Does Planned Parenthood Want Fewer Abortions?

This week the Indiana State Legislature voted to end taxpayer support of Planned Parenthood. Here in Washington, Planned Parenthood was testifying in support of legislation (SB 5912) that would increase their public subsidy despite a $5.5 billion deficit. During the course of their testimony, Planned Parenthood representatives explained that they really want to help reduce the number of abortions by giving people increased access to government funded contraception.

This argument was also made repeatedly while taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood was being discussed at the federal level.

While Planned Parenthood consistently states they really, truly, honest to goodness, want to reduce the number of abortions, and that giving them money for contraception is a great way to accomplish that goal, the evidence suggests otherwise.

In reality, the more money Planned Parenthood gets, the more abortions they perform.

In 1999, Planned Parenthood received $187 million from the federal government and performed 183,000 abortions. [1]In 2005, Planned Parenthood received approximately $273 million dollars from the government and performed 265,000 abortions. [2]In 2008-2009, Planned Parenthood received $363 million dollars [3]and performed 332,278 abortions in the year ending 2009.[4]

Curiously, the increase in abortions for Planned Parenthood between 2006 and 2009 occurred during a period when abortions nationally declined by 15%.[5] Even when the rest of the country is doing fewer abortions, Planned Parenthood finds a way to do more. Since they benefit financially from every abortion, this really shouldn't be surprising.

In 2009 if a pregnant woman walked into a Planned Parenthood clinic, she was 340 times more likely to receive an abortion than an adoption referral. In that year, PPFA performed 332,278 abortions while providing only 977 adoption referrals. [6]Yet they still claim to be the place for unbiased, objective counseling in making decisions regarding pregnancies.

Keep this in mind next time you hear that Planned Parenthood shares your goal of reducing the number of abortions.

If you have an opinion on SB 5912 and its ability to provide more of your tax dollars to Planned Parenthood, please contact your legislators at 1-800-562-6000 and let your voice be heard. You can deliver a message to your legislators through that number even if you don't know who they are by providing your address. Please be respectful, but please be heard.


[1] Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Annual report, 1999-2000
[2] See Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood Services (April 2007) [3] Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. Annual Report 2008-2009, p. 29 and 2008 Income Tax Returns.
[4] See Planned Parenthood Federaion of America, Planned Parenthood Services, p. 2 at http://www.plannedparenthood.org/files/PPFA/PP_Services.pdf
[5] According to its 2008 annual report, PPFA performed 289,750 abortions in 2006 and 305,310 abortions in 2007. PPFA, 2007-2008 Annual Report, p. 9 (http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/annual-report-4661.htm); PPFA, "Planned Parenthood Services," March 2011, p. 2 (link provided above); PPFA, "Planned ParenthoodServices," September 2010, p. 2 (link provided above); and, (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss6001a1.htm).
[6] PPFA, "Planned Parenthood Services," March 2011 (http://www.plannedparenthood.org/files/PPFA/PP_Services.pdf).