NPR fact checks, debunks Planned Parenthood’s “3% of all services are for abortion” lie
Perhaps James O’Keefe’s release yesterday of damaging investigative videos against National Public Radio (read more here, here, and here) had nothing to do with it.
Or perhaps a desperate NPR is suddenly trying to appear more fair and balanced in the face of potentially losing $90 million in taxpayer funding. You decide.
One day NPR journalists promote Planned Parenthood’s “only 3% of our business comes from abortion” lie – the day before the sting video was released – and the next day they fact check and correct the lie. First the Day 1 transcript, on March 7:
Julie Rover, NPR health policy correspondent: And it’s, you know, worth pointing out that abortion services, according to PP’s annual report, are 3% of the services that they provide. The vast majority of services they provide are preventive care services….
Marjorie Dannenfelser, President of the Susan B. Anthony List: Well, it is the biggest abortion franchise in the nation. One in 10 of its clients receive abortions. If you are pregnant, 98% of its services go towards abortion. A quarter of abortions occurring in this nation are performed by PP clinics….
Neal Conan, host: They provide, as our caller just said, services – well, a lot of services in addition to abortions. Abortions compromise about 3% of their activities, as Julie Rovner told us…. PP may be the nation’s largest abortion provider, but that’s a small part of what it does. It’s also the nation’s largest provider of preventive health care for women and teens….
Dannenfelser: But I have to say, one in 10 of PP clients receives an abortion. This is not – this 3% figure about how much abortion that they do is simply not reflective of the import of what abortion is in the array of services…. When one in 10 clients actually receives an abortion, that is a much more revealing figure than 3% , because those other figures are bundled within a client….
Conan: And, Sarah Stoesz, I wanted to ask you – there was our previous guest, Marjorie Dannenfelser, who said that 1/10 of – one in 10 of the patients who visit PP – gets an abortion. Is that correct?
Sarah Stoesz, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota & South Dakota: No, that’s not correct. That’s a made-up number. In fact, it’s about 3% of our patients are abortion care patients. The rest of our patients are there for basic reproductive health services, family planning, cancer screenings and treatment, so on and so forth. So she’s completely wrong about that.
Conan: She said that 3% number is made up….
Stoesz: Well, she can say that all she wants, but that doesn’t make it true. We do keep patient data, and we are audited regularly by outside auditors. And so the data are there in addition to our own auditors looking at our books. We’re also audited by the Title X program. So there are plenty of outside eyes on this.
That was March 7. On March 8, the day O’Keefe’s 1st video was released, came this grudging correction…
Conan: Finally, several of you wrote during yesterday’s show about PP, about the conflict over what percentage of the agency’s clients receive abortions. We’ve asked NPR’s heal policy correspondent Julie Rovner to join us again. Julie, always nice to have with you us.… And we heard two figures from opposing sides yesterday, 3% and 10%, who’s right?
Rovner: Well, the conflict is really that PP keeps its statistics according to the percent of those services that are provided, not according to how many people get what. So it turns out that there are – that indeed, abortions are 3% of the services provided, although – and that was what, I think, Sarah Stoesz from PP kind of misspoke when she said it was 3% of patients who come in get abortions.
It is actually a little bit closer to the 10% that Marjorie Dannenfesler suggested, because there are about 3 million patients who come in. There are about 300,000 abortions provided.
Now, you can’t really divide that because that’s not how they keep their statistics. But indeed, that – those are the actual statistics. Three million patients, 300,000 abortions, but you have to contrast that to more than a million pregnancy tests and all kinds of other services provided. So indeed, it’s a small amount in terms of percentage of services provided.
Conan: And the difference might be that the same woman who later received an abortion also got a pregnancy test and counseling and some other services.
Rovner: Absolutely. So many of those patients are getting more than one services and who – many of the patients who get an abortion are probably getting other services as well.
“A little bit closer”? 3 million divided by 300,000 is actually 10%. Furthermore, and the bigger point, as LiveAction.org pointed out, over 35% of PP’s income comes from abortion. NPR would be fair and balanced to report that statistic as well.
