In This Issue
- Planned Parenthood’s messy presidential transition
- Planned Parenthood’s first basic philosophy–uninhibited sex
- Planned Parenthood and Title X money
- Mobile ultrasound vehicles save lives at Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood’s messy presidential transition
From 2018 through 2020, Planned Parenthood went through a transition of leadership. Because of the size and the nature of the organization, the transition scenario was very public and filled with numerous twists and turns.
The basic facts are clear. Cecile Richards stepped down as the organization’s president and CEO in May 2018. PPFA had a temporary spokesperson, Dawn Laguens, while a committee searched for a new president/CEO. The committee settled on Dr. Leana Wen, and she officially took that role in November 2019. The board of directors quickly turned on her and fired Wen in July 2019. Alexis McGill Johnson was brought in as the acting president in 2019 and was formally named president/CEO in July 2020.
All of that is well known, but what took place behind the scenes, financially, as all these maneuvers were being made? Since the Planned Parenthood federation receives almost 40 percent of its annual income from the United States taxpayers, there is public interest in the finances of Planned Parenthood.
This article looks at the financial facts of all the changes that took place during the transition. All facts presented here were taken from official form 990s filed by PPFA with the federal government. In filings with the federal government, PPFA reports on a fiscal year basis—from July 1 of one year through June 30 of the next. In the discussion below, the salaries reported are identified by the year of the end of PPFA’s fiscal year.
FY 2017—this was Cecile Richards’ last full year as president/CEO. In that year, she received $744,833 total compensation. In that same year, Dawn Laguens was executive vice president (EVP) and received $638,532.
FY2018—Cecile Richards’ employment ended on May 2, 2018. She received $1,033,274 total compensation that year. Dawn Laguens was the EVP and spokesperson after Richards’ exit. She received $891,092.
FY2019—Leana Wen was hired as the new president/CEO on November 12, 2018. Her total compensation from then until the end of the fiscal year (June 2019) was $183,845. Dawn Laguens continued to serve as spokesperson (until Wen’s arrival) and EVP. Her total compensation was $817,430. Cecile Richards—who had resigned during FY2018—received additional compensation of $926,181.
FY2020—Leana Wen was fired by the board of directors and officially left on July 16, 2019. Her total compensation for the fiscal year was $1,284,459. Alexis McGill Johnson became the acting president after Wen’s departure. Her compensation for the fiscal year was $337,611. Dawn Laguens became “Senior Advisor” and her compensation for the year was $1,151,786.
In four fiscal years, Planned Parenthood paid a total of over $8 million to four individuals who occupied the top jobs in their corporate structure at their national office in New York City.
Remember, this is the same organization that is continually crying poverty and begging the federal government, states, cities, and communities across the country to give them taxpayer money.
Clearly, Planned Parenthood is not the benevolent organization it would like us to believe. It is, instead, an organization with a thirst for the blood and souls of children and a lust for money.
Jim Sedlak is executive director of American Life League, founder of STOPP International, and host of a talk show on the Radio Maria Network. He has been successfully fighting Planned Parenthood since 1985.
Planned Parenthood’s first basic philosophy–uninhibited sex
Planned Parenthood’s founder brought to the organization three basic philosophies that still permeate its operations to this day. Those philosophies were uninhibited sexual activity, small family size, and eugenics. Today, we will look at the first of these philosophies.
Planned Parenthood has always been a champion of uninhibited sexual activity. It not only fights for the right of individuals to have sex with whomever they want and whenever they want, PP actually encourages young people to get involved in sexual activities.
A review of Planned Parenthood’s website illustrates just how important it is to Planned Parenthood that kids have sex. In studying Planned Parenthoods operation, it becomes obvious that PP pushes a “gateway drug” that is the equivalent of marijuana use among teens. In the case of Planned Parenthood’s efforts to get teens “hooked on sex,” the marijuana equivalent is solo sex (masturbation).
Despite the fact that solo sex is condemned by the Catholic Church and several other Christian religions, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s website contains a 13-page White Paper touting all the supposed “good” that comes from engaging in solo sex. According to Planned Parenthood, solo sex “can promote physical, mental, and sexual health.”
The White Paper even claims that solo sex begins in infancy and continues throughout a person’s life. It then blames parents and religious beliefs for making children and adults feel guilty. The clear meaning of the paper is to introduce and reinforce the notion that solo sex is a good thing. Never mind that it is proclaimed as a mortal sin by many religions.
This focus on solo sex is seen by Planned Parenthood as being necessary to sell the idea that sexual activity between unmarried teens and adults is supposedly a positive thing. In fact, the push for living out sexual fantasies is prevalent in Planned Parenthood comprehensive sexuality “education” programs. From its introduction of sex ed to America in the late 1940s, Planned Parenthood specifically decided its programs were not going to be about teaching children to save sex for marriage. Instead, it designed the programs to teach children how to obtain sexual satisfaction before marriage.
