offered to the Uken Report by Planned Parenthood’s acting president and CEO, Alexis McGill Johnson, “It is extremely disturbing to learn that Senate Republicans prevented the FBI from investigating multiple serious allegations of sexual misconduct against a nominee to the Supreme Court. As the highest court in the land, people need to be able to trust the Supreme Court will protect their fundamental rights and freedoms. We call for a full investigation into each allegation against Justice Kavanaugh, which should have occurred before the Senate rushed his nomination through last year. Survivors of sexual assault have the right to be heard.” This statement is empathetic to victims of sexual assault and if the victims had not been lying, this statement would have been warranted. However, now that Biden has been accused of sexual assault, where is Planned Parenthood’s call for a full investigation?
It is clear that there are many allegations against Biden. However, Planned Parenthood has rejoiced in endorsing him! Further, they fully trusted Biden’s personal response to the allegations that he had not sexually assaulted anyone, saying, “We are glad to see Vice President Biden take a needed first step in addressing this issue head on. We now look to Biden to continue to push this conversation, and our country, forward.” Planned Parenthood did not demand any full investigation and did not listen to the voices of Biden’s victims, Tara Reade, Lucy Flores, Ally Coll, Sofie Karasek, Amy Stokes Lappos, Caitlyn Caruso, DJ Hill, Vail Kohnert-Yount, and a 13-year-old girl whose identity remains anonymous.
It is clear that Planned Parenthood is not consistent in their ethics when it comes to political agendas that are tainted with sexual assault. Regardless of whether Planned Parenthood continues to endorse a possible sex-offender, Planned Parenthood should be held accountable to their hypocrisy and be brought to task in practicing their self-proclaimed protection of sexual assault victims.