[Photo by Eric Scheidler’s son Sam of Eric’s daughter Ada]

Using the 3% of services consider that 3% of the time in a week is 5 hours. If domestic violence happened “just 3% of the time”, would that be OK with PP, NPR and the rest of the defenders of that nonsense. Any difference between being beaten and death?
Defund the defenders!!!
Defund the defenders!!!
Is it just me or does it feel like we’re in the midst of something miraculous like our country is shaking of it’s grave clothes. I think it’s appropriate that it’s spring time and life is winning! Hope everyone has a very blessed day.
Patty
And when you think about it that’s exactly what abortion is domestic violence. And I bet some of the same arguments they use to justify abortion were used to justify violence against women.
Getting our opponents among the abortionists and in the media to recognize and accept the truth is like pulling teeth.
The phrase “abortion care” makes me shiver as much as “wrongful birth” does.
Myrtle,
Domestic violence that always ends in death, that is….
Ha! I LOVE it that our local Planned Parenthood yokel, Sarah Stoesz gets called out as a liar! Thanks Jill for blogging this; it’s a HUGE encouragement. At Bound4life.com we’ve been talking about PP’hood’s disingenuous bundling/unbundling of services to hide percentage of abortion business for quite a while. For instance, all those pregnancy tests they provide as a “reproductive service” are required before an abortion. Since most of their business is cash business, they can code their procedures creatively to HIDE how much of the business is actually abortion-related. And they do it ferociously. Thanks to Abby for pointing this out over at Live Action.
MaryRose
Your blog is beautiful. Life is precious.
Thanks, Myrtle. I haven’t blogged for a couple of weeks (shame on me!) but you’re lighting a fire under me ;)
MaryRose
Don’t feel bad I’m ADD and started a blog on environmental issues and have yet to make it back there. Your Catholic right. I think it’s nice the way the Church affirms family. I’m not a practicing Catholic but was raised Catholic. In 1987 I received the baptism of the Holy Ghost I think that experience saved my life. I still love though my Catholic roots. A few years ago I read something in a Catholic magazine that really helped me it spoke of taking care of a family as something to be approached as a vocation. It really helped me. It was really affirming. Hopefully it’s a good fire! If it wasn’t please forgive me. ;(
3%, 5%, 10%, 50%…does it really matter? Women have a legal right to abortion. Personally, I can’t wait to see how this whole thing plays out. If the majority of abortion providers in the United States are shut down because of a lack of funding, a whole new world of litigation opportunities are going to open up for pro-choice lawyers. Check out Planned Parenthood v Casey and Eisenstadt v. Baird. Either way, the anti-choice movement is shooting itself in the foot with these attacks on Planned Parenthood.
Katie,
To answer your question, yes, the truth matters. It reveals the integrity of a person, or lack thereof.
Katie,
If abortion providers have to shut down, employees can take their skills and find jobs at others clinics, hospitals, CPC’s, nursing homes, etc. The health field NEEDs people.
To answer your question, yes, the truth matters. It reveals the integrity of a person, or lack thereof.
I’ve been to Katie’s place and lack thereof definitely applies.
Katie, Welcome to Jill’s – – where Truth is spoken, defended and encouraged by Prolifers.
Katie
It matters very much in thecontext of this discussion because PP is using the deliberately misleading 3% to justify their government funding. Government subsidized abortion is prohibited at this time, so PPs 3% argument is the basis for continued funding. The number is actually 1 in 10 patients get abortions, which is great deal different from1 in 30. The correct numbers weaken their argument signifactly, especially considering the continued popularity of the Hyde amendment.
So when public funding ceases to be available for abortions I imagine private sponsors of death will foot the bill. Their feet will undoubtably be intact! Unlike certain pre-born babies. Somehow I just don’t see proponents of death getting as excited when there footing the bill. Maybe litigation can be commenced against the American taxpayer for not dancing to their idiotic death chant. I’m thinking if the American taxpayer really gets a better understanding of planned parenthood, planned parenthood will have better sense then to continue pushing lest it lose even more. This thought just occurred to me why with the outcry of CEO salaries we hear very little outcry of Planned Parenthood executives salaries?
