At least two questions arise from Planned Parenthood’s contention that abortion accounts for only 3% of the women’s “health care services” it offers. I’m sure you can think of others.
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Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Planned Parenthood: More Abortions, Fewer Clinics
By Randy Hall
CNSNews.com Editor
January 18, 2005
(CNSNews.com) – The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the nation’s most frequent provider of abortions, is performing more of the procedures than ever — albeit in fewer clinics — and relying increasingly on the revenue generated from abortions, according to its Fiscal Year 2004 annual report.
With other services becoming marginalized in Planned Parenthood’s overall business, the organization relied on abortion for 34 percent of its clinic income from July 1, 2003, to June 30, 2004, up from 32 percent in Fiscal Year 2002 and FY 2003.
After a spike in private contributions two years ago, Planned Parenthood saw those donations drop 17 percent last year, but U.S. taxpayer assistance in the form of government grants reached record levels.
Numerous calls to Planned Parenthood offices in both New York City and Washington, D.C., seeking comment for this article, were not returned, but a survey of newspaper stories regarding the closing of 11 of the organization’s clinics during Fiscal Year 2004 revealed a common cause.
‘A business decision’
Last fall, the clinic in Tulia, Texas, became the 16th Planned Parenthood center in the state panhandle to shut its doors during the past seven years. Only three such facilities remain in the area.
Claudia Stravato, chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle, said the Tulia facility was closed due to low patient load and insufficient government funding to reimburse the organization for its expenses.
“We’re basically in survival mode here,” Stravato told the Amarillo Globe-News when the clinic in Pampa was closed down for similar reasons. “Nobody wants to close clinics and cut services, but we can only do so much with so little.”
The clinic in Cardigan, Ohio, experienced the same fate some months earlier, when Planned Parenthood of North Central Ohio (PPNCO) consolidated its services with those offered at the nearby Crawford County facility.
Cindy Biggs, head of PPNCO, blamed the merger on a decrease in state funding.
Citing rising costs and declining demand, Planned Parenthood of Greater Indiana closed clinics in the cities of Martinsville, New Castle and Salem during December of 2003
“We have to pick the right locations to be in,” spokeswoman Theresa Browning told the Indianapolis Star. “At this time, these three do not seem to be in the right location, and we need to be responsive to the community.”
No abortions were performed at the three centers, which lost a combined total of more than $135,000 in the previous 22 months, she said.
“We believe this change is going to be a better investment of our resources,” Browning added, “and will be able to give the clients what they want and need.”
In August of 2003, Planned Parenthood Northern Michigan (PPNM) closed its clinic in Houghton, Mich., after two years of operation.
“While we recognize the need for affordable family planning services in the Copper Country,” said Scott Blanchard, executive director of PPNM, “our Houghton center simply hasn’t served enough clients to justify the monthly costs to keep it going.”
Closing the facility was a difficult decision, Blanchard noted in a press release, in part because “those who oppose Planned Parenthood’s presence in Houghton will undoubtedly see this as a victory.
“However, this was strictly a business decision,” he said.
Downward trend
These business decisions have resulted in the number of clinics operated by Planned Parenthood declining from 938 at the organization’s peak in 1995 to about 850 a decade later, according to Jim Sedlak, executive director of Stop Planned Parenthood (STOPP) International, a subdivision of the American Life League. Sedlak analyzed Planned Parenthood’s annual reports for the last decade.
“Planned Parenthood insists as a business that every one of its clinics must make money or get closed down,” Sedlak said. “It makes no difference what the federation as a whole is doing.”
Nevertheless, the net loss of almost 90 clinics over the past 10 years and 17 facilities during the most recent fiscal year suggests that the public is increasingly steering away from Planned Parenthood offices, Sedlak said, and is consistent with other information contained in the annual report.
Planned Parenthood increased the number of abortions at its facilities by 6.1 percent to 244,628, according to the FY 2004 report, even though the total number of abortions performed nationwide has been declining since 1997.
Using an average cost of $400 per abortion, Sedlak estimates that the organization took in $104 million from surgical abortions — the first time this number has surpassed $100 million — accounting for 34 percent of the organization’s $302.6 million clinic income.
While Planned Parenthood increased its numbers of surgical and chemical abortions, breast exams at its facilities dropped by 13.3 percent. And the organization aborted 138 babies for every adoption referral to an outside agency, according to data in the report.
