Obama Campaign eCard: $18,000 for Birth Control!

    Both Daniel Halper of the Weekly Standard and Ed Morrissey at HotAir drew attention today to the new eCards offered by the Obama campaign.  One card in particular caught the eye of both:

    Morrissey was almost struck speechless, only managing a "I think my head may have just exploded."  Daniel Halper on the other hand gamely offered a rebuttal:

It would seem the point of the eCard is to get daughters to encourage their mothers to vote for Obama. (Would any daughter really send this card to her mother?)
And as John McCormack reported after the Sandra Fluke controversy earlier this year, the numbers don't add up. "Birth control pills can be purchased for as low as $9 per month at a pharmacy near Georgetown's campus."

    So where did the cranium-combusting $18,000 figure come from?  Would it shock you to learn that the source is Planned Parenthood?  I didn't think it would.  A visit to the Women's Health and Contraception portion of the Obama campaign website presents viewers with a graphic entitled "Contraception Facts."  There we find "Saving Women Money:  $18,000 - Amount some women could save over a lifetime on birth control."  The footnote says "Planned Parenthood, accessed 2/3/12." A search of the PP website turned up a Press Release dated 2/3/12 entitled Planned Parenthood Applauds HHS for Ensuring Access to Affordable Birth Control, which contains the following passage:

"Birth control is not just basic health care for women, it is an economic concern," said Kim Custer, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Northeast and Mid-Penn. "This common sense decision means that millions of women, who would otherwise pay $15 to $50 a month, will have access to affordable birth control, helping them save hundreds of dollars each year."

    As the cool people on Twitter say, do you see what they did there?  They took the high-end figure for "some women" of $50/month, annualized it ($600/year), and calculated it over a woman's child-bearing years.  Since $18,000 at $600/year comes out to 30 years, the only question is at what age does Planned Parenthood and the Obama campaign expect women (read "girls") to start taking birth control?  But that's an issue for another post.

    By the way, remember the Obama website graphic on Contraception Facts that I mentioned above?  Here it is below on the left.  And on the right?  A graphic from the Planned Parenthood of Nassau County Spring 2012 newsletter?

    So, what do you think?  A little collusion between the Obama campaign and Planned Parenthood?  Nah.  It's probably just a fluke.