By Jim Sedlak
Last week, Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri announced that, effective July 1, it will merge with Planned Parenthood of Central Oklahoma. The new combined affiliate will use the name Planned Parenthood Great Plains.
There are usually a number of things that are considered in any Planned Parenthood merger. Back in 2010, Planned Parenthood announced a corporate requirement that every Planned Parenthood affiliate was to have at least one center that performed medical or surgical abortions by 2013. Planned Parenthood of Central Oklahoma was the last holdout against this edict. Now, it is no more.
A review of the two organizations’ finances reveals another, unsurprising, reason behind the merger. Both PPKMM ($3.4 million income in 2014) and PPCOK ($1.9 million) are relatively small affiliates. The Planned Parenthood Federation does not really like small affiliates and encourages them to merge. Even with the merger, the combined income of $5.3 million would rank PP Great Plains about 48th of the federation’s 56 affiliates.
In addition, except for a one-time bequest of $16.7 million that PPKMM received in 2013, the two affiliates have been losing money. Their last four years of financial reports show that PPCOK lost $96,636 in that time, while PPKMM lost a whopping $1.9 million.
PPKMM used the bequest to cover those operating losses and added the remainder to its investments. It is currently showing $17 million in net assets, but it is still losing money on its day-to-day operations.
At the beginning of 2016, PPKMM operated seven centers (Overland Park and Wichita in Kansas, and Columbia, Kansas City, Gladstone, Independence, and Warrensburg in Missouri) and PPCOK operated three (Edmond, Midwest City, and Oklahoma City). According to Planned Parenthood’s press release, Planned Parenthood Great Plains “will now operate a total of nine health centers in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri with providers in key metro areas including Oklahoma City, Wichita, Kansas City, and Columbia, MO.”
STOPP research has determined that PP’s centers in Warrensburg, Missouri, (closed in January) and in Midwest City, Oklahoma, are the two clinics that will no longer operate. In addition, a new PP center will open at 6112 NW 63rd St. in Oklahoma City.
In all of this detail, it is important to remember that the closing of the Central Oklahoma affiliate is the most significant development. Despite Planned Parenthood’s repeated protestations that abortion is not a major part of its business, it has now achieved its goal of having every one of its affiliates committing abortions in at least one center. Planned Parenthood: Abortion, no matter what.