By Jim Sedlak
On Friday, February 19, Planned Parenthood Federation of America released its 2019-2020 Annual Report. The report covers its finances from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020, as well as its service numbers from October 1, 2018, to September 30, 2019. The important thing to remember is that all of its service numbers are from a time before the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and over 50 percent of its financial numbers were also before the pandemic.
We are all aware of the political gains Planned Parenthood saw in the 2020 elections, and the tone of the report reflects the joy and optimism with which it is viewing the Biden administration. But the numbers in the report show a bloated Planned Parenthood organization struggling to remain relevant to both the American public and its own donor base.
First, let’s look at its customer base. Planned Parenthood used to be proud of its growing number of customers, but those days seem to have passed. During the 1990s, it consistently reported over three million customers a year. It hit a high of 3,140,540 unique customers in 2006 but has lost significant customers since then.
There has been much media reporting over the last week about how, since 2015, Planned Parenthood has added transgender services, particularly in the hopes of attracting new customers. Yet, this latest annual report shows Planned Parenthood has reported the same number of unique customers—2,400,000—for the last five years in a row (2014-2018), despite the fact that it went from zero transgender hormone customers in 2014 to now claiming that it is the second largest provider of transgender hormone services. Prior to 2014, the last time Planned Parenthood reported as few as 2,400,000 unique customers was in 1998!
This precipitous drop in clientele has caused Planned Parenthood to close 254 centers since 2006. In the PP world, centers close when they are no longer profitable. Centers lose their profitability when local pro-lifers, with guidance from national groups like STOPP International, focus on telling the truth about PP to everyone in town who will listen, and when national groups like the Center for Medical Progress release proof of PP’s gruesome activities. Included in those 254 closed centers are 105 that have closed since 2014.
In addition to its customers, Planned Parenthood documents the swift drop in the number of individual donors who have given to Planned Parenthood in recent years. Planned Parenthood reported in its latest annual report that it had 590,000 individual donors in its 2019-2020 fiscal year. That is the lowest number it has had in five years. It is over 900,000 less individual donors than the 1,500,000 it reported just two years ago.
Individuals making decisions on whom they see for services and those deciding on where to put their donations are abandoning Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood has had much more success in getting elected officials to send our money to them. In this latest annual report, Planned Parenthood says it received $618.1 million from taxpayers—almost identical to the $616.8 million it reported last year. These amounts are a total of both federal and state money. Planned Parenthood was able to offset the estimated $60 million loss in taxpayer money from the federal government with additional money it received from states—including the 16 states that pay for abortions with state taxpayer money.
Bottom line—the new PPFA Annual Report describes an organization the politicians love (especially Democrat politicians) and from which ordinary clients and donors are running away.
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.