FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 26, 2017

Contact: Daniel Stevens, dstevens@campaignforaccountability.org, 202.780.5750

Carol Everett founded the anti-abortion nonprofit, the Heidi Group, in 1995.[1]  Before starting the Heidi Group, Everett worked for several family planning clinics that performed abortions.[2]  She left her role at these clinics in 1983, and wrote a book about her experience that was published in 1992.[3]  Since starting the Heidi Group, Everett has regularly appeared in local and national media outlets to attack abortion rights, often making false or reprehensible statements.

False Statements About Public Health

Everett Claims Abortions Could Contaminate Texas Water Supply [Fox, Austin Chronicle, 2016]

In 2016, Everett told a Fox station in Austin, Texas that disposing of fetal tissue in landfills could cause STDs and HIV to spread through the groundwater.  Everett was arguing in support of a proposed Texas regulation regarding the disposal of fetal tissue at abortion providers. [Fox 7, 7/2/2016]

Everett:

There’s several health concerns. What if the woman had HIV? What if she had a sexually transmitted disease? What if those germs went through and got into our water supply? [4]

Everett offered a similar defense at a state hearing [Austin Chronicle, 8/5/2016]:

Everett…delivered a wild hypothetical, bereft of medical science, during her testimony. Everett cautioned that a supposed sewer line that holds disposed fetal tissue could break down, exposing the public to the potential STDs and HIV in fetal remains. “What if one day something horrible escaped into the sewer system?,” she said, to hearty laughs from pro-choice advocates in the room.[5]

Everett Claims Emergency Contraception is a “Social Experiment” that is “Destructive to a Woman’s Reproductive System” [Fox 7, 5/8/2013]

In 2013, Everett made false claims about emergency contraception while debating whether 15-year-olds should be allowed to purchase emergency contraception without parental consent.  Everett suggested the drug, known as Plan B, was harmful despite all medical evidence to the contrary.

Everett:

Plan B at 15 is a social experiment on children. Children do not deserve to do anything alone much less have any sort of birth control that is 40 times more — I’m sorry — 40 times stronger than a normal birth control pill. What are we doing to these girls’ fertility? What is going to happen to their bodies? We had one woman in our clinic who came in who had taken this pill, Plan B, 10 times in one month. That’s destructive to a woman’s reproductive system and now we’re going to allow 15-year-olds to do this? What are we doing, trying to sterilize our 15-year-olds?[6]

Food and Drug Administration:

The Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) completed its review of the Plan B One-Step application and laid out its scientific determination . . . CDER determined that the product was safe and effective in adolescent females, that adolescent females understood the product was not for routine use, and that the product would not protect them against sexually transmitted diseases. Additionally, the data supported a finding that adolescent females could use Plan B One-Step properly without the intervention of a healthcare provider.[7]

Everett Believes Sex with Multiple Partners is Akin to Rape [WallBuilders Live Radio, 10/20/2015]

Everett responded to a radio host’s questions about polyamorous relationships by calling them “sick” and stating that sex with multiple partners is “almost like rape.”

Everett:

It’s sick….Well, it breaks down all those natural, uh, barriers that we’re supposed to have and you know, if you’re, think about this: One woman sleeping with a man and she knows this woman living here sleeps with him too – and  how does she feel about that woman? That’s not a relationship that fosters anything kind. And how does she feel about him? I mean, that’s in my mind almost like rape when you’re just having sex with two or three different women. It’s just, what are you doing? It is a sick thing and I don’t — the only thing that can help us recover is Jesus.[8]

False Claims About Planned Parenthood

Everett Claims Planned Parenthood Promotes Bestiality [Fox News, 11/3/2015]

Carol Everett told Alan Colmes on his Fox News show that Planned Parenthood promotes bestiality on its website.

Everett:

Well if you look on the Teen Wire or some of the other sites that Planned Parenthood has, it’s very interesting to see how they’re encouraging children, young people to experiment with all sorts of, actually, bestiality, even.

After a back and forth with Colmes, he asked if Planned Parenthood, specifically, is behind this.

Everett:

All sorts of abortion providers are behind it. Planned Parenthood and others….I am saying that they have a website that actually encourages sex with animals.[9]

 

The news site, Raw Story, was unable to find any mention of bestiality on any of Planned Parenthood’s websites.[10]  To defend her statement, Everett sent Colmes a link to a 1981 study about sex behavior that was completely unrelated to Planned Parenthood.[11]

Everett Claims Planned Parenthood Targets Black Communities [Infowars, 12/3/2014]

Everett:

And until recently, there was not a single abortion clinic located in a white, middle class area. They were all located in black areas. In 1984, Planned Parenthood came to San Antonio, Texas, and hired a Hispanic marketing firm to learn how to market to the Hispanic population — i.e. the fastest growing population in the nation and the fastest growing in the abortion numbers and in the teen pregnancy numbers. So they in 1984 recognized that they had almost saturated the black community. And then on the East Coast two out of three abortions are on black women — two out of three. And so they had that saturated and started on the Hispanic population and now they are moving into the white and Hispanic neighborhoods with abortion facilities and with their “family planning” facilities.[12]

NPR:

In 2014, the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research center, surveyed all known abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood clinics, in the U.S. (nearly 2,000) and found that 60 percent are in majority-white neighborhoods.