Praxedes,
I was referring to PP’s integrity not Katie’s. Maybe she’ll reconsider her statement about the percentages (?).
Katie, Welcome to Jill’s – – where Truth is spoken, defended and encouraged by Prolifers
I like that!!.
If the majority of abortion providers in the United States are shut down because of a lack of funding, a whole new world of litigation opportunities are going to open up for pro-choice lawyers.
Could you explain this, because I do not understand how you could possibly think that. Because abortion is legal, it must be subsidized by the government? That doesn’t make any sense at all.
myrtle miller says:
March 9, 2011 at 5:27 pm
So when public funding ceases to be available for abortions I imagine private sponsors of death will foot the bill. Their feet will undoubtably be intact! Unlike certain pre-born babies. Somehow I just don’t see proponents of death getting as excited when there footing the bill.
PPFA’s mission statement seems to include population control (see their Federal Tax Form 990, -2008, pg. 86), nationally and internationally, so one would think the big donors who donate money around the world for population control would be stepping over each other in a race to get those big checks to PP.
Maybe litigation can be commenced against the American taxpayer for not dancing to their idiotic death chant. I’m thinking if the American taxpayer really gets a better understanding of planned parenthood, planned parenthood will have better sense then to continue pushing lest it lose even more. This thought just occurred to me why with the outcry of CEO salaries we hear very little outcry of Planned Parenthood executives salaries?
Many people think that non-profit higher-ups make nominal salaries. That’s not so in some cases! A lot of people don’t know, or just don’t care…
At the risk of offering yet another side-trail: I have to second Myrtle’s compliments, MaryRose; your blog is really good!
I might also add that your entire family is more than photogenic/beautiful/handsome enough to qualify for the “Jill Stanek Blog’s Ridiculously Attractive/Photogenic Family Conspiracy”! :) (Running gag… sorry!)
Would NPR be cannibalizing the Sacred Cow of Planned Parenthood For the MONEY???
Myrtle,
Yes, definitely a good fire :) It’s good for me to get productive ;)
Paladin,
Thank you! :) Our photographer is a good friend and always gets our better sides ;)
If the majority of abortion providers in the United States are shut down because of a lack of funding, a whole new world of litigation opportunities are going to open up for pro-choice lawyers.
Compare this to other elective procedures for a moment,
“If the majority of rhinoplasty providers in the United States are shut down because of a lack of funding, a whole new world of litigation opportunities are going to open up…”
“If the majority of breast enhancement providers in the United States are shut down because of a lack of funding, a whole new world of litigation opportunities are going to open up…”
Oh wait. It doesn’t make sense after all…
Katie: what about the unborn baby GIRL’s rights? at least 50% of abortions are girls. Girls who are denied the right to be born, the right to vote, etc, etc, etc….
Janet
Of course they believe in population control but without taxpayer funding they will not be able to continue killing at the rate they are presently. As long as abortion is legal private donors can fund it they just won’t be able to fund it as effectively. As for as salaries go I think most people didn’t have a clue about planned parenthoods agenda. Had they had a clue the amount of the salaries would have bothered them. What are your thoughts?
Has anyone seen this article that New Advent is linking to today? It’s written by a woman who is training to be an abortion provider. I am simply dumbfounded reading it.
http://thehairpin.com/2011/03/ask-an-abortion-provider/
As long as abortion is legal private donors can fund it they just won’t be able to fund it as effectively.
myrtle miller,
I’m agreeing with you. You probably know that pro-aborts created the term pro-choice back in the 1970’s because it allows Americans to address abortion without taking a definitive position. It neutralized the opposition to a great degree. Just wondering, in what way do you feel private funding wouldn’t be as effective?
Janet
I’m just guessing but I don’t think private funders have the cash base that government has. So when it gets to the point that public funding for abortion no longer exists and they have to rely on private funding I don’t think it will be enough to support the abortion budget. Another reason I don’t think it would work is because people are starting to see the true side of the abortion industry and it will soon no longer be politically correct to support the killing of babies. I believe when a moms life is truly in danger that measures should be taken to save both lives. What are your thoughts?
