Two more Planned Parenthoods close; number of clinics down 23% from high
I was researching something last week and stumbled on an announcement by Planned Parenthood of Northeast, Mid-Penn & Bucks County in Pennsylvania that it was shuttering its Carlisle clinic. This is not an abortion mill; it is what pro-lifers call a “feeder” – a conduit to PP abortion mills. But its closure is still a boon for the health and welfare of that community. And Planned Parenthood’s political influence will be removed from the area.
Add this to the news last week that the Planned Parenthood feeder clinic in Herkimer, New York, was also closing, and my latest tally is that the U.S. is down to 722 Planned Parenthoods, from a high in 1995 of 938.
This represents a 23% drop in the number of Planned Parenthoods in 18 years.
Yet, as LifeNews.com noted, the number of abortions the Planned Parenthood abortion giant commits continues to rise every year, and PP has reported over $1 billion in profits annually since its 2006-07 reporting period.
Nevertheless, as Dr. Michael New pointed out last week, fewer clinics mean fewer abortions. Had none of those 216 PP clinics closed, there would be that much more carnage, brokenness, and pro-abortion political influence. Each PP closure weakens the corporation.
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.
Great news!
So how does the math work? fewer clinics should mean the number of abortions decreases, but it has in fact risen. Is this because the clinics that remain open are larger and are doing more abortions? I fail to see the cause to celebrate.
Julie, PP is indeed getting meaner as it grows leaner. But were those other clinics open, there would be that many more abortions committed and abortafacients dispensed.
I thought the overall abortion rate was down? :/
Xalisae, it was, though we don’t have recent statistics. Planned Parenthood is cornering the market though, closing in on 1/3 market share from their 1/4 a few years ago. I wonder if the lack of abortionists is playing a role here, getting them to specialize on a abortion in a few clinics while the independent abortionists retire or get regulated out of existence.
Are we talking surgical abortion rate, or are we including the chemical abortions? I feel like I have heard that abortions were getting substantially harder to keep track of with the increasing prevalence or chemical abortions?
Regardless, a closed PP center is always a cause for celebration.
I wonder how many scared teens who don’t want their parents involved in their sex lives are going to take advantage of the pill-by-mail opportunity? It would be interesting to see how the rates of teen sex & abstinence are affected by this clinic and its doors closing.
I’m not sure what the true stats are on the number of abortions. Some say 55 million some say 75 million. How do we really know? There is the abortion pill or are they just counting surgical? I know more women with at least one abortion under her belt and others with multiples. Id say 75 million sounds more accurate.
All I know is when an abortion clinic closes it will make it more difficult for a woman to obtain. one which also might give her more time to change her mind.
Guttmacher’s stats do include RU-486 abortions. Although they’re somewhat more difficult to accurately track, the published data seems to be reliable (so abortion rates have fallen even with it taken into account). The abortion pill has reduced the decline in abortion clinics (and increased the number of Planned Parenthoods doing abortions), but it’s far from the game-changer that abortion proponents expected it to be.
Abortion stats will be even harder to track now that 14 year olds can walk into the local pharmacy and get abortion pills.
The number of abortions is up though the number of clinics is down because of the new mega clinics trend. Apparently, in some cases, PP may be closing small rural clinics themselves and just building a mega mill to cover a wider area. Or that may just be their cover for the fact that abortion facilities are being closed. There is no doubt that many of them are being closed forcibly and not by PP.
It is a definite cause for celebration whenever any abortion mill or even referring facility (which I still consider an abortion center) closes. If pro-lifers were having no impact, why wouldn’t the abortionists open mega centers and keep the other centers open?
However, we do need to focus our attention on how to close down the mega facilities, most of which are deliberately made to make it hard for prayers, protestors and sidewalk counselors to get near their “clients”.
Mobile pregnancy care units like those of “Save the Stork” are very helpful in this. And perhaps the internet now becomes more important than ever.