Sen. Kyl incorrectly claims 'well over 90%' of Planned Parenthood's services are abortions

Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) made a startling misstatement on the Senate floor Friday, amid a heated debate on funding women's health services -- a key sticking point for Republicans and Democrats struggling to pass a budget that would keep the federal government from shutting down.

"You don't have to go to Planned Parenthood to get your blood pressure or your cholesterol checked," he said. "If you want an abortion, you go to Planned Parenthood, and that's well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does."

Shocking as that might sound, it's patently false. In fact, the opposite is true: More than 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does has nothing to do with abortion.

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) is one of the nation's top non-profit organizations. In 2009, according to PPFA's figures, 96 percent of its activities were dedicated to one of the following: cancer screenings; STD or STI testing; counseling and education; or pregnancy testing and prevention.

Thanks to all of this, one in five American women have a much better shot at preventing unwanted pregnancies or catching a life-threatening disease before it becomes critical.

In fact, the vast majority of PPFA's reproductive health efforts are dedicated toward preventing unwanted pregnancies.

To this effect, independent research shows that each year PPFA plays a role in preventing over 2 million unwanted pregnancies and stopping over 800,000 women from getting abortions, saving public agencies billions of dollars in the process. The group says that only three percent of their patients request abortion services.

Figures show the PPFA is ten times more likely to help prevent an abortion than carry one out.

Additionally, PPFA volunteers reportedly distributed educational materials on reproductive health to over 1.9 million people in 2009. They were also a key bulwark in the fight against sexually transmitted diseases, carrying out nearly 4 million tests that year.

Despite this, misinformation as to what PPFA actually does remains rife among many Republicans.

Confronted by questions from Raw Story, one legislator in South Dakota -- Republican state Sen. Al Novstrup, the key sponsor of that state's recently passed abortion restrictions -- appeared to be under the impression that PPFA was a profit-making venture with a "financial incentive" to carry out as many abortions as possible.

Sen. Kyl, it would seem, is about on that same page.

Funding for PPFA was a key sticking point for Republicans and Democrats on Friday as they struggled to pass a budget that would keep the federal government running.

Republicans in the House, who and left defense spending untouched, insist on ending support for PPFA. Democrats have conceded to a wide cross-section of their proposed cuts, but insist that womens' health services are not negotiable.

Most services provided by PPFA are significantly more expensive when purchased from the private sector.

Critics have suggested that the refusal to fund PPFA is actually a back-door scheme to funnel additional money into private health providers, which would be the last resort for most PPFA patients who lack health insurance. Republicans insist, however, that they are morally opposed to public funds going toward abortions. Public funding of abortions, however, has been repeatedly banned at the federal level. Public funds for abortion are only provided through Medicaid, and only in cases of rape or incest.

If the two parties cannot agree on a budget by midnight tonight, over 800,000 public workers will be temporarily displaced and many active duty combat troops will not receive their paychecks.

This video is from C-SPAN, broadcast Friday, April 8, 2011, as snipped by ThinkProgress.