@ Robin: wow, I read that hairpin article, that was likely the most horrifying piece I’ve read in weeks. Well, a good tie for first anyway (that woman who was upset because she couldn’t abort her 21/22 week old baby after the pain law went into effect, she had to give birth to her precious premie and hold her while she died as opposed to having her ripped limb from limb is the other one). How utterly and terrifyingly insightful into a mind that thinks killing babies is a good calling.
@Robin: I read it. I’m just…horrified, really at the cavalier attitude in it.
” ….people are starting to see the true side of the abortion industry and it will soon no longer be politically correct to support the killing of babies.”
Myrtle, I hope this trend continues!
Here is something worth sharing–a pro-abort with intellectual honesty (taken from the New American) :
Give Kirsten Powers credit. She may be a liberal, abortion-rights supporter, but she is also willing to modify her opinion on the basis of an objective review of the facts.
Having delved into the research regarding Planned Parenthood and its agenda, Powers, writing for the Daily Beast, came to the only conclusion possible: Planned Parenthood is “a blindly ideological organization” dedicated not to its advertised objectives of women’s well-being and family planning but to population control. Moreover, she says, the organization willfully ignores the statistics regarding birth control and abortion, even when compiled by the Guttmacher Institute, which began as a division of Planned Parenthood and has since become the de facto research department of the entire abortion-contraceptive industry, in order to continue its “fleecing of taxpayers.
Janet
That’s my hope too that the womb is a safe place again. Back to school tomorrow. I should have spent the last three days studying. Back to the books tomorrow. Have a blessed rest of the week.
Katie,
There is no such thing as unicorns, centaurs, or abortion rights. People think that if they put the word “right” next to something, everyone will just fall in line like a bunch of sheeple. You swallowed it so that makes you sheeple too.
My mother did not have the right to kill me. She didn’t have it in 1903, 1973, and she doesn’t have the right to kill her children today, tomorrow, or a century in the future. I don’t have the right to kill my children. You don’t have the right to kill your children. Come on, conjugate the verbs with me: He doesn’t have the right, she doesn’t have the right, they don’t have the right, and we don’t have the right to kill our children.
You better wake up and smell the decaf, Katie, because abortion is being aborted.
Jill,
If PP abortions represent 35% of their income, then based on $1 Billion per year income…
$360 million was taxpayer subsidy (36% of the $1 Billion budget)
$350 million was from abortions (35% of $1 BILLION)
If we deduct the $360 million that taxpayers are forced to give as a subsidy, that leaves PP with $640 million that it actually earns.
Of that $640 million, $350 million is from abortions, That translates into 54.7% of the money PP actually earns coming from abortions.
So the issue of 3% vs 10% is not nearly so compelling as 54%, which supports Abby Johnson’s contention that the PP execs were trying to drum up abortions because that’s where they make their money.
Katie says:
March 9, 2011 at 4:39 pm
3%, 5%, 10%, 50%…does it really matter? Women have a legal right to abortion.
Abortion may be legal, but as Ninek says, we don’t TRULY have “a right” to kill our unborn children.
Granted, people have argued over whether the pre-born being is a person or alive for years. However, it doesn’t make sense to say that a human egg plus a human sperm come together and make anything else but another human when conception happens. (I mean, I KNOW that the being inside of me all those months wasn’t a kitten or anything but a human). And with ultrasound technology being what it is, that argument is starting to look more an more ridiculous.
The fact of the matter is, some laws aren’t RIGHT. It being legal doesn’t make it right.
Either way, the anti-choice movement is shooting itself in the foot with these attacks on Planned Parenthood.
How are we shooting ourselves in the foot, exactly?
Hollywood apparently has enough liberal, pro-abortion loving liberal feminists that support Planned Parenthood’s role. They also make wicked amounts of money. Defund Planned Parenthood so we the people don’t have to pay for an abortion and let these liberal, abortion loving feminists foot the bill if they truly believe PP’s rhetoric.
Ninek
Amen!
