Planned
Parenthood
Truth.org
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 to trusted health providers, not handed out to the abortion industry. Taxpayer money should go to fund local community health centers, not to subsidize a scandal-ridden, billion-dollar abortion business. 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 trusted with our hard-earned money. Planned Parenthood is under criminal investigation and cannot be trusted.
We Don't Want Planned Parenthood
#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 this country, which equals about 1,051 every single day. About 96% of their services fore pregnant women are abortions. They also provide contraception and STD testing along with other preventative care, all of which has been significantly decreasing over the past decade.
#2
But don’t they do a lot of good stuff too like providing low-cost birth control?
They certainly do, but they are battling various different lawsuits related to overcharging Medicaid for birth control services and receiving excessive reimbursement payments. A lawsuit filed in Iowa by a former Planned Parenthood director documented the extent of the fraud, alleging that Planned Parenthood sometimes overcharged Medicaid by more than 500% for birth control pills. In a separate and unrelated legal settlement, Planned Parenthood was ordered to pay over a million dollars in restitution to the state of 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 reimbursements of more than $5.2 million for various kinds of contraceptive services. This is only a fraction of the fraud they’ve been found guilty of.
A great alternative to Planned Parenthood for women seeking reproductive health services are Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), which do not commit abortions and allow clients to 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 383,460 innocent lives a year.
#3
Does Planned Parenthood get taxpayer dollars? How much per year?
Yes, they received over $633,400,000 last year. Planned Parenthood for years has circumvented the Hyde Amendment, a provision in the U.S. code which prevents federal tax dollars from funding abortions.
#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 less people.
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Abortions have skyrocketed from 289,750 in 2006 to over 383,460 in FY 2020-21.
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Between 2006 and 2015, the number of clients served by Planned Parenthood has dropped 19% while their revenue has risen 30%.
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The amount of taxpayer funding that makes up their total revenue has also increased by 10%, from 33% in 2006 to 43% in 2015.
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Cancer screenings and prevention services have dropped 58% since 2009.
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In 2006, PP committed one in every five abortions. In 2015, they committed one in every three abortions. (source: Planned Parenthood annual reports.)
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PP only performed 371,755 breast exams and pap tests last fiscal year, down from 542,659 in the previous year’s report.
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PP only provided its patients with 416,956 cancer screenings and prevention procedures last fiscal year, down from 598,852 the year before.
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The number of well-woman exams provided at PP facilities fell from 208,248 in 2019-20 to 127,095 in 2020-21.
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After providing 2,565,910 birth control-related services in 2019-20, PP only provided 2,193,205 in 2020-21.
#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 FQHCs, which outnumber Planned Parenthood locations 16-to-1. FQHCs served more than 25 million people in 2015 versus Planned Parenthood, which served 2.5 million people that same year.
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 African-Americans and Latinos, respectively.
Continuing to subsidize Planned Parenthood effectively amounts to providing 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 including profiting off of the sale of the body parts of fetuses they aborted, compromising patient privacy, altering the abortion procedure to obtain better fetal tissue and thereby putting the health of the woman in danger, failing to comply with the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act and failing to comply with the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. For information on all these charges, see www.ppcharges.com.
#7