The most recent figures available on Planned Parenthood’s distribution of the abortion-inducing drug combination RU-486 are from 2002. During that year, more than 95,000 customers at 203 offices were given the RU-486 pills. Forty-nine of those facilities do not perform surgical abortions, but began handing out the drugs that cause chemical abortions.
Following an aggressive marketing campaign, the organization increased its distribution of the misnamed “morning-after pill” by 22.2 percent in FY 2004. While Planned Parenthood sells this drug regimen as an “Emergency Contraception Kit,” the fact that it can be used up to three days after sexual intercourse to prevent the implantation of a fertilized embryo in a woman’s uterus gives the pro-life community enough cause to consider the morning-after pill a form of abortion.
Planned Parenthood’s sale of the Emergency Contraception Kits has multiplied more than ten-fold in five years — from 72,024 in FY 1999 to the 774,482 in FY 2004.
The organization’s FY 2004 report also indicates a 2.2 percent increase in the number of clients receiving contraceptives, or a total figure of 2,257,154, which does not include the clients receiving Emergency Contraception Kits. This increase contradicts recent surveys elsewhere that show the use of pure contraceptives, preventing the fertilizing of an embryo, to be declining in the United States.
‘Money is money’
Planned Parenthood’s bottom line is still solid. The organization posted its 18th straight year of record total income ($810 million) and ended the period with a net profit of $35.2 million.
“Increases in abortions, more money from taxpayers’ pockets and bigger profit margins — all while clinics are closing down and donations are dwindling. That is the state of Planned Parenthood,” Sedlak said.
The funding Planned Parenthood receives from government agencies is particularly troubling to Mark Crutcher, founder and president of the Texas-based pro-life group, Life Dynamics. “That organization receives an obscene amount of money in taxes,” he said.
Even though government grants are given for specific projects and are prohibited by law from being used for abortions, that funding still helps Planned Parenthood in its overall operations, Crutcher said.
“Money is money,” he stated. “If you can take in $20 million a year for advertising, then you don’t have to spend your own money on that. If you’re a different clinic and you don’t get that funding, then you’ve got to find that money to advertise. This arrangement frees up funds for Planned Parenthood to use for other things, like performing abortions.”
Despite the net loss of centers across the country, Planned Parenthood opened two new facilities in October: the Tri-Cities Health Center in Saginaw, Mich., by Planned Parenthood of East Central Michigan; and an express health center in Clackamas County, Ore., by Planned Parenthood of Columbia/Williamette.
Planned Parenthood also managed to open a clinic in Hattiesburg, Miss., but the clinic doesn’t perform abortions, and Mississippi’s restrictions on abortion continue to make it one of the least receptive places in America for the organization.
Mississippi law allows any health-care provider to refuse to perform any abortion-related procedure, including those emanating from emergency referrals. Both parents are required to give consent before a minor can have an abortion, and women seeking the procedure must be told that it could increase their risk of getting breast cancer.
Abortions in Mississippi reached their peak in 1991, when 8,814 were reported, according to an Associated Press report. By 2002, the number had dropped to 3,605, giving the state one of the lowest abortion rates in the nation, the same report stated.
Mississippi doesn’t even have a Planned Parenthood chapter, so the new clinic in Hattiesburg is being operated by the affiliate from the neighboring state of Alabama.
“Some Mississippi women drive across the state line to get abortions, but the poorest of the poor are either having the kids or getting a back-alley abortion,” Larry Rodick, director of Planned Parenthood of Alabama, told the Associated Press.
In another part of the South, Texas has provided Planned Parenthood with another challenge — getting its facilities built.
During construction of a clinic in Austin in late 2003, the general contractor withdrew because a boycott campaign persuaded most potential subcontractors to steer clear of the project.
The facility was eventually completed, though the names of the individuals and businesses that worked on the structure are being kept confidential.
More recently, plans to expand an abortion clinic in downtown Houston ran into unexpected problems from a pro-life group in the city. As previously reported by the Cybercast News Service, the Houston Coalition for Life learned that Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas was seeking architects for the project.
The Coalition sent more than 1,000 letters, signed by community leaders, to local construction company officials, asking them to “please do the right thing by rejecting this job if Planned Parenthood asks you to participate.”