I love school but it’s not nearly as exciting Jill’s blog. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.
You’re an idiot. You clearly are very ignorant, and haven’t done much research. Your comments are hateful and wrong. Planned Parenthood is a NON-PROFIT organization, not a “franchise”. It’s primary purpose is to provide reliable, free health care for impoverished women who cannot afford it. If you had actually been inside a clinic (not protesting outside of it), and talked to some of the women using Planned Parenthood’s services, you would find that many of them are there to obtain pap smears, birth control, or simply more information about their reproductive health. I think we can all agree that abortion is a LAST RESORT, and Planned Parenthood does NOT promote it.
I don’t agree with that at all. I’ve talked to plenty of women who went to abortion as a first response for being pregnant, or swear that they would if they became pregnant (again).
Planned Parenthood absolutely does promote abortion, or they wouldn’t do it so much. They’d also provide more things like prenatal care.
Planned Parenthood performed more than 300,000 abortions last year alone. That’s more than a quarter of a million. So, honestly, they can “help” as many women with non-abortive services all they’d like, but they still kill hundreds of thousands of preborn children every year. And that’s just here in the U.S. That doesn’t count all the abortions they are party to around the world as part of the International Planned Parenthood Federation.
I’ve also read testimony after testimony from women who have gone to PP for prenatal care only to be told “we can’t help you with that, but we can schedule an abortion for you.”
Would you support a business if it killed children when they were 2 years old (still not fully “developed”) instead of in utero? Would it bother you at all? Even if they did a ton of other charitable work? Fed the homeless? “Sure, we euthanize toddlers here, but we also do a lot of things to help women and other people”?
What this boils down to is not our “idiocy” but the fact that you believe preborn humans have no value and that makes it acceptable to kill them, as long as their mothers want it. It also boils down to the fact that you don’t know as much about Planned Parenthood as you think you do.
As a faithful NPR listener of more than a quarter century, I’ll say this: they’re an astonishing mix of excellence and royal suckage. It’s like having a fine sherry and stirring in some crap, it really is. You find yourself wishing they’d keep them separate.
Andy: F PP. Let some other organization step in and take their place. They need to be 100% defunded, with those funds going to women’s health organizations who can buy out PP’s foreclosing clinics and provide the wonderful services you care about. Because it’s about the services, right? Not PP? You think they’re great because they provide all these services, such that even pro-lifers oughta love ’em? Well then, if the same services are provided by replacement organizations who happen to not provide abortions, all the wonder would still be intact. Right?
Don’t project idiocy.
Rasqual- If PP were to be defunded, and abortion were illegalized, desperate women in desperate situations would still find a way to terminate an unwanted pregancy. This would likely be done in an unsterile and dangerous environment, threatening the life of the mother. If you are pro-life, you should respect the mother´s life just as much as you do the fetus´.
I am not pro-life, and I firmly believe in a woman´s right to choose. I do not dispute that PP provides abortions, we all know that is a fact. However, what many people fail to see is that most their federal funding goes towards providing other essential services,which was the point I was trying to make before. You seem to only be interested in the abortion issue, which is fine. However, don´t pretend that PP doesn´t help women. Whatever vendetta you have against PP is childish, we both know that if PP were defunded, either another organization would open up, or women would begin to obtain abortions underground. Open your eyes to reality. I´m not the idiot here.
I am in complete agreement with Andy. As humans, I believe we are all against suffering. Pro-lifers believe that when an abortion is performed, the fetus feels pain. However, clearly they are ignorant, and uneducated. Science has PROVEN that the brain, which allows us to feel pain, has NOT developed by the time that legal abortions are performed. That is why after the first trimester, it is no longer legal to do an abortion. In this case, no one suffers.
However, if an unwanted child is born, it grows up knowing it is unwanted. It will likely grow up in a hard social and economic environment, causing more pain to both mother and child. Statistics say that this is why many children in this situation grow up with pyschological problems. If the child is put for adoption, it will still be aware that it was unwanted by its mother. We have enough children who need parents as it is.
