In This Issue
- Abortion Pills Provide Hefty Profit Margin for Planned Parenthood
- How Accurate Are Guttmacher and CDC Abortion Numbers?
- Look at That Precious Boy! Pro-Life Community Surrounded His Mom with Help and Love, Saved His Life, and Changed Hers Forever
- A Blessed Advent and Abundant Christmas Blessings to You and Your Family!
Abortion Pills Provide Hefty Profit Margin for Planned Parenthood
By Rita Diller
While much has been written recently about abortion pills and their rapidly expanding share of the abortion market, there is not a lot out there to explain why Planned Parenthood and other abortion purveyors would be eager to fight for access to them in lieu of lucrative surgical abortions.
Recent STOPP research found that abortion facilities paid around $90 for the Mifeprex abortion pill in 2019. That was before the new generic mifepristone came out in April of 2019. They no doubt pay a great deal less now. For example, mifepristone is currently available for retail purchase at Walgreens for $30.40 through a GoodRX discount. Misoprostol—the second medication used in tandem with Mifeprex to finish the abortion—is available to the public at Walmart and Walgreens for under $3 for two pills via a GoodRX discount. Both require a prescription. (Misoprostol is said to be 85% effective in causing abortions during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy on its own, even without the use of mifepristone.)
While procedures seem to vary between locations, Planned Parenthood prescribes the pill regimen via video calls, with no physical exam, where it determines the baby’s gestational age by asking the mother the date of her last period. PP workers then may instruct the woman to pick up the abortion pills at Planned Parenthood or guide her in making arrangements to receive the pills by mail. While it says these abortions are perfectly safe, Planned Parenthood is being sued for its gross negligence in determining a woman was six weeks pregnant through a telehealth visit, when she was in fact 30 to 36 weeks pregnant. This woman picked up the pills at Planned Parenthood, took them, and delivered her fully formed stillborn baby boy into a toilet after a horrific labor. According to the court filing, when she took her dead baby to Planned Parenthood the next day, she says she was told they would dispose of the baby and she should not call law enforcement.
Though Planned Parenthood pays very little for the pills, the average cost of a pill abortion initiated by Planned Parenthood is $580, though it can be $800 or higher. That is current information, according to Planned Parenthood’s website. When you do the math, you can see that there is a hefty margin of profit in pill abortions for the abortion purveyors.
It appears that pill abortions would be much more profitable than surgical abortions for Planned Parenthood, since no abortionist is needed, nor do they need operating facilities, machinery, equipment, or instruments needed for surgical abortion. They would incur less liability since the woman self-administers the pills. If her office visit is done via telemedicine, there would be even lower overhead, though there is a much higher probability that gestational age would be determined inaccurately or an ectopic pregnancy would go undetected.
In the end, while Planned Parenthood counts the money it is pocketing as it champions death over life, heaven and earth weep over the real cost of every abortion: one innocent, unrepeatable, human person and the contributions that person and his generations of offspring would have made to society. Lest we forget, our future is cut to pieces, along with that innocent child, at the demonic altar of every single abortion, regardless of the methodology or monetary profit involved.
How Accurate Are Guttmacher and CDC Abortion Numbers?
The Guttmacher Institute and the Centers for Disease Control have released their latest numbers on how many abortions they estimate occur in the US annually.
The CDC admits that it cannot provide total abortion numbers for the US since it relies on voluntary reporting. In 2020, 620,327 legal induced abortions were reported to the CDC. Excluded in the latest CDC abortion report were the states of California, Maryland, and New Hampshire. While New York City was included, there were no numbers for the remainder of the state of New York.
Guttmacher, on the other hand, goes to great lengths to extract data from both known and “suspected” abortion providers. The Guttmacher Institute reports 930,160 abortions in 2020, down from an all-time high of 1.577 million in 1981 and an 8% increase from the 2017 numbers. It reports a whopping 45% increase in pill abortions from 2017 to 2020.
As with Guttmacher’s previous reports, however, the current report is much more a guess than an actual count. Guttmacher, an offshoot of Planned Parenthood, admits in this most recent report: “The degree to which we estimated data varied by state. We estimated more than 10% of abortions in California (11%), Maryland (14%), Hawaii (20%), New York (30%), Florida (33%), and New Jersey (40%).” It additionally admits that it estimated abortion caseloads for 31% of facilities it reported on.
