By Jim Sedlak
A month ago, Planned Parenthood Federation of America released its 2017-2018 Annual Report. The report contained a great deal of information on the organization’s finances and its services. The finances were addressed in Part 1 of our Wednesday STOPP Report two weeks ago. In this second part of the discussion about that report, we will look at PP’s “services.”
Planned Parenthood’s reporting of its services is done for a one-year period that, for this annual report, ran from October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017. Because the finances contained in Planned Parenthood’s 2018 Annual Report covered a period that only overlapped the services numbers by three months, it is not valid to establish a correlation between its financial numbers and its service numbers. This is why we are reporting the service numbers in a separate article.
A full list of Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s finances and services over the last five years can be found on our STOPP website.
Of particular concern to all Americans has to be Planned Parenthood’s abortion business. It has killed some 8.1 million preborn children through medical and surgical abortions since 1970. For this article, we will look at the abortions at Planned Parenthood over the last 10 years.
Over those last 10 years, Planned Parenthood has committed 3,280,520 abortions. That is more than the population of any of the top 10 cities in the United States (except New York City and Los Angeles). The city of Chicago has less people than Planned Parenthood killed over the last 10 years. Planned Parenthood ended the lives of more than twice the population of San Diego (CA) as well as more than the combined populations of Houston (TX) and San Jose (CA); or Phoenix (AZ) and Dallas (TX); or Philadelphia (PA) and San Antonio (TX).
As bad as all of this sounds, Planned Parenthood is not happy with its death toll. Over these 10 years, Planned Parenthood has not been able to significantly increase its killing business. Despite increasing the number of its facilities that commit abortions by over 20 percent, its abortion numbers have risen less than three percent. This is the reason that Dr. Leana Wen, the new president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, has stated that she is looking to expand Planned Parenthood’s abortion business.
Although it is true that the estimated percentage of abortions in the country committed by Planned Parenthood has gone from 26.7 percent to 37.7 percent, that increase is mostly due to the closing of independent abortion facilities, as well as to the reduction of the overall abortion rate in the United States.
The chart below shows the number of abortions committed by Planned Parenthood each year, the number of abortion clinics it operated, and the percentage of the estimated number of national abortions that were committed by Planned Parenthood:
Year Abortions Abortion Clinics % Nat’l Abortions
2007-2008 ____ 324,008 _________ 295 _____________ 26.7%
2008-2009 ____ 331,796 _________ 304 _____________ 28.8%
2009-2010 ____ 329,445 _________ 321 _____________ 29.9%
2010-2011 ____ 333,964 _________ 322 _____________ 31.6%
2011-2012 ____ 327,166 _________ 335 _____________ 32.4%
2012-2013 ____ 327,653 _________ 342 _____________ 34.2%
2013-2014 ____ 323,999 _________ 337 _____________ 35.0%
2014-2015 ____ 328,348 _________ 356 _____________ 35.5%
2015-2016 ____ 321,384 _________ 358 _____________ 34.7%
2016-2017 ____ 332,757 _________ 356 _____________ 37.7%
In addition to its relatively stagnant abortion business, over the last five years Planned Parenthood has also seen a general decline in its other services:
- Total services delivered DOWN from 10.6 million to 9.7 million.
- Unique customers DOWN from 2.7 million to 2.4 million.
- Total contraceptive sales DOWN from 3.6 million to 2.6 million
- PAP tests DOWN 378,692 to 274,145.
- Colposcopies DOWN from 32,334 to 16,570
- HPV vaccinations DOWN 34,739 to 19,705
- Breast exams DOWN 487,029 to 296,310 (PP doesn’t do/has never done mammograms)
- Pregnancy tests DOWN 1.13 million to 1.07 million
- Prenatal services DOWN 18,684 to 9,055
- Family practice services DOWN 65,464 to 37,714
The only services, other than abortion, to see slight increases were:
- HIV testing UP 704,079 to 741,352
- STI procedures UP 3.7 million to 3.9 million
- Adoption referrals UP from 1,880 to 2,831
Everything considered, the latest Planned Parenthood annual report shows an organization struggling to attract customers and deliver services. Planned Parenthood has reported 2.4 million customers three years in a row. In the 20 years we have tracked Planned Parenthood customer data, we have found that it is very rare for the number to remain constant for three straight years.
Public opinion of Planned Parenthood has also shifted over the years. Although polls are not a reliable source for detailed information, they can be useful in spotting trends. According to the Gallup polling organization, back in the 1990s, the general public had a 79-81 percent positive approval of Planned Parenthood. That approval has declined to 59-62 percent in the last five years.
Planned Parenthood used to make public the characteristics of its abortion customers. Back in 1992, Planned Parenthood reported 23.2 percent of the women who it aborted were non-Hispanic black, 12.5 percent were Hispanic, 7 percent were other racial/ethnic backgrounds, and only 57 percent were non-Hispanic white. The American public became outraged at the focus on killing minority children. So, Planned Parenthood stopped publicly reporting the data. It didn’t stop focusing on murdering minority children; it just stopped reporting the numbers.
Bottom line, despite its many problems, Planned Parenthood is killing over 330,000 babies a year through surgical and medical abortions. It is killing millions more through its abortifacient birth control products. Planned Parenthood must be opposed until its number of services falls to zero.
Jim Sedlak is executive director of American Life League, founder of STOPP International, and host of a weekly talk show on the Radio Maria Network. He has been successfully fighting Planned Parenthood since 1985.
