Top 12 Reasons to Defund Planned Parenthood Now

1. President Obama and Senate Democrats are willing to shut down the federal government to ensure tax dollars keep flowing to one of their biggest political allies. Both times President Obama ran for president, Planned Parenthood Action Fund was quick to endorse him as a “champion for women’s health.”  The 2012 election cycle marks only the third time in their history that they endorsed in a presidential election.[i] They poured money into his campaign and churned out volunteers. Imagine the reaction if a Republican president was willing to shut down the government in order to prevent a single organization from sharing one penny in the belt-tightening all Americans are facing.

2.  Planned Parenthood is an independently wealthy entity. According to its latest annual report, it has over one billion dollars in net assets.[ii] In 2014 alone, data shows that Planned Parenthood’s revenue has exceeded their expenses by over $90 million.[iii]

3. Planned Parenthood is America’s largest abortion provider. “Roughly one out of every four abortions in America” is carried out in a Planned Parenthood facility. [iv] Data shows that since 1970, Planned Parenthood has performed more than 6 million abortions. [v] In 2013 alone, Planned Parenthood performed a record 357,653 abortions.[vi]

4. Planned Parenthood’s business model is centered on abortion. Former Planned Parenthood clinic director Abby Johnson has written that she was given an abortion quota, and was even told by her superiors to “double the number of abortions” in order to bring in more revenue.[vii] Abortion patients constitute 12 percent of Planned Parenthood clients — 332,000 of 3 million unduplicated clients in its most current report. 37 percent of all Planned Parenthood clinic income revenue is from abortion procedures, according to conservative estimates. Planned Parenthood has issued a directive instructing that all affiliates must have at least one clinic that performs abortion by 2013.[viii]  According to an NBC news report from December 2012, our of the “74 regional affiliates” a handful of those affiliates chose to leave the organization, rather than comply with the policy. [ix]

5. More taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood equals more abortions, fewer adoption referrals.  Claims that taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood results in fewer abortions are false. From 2000 to 2013, taxpayer funding shunted to Planned Parenthood jumped from $202,000,000 in 2000 to $528,400,000 in 2013. In 2000, Planned Parenthood performed 197,070 abortions while making 2,486 adoption referrals. In 2013, they performed 327,653 abortions and made just 1,880 adoption referrals. That means a percent increase in taxpayer funding resulted in a 66 percent increase in the number of abortions and a 61 percent decrease in the number of adoption referrals.[x]

6.  Planned Parenthood is not safe for women and young girls. Recent undercover footage released by Lila Rose’s Live Action shows Planned Parenthood employees in several states willing to aid and abet in acknowledged human s sex trafficking of girls as young as 14.[xi] The undercover footage resulted in the firing of Amy Woodruff, manager of the Central New Jersey Planned Parenthood clinic.[xii] It also caused Planned Parenthood to call for mandatory training sessions of thousands of its employees across the country on reporting requirements.[xiii]

7.  Planned Parenthood opposes commonsense measures to protect women and underage girls.  Planned Parenthood fought vehemently against clinic regulations in Texas.

“The Supreme Court acted Monday to keep Texas’ 19 abortion clinics open, amid a legal fight that threatens to close more than half of them.  The justices voted 5-4 to grant an emergency appeal from the clinics after a federal appeals court upheld new clinic regulations and refused to keep them on hold while the clinics appealed to the Supreme Court…The court’s decision to block the regulations is a strong indication that the justices will hear the full appeal, which could be the biggest abortion case at the Supreme Court in nearly 25 years.

If the court steps in, the hearing and the eventual ruling would come amid the 2016 presidential campaign.  Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas would have allowed the state to move ahead with regulations requiring abortion facilities to be constructed like surgical centers. Doctors at all clinics also would be required to have admitting privileges at a local hospital.  The clinics said enforcing the new regulations would lead to a second major wave of clinic closures statewide since the law was enacted in 2013. Texas had 41 abortion clinics in 2012; 19 remain.” [xiv]

8.  Women have other options for seeking primary care, contraception, STI testing, and cancer screening. According to the Chiaroscuro Foundation, in addition to the tens of thousands of U.S. doctors and hospitals providing this care, there were 1,048 federally qualified health centers in the U.S. which provide women cancer screening,  contraception, and STI testing.[xv]

9.  Planned Parenthood does not provide mammograms and is not a significant primary care provider to women. Despite claims made by Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards and members of the media, Planned Parenthood does not provide mammograms. They are also not a significant primary care provider in general.  In recent reports, Planned Parenthood acknowledges that it provided primary care only to about 19,700 of its 3 million unduplicated clients. These services have been trending downward for years, from 21,247 in 2007 to 20,235 in 2008, to today’s 19,796.[xvi]

