[Federalist] President Trump nominated Wendy Vitter for a lifetime appointed position as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Her Senate confirmation hearings included questioning about statements she made in 2013 at a pro-life rally. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) repeatedly asked whether she still believes that Planned Parenthood kills more than 150,000 females a year.According to the Clarion Herald, a New Orleans-based newspaper, her original words were: "Planned Parenthood says they promote women’s health. It is the saddest of ironies that they kill over 150,000 females a year. The first step in promoting women’s health is to let them live."
Outlets such as HuffPo called these "pretty strong comments" and implied they should therefore cast doubt on her nomination. But they’re accurate. If anything, in fact, Vitter underestimated Planned Parenthood’s annual female death toll.
Planned Parenthood’s 2016-2017 report lists 321,384 abortions performed in 2016. Slightly more boys are born than girls (51.2 percent), although it’s impossible to tell if that ratio matches conception ratios of boys and girls, given miscarriages and sex-selective abortions, where women have an abortion (or are pushed into one) solely or largely because of the child’s sex.
Planned Parenthood either doesn’t track or release sex-selective abortion numbers, but polls and abortion rates from other countries indicate that people tend to prefer boys over girls. In countries with high sex-selective abortions, such as China and India, girls are much more likely to be aborted than boys. When Americans were polled about sex-selective abortion and preferences for sexes of their babies, 40 percent preferred boys and 28 percent preferred girls.