12/17/04
Planned Parenthood Annual Report: More Abortions, More Profits
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)
-- Planned Parenthood has released its annual report for 2003-2004. The
information reveals that the nation's largest abortion business performed
more abortions at fewer abortion facilities during the last year. The
pro-abortion group also took in fewer private donations and more money
from the government. According to Jim Sedlak, president of STOPP
International, a watchdog group that monitors Planned Parenthood, the
abortion business performed 244,628 abortions, an increase of 6.1 percent.
It has performed more than 3.5 million abortions since 1970.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America's (PPFA) annual report shows more
than one-third of Planned Parenthood's annual income comes from abortions.
Surgical abortions accounted for $104 million of the $302.6 million its
offices brought in. As it has in the past, Planned Parenthood continues to
provide few alternatives to abortion. For every adoption referral made, it
performed 138 abortions. The PPFA report reveals that the abortion
business continues to sell the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug at a steady
clip, despite the death of California teenager Holly Patterson, who
obtained the abortion drug at a local Planned Parenthood office. The data
shows 203 PPFA facilities sold more than 95,000 abortion pills. Some 49
Planned Parenthood offices that do not perform surgical abortions sell the
drugs. Sedlak says Planned Parenthood continues to take in significant
income from federal, state and local governments. Combined, tax dollars
accounted for a record $265.2 million -- nearly 33 percent of its $810
million total income the supposedly non-profit group made. In fact, PPFA
continues to make a profit, Sedlak explained. "For the 18th year in a row,
Planned Parenthood turned a net profit. This year's $35.2 million brings
its total profits over the 18 years to $538 million," he indicated.
Meanwhile, private donations dropped for the second time in three years.
(Read also about
Margaret Sanger -- founder of Planned
Parenthood)
Planned Parenthood's 1998-99 Annual Report,
More Abortions,
More Abortion Advocacy, More Taxpayer Funding,
More Avaricious, More Word Games,
More Aggressive, More Vulnerable
By Randall K.
O'Bannon, Ph.D.
NRL-ETF Director of Education & Research
In
1988, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) was America's
leading abortion chain, performing one out of every 14 abortions in the
United States. Planned Parenthood's latest annual report shows that
Planned Parenthood today is even more deeply enmeshed in the killing.
After 10 years of
doing more advertising, and more abortion advocacy, getting
more PPFA affiliates to offer abortion, and becoming even more
shameless in twisting the English language to defend the indefensible and
support the unsupportable, it ended 1998 having performed the most
abortions ever, and with its biggest market share. The percentage has
nearly doubled: Instead of one of every 14 abortions, it now does one out
of every eight abortions.
This grim reminder
is one of several facts one can piece together from Planned Parenthood's
1998-99 annual report, entitled "Responsible Choices in Action" (last
year's report was simply called "Responsible Choices"). The rhetoric has
become more sophisticated, the spin more devious, but the reality is
simply this: more abortions than ever at Planned Parenthood and plans to
expand abortion to more Planned Parenthood facilities in the future.
While Planned
Parenthood often presents itself as unselfish "advocates for sexual and
reproductive rights," the truth is that Planned Parenthood operates a
multi-million dollar-a-year political and medical enterprise.
More Abortions
According to the
1998-99 annual report, affiliates of the PPFA performed 167,928 abortions
in 1998, an increase of nearly 3,000 over 1997.
While national
figures for all abortions performed in the U.S. are not yet available for
1998, this steady increase in the number of PPFA abortions comes at a time
when overall abortions in the U.S. have been declining, dropping nearly a
quarter of a million since peaking at 1.6 million in 1990. Think of it
this way: If U.S. figures had increased at the same level experienced by
Planned Parenthood over the last 10 years, we'd be looking at 2.4 million
abortions a year instead of the estimated 1.3 million.
Statistics from the
annual report also indicate that PPFA referred out an additional 36,870
women for abortions, making it responsible for over 200,000 in 1998. Thus,
in one way or another, PPFA actually participated in 15.5%, or more than
one in seven of all abortions performed in the U.S. in 1998.
Helping to explain
the continuing increase [the numbers have gone up eight of the last 10
years] is that more affiliates are now offering abortion. While just 48
affiliates offered abortion in 1988, 74 of PPFA's 132 affiliates performed
abortions in 1998. Planned Parenthood has no intention of reversing the
trend, either. One of its four basic goals, we're told, is to "ensure
access to abortion," and PPFA declared it is committed to "work to
preserve and expand access to abortion" (emphasis added).
More Emphasis on
Abortion than Parenthood
Though Planned
Parenthood identifies itself as a "pro-choice" organization, statistics
from its latest annual report show a decided tilt toward the abortion
"option." Prenatal care clients (16,065) were outnumbered by abortion
clients by a more than 10 to 1 margin. That over four times as many
(67,052) prenatal patients had to be referred out as received prenatal
care shows how ill prepared or unmotivated PPFA clinics are to offer women
this option. Put another way, 80% of abortion patients receive their
services on site, while 80% of prenatal patients have to be referred
elsewhere.