While many people hold these same ideas, the difference with Planned Parenthood is that it found a way to not only push its core philosophy, but it also found a way to make money from it. Planned Parenthood makes hundreds of millions of dollars a year from the sale of various forms of birth control. It even created its own company, Afaxys, to manufacture many of the products it sells so it could profit from the entire supply chain.
Many pro-lifers are rightly upset at Planned Parenthood for running the largest abortion chain in the nation and killing over eight million babies in its own facilities. But all that didn’t happen by accident. It is a natural outcome of Planned Parenthood pushing its philosophy of uninhibited sex. It leads children into lives of sexual sin and puts their immortal souls in danger of spending eternity in Hell. If we are going to win the battle against Planned Parenthood, we must actively oppose all its efforts—not just its abortion business.
Planned Parenthood and Title X money
The Biden administration recently changed the rules on the Title X program so that Planned Parenthood could again receive $60 million or more from that program and still do abortions in the same facilities that receive Title X.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America president, Alexis McGill Johnson, was on Conversations on healthcare with Mark Maselli and Margaret Flinter. One of the questions she was asked was about making contraceptives more available to young people. Here is the unedited transcript of her reply,
“… we’re thrilled by the Biden administration on title 10, to make sure it’s also equitable, right, and that people are getting significant access to an expanding access to contraception, this is going to be a really critical part of how we are navigating in a particularly in a potentially post Roe era. And we also know contraception is not 100% foolproof, and so you know, it does mean that we will need to continue to fight for access to abortion … LA County is a wonderful example. We have 50 wellbeing centers in high schools, where, you know, students are able to leave algebra and geometry class and walk down the hall and talk to a nurse practitioner, about the choices that they want to make with respect to their bodies, ask for counseling around contraception, and, and, and then go back without, you know, losing a moment’s way from their desks. It’s a there’s a community health centers that are also serving the community. So, the parents are able to come in and ask their own questions for themselves in, you know, after school when the kids are home for dinner. And so, I think there are so many models out there that are that are both advancing from medical standards and guidelines practices, but also that what is best for community. And I think that those are the things that that is going to be the responsibility for states that have the capacity to expand access to health care in this way, particularly sexual reproductive health care, their biggest job right now, in addition to seeing the patients that may come to them from the south, in the Midwest, because of these bans, they have to be exporting that imagination back into the states that people are leaving, because that is we have to give people a vision of what is possible so that they will stand with us and fight for what they know they should have.” (Emphasis added)
In December 2019, we told you about the opening of the first five of the planned 50 wellbeing clinics Planned Parenthood was putting in the Los Angeles schools. All 50 are now operating with funds coming from the federal government as well as from the LA County school district. Planned Parenthood is clearly excited about its ability to get to your children in this manner—without you knowing about it.
In 1986, Planned Parenthood announced a goal of having mandatory K-12 sex education as well as school-based clinics in every school district in the nation. It’s been 35 years, but Planned Parenthood has never given up on that goal. In today’s world, they are calling the school-based clinics “wellbeing centers,” but the objective is still the same—to get to your children and turn them on to sex so Planned Parenthood can continue to rake in the profits from selling birth control products and abortion.
Mobile ultrasound vehicles save lives at Planned Parenthood
STOPP receives reports from pro-lifers across the country on the fact that mobile ultrasound buses and vans save lives when positioned outside Planned Parenthood (and other) abortion facilities. The largest Planned Parenthood facility in the Western hemisphere is in Houston, Texas. Planned Parenthood owns the 78,000 square-foot building at 4600 Gulf Freeway and, until the Texas law was passed, killed thousands of babies on a regular basis.
Back in 2011, the Houston Coalition for Life began parking their Big Blue Bus outside the Planned Parenthood facility. The BBB has a mobile ultrasound machine and has saved thousands of babies from the clutches of the Planned Parenthood abortionists. They’ve since added a “Baby Blue” mobile unit. Launched in 2014, Baby Blue travels to different locations during the week and offers free pregnancy tests and free ultrasounds and pro-life resources outside abortion facilities in Houston.
But Houston is not alone. These mobile ultrasound vehicles are used in hundreds of communities across the country. You may recall that, when people in Rogers, Arkansas, became aware that Planned Parenthood was coming to town, the very first thing the local pregnancy center did was immediately park a mobile sonogram unit next to the Planned Parenthood building.
Just last month, STOPP learned that a mobile ultrasound van is now operating in Rochester, New York. After two years of fundraising efforts led by local pro-life activists and groups who wanted to provide this medical resource to expectant mothers, the mobile ultrasound van, which is owned by Rochester’s Focus Pregnancy Help Center, made its debut outside Planned Parenthood on University Avenue in Rochester on September 16. Father James Hewes, a senior priest in the diocese of Rochester, said the mobile ultrasound unit provides the opportunity for women approaching Planned Parenthood to receive ultrasounds prior to entering the facility.
We encourage all those fighting a Planned Parenthood abortion facility to consider having a mobile ultrasound unit at or near the Planned Parenthood building. To get more information on placing such a unit, you can contact one of the groups mentioned in this article or speak with your local Knights of Columbus Council. Many of the KOC councils will assist with the funding of these life-saving vehicles.