Internationally, there are millions of parentless children suffering in places were abortion is not an option due to lack of resources. As a civilized and educated society, we ought to try to better the world. We have a responsiblity to these children, and we must look at the larger picture, and try to work together to improve the world.
Stop bickering over whether a few cells feel pain. Start making a change.
Mike, you couldn’t include more errors in your post if you tried.
As humans, I believe we are all against suffering.
If by “against suffering” you mean that suffering should be avoided at all costs and we should kill those who *might* suffer, um, no.
Pro-lifers believe that when an abortion is performed, the fetus feels pain.
Not necessarily. Children killed in late term abortions do feel pain. Early abortions most likely don’t.
“…has NOT developed by the time that legal abortions are performed. That is why after the first trimester, it is no longer legal to do an abortion. In this case, no one suffers.”
Where on earth did you get the impression that it is illegal to do abortions after the first trimester? That is untrue.
“However, if an unwanted child is born, it grows up knowing it is unwanted. It will likely grow up in a hard social and economic environment, causing more pain to both mother and child. Statistics say that this is why many children in this situation grow up with pyschological problems. If the child is put for adoption, it will still be aware that it was unwanted by its mother. We have enough children who need parents as it is.”
So you believe better dead than unwanted, poor, psychologically ill, etc. That is wrong.
“As a civilized and educated society, we ought to try to better the world.”
As a “civilized and educated society”, we should not be killing the defenseless unborn in a misguided attempt to solve our problems.
Andy, some women would indeed have abortions even if it became illegal. But you could say the same about rape, murder, armed robbery, and impaired driving. Arguing that something should be legal because outlawing it won’t completely stop it from happening commits the perfect solution fallacy. We do have good reason to believe that a total ban on abortion would drastically reduce its incidence. Importantly, it would also indicate that society as a whole has decided to reject a violent practice. A certain category of human beings that can now be killed without justification would be given legal protection. This is essential in a just society.
I do respect the mother’s life as much as much as the life of the fetus. How exactly does it logically follow that, because some women will endanger their own lives by trying to kill another completely innocent, defenceless person, that we should make it legal to kill? Should we also make it legal to hire hitmen, since it’s more dangerous to murder someone yourself than to pay a trained professional to do it? As much as you like to pretend, you can’t get to a non-absurd conclusion with your logic unless you start from the controversial premise that the life of the fetus is not as valuable as the life of the mother. This isn’t something that any respectable pro-life apologist will automatically concede. Ergo, the argument from unsafe abortions begs the question.
Your facts are also off. As early as 1960, Planned Parenthood’s medical director noted that 90% of abortions were done by physicians. The environment was sterile and safe because of the invention of antibiotics. The CDC reported only 39 abortion related deaths in 1972, the year before Roe. Ireland, where abortion is illegal unless the mother’s life is in danger, has one of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world. So it would seem that the number of mothers endangering their lives is statistically insignificant.
I don’t dispute the claim that Planned Parenthood provides some important healthcare services. The fact still remains that they kill over 300000 human beings every year (see Kel’s post, she summed it up rather well), and that sending them tax money frees up other funds that they use to provide abortions. There’s also the issue of their less than ethical practices including but not limited to billing fraud, statutory rape coverup, and willingness to aid and abet sex traffickers. Planned Parenthood also doesn’t have a monopoly on women’s reproductive healthcare. They do less than 2% of all pap tests nationwide. The only service that gets a double digit percentage is abortion (about 25%). So no, you can’t defend Planned Parenthood simply by pointing to all the good things they do and ignoring the abortion issue.
I do find it ironic that you call people who disagree with you ignorant idiots that have childish vendettas, haven’t done much research, and need to “open [their] eyes to reality” when you come in here repeating talking points and unsupported statements that we’ve all heard many times.
I think Andy’s love of calling people idiots is a case of projection.
OMG, I just noticed Andy’s second post came exactly a month after his first. Can’t wait until August 20 to see his further commentary on this matter.
“I think Andy’s love of calling people idiots is a case of projection.”
I see rasqual basically already made the same comment above. All well, it’s a point so true that it bears repeating.