10.  Polling shows Americans don’t believe efforts to defund Planned Parenthood are extreme. A March 2011 poll conducted by The Hill, before Planned Parenthood became a critical issue in the budget debate, showed that Americans are virtually split in half over whether Planned Parenthood’s funding should be left alone or completely cut. Forty-six percent said it should be left alone; 42 percent said it should be completely cut. The poll has a 3 percent margin of error.[xvii] When asked specifically about taxpayer funding of abortion, polls consistently show a healthy majority of Americans, 60 to 70 percent, oppose their tax dollars funding abortion.[xviii]

11. Planned Parenthood’s founder, Margaret Sanger, was a strong believer in eugenics. Following is just a sampling of her documented beliefs. “In this matter, the example of the inferior classes, the fertility of the feeble-minded, the mentally defective, the poverty-stricken classes, should not be held up for emulation…”[xix] Referring to immigrants and Catholics, she wrote: “[They’re] an unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all.”[xx] She also wrote, “The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.”[xxi] Planned Parenthood is carrying on her legacy today, centering itself on population control efforts. In a recently filed tax return, Planned Parenthood stated as part of their mission statement that they are committed to “a U.S. population of stable size in an optimum environment.”[xxii]

12. Planned Parenthood has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands of hours of employee time in order to protect its government handout. Planned Parenthood has flooded the airwaves with TV commercials [xxiii] and radio ads[xxiv] in order to protect its funding. Its employees – whose paychecks are subsidized by tax dollars — have participated in bus tours and rallies across the country.[xxv]

 


[i] Planned Parenthood Press Release, “Planned Paenthood Action Fund Endorses President Obama…” May 30, 2012.

[ii] Planned Parenthood Annual Report, “Combined Balance Sheet: National and Affiliates,” March, 2011

[iii] Planned Parenthood Annual Report, “Combined Statement of Revenue, Expenses & Changes in Net Assets: National and Affiliates”, 2014

[iv] The Daily Signal, “Planned Parenthood Sets Record for Abortions and Government Funding” January 9, 2013.

[v] LifeNews, “Planned Parenthood Has Killed More Than Six Million Babies in Abortions” December 13, 2013.

[vi] Planned Parenthood Annual Report, “Affiliate Medical Services Data” March, 2011

[vii]  Abby Johnson Op-Ed in The Hill, “Exposing the Planned Parenthood business model,” April 4, 2011

[viii] Chiaroscuro Foundation Report, “Does Planned Parenthood Need or Deserve Federal Funds?,” March, 2011

[ix] NBC News, “Abortion mandate costs Planned Parenthood a few affiliates” December 6, 2012.

[x] Planned Parenthood Annual Report, “Affiliate Medical Services Data” March, 2011

[xi] Live Action Press Release, “Caught on Tape: Planned Parenthood Aids Pimp’s Underage Sex Ring,” February 1, 2011

[xii] New Jersey Star Ledger, “Central Jersey Planned Parenthood fires worker after release of undercover video,” February 2, 2011.

[xiii] New York Times, “Planned Parenthood to Retrain Public Staff,” February 7, 2011

[xiv] ABC 13, “SUPREME COURT BLOCKS TEXAS FROM ENFORCING SOME ABORTION-CLINIC RESTRICTIONS” June 29, 2015.

[xv] Chiaroscuro Foundation Report, “Does Planned Parenthood Need or Deserve Federal Funds?,” March, 2011

[xvi] Ibid.

[xvii] The Hill, “The Hill Poll: Planned Parenthood cut splits voters by gender, race,” March 28, 2011

[xviii] CNN: “Poll: Majority favor abortion funding ban,” November 18, 2009

[xix] Birth Control Review, “The Eugenic Value of Birth Control Propaganda.” October 1921, page 5.

[xx]  Margaret Sanger, “Pilot of Civilization,” p. 187

[xxi] Margaret Sanger, “Women and the New Race,” 1920

[xxii] Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., 2008 Income Tax Return

[xxiii] YouTube, “Planned Parenthood Action Fund TV Ad: Carolyn Telling Her Story,” February 25, 2011

[xxiv] NPR, “Planned Parenthood Radio Ads To Target Congressional Opponents,” February 18, 2011

[xxv] Planned Parenthood, “Planned Parenthood Truth Tour Cities & Events,” March 29, 2011

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