As though vying for the title of “World’s Greatest Exaggerator,” Rep. Michele Bachmann, U.S. Fearmonger-in-Chief, this week made the histrionic claim that by next fall [2010] “someone’s 13-year-old daughter could walk into a sex clinic, have a pregnancy test done, be taken away to the local Planned Parenthood abortion clinic, have their abortion, be back, and go home on the school bus that night … [with] Mom and Dad … never the wiser.”

MinnPost has the story:

Bachmann Warns of ‘Sex Clinics’ and Abortions in Schools

By Cynthia Dizikes
MinnPost
October 1, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a speech on the House floor yesterday [Sept. 30, 2009], Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., claimed that that health-care reform bills would establish school “sex clinics,” which would exclude parents from their children’s health decisions, including abortion.

“What does that mean?” Bachmann said. “It means that parents will never know what kind of counsel and treatment that their children are receiving. As a matter of fact, the bill goes on to say what’s going to go on — comprehensive primary health services, physicals, treatment of minor acute medical conditions, referrals to follow-up for specialty care.”

“Is that abortion?” Bachmann continued. “Does that mean that someone’s 13-year-old daughter could walk into a sex clinic, have a pregnancy test done, be taken away to the local Planned Parenthood abortion clinic, have their abortion, be back, and go home on the school bus that night? Mom and Dad are never the wiser. They don’t know any different.”

The section that Bachmann refers to in the House bills specifies that the established health clinics must follow federal, state, and local laws governing patient privacy and student records and parental, or guardian, consent.

Here’s video of Bachmann’s remarks:

C-SPAN has the transcript of Bachmann’s remarks. Here are some excerpts:

Now the Federal Government is going the final step, and they’re saying, Let’s put sex clinics in our schools.

Can you believe this, Mr. Speaker? Let’s put sex clinics in our schools, and let’s put Planned Parenthood in charge of these sex clinics. … They would go into effect next summer so that these clinics would appear in public schools next fall [2010] …

Mr. Speaker, I am almost without words to think that we have come to the time when the Democrats … want the taxpayers, if they haven’t been beleaguered enough, to pay for sex clinics all across the United States. …

And now we’re going to have the sex clinics in the schools and they’re essentially going to take over the health care services of our kids?

Keith Olbermann had a segment on MSNBC “Countdown” (Oct. 1, 2009)

#5 Bachmann Lying Overdrive (06:20)

More video: “Bachmann warns of abortion in school”:

Finally, here’s an excerpt from Rep. Bachmann’s speech which, though largely escaping media notice, is telling nonetheless with respect to her glaring cognitive limitations as a member of Congress:

What did the President say earlier this week or last week? He wants America’s schools to have longer school days and longer school years. Where in the Constitution does it say that the President decides how long the school day is or how long the school year is? [emphasis added] And now we’re going to have the sex clinics in the schools and they’re essentially going to take over the health care services of our kids?

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Related report on this site:

The Empress of Exaggeration (Aug. 8, 2009)

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Fact-checking Bachmann’s “sex clinics” in schools:

Huffington Post

Section 2511 of the health care bill, referred to by Bachmann, makes no mention of abortion and stipulates,

(i) “SBHC services will be provides in accordance with Federal, State, and local laws governing — (I) obtaining parental or guardian consent; and (II) patient privacy and student records, including section 264 of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and section 444 of the General Education Provision Act …”

The concept of “school based health care clinics” was introduced under the notion that students achieve higher academic performance when they are healthy and receive adequate medical attention. According to the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care, if implemented SBHCs would give schools access to physicians “so students avoid health-related absense and get support to succeed in the classroom.”

The Truth-O-Meter Says: School health clinics would not provide abortions

We see no language in the three main versions of the bill that would allow school-based clinics, which have a long history of providing basic health services to underprivileged students, to provide abortions. Nor would the clinics even be new — they have been around for three decades. So we rate the claim Pants on Fire!

FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — October 2, 2008

An Iraqi man grieves over the body of his younger brother after at least 24 people are killed outside two Baghdad mosques. (Photo credit: Helmiy Al Azawi / Reuters)

After the Primary Election: Day 23

One year ago today, on the 23rd day after losing my 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, in line with my focus on national security, I provided an October 2008 update of key facts, figures, and statistics on Iraq since the war began in March 2003 and reported on suicide bombings at two Shiite mosques in Baghdad that killed 24 people and wounded more than 50, a missile strike by a suspected U.S. drone in the northwest Pakistan tribal region near the Afghan border, ongoing violence in Iraq, and the reduction of U.S. military deaths in Iraq as Iraqi security forces increasingly take the lead in counterinsurgency operations.