MSNBC anchor Ali Velshi spent several minutes Tuesday heralding Planned Parenthood as "a critical tool for helping saving lives" and said "I'm not an advocate" before having Planned Parenthood's director of constituency communications come on to defend the organization.
Velshi segued into the topic from news about the Senate Republican health care bill.
"Senate Republicans announced no vote on their health care bill this week. Does it mean the bill is never going to see the Senate floor?" Velshi asked.
"Let's take a look at the medical service provider which assists millions of Americans every year," Velshi continued.
Velshi showed a graphic sourced by Planned Parenthood claiming that only three percent of its services are abortions, although pro-life advocates and independent fact-checkers have called that misleading.
The Washington Post's Fact Checker noted that not all services are created equal.
"A woman may get a pregnancy test, birth control, and a pap smear, but she would be counted three times, once for each service, in the annual report," it said.
"Some people just say it's an abortion factory. Just stop for a minute. Put your Twitter down," Velshi said before giving statistics on its number of patients.
"I'm not an advocate, just trying to tell you it's a complex organization. For more on what it does and how they'll be affected by the Senate's bill as it stands now, I'm joined by Alencia Johnson," Velshi said.
"What is the message you want to give to people?" Velshi asked at the end of the interview.
"We want our supporters to to keep the pressure up and keep the calls coming into senators and their health care should not be blocked. Istandwithpp.org and be heard," Johnson said.