The American people shouldn’t be forced to give hundreds of millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood, which was caught trafficking aborted babies’ hearts, lungs, livers, and brains. Federal tax dollars should be redirected from the abortion industry to honest, accountable, and widely-trusted health providers. Instead of subsidizing a scandal-ridden abortion vendor, taxpayer money should be allocated toward local community health centers. There are thousands of low-cost health providers – offering a wide range of women’s services like breast cancer screenings and preventative care – that can be relied upon with our hard-earned money. Planned Parenthood is under criminal investigation and cannot be trusted.

#1

What is Planned Parenthood?

Planned Parenthood is a non-profit and the nation’s largest abortion vendor, committing over one in every three abortions done in the country, which equals about 887 every single day.

#2

But don’t they do a lot of good stuff too like providing low-cost birth control?

Although they provide contraception, STD testing, and other preventative care, their provision of these services has been significantly decreasing over the past decade. In reality, they artificially inflate their birth control numbers and are battling many lawsuits related to fraudulent Medicaid payments made to Planned Parenthood. One lawsuit in Iowa was filed by a former Planned Parenthood director who has evidence of the fraud. Planned Parenthood was also ordered to pay over a million dollars in restitution to Texas when found guilty of defrauding taxpayers. And in California, a 2004 audit showed that Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside counties received excess payment of various kinds of contraception over $5.2 million. This is only a fraction of the fraud they’ve been found guilty of.

Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) also get taxpayer money but do not do abortions and clients pay on a sliding scale – basically what they can afford.

Lastly, doing subjectively good things does not outweigh the injustice of endangering women and taking more than 383,000 innocent lives a year.

#3

Does Planned Parenthood get taxpayer dollars? How much per year?

Yes, they received over $633 million in FY 2020-21, making up 37% of their budget.

#4

What do they do with that money?

By law, they are supposed to use it for family planning services other than abortion. But money is fungible (our short video explaining that here) and as a former Planned Parenthood director said, “As clinic director, I saw how money affiliate clinics receive from several sources is combined into one pot, not set aside for specific services.”

Here’s the kicker: Planned Parenthood gets more money every year but serves fewer people.

Between 2006 and 2015, the number of clients served by Planned Parenthood has dropped 19% while their revenue has risen 30%.
The amount of taxpayer funding that makes up their total revenue has also increased by roughly 30% since 2010.
Cancer screenings and prevention services have dropped 58% since 2009.
Abortion is down over 12% nationally since 2010 yet only down by 1.6% for Planned Parenthood since 2010.
Prenatal services at PP have been cut in half since 2009.
In 2006, they committed one of every five abortions. In 2015, it’s up to one in every three abortions. (source: Planned Parenthood annual reports)

#5

But if Planned Parenthood is defunded, won’t all those people who rely on them for healthcare be left to fend for themselves?

First, no one wants to take away healthcare from anyone, especially women and their families. According to Planned Parenthood’s own annual reports, 98% of all women won’t even step foot inside a Planned Parenthood all year, so they are wildly overstating their importance in the healthcare market.

Secondly, if Planned Parenthood is defunded, the money will be reallocated to Federally Qualified Health Centers, which outnumber Planned Parenthood locations 16-to-1. In 2015, FQHCs served more than 25 million people, whereas Planned Parenthood only served 2.5 million.

Better choices for women are usually right around the corner. Alternative women’s health options are on average less than five miles away from the nearest Planned Parenthood.

To find an FQHC near you, go to http://getyourcare.org/.

#6

What if I’m pro-choice and think that Planned Parenthood should continue to be funded?

Even many Americans who identify as pro-choice are particularly uncomfortable with taxpayer-funded abortions. One poll in late 2016 showed 58% of Americans are against using taxpayer funds through Medicaid to pay for abortions.

Another poll in 2015 revealed that 62% of Americans opposed taxpayer funding of abortion, including 45% of those who identify as pro-choice, 61% of Independents, 44% of Democrats and 65% and 61% of Africa-Americans and Latinos respectively.

Continuing to fund Planned Parenthood is giving corporate welfare to an organization that continues to close facilities every year and serve less patients.

Another point to consider is that Planned Parenthood, several affiliates, and their business partners are currently under criminal investigation for a laundry list of crimes. These include selling the body parts of fetuses they aborted, altering the abortion procedure to obtain better fetal tissue and thereby putting the health of female patients in danger, failing to comply with both the Born Alive Infant Protection Act and the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, and compromising patient privacy.

#1