Planned Parenthood's 1998-99 Annual Report
More Deeply Enmeshed Than Ever In the Killing
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.
For more information on Planned Parenthood and what others have done to stop or slow the abortion giant in their own neighborhoods, contact the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund at (202) 626-8809 and ask for our newly updated Planned Parenthood fact sheet.