The pro-life group is also listing businesses that participate in the project on its website.
‘Now is the time’
As Planned Parenthood approaches the 32nd anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision on Jan. 22, opponents of the organization hope to force it to make more “business decisions” that will further reduce the number of clinics — and abortions — in its future.
National Right to Life reports that nearly 45 million abortions were performed in the United States between 1973, when the Supreme Court legalized the procedure, and the end of 2003. The Alan Guttmacher Institute, which is the research arm for Planned Parenthood, estimates that overall in the United States, more than 1.3 million abortions were performed in 2003. Planned Parenthood’s annual report indicates that the organization’s clinics were responsible for nearly 19 percent of that total.
“The public is increasingly rejecting Planned Parenthood’s radical agenda, but apparently, our elected officials haven’t gotten the message,” Sedlak said.
“Now is the time for Americans to expand the growing efforts to close Planned Parenthood clinics and to put pressure on politicians to stop the obscene amount of taxpayer money that is being funneled to the nation’s largest abortion chain.”
E-mail a news tip to Randy Hall.
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — When it lobbies state lawmakers or the American public, Planned Parenthood says it does more than just abortions. But the number of abortions the business performs has risen in each of the last two years and is now almost 20 percent of the 1.3 million abortions that take place annually in the United States.
According to figures from Planned Parenthood’s annual report, its centers nationwide performed 244,628 abortions in 2003, a 6.1 percent increase from the year before. In 2004, Planned Parenthood performed 255,015, another 4.3 percent increase.
“Twenty years ago, PPFA was directly responsible for more than 5.5 percent of all abortions committed in the United States,” explained Life Decisions International president Douglas Scott. “It is now responsible for nearly 20 percent.”
While abortions are on the rise, the number of women Planned Parenthood refers to adoption agencies is decreasing.
In 2003, PPFA referred just 1,774 pregnant women to adoption agencies, which was a 9.6 percent decrease from the previous year. In 2004, that low number declined to 1,414 women, a nearly 20 percent decrease.
As a result, Planned Parenthood performs 180 abortions for every woman it refers to an adoption agency, according to its own figures.
“[I]f a woman wants to give birth to a healthy baby, PPFA kicks her out the door with a referral slip. After all, adoption is not where the money is,” Scott said.
Not only has Planned Parenthood increased the number of abortions it performs, its centers have become more specialized as abortion facilities and more abortions are performed at fewer centers.
In 1985, Parenthood operated 763 facilities nationwide. That number increased to 922 in 1992. At that time, PPFA announced it would attempt to expand to 2,000 facilities by the year 2000.
Instead, the abortion operation encountered opposition in many areas where it attempted to expand. Rather than open new facilities, PPFA was forced to close some and combine others.
As of June 2004, PPFA said it operated only 850 facilities — an 8 percent decrease from 1992. It has closed more since then.
Due to all the negative publicity, legal drain, and community opposition, why doesn’t PP simply remove abortion from its list of “services” if it truly comprises such a small portion?
Because then some women would have nowhere else to go.
If PP would remove that 3% service, could it still survive?
Are you kidding? It would be SO much easier for PP to operate if they didn’t do abortions. But they’re not going to abandon women who need abortions just because some religious fanatics have a problem with it.
Are you kidding? It would be SO much easier for PP to operate if they didn’t do abortions. But they’re not going to abandon women who need abortions just because some religious fanatics have a problem with it.
Posted by: tp at October 27, 2007 12:29 PM What makes you think that everyone against abortion is religous?
tp said….
Are you kidding? It would be SO much easier for PP to operate if they didn’t do abortions.
Um….. NO, I don’t think so! If PP stopped performing abortions, they would lose about 35% of it’s $810 billion income. And I’m guessing they may also lose a great amount of “donor” funds given by the hardcore pro-abortion feminazis.
And I’m guessing they may also lose a great amount of “donor” funds given by the hardcore pro-abortion feminazis.
Posted by: Kristi at October 27, 2007 12:50 PM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hardcore pro-abortion feminazis?
“NO, I don’t think so! If PP stopped performing abortions, they would lose about 35% of it’s $810 billion income.”
we’ll they’d also lose a great deal of their expenses, so they just might come out ahead. Neither you nor I know without a much more sophisticated examination of their financial statements. I’m really not interested in doing that.