Because the abortion-inducing pills mifepristone and misoprostol have become available via mail order and recommendations are being made to stock up on the pills “in case your period is late,” neither the CDC nor Guttmacher has any way of tracking the number of these self-managed abortions.
In addition, neither the CDC nor Guttmacher attempts to count or estimate abortions caused by contraceptives that thin the uterine lining.
It is fair to say that both reports provide guesstimates of those analyzing the available data, and the unavailable data and rates of estimation are quite substantial.
As ALL’s Jim Sedlak wrote following the previous round of CDC and Guttmacher abortion reports that highlighted 2017 numbers: “We used to turn to the Guttmacher Institute numbers . . . because they were more realistic when most reported abortions were surgical abortions done by medical personnel. But, as the various admissions by the researchers in this most recent report document [show], the magnitude of the unreported abortion classes keeps growing.”
Indeed they do. Taking into consideration the IVF lab abortions that remain uncounted, the untold number of abortions caused by contraceptives that decimate the uterine lining, and the self-managed pill abortions that are now exploding, there is absolutely no way to count the number of abortions in this nation. As Mr. Sedlak said, “Maybe we should just stop pretending to count and instead work to end abortion and the sale of all abortion-inducing drugs—including so-called contraceptives.”
Look at That Precious Boy! Pro-Life Community Surrounded His Mom with Help and Love, Saved His Life, and Changed Hers Forever
Kevin Williams marches to a different beat than most, and boy are we glad he does. He works full time saving babies from abortion and helping their moms with their needs, relying only on God and the support of the saints who surround him. Sharing his wisdom and love with the moms who are seeking abortions, Kevin has saved so many. He shares with us today this inspirational story and picture that was first posted on his Facebook page, with permission of the precious mom who changed her mind outside Planned Parenthood.
The picture below is Ezra. Several years ago when I got to Planned Parenthood this handsome little guy’s mom was sitting on the bench outside their door crying, trying to build up courage to go inside. I was calling out to her for a while and when I started talking about adoption she hopped up from the bench, came over and said, “I have 3 kids: one, two and three. I can’t afford another baby. I’m pregnant and the father is on his way to the penitentiary. We are through and I WON’T do adoption!”
Given her circumstances I thought adoption was likely her best route. I shared the story in the Bible about Solomon and the two women and the dispute about who the “real mother” of the live baby was. I shared how Solomon was going to divide the baby with the sword and give each mother half and how the True Mother dove between the sword and her child and said to the king, “Oh my Lord, give HER the living child and BY NO MEANS HARM HIM!!!”
But the other woman said, “Let him be neither mine nor hers but divide him!”
I explained that [the first woman was] representative of the mother who loves her baby so much that though she knows she will cry an ocean of tears, she would rather give her baby to another than harm him; and the woman who would say, “What kind of mother would give her baby away?” and would choose abortion instead, was represented by the woman who would say, “Let him be neither mine nor hers but divide him!”
She tearfully agreed to look into adoption. The pro-life community wound up helping her out with getting through police academy, she gained a career and she decided she was able to parent after all! My friends have since helped her financially and even got her a car. That is what the pro-life community REALLY looks like and not the caricature that abortion supporters put forward.
That’s the absolute truth, Kevin. So many individuals around the world give their all in support of moms and babies. That is what the pro-life movement does. We are so proud to call all of you our friends and colleagues.
A Blessed Advent and Abundant Christmas Blessings to You and Your Family!
While we wait upon the Lord with childlike anticipation for these next 10 days and the arrival of Christmas Eve, the holiest of nights, you will be remembered in our prayers. As we anticipate celebrating the birth of Christ at Bethlehem, we promise, with your help and prayers, to keep working to ensure that every baby at risk of abortion will have a chance to live the life that God has given and has planned for that child.
We will continue to pray and work in support of family and life and of all those who work to stop abortion, without counting the cost. May God bless you a thousand times over for all you do for the cause of life!
Merry Christmas from all of us at American Life League!
