While the abortion giant claims to have women’s best interests at heart, countless numbers of us who have suffered the adverse effects of abortion know that’s anything but true.

On April 29, protesters took to the streets across the country to call for Congress to finally fulfill Republican leaders’ promises to end taxpayers’ sponsorship of Planned Parenthood, our nation’s largest abortion provider.

Sadly, in the debate between pro-lifers and pro-aborts, certain voices are often ignored. This includes the women who have experienced abortion and were deceived by organizations like Planned Parenthood, which have a vested interest in downplaying or denying the effects abortion can have on women’s lives.

While the abortion giant claims to have women’s best interests at heart, countless numbers of us who have suffered the adverse effects of abortion know that’s anything but true. While the organization’s brass promote themselves as health-care providers and advocates of poor women, a little research reveals the people running the show aren’t the champions they claim to be.

In fact, they’re doing quite well for themselves as taxpayers watch their hard-earned dollars support their organization, which delivers more than 300,000 abortions each year. In 2014, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards earned $957,952, according to Internal Revenue Service records, while the organization received $528 million in government funding the same year.

It’s no wonder the organization is keen to cling to its carefully constructed public image as a women’s health-care provider despite disturbing revelations over the past few years, including allegations that Planned Parenthood harvests the organs of aborted babies, or the fact that the organization does not provide mammograms. Deception has served Planned Parenthood well. Styling itself as a one-stop shop for women’s health care, the organization enjoys the support of countless donors who remain unaware of what goes on behind the nonprofit’s closed doors.

It is hard to listen to all the rhetoric surrounding Planned Parenthood when you have been a statistic of abortion’s damage and the organization’s leaders downplay or deny the very real experiences of millions of women. Most women don’t feel comfortable speaking about their abortion experiences, but as more and more of us reach healing, that’s changing. On behalf of those women, here are 10 reasons why Planned Parenthood should be defunded.

10. Planned Parenthood Doesn’t Care for Post-Abortive Women

Because it denies the reality of abortion’s effects on mental health, Planned Parenthood does not provide follow-up care for women who have had abortions.

“Planned Parenthood doesn’t provide any after abortion counseling [and] they don’t provide real choices,” says Nancy, from New York.

9. Planned Parenthood Overlooks Statutory Rape

As investigations over the years have revealed, Planned Parenthood’s de facto policy is to ignore statutory rape laws when admitting underage patients.

“The fact is that they cover up the abuse of minors by abetting the sex trafficking of minor girls,” says Clarissa, from Ohio.

8. Planned Parenthood Uses Women

“For me, Planned Parenthood was the clinic where my pregnancy was confirmed in July of 1972 as there were no home pregnancy tests at the time. It was there that I was told the first of many lies… [Such as identifying the developing baby as a] ‘Glob of cell and tissue.’ (I was 12 weeks pregnant.) Second, I was told it would be a simple surgical procedure. It was not…there would be no after effects and there was no discussion of any other alternative, [including] having the baby or adoption.”

“They also told me to lie as I was only just 17 and the law was 18 in New York. It was later on that I came to find out that they were in an intentional partnership with the clinics in New York to deceive young women into having abortions as a safe and easy solution to the ‘problem of a pregnancy.’ This was part of the agenda to push for legalization on a national level…These abortions were not back alley. They were being done in hospitals and of course clinics like CRASH.”

“There was not only deceit…but we were being used on so many levels for the purpose of an agenda…as we believed the lies and then had to deal with the aftermath of the death of our children. We were also left with no support or follow up…only birth control pills which became another way we could be used. I continued to go to the Planned Parenthood clinic to get my pills. No one ever even asked me about my abortion and how I was doing,” says Mary, in New Jersey.

7. Employees Speak of Pregnancy as a ‘Problem’ to ‘Fix’

“They are not very helpful in planning happy parenthood. Just the painful. I am the mother of deceased children.”

“Further, as I volunteered recently at a pregnancy center I talked to women who came to us for an ultrasound after they visited Planned Parenthood. They were shocked when they saw their babies’ development. They reported that workers at Planned Parenthood said: ‘You should take care of this soon before it turns into something.’ In other words, they are still lying to women about fetal development, which is a truth of medical science! Why should my tax dollars pay for that? Real doctors don’t have to lie so they can profit from the services they provide,” says Eileen, in Michigan.

6. Planned Parenthood Ignores Women’s Testimony of Post-Abortive Suffering

Because admitting abortion can cause emotional and mental trauma would damage the narrative that abortion is simply a minor procedure, Planned Parenthood ignores the stories of women who have suffered after their abortions.