The case is even
worse with regard to adoption. Despite the mention of "adoption
counseling" as one of the health services offered by affiliates, no
in-house adoption services are listed in the "service summary." The
service summary does mention "adoption referrals to other agencies," but
these total only a paltry 4,892 for the whole year. Put in perspective,
abortions outnumbered adoption referrals by a 34-1 margin at
Planned Parenthood clinics in 1998.
Given the
inordinate emphasis Planned Parenthood gives to abortion over prenatal
care and adoption, it should be clearer than ever that Planned
Parenthood's plans typically don't involve parenthood.
More Abortion
Advocacy
In addition to
being the nation's largest abortion performer, Planned Parenthood is also
the nation's leading abortion promoter.
Among the
activities PPFA touted in its 1998-99 annual report are:
*
filing 10 lawsuits against state bans on "certain abortion procedures"
(partial-birth abortion) and getting permanent injunctions in seven states
(AZ, FL, KY, MT, NJ, and VA) and restraining orders in two other cases
*
obtaining an injunction against a Montana law requiring parental
involvement in a minor's abortion decision and a 24-hour waiting period
*
lobbying members of Congress to get them to change their votes on abortion
services for military personnel overseas and to vote against the Child
Custody Protection Act
*
fighting with Congress to restore funding to "family planning"
programs-nationally (Title Ten) and internationally
PPFA doesn't detail
how much it spent strictly on abortion advocacy or advertising. However,
its budget indicates it spent $20.3 million on "public policy" in the
1998-99 fiscal year and an additional $30.9 on fund-raising (fund-raising
ads and appeals are often more advocacy than they are pleas for money).
More Word Games
The group that has
in the past talked about "family values" and "compassion for the
vulnerable" in the same breath as abortion" again turns the English
language on its head in its latest annual report.
On the opening page
of the report, Planned Parenthood boldly declares that "Every child should
be wanted and loved." Yet, as already mentioned, Planned Parenthood is
responsible for performing or referring more than 200,000 abortions a
year. The love spoken of here is obviously a conditional love - a child
that isn't wanted isn't loved.
In a dialogue
between Mary Shallenberger, PPFA chairperson, and PPFA President Gloria
Feldt that opens the report, Shallenberger says, "Women and men need to
understand their bodies and the impact of the life decisions they make."
Feldt chimes in that "Planned Parenthood has always put power in the hands
of individuals to make moral, informed choices."
This raises an
interesting question, however. If women "need to understand their bodies
and the impact of the life decision they make" and if women should have
the power to make "moral, informed choices," then why has Planned
Parenthood consistently and vehemently opposed informed consent or "right
to know" laws that tell a woman about the development of her baby and of
alternatives to abortion open to her?
In the same
dialogue, Shallenberger says, "information must go hand in hand with
access to services that enable them to implement their decisions." If this
is so, then why does Planned Parenthood have to send 80% of the women who
come seeking prenatal care elsewhere? And why doesn't Planned Parenthood
offer adoption services on site, the way that more than half of its
affiliates offer abortion?
Planned Parenthood
expresses a commitment to "improve the quality of reproductive care," yet
reproduction never seems to have the priority that abortion does. PPPA
begins its "Medical Services and Research" section with notice of the
publication of the 1998 edition of its PPFA Manual of Medical Standards
and Guidelines. The first two additions to the manual trumpet
so-called "chemical" abortions [such as RU 486] and "very early surgical
abortions."
Planned Parenthood
also gives a whole new spin to the concept of humanitarian "relief." Under
the heading "Responding to the Crisis in Kosovo," PPFA says that "Planned
Parenthood affiliates also contributed approximately $54,000 to the relief
effort."
What sort of relief
was Planned Parenthood offering to the beleaguered refugees? The report
continues, "These donations funded, among other activities, the expenses
of two affiliate health care professionals who went to Albania to provide
abortion training for health care workers serving refugees."
More Big
Business
According to the
latest annual report, PPFA revenues for the 1998-99 fiscal year totaled
$660.7 million dollars. Private contributions, at $232.7
million, accounted for just over a third (35%) of those revenues, while
"clinic income," at $211 million, and "government grants and contracts,"
at $176.5 million, comprised the bulk of the rest. "Other operating
revenue" and income from the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) accounted for
the remaining 6%, or $40.5 million of PPFA's revenues. AGI is PPFA's
"special research affiliate."
A sizeable chunk of
that income comes directly from abortion. A recent AGI factsheet indicates
that the average amount paid for a "non-hospital abortion at 10 weeks
gestation" was $316. Counting all Planned Parenthood abortions as these
early surgical abortions (though we know PPFA also performs more expensive
later abortions and chemical abortions), Planned Parenthood's revenues
from abortion in 1998 were at least $53 million, or nearly a quarter of
the $211 million it reported as "Clinic Income" in FY '98-99.
Other income and
expenses may also be abortion-related. Defense of abortion figures
prominently in fundraising appeals and surely accounts for some portion of
that $232.7 million received in "private contributions." Abortion advocacy
is certainly a large part of Planned Parenthood's $20.3 million "Public
Policy" expenses and is often the focus of pro-abortion ads.