Why PP will not stop committing abortions:
-PP was started as a “population control” organization and that remains its primary mission. It exists not to provide “healthcare”, but to keep the human population down.
-PP gets a lot of taxpayer cash and support via pro-abortion politicians. If they stop the abortions, odds are that the pro-abortion politicians will shut off the funds.
-At PP, human life is cheap, but abortions aren’t. Killing babies is a profitable business.
Laura,
And I’m guessing they may also lose a great amount of “donor” funds given by the hardcore pro-abortion feminazis.
*
Posted by: Kristi at October 27, 2007 12:50 PM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*
Hardcore pro-abortion feminazis?
I’m sorry, but I just have to laugh! I expected you to add “did somebody ring?”
Hal,
I’m really not interested in doing that.
What does interest you?
(That’s a serious question. What are you passionate about?)
mk, I’m passionate about my girls. With two teenagers, I don’t have a lot of extra time for “interests,” but I have a few other. I spend a lot more time than I should working on a Board for a non-Profit educational institution. I’m playing a bit of tennis. Sorting through Planned Parenthood’s financial statements doesn’t seem like a good use of my time. Have a good evening, i’m getting on a plane home.
Planned Parenthood doens’t remove abortions from their services because then many girls who needed them would be left to their own devices and many would end up dead.
They absoutely could survive without it, financially. If they stopped providing abortions then people such as yourselves would stop boycotting them (except the extreme faction who believe it is horribly immoral to–gasp!–provide people with affordable birth control) and thereforward use their many other useful services.
Will they do that? No. Why? Because Planned Parenthood will not bow down to the demands of people who don’t like what they do–especially when these people aren’t even clients.
rrrrrrrrrrrrrright. PP will continue to perform abortions, not because they make millions and millions of dollars doing so, but only because they want to be brave and courageous by standing against the “nasty” pro-lifers. Oh, Planned Parenthood …. my hero!!
Hmm, sorry. Not convinced.
Ok, so I saw predicted they would lose 35% of 810 billion dollars of income.
Now f that holds true, they are still making billions of dollars, enough to keep providing birth control and other healthcare at low costs.
So remind me again why they still do abortions if they would still have billions of dollars of income to fund themselves?
Right, because they want to be sure that women are able to access abortion should they choose to have one.
Here’s a question: Say PP gets wiped off the face of the earth tomorrow; where do we go(not for abortions, but for basic health care)?
I ask this as an uninsured, 24 year old woman, who has mentally wiped PP off the face of my earth. I refuse to let an abortionst touch me or anyone affiliated with this orginazation, and because of that choice, I have no options aside from a health department clinic that only opens once every 6 weeks.
I’m tired of JUST being against PP….what are we working FOR?
Destiny, my state has free clinics. PP is not the answer.
Destiny, I live in DuPage County very near the new PP. We have a County health clinic and I know there was (when I lived in Kane County years ago) a clinic that provided services on a sliding scale in addition to the County HC. These clinics are open all week but do move around the County to make it more convenient for the residents.
They offer everything PP does, EXCEPT abortion and they DO OFFER prenatal care. Maybe if our tax dollars weren’t funding PP to the tune of tens of millions of dollars we could fund these clinics even better.
Hardcore pro-abortion feminazis?
I think what she meant to say was “Laura.”
“Maybe if our tax dollars weren’t funding PP to the tune of tens of millions of dollars we could fund these clinics even better.”
YES!!! Exactly!!!
I remember when I lived in Harrisburg, PA. There was a place called Hamilton Health. They were a full service health care clinic for the poor. I found out about them because a lot of my MH/MR clients went there, and started taking my family there. They were sliding scale. When my son broke his arm, I think our total bill was something like $12. Very reasonable.
The thing that really impressed me was somebody did research on the infant mortality rate in the city before and after Hamilton Health opened, and they discovered that the clinic had an impressive effect in reducing infant mortality. Women were able to get affordable prenatal care, and they had someplace to take their sick babies.
When I hear abortion advocates getting all snarky about childbirth mortality, I ask, “Then why don’t you provide prenatal care, to reduce childbirth mortality?” No amount of abortions is going to improve childbirth mortality, even if abortion didn’t cause a higher rate of complications in future pregnancies, any more than encouraging people to fly to vacation destinations is going to reduce the rate of traffic fatalities. If you want to reduce traffic fatalities, you have to address traffic fatalities.
