The vast majority of Planned Parenthood’s work goes toward mammograms and preventive care, said former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.
Since an anti-abortion group released videos Planned Parenthood officials talking about aborted fetal parts, Republicans have pushed to take away federal funding from the women’s health organization. Democratic presidential candidates, on the other hand, are showing their support, if subdued.
O’Malley said he hadn’t seen the videos, speaking to reporters in New Hampshire July 26.
"And I don't generally make a habit of responding to right-wing videos," O'Malley said, according to Washington Post’s Dave Weigel. "I do know that 97 percent of the work that Planned Parenthood does is about mammograms and preventative health. So that's what I know, but I'll defer to others for commenting on that video and whatever videos they're pumping out there."
Is 97 percent of what Planned Parenthood does mammograms and other preventive care, as opposed to abortions?
O’Malley spokeswoman Haley Morris pointed us to a Planned Parenthood press release that had a similar, but not identical, statistic.
"More than 97 percent of Planned Parenthood's services are primary and preventive health care, including lifesaving cancer screenings, birth control, testing and treatment of STDs, annual exams and health counseling," the 2011 release said.
As we’ve found in previous fact-checks, Planned Parenthood comes to this number by adding up the number of individual services provided each year. In total, they provided nearly 11 million services in 2013, according to their most recent annual report. (Planned Parenthood clinics saw 2.7 million individual patients in 2013, so many received multiple services.)
Here’s the breakdown from the annual report:
Sexually transmitted infection/disease testing and treatment: 4,470,597
Cancer screening and prevention: 935,573
Pregnancy tests: 1,128,783
Prenatal services: 18,684