More of Your Tax
Dollars
Though the
percentage has declined slightly, from 30% of its total in fiscal 1997-98
to 27% in fiscal 1998-99, PPFA actually received an additional $11 million
more from government grants and contracts in the 1998-99 fiscal year
($176.5 million) than it did in 1997-98 ($165 million).
While Planned
Parenthood is prohibited by the Hyde Amendment from using federal funds
for abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the
mother, many individual states, including large states such as California
and New York, do fund abortions for some of those below certain income
threshholds. A February 2000 fact sheet from the AGI indicates that about
14% of all abortions in the U.S. (approximately 205,000, according to 1996
figures) are paid for with public funds, i.e., your tax dollars.
Even money that
does not go directly to abortion, however, unleashes other funds for the
promotion and provision of abortion. Money that goes into general
advertising, as well as the publicity associated with the provision of the
government grant itself, helps to promote the image of Planned Parenthood
and create allegiance for the brand name.
One thing this data
from the 1998-99 annual report shows us is that in just 10 years time,
while overall abortions in the U.S. were declining, Planned Parenthood
increased the number of annual abortions it performed by 51%!
More Planned
Parenthood affiliates than ever are now offering abortion, and Planned
Parenthood plans to have more of its clinics offering abortion in the
future. Though its rhetoric is less strident, its agenda is more radical
than ever.
source:
National Right to Life,
Randall K. O'Bannon, Ph.D. NRL-ETF
Director of Education & Research.
Planned Parenthood: A Business That's Never Been Richer
Source: Focus on the Family; February 4, 2003
Planned Parenthood: A Business That's Never Been Richer
By Charles A. Donovan
[Pro-Life Infonet Note: Charles A. Donovan is president of the Family
Action Alliance in Washington, D.C.]
In June 1971, Dr. Alan Guttmacher, then-president of Planned Parenthood,
mapped out the future of his massive agency.
"Service to the unmarried minor on her terms should be expanded. If we
don't do it, no one else can or will. Abortion-referral services, and in
some instances performance of abortion, is our special responsibility."
Today, three decades later, Planned Parenthood thrives on the delivery of
birth control and abortion to women whom the sexual revolution has failed
women who are, on balance, young, unmarried, childless and, all too often,
abandoned and afraid. Their misery has been Planned Parenthood's gain.
In 2001, its 129 affiliates nationwide had combined income of more than
$670 million. The inflow was so great that over a five-year period
(1997-2001), the charity called Planned Parenthood generated net income,
or profit, of more than $300 million. Congress helped drive this increase
in revenue by committing $254 million annually to the federal
family-planning program known as Title X, of which Planned Parenthood is a
major beneficiary, nearly doubling its size.
Analysis of what Planned Parenthood has done with this flood of new money
is revealing.
First, the group's senior officials, even at the local level, receive
generous salaries and benefits. One Indiana affiliate paid its medical
director more than $265,000 and another $24,000 in benefits. Another
Indiana affiliate reported paying its president and CEO $357,000 in 2000.
When it's not handed out in bonuses and limitless salary increases,
profits are invested in stocks and other securities, applied to endowments
and foundations or used to purchase and manage affiliate buildings and
clinics.
In some cases, an affiliate has invested in companies prone to further its
agenda. The Planned Parenthood affiliate in Des Moines, Iowa, for example,
purchased more than $120,000 in stock in Intimate Brands, maker of
lingerie for Victoria's Secret.
Deep pockets haven't helped Planned Parenthood diversify its services,
though. During his tenure, Guttmacher wanted Planned Parenthood associated
with positive projects like infertility treatment and marital counseling.
Without fanfare, however, Planned Parenthood has allowed such projects to
falter and even decline. From 1989 to 2000, breast exams performed at
Planned Parenthood fell 30 percent. Adoption referrals have declined by
three quarters since 1994.
Even sterilization, which Gutt-macher hailed as a priority in 1971, has
virtually disappeared from Planned Parenthood's playbook. It performed
fewer than five female sterilizations per affiliate in 2000 (about one
every 10 weeks), and the number of vasectomies peaked in 1984.
Obviously, sterilized patients do not return to Planned Parenthood, but
the decline in these statistics probably has more to do with the shifting
demographics and psychology of Planned Parenthood's market. The vast
majority of younger women who have abortions today eventually expect to
have children, but have concluded that today's circumstances (more likely,
today's boyfriend) are not right. A study by Wirthlin for the Family
Research Council in 1998 found that, for wealthier women especially, the
preservation of future fertility is a deep concern as they assess the
abortion's risks.
In light of these and other facts, federal and state lawmakers should
think harder than ever before handing over any more taxpayer money to
Planned Parenthood. After all, the organization is clearly doing less with
more.
--
National Right to Life will host its 2003 national convention in St.
Louis. Come celebrate the 4th of July with pro-life speakers, workshops
and much more. For details, see
http://www.nrlc.org/convention/index.htmlll