One thing I learned when I was studying this was that pregnant women can be sorted statistically into four risk categories: Highest risk, high risk, low risk, and lowest risk. And the biggest predictor of mortality? How many prenatal vists she has.
If she has significantly more than recommended, she’s highest risk. This makes sense, as only the sickest women with the biggest health problems. So you target that group by working on specific treatments for these particular pregnancy related health problems.
But the second-highest risk group? Those with no prental visits at all. These women aren’t getting screening, aren’t getting health advice, aren’t getting hooked into the health care delivery system, aren’t getting their vitamins, etc.
You can move women from the second highest risk group into the low risk group by simply providing ONE PRENATAL VISIT.
Could you imagine the hue and cry if we proposed that every woman in America was entitled to a single comprehensive prenatal visit upon diagnosis of pregnancy? The abortion lobby would be pitching hissy fits at our “presumption” that these women intended to carry to term. Never mind that the comprehensive visit would benefit them regardless of whether or not they chose birth — these visits would also detect health problems that a conscientious abortion doctor would take into account as well. They might discover undiagnosed health problems overall that the woman needs care for.
When I see the abortion lobby saying that every pregnant woman ought to be offered a prenatal checkup, instead of “counseled as to the availablity of safe, legal abortion” — and I’ve seen abortion rights activists actually lobby for this, for every woman diagnosed pregnant to be “counseled as to the availability of safe, legal abortion” — I’ll believe that all the words about maternal mortality mean anything other than some excuse to justify abortion.
You rock , Christina.
Christina, You do!
I remember when I lived in Harrisburg, PA. There was a place called Hamilton Health. They were a full service health care clinic for the poor. I found out about them because a lot of my MH/MR clients went there, and started taking my family there. They were sliding scale. When my son broke his arm, I think our total bill was something like $12. Very reasonable.
The thing that really impressed me was somebody did research on the infant mortality rate in the city before and after Hamilton Health opened, and they discovered that the clinic had an impressive effect in reducing infant mortality. Women were able to get affordable prenatal care, and they had someplace to take their sick babies.
When I hear abortion advocates getting all snarky about childbirth mortality, I ask, “Then why don’t you provide prenatal care, to reduce childbirth mortality?” No amount of abortions is going to improve childbirth mortality, even if abortion didn’t cause a higher rate of complications in future pregnancies, any more than encouraging people to fly to vacation destinations is going to reduce the rate of traffic fatalities. If you want to reduce traffic fatalities, you have to address traffic fatalities.
One thing I learned when I was studying this was that pregnant women can be sorted statistically into four risk categories: Highest risk, high risk, low risk, and lowest risk. And the biggest predictor of mortality? How many prenatal vists she has.
If she has significantly more than recommended, she’s highest risk. This makes sense, as only the sickest women with the biggest health problems. So you target that group by working on specific treatments for these particular pregnancy related health problems.
But the second-highest risk group? Those with no prental visits at all. These women aren’t getting screening, aren’t getting health advice, aren’t getting hooked into the health care delivery system, aren’t getting their vitamins, etc.
You can move women from the second highest risk group into the low risk group by simply providing ONE PRENATAL VISIT.
Could you imagine the hue and cry if we proposed that every woman in America was entitled to a single comprehensive prenatal visit upon diagnosis of pregnancy? The abortion lobby would be pitching hissy fits at our “presumption” that these women intended to carry to term. Never mind that the comprehensive visit would benefit them regardless of whether or not they chose birth — these visits would also detect health problems that a conscientious abortion doctor would take into account as well. They might discover undiagnosed health problems overall that the woman needs care for.
When I see the abortion lobby saying that every pregnant woman ought to be offered a prenatal checkup, instead of “counseled as to the availablity of safe, legal abortion” — and I’ve seen abortion rights activists actually lobby for this, for every woman diagnosed pregnant to be “counseled as to the availability of safe, legal abortion” — I’ll believe that all the words about maternal mortality mean anything other than some excuse to justify abortion.
Posted by: Christina at October 29, 2007 5:54 PM
……………………………
Where have you gone to for prenatal testing, paps, cancer screening? Where did your momma and your grandma go? Huh? LOL. If your grandma is younger than me, she might have been able to afford and find such.
You don’t know anything about anything.