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NRL News
Abortion
Giant Planned Parenthood: Planned Parenthood’s 2005-2006 Annual Report not only confirms the nationwide abortion chain’s latest abortion carnage, but establishes quite plainly that the abortion giant stands on the verge of becoming a billion dollar corporation. As reported in the June NRL News, clinics affiliated with the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) performed 264,943 abortions in 2005, the highest total ever reported for the group. Abortions have been on the decline in the U.S. since the 1990s, but have been steadily increasing at Planned Parenthood. PPFA is now responsible for over 20% of all U.S. abortions. PPFA’s Annual Report doesn’t specify just how much money it takes in from abortion. But it does lay out the group’s overall revenues and expenditures for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2006. During the ‘05-‘06 fiscal year, the report says that Planned Parenthood had $902.8 million in total revenues. Thirty-eight percent, or $345.1 million of that came from “Health Center Income” or clinic revenues.1 Another 34%, or $305.1 million, came from “Government Grants and Contracts,” coming out of the pockets of taxpayers via their federal, state, or local governments. At $162.3 million, “Private Contributions and Bequests” accounted for only a quarter (24%) of the group’s revenues. Income from the Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood’s special research affiliate, at $7.2 million. “Other Operating Revenue,” at $33 million, constitutes the remaining 4%. In outlining how Planned Parenthood spent its money, the annual report list broad categories and gives page numbers referring back to programs earlier in the report. The $520.8 million spent on “Medical Services” obviously includes the abortion services but may include funds for research on “medication abortion” — abortions done chemically with abortifacients such as RU486 instead of surgically. The report claims that “Today, one in four American women turns to Planned Parenthood for health care at least once in her life.” On the pages associated with “Medical Services,” the report notes that along with the PPFA National Medical Committee, Planned Parenthood “published new guidelines for the medical management of early pregnancy loss as part of our ongoing effort to support innovative, evidence-based clinical services and health care.” Nowhere mentioned is the role that research tells us abortion may play in increasing miscarriage, or how the “pregnancy losses” considered here morally differ from the induced “pregnancy losses” performed daily at Planned Parenthood clinics across the country. The $46.1 million Planned Parenthood spends on “Sexuality Education,” according to the pages referenced, appears to include Planned Parenthood’s websites, plannedparenthood.org and teenwire.com. Both websites offer ways for visitors to get involved in defending “reproductive rights” or to contact their nearest Planned Parenthood for an appointment. It is not for nothing that Planned Parenthood, in the last two annual reports, has begun referring to itself not simply as the nation’s “leading women’s health care provider,” but as its “leading women’s health care provider and advocate” (emphasis added). Planned Parenthood spends $45.2 million on “Public Policy.” On the pages referenced by this item, Planned Parenthood crows about the “abortion bans” the group challenged in court and the fight they led against “anti-choice” justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito. PPFA says that it “worked collaboratively with 19 pivotal states that are a part of our Mobilizing to Win initiative, which identifies and organizes grassroots supporters to protect access to abortion care....” Through a mobilization and media campaign Planned Parenthood called “Stand with the States” that involved “petition drives, mobilization events, and door-to-door canvassing,” PPFA says it “successfully halted abortion bans in nine of the 12 states.” A sum of $18.9 million spent on “Services to the Field of Family Planning” refers back to some of the same pages on medical training and Planned Parenthood’s websites, but isn’t more specific. Planned Parenthood spent $23.5 million on “Services to Affiliates.” References here include the websites and activism mentioned earlier, but also things like the PPFA’s “Clergy Advisory Board” that “speaks out about the theological basis for choice and mobilizes fellow clergy and lay religious leaders to join the PPFA Pro-Choice Religious Network, a national membership organization advocating for the right of women and men to make free, informed, and morally responsible choices about their reproductive lives.” PPFA’s college outreach program, Vox®: Voices for Planned Parenthood, via a MySpace.com site, “educated and energized nearly 5,000 supporters who participated in activities and high-visibility events, primarily in response to threats to abortions access.” The same pages also highlight Planned Parenthood’s work with “Republicans for Choice” and PPFA’s “Board of Advocates” —Hollywood stars and other celebrities that help promote the Planned Parenthood agenda. In one of the bitter ironies that Planned Parenthood constantly stumbles over unnoticed, the report notes that “For Mother’s Day, Blythe Danner and Gwyneth Paltrow, who had just delivered her second child, issued a Mother’s Day challenge by sending e-mails asking for donations to help protect women’s reproductive rights. The gifts received totaled nearly $55,000!” Planned Parenthood is vague about how much of the $8.2 million it spends on “International Family Planning Programs” goes toward abortions. Local groups receiving grants from and partnering with the Planned Parenthood Federation of America-International (PPFA-I) “provided safe abortion and post-abortion care services to almost 18,500 women.” Planned Parenthood mentions “post abortion care,” offered by PPFA-I in Africa, and “safe abortion care” and “post-abortion procedures” done by non-governmental organization (NGOs) partners in Latin America. But these are not quantified. PPFA-I’s partners in Asia “trained 173 doctors and mid-level providers and provided 7,843 safe abortion services.” Neither these nor the 18,500 mentioned above appear to be counted as part of PPFA’s own total. If the organization’s latest tax return is any guide, the $102.6 million PPFA spends on Management and General includes solid six figure salaries to Planned Parenthood’s top executives.2 $42.9 million goes into the group’s Fundraising. An additional $11.5 million went to the Guttmacher Institute and to “Payments to Related Organizations.” The big budget, the bright colors of the report, the Hollywood glamour, the pictures of happy mothers and children, and all the euphemistic rhetoric about “reproductive rights” cannot disguise the reality of who Planned Parenthood is and what it does. Planned Parenthood has built its reputation, and filled its coffers, by being America’s biggest abortion chain and its biggest abortion advocate. That’s the real bottom line. Footnotes 1 We discussed what portion of clinic revenues were abortion related in the last issue of NRL News, but had to use figures from the previous year. Using the current figure, abortions account for at least 28.5% of all clinic revenues, at least $98.5 million, if one assumes all abortions to be standard $372 first trimester suction curettage abortions. This is an extremely conservative estimate. Planned Parenthood clinics advertise and perform considerably more expensive (and more dangerous) later abortions, and this figure does not include bundled services such as pregnancy or STD tests or contraceptives that may be sold along with the abortion. 2 The salary of current PPFA president Cecile Richards salary isn’t listed on PPFA’s 2005 tax return, but past president Gloria Feldt received over $935,000 in total salary and benefits for that year. Salaries of other PPFA top officers ranged from $106,000 to $258,000. |