Planned Parenthood Admits Failure

During the last legislative session, the Washington State legislature chose to increase funding for Planned Parenthood through a contraceptive program called "Take Charge". In our testimony in opposition to HB 5912, we explained that there is no evidence to suggest that increasing funding for contraceptives actually reduces the unintended pregnancy rates.

Now, only a few months later, the Guttmacher Institute, which was started as a division of Planned Parenthood, has reached the same conclusion.

In a recently released analysis, the Guttmacher Institute confirmed that the overall unintended pregnancy rate in the U.S. has remained essentially flat since 1994. This is despite a steady increase in funding for contraceptives topping out at $305 million per year in 2006.

Planned Parenthood has been one of the primary proponents of increased funding for contraceptives as a way of reducing unintended pregnancies and reducing costs for governments. That theory is much of the reason that funding for Planned Parenthood has increased from $187 million per year in 1999 to more than $363 million in 2009.

Yet all the evidence suggests that despite this massive increase in funding for contraceptives generally and Planned Parenthood specifically, the efforts to reduce unplanned pregnancies through contraception have not been successful.

Still, the increased funding for Planned Parenthood has had a significant effect. As they have increased the size of their operations under the guise of reducing unintended pregnancies, they have managed to dramatically increase the number of abortions they provide. In 1999, Planned Parenthood performed 183,000 abortions. They performed 265,000 in 2005 and 332,278 in 2009.

These increases in Planned Parenthood abortions occurred during a period in which abortions decreased 15% nationally.

The fact that money for contraceptives does not reduce pregnancy is not a state secret. This information has been available for years and has been presented to the Washington State legislature as well as other legislative bodies.

However, the money directed to Planned Parenthood is not necessarily expected to accomplish an actual public purpose. That money is distributed to Planned Parenthood because Planned Parenthood is very active in the elections of those who pass these bills. Until the political pressure not to give money to Planned Parenthood is stronger than the political benefit from doing so, you can expect Planned Parenthood to continue to get public dollars despite their admitted failures.


Joseph Backholm
Executive Director
Family Policy Institute of Washington