Iowa Right to Life has busted the Iowa Initiative and Planned Parenthood for working together to increase abortions. Iowa RTL executive director Jenifer Bowen writes in response to a Des Moines Register puff piece:

The Des Moines Register’s article by Reporter Tony Leys, “Group: Unplanned pregnancies, abortion rates decline in Iowa,” (9/28/12) was misleading and one-sided.

Sally Pederson’s claim that her Iowa Initiative’s promotion of long-term birth control (intrauterine devices and implanted hormone devices) led to a decline in abortions and unintended pregnancies in Iowa is preposterous. Pederson said Iowa Initiative spent $35 million to pay for such devices, as well as training of staff at dozens of clinics. Planned Parenthood, a big beneficiary, increased its patient visits for IUDs and Implanon from 550 in its fiscal year ending in 2007 to 4,645 in its fiscal year ending in 2009. (Source: Planned Parenthood of the Heartland Annual Reports)

That should reduce abortions, according to Pederson’s reasoning, right? WRONG. Planned Parenthood increased its Iowa abortions in that time from 4,401 in 2007 to 4,792 in 2009. (In fact, Iowa Right to Life has pointed out Planned Parenthood’s growing abortion numbers so often that Planned Parenthood stopped breaking out its abortion stats for Iowa in 2009.)

Full disclosure: Iowa Initiative’s board of directors is stacked with Planned Parenthood’s own board members and big donors. Pederson’s husband, James Autry, was also a former trustee for Planned Parenthood in Iowa. Iowa’s big abortion circle of “scratch-my-back” continues.

Planned Parenthood has full time personnel who do nothing but build relationships and partnerships within communities and on a statewide and national basis. Beware of organizations and initiatives in your community that are tied to Planned Parenthood, and expose those relationships so that community members are not caught unaware by initiatives that are Planned Parenthood centered while carefully hiding Planned Parenthood involvement.