“After my two abortions by 1982, I was emotionally spent and quit my ‘dream TV career’ to go back home to the D.C. area to be near family. I desperately needed security. How many young women QUIT their own TV show? [It] proves I was broken and didn’t know just how much those abortions affected me. I just didn’t understand why I was so depressed, [why I engaged in] drug and alcohol abuse, major promiscuity, etc…I was a textbook case of self-sabotaging and destructive behaviors. Anything to dull the pain…but [I] didn’t connect the dots.”

“They never once told me about the aftermath of what I’d feel or how the abortions would affect me mentally, spiritually, and physically,” says Leslie in Virginia.

5. Planned Parenthood Preys on Women’s Defensiveness About Abortion

Planned Parenthood deceives women encouraging their support, knowing that they need to justify their abortion decisions.

“For years in the 1990’s while raising my kids up to their high school years, I was a militant pro choicer and major advocate for PP (to validate MY poor choices), I was an angry voice for a woman’s right to choose… ‘my body, my choice.’ I lobbied lawmakers to get out of my bedroom. I was a misguided, angry woman, like so many I see today.

“Planned Parenthood lies, and cheats women, families, and our tax dollars. They buy politicians to do their bidding. (Look at the DNC National platform!!!) I’ve studied their propaganda and deception, the history of Margaret Sanger, Nathanson, NARAL, NOW, etc.,” writes LB.

4. Planned Parenthood Ignores Abortion Coercion

Planned Parenthood ignores the fact that many women and teenage girls are coerced into having abortions by their parents, husbands, boyfriends, and others who have power over women.

“I was a seventeen year old kid when I had my abortion which was coerced by my father. I was in my 4th month of pregnancy because I had hidden it for so long. No one told me the development of my baby or anything about the procedure I was about to undergo. “

“For countless women abortion is not a free choice or between them and their doctor, it happens because of coercion by parents, boyfriends and husbands, but Planned Parenthood does nothing to stop that, all they care about is the money,” says Theresa in New York.

3. To Planned Parenthood, ‘Choice’ Means Abortion

“The entire premise of the Planned Parenthood organization is that they stand behind ‘a woman’s right to choose.’ This is a complete lie. From the moment I walked into PP prior to my abortion, it was as if it was already understood that abortion was the ONLY choice and actually, the best way to handle my ‘situation.’ My ‘situation’ was a precious life growing inside of me and I was scared to death. At no point was I counseled in terms of future emotional, mental and psychological affects this abortion would have on my life. It was simply put to me that ‘more women than you could imagine have abortions’ – I never wanted to be in that category.”

“I take full responsibility for my abortion; however being read off statistics of the prevalence of abortion in our culture was in no way comforting to me at this time. The term counseling usually comes with a positive, healing connotation. This was the complete opposite. Never once did the counselor or doctor broach the discussion of ‘would you like to keep your baby?’ It was as if it were just understood that this abortion was happening,” writes BT from New York.

2. Planned Parenthood Fights Oversight and Informed Consent

Planned Parenthood fights every attempt at regulations, protection, and the informed consent of women, leaving them uninformed and in danger.

It opposes Women’s Right to Know legislation, which would provide information on all the dangers of abortion and fetal development. Planned Parenthood is against parent consent to medical procedures done on minors. Your child cannot get an aspirin at school without parental consent, but in many states can go for a life-altering procedure like abortion without parental consent.

Planned Parenthood fights regulations on abortion clinics, leaving their safety requirements far less than those on any other surgical clinics.

1. Women Have Died Because of Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood would like everyone to believe that ending federal funding to them would place women’s lives at risk. Yet we know women’s lives are already at risk in their clinics, physically, emotionally, and psychologically.

Some deaths of women at Planned Parenthood include: Tanya Reaves, a 24-year old woman, who died from three major complications during a botched second-trimester abortion suffered at a Chicago Planned Parenthood; Cree Erwin, who died from complications of a botched abortion performed at an Planned Parenthood facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan; Holly Paterson, who died in an emergency room after having been given RU-486 at Planned Parenthood in San Francisco; and Diane Lopez, who went to the Los Angeles Planned Parenthood for an abortion when she was 18 weeks pregnant. Her cervix was punctured during the abortion and she later bled to death at a nearby hospital.

Recent emergencies at Planned Parenthood include: The Virginia Beach Planned Parenthood hospitalized two women in the month of April 2017; On April 1, 2017, a patient was loaded into the ambulance at Tempe, Arizona, Planned Parenthood; and on April 1, 2017, a woman was medically transported out of the Planned Parenthood facility in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Then of course there are the countless numbers of women who suffer emotionally after abortion, and even those who have committed suicide.

Planned Parenthood is quick to tell us they provide women “quality health care.” I think the families of the women mentioned would disagree. We’ve been there. We know. It’s time for Congress to defund Planned Parenthood and give our tax money to real medical providers who truly care for women’s health and safety.