Planned Parenthood has not released numbers on the neighborhoods of its specific clinics, but responding to a request for demographic information, the organization said that in 2013, 14 percent of its patients nationwide were black. That’s nearly equal to the proportion of the African-American population in the U.S.[13]

Statements About Her Work at Clinics

Everett Claims Clinics Performed Abortions on Women Who Were Not Pregnant [e.g., Lost Arts Radio, 08/01/2015]

Everett:

At the end of that day I wasn’t saying, “That’s great I saved three babies.” At the end of that day I was saying “I lost — I lost — $75.” Money, money, money. And I fell to my knees on the floor of that abortion clinic and prayed a heart prayer. “Lord — if there is a Lord — if this is not where you want me, hit me over the head by a two-by-four.” And the two-by-four was that our abortion clinics were caught attempting to do abortions on women who were not pregnant.[14]

Everett’s Former Coworkers Disputed Her Story [Rewire, 10/02/2014]:

Everett may have claimed that abortions were performed for no reason and for the sake of financial gain, but it was a statement vociferously rebutted by many of her former colleagues. For example, William W. West, Jr., M.D., who works in outpatient psychiatry, obstetrics and gynecology, stated in a news release in 1988 after Everett had been appointed the public affairs Director of Greater Dallas Right to Life Committee and Texas Coalition for Life:

. . .Among Ms. Everett’s various fraudulent claims is her assertion that abortion surgery is deliberately performed on women who are not actually pregnant in order to get their money. Give me a break! I hope there are not many among us who are cynical and gullible enough to actually believe such garbage!”[15]

Questionable Partners

The Heidi Group Gave Money to the Head of an Organization that Directed High School Students to Share the Same Piece of Gum [Heidi Group 2004 990, Washington Post, 2/13/2007]

In 2004, the Heidi Group gave $150 to Gail Tierney, executive director of Rockville Pregnancy Center.[16]  In 2007, the Washington Post reported on the controversial abstinence education initiative that Tierney’s organization presented to high school students in Montgomery County, Maryland.[17]  According to the Post:

The “gum game,” an exercise in which students were encouraged to share gum to illustrate the effects of peer pressure, was played in Montgomery County schools for nine years without incident before a parent’s complaint halted it last month, according to directors of the Rockville clinic that created the lesson.

The clinic, a faith-based organization that offers counseling and support to pregnant women as an alternative to abortion, was expelled from the schools in January after a parent alerted school officials that a speaker had asked students to take turns chewing a piece of gum.[18]

Sources:

[1] Julie Chang, $1.6 Million Texas Women’s Health Care Grant Raises Questions, Austin American Statesman, August 10, 2016, available at http://www.mystatesman.com/news/state–regional-govt–politics/million-texas-women-health-care-grant-raises-questions/qNKf4fWXls918tgF8bxh2M/.

[2] Id.

[3] Carol Everett with Jack Shaw, Blood Money, Getting Rich Off a Woman’s Right to Choose, Multnomah Books, October 1, 1992, see https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Money-Getting-Womans-Choose/dp/0880705485.

[4] Jennifer Kendall, Abortion Facilities Could Face New Rules for Fetal Tissue Disposal, Fox 7, July 7, 2016, available at http://www.fox7austin.com/news/local-news/abortion-facilities-could-face-new-rules-for-fetal-tissue-disposal.

[5] Mary Tuma, Fetal Burial Saga Continues, The Austin Chronicle, August 6, 2016, available at https://www. austinchronicle.com/daily/news/2016-08-05/fetal-burial-saga-continues/.

[6] Sharon Kahn, Meet The Anti-Abortion Activist Who Now Controls Texas Women’s Access To Reproductive Care, Media Matters for America, August 31, 2016, available at https://www.mediamatters.org/research/2016/ 08/31/meet-anti-abortion-activist-who-now-controls-texas-women-s-access-reproductive-care/212781.

[7] Press Release, U.S. Food & Drug Administration, Statement from FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, M.D. on Plan B One-Step, December 7, 2011, available at https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/ucm282805.htm.

[8] Kyle Mantyla, Anti-Abortion Activist: Having Multiple Sex Partners ‘Is Almost Like Rape’, Right Wing Watch, October 25, 2015, available at http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/anti-abortion-activist-having-multiple-sex-partners-is-almost-like-rape/.

[9] David Ferguson, Anti-abortion Activist Insists Planned Parenthood Encourages Teens to Have Sex With Animals, Raw Story, November 3, 2015, available at http://www.rawstory.com/2015/11/anti-abortion-activist-insists-planned-parenthood-encourages-teens-to-have-sex-with-animals/.

[10] Id.

[11] Id.

[12] Kahn, Media Matters for America, Aug. 31, 2016.

[13] Amita Kelly, Fact Check: Was Planned Parenthood Started To ‘Control’ The Black Population?, NPR, August 14, 2015, available at http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/08/14/432080520/fact-check-was-planned-parenthood-started-to-control-the-black-population.

[14] Kahn, Media Matters for America, Aug. 31, 2016.

[15] Robin Marty, “Abortions on Women Who Aren’t Pregnant” Common Trope of Anti-Choice Movement, Rewire, October 2, 2014, available at https://rewire.news/article/2012/10/02/abortions-on-women-who-arent-pregnant-common-trope-anti-choice-movement/.

[16] The Heidi Group, IRS FORM 990, Initial Return 2004 at 16, received Nov. 28, 2005, available to download at https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/download-filing?path=2005_12_EO%2F74-2757919_990_200412.pdf.

[17] Daniel de Vise, Md. ‘Gum Game’ Used for 9 Years, Washington Post, February 13, 2017, available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/12/AR2007021201457.html.

[18] Id.