Melanie Israel
(ZENIT News – The Daily Signal / Washington, 04.22.2024).- Planned Parenthood’s 2022-2023 annual report is out. Unlike last year’s annual report, now we’re finally able to see how the 2022 Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade is affecting Planned Parenthood’s abortion numbers and bottom line.
Spoiler alert: Abortions and government funding are at all-time highs. Actual health care for things such as cancer screening and preventive care continues to decline. More affiliates than ever are providing “transgender services.”
Here are the key takeaways:
In the medical data section, Planned Parenthood reported:
- 392,715 abortions, an all-time high, and up from last year’s 374,155 abortions.
- 410,272 breast cancer screenings and Pap tests, down from 470,419 the previous year.
- 129,216 preventive care visits, down from 187,234 the previous year.
- 1,721 adoption referrals, down from 1,803 the previous year and less than half of the 4,279 reported just four years ago.
- 2,250,913 million contraceptive services, down from 2,348,275 the previous year.
- 2.05 million unique patients, down from 2.13 million the previous year.
Planned Parenthood performed 228 abortions for every one adoption referral.
In a nod to the reality that women in pro-life states are still traveling out of state to get abortions, Planned Parenthood reports that demand in pro-abortion states rose up to 700%. Some 33,000 people have gotten travel and financial assistance.
In the long term, the trend of more abortions and fewer health services is even more stark. Pro-life scholar Michael New points out that “in the past 10 years, the number of abortions performed by Planned Parenthood has increased by 20%. Meanwhile, cancer screenings fell by more than 58%, and prenatal services declined by more than 67%.”
After going all-in on “gender-affirming hormone therapy” starting in the 2015-2016 reporting year, Planned Parenthood reports an all-time high of 45 clinics offering such services. Planned Parenthood buries the specific number of services in an “other” category in the medical data tables. We can reasonably infer that gender services drove a noticeable spike in the category. It went from 8,153 in 2015 to 177,237 in this year’s report.
Now take a look at the financial side of things. Planned Parenthood reported:
- $2.5 billion in net assets, up from $2.3 billion the previous year.
- $699 million in government funding, up from $670 million the previous year.
- $2 billion in total revenue, up from $1.9 billion the previous year.
- $178.6 million in excess revenue (calculated by subtracting total expenses from total revenues), a decrease from $204.7 million the previous year.
- $977.5 million in private contributions and bequests, including from 576,000 active individual contributors. Last year in those categories, Planned Parenthood reported $694.9 million and 727,000, respectively. That means that fewer people are contributing, but the ones who are writing checks are writing very, very big ones.
The sobering reality is that Planned Parenthood is swimming in cash and aborting more unborn children than ever before.
That’s despite more than a dozen states protecting unborn children with beating hearts, despite abortion clinics in pro-life states closing up shop or moving to abortion-friendly states, and despite Planned Parenthood laying off roughly 100 employees in the national office.
The pro-life movement has racked up lifesaving wins since Dobbs. But Planned Parenthood’s cold, hard data shows that the pro-life movement still has a lot of work to do to build a culture of life.
Take Planned Parenthood’s government funding, for example. Why such a dramatic increase? One culprit is the federal Title X family-planning program.
The Trump administration issued a regulation that required, among other things, that participants physically and financially separate any abortion activity from Title X activity. Rather than comply with the rule, Planned Parenthood clinics sided with abortion and pulled out of the program. But the Biden administration changed the regulation, and starting in 2022, Title X funding flowed to abortion providers, such as Planned Parenthood, once again.
Government funding isn’t the only place executive action is having an impact. Why are Planned Parenthood’s abortion numbers continuing to rise despite nearly two dozen states passing robust pro-life laws after the Dobbs decision? Planned Parenthood can thank the Food and Drug Administration.
In the spring of 2021, under the cover of containing COVID-19, the FDA stopped requiring that chemical abortion drugs be dispensed in person in limited health care settings, opening the door to telemedicine abortion and abortion pills being shipped by mail.
Then, in December 2021, the FDA announced it would make that policy permanent and create a process for retail pharmacies to dispense these pills without a doctor’s visit. In January 2023, the FDA officially updated the regulations for the abortion pill.
What does this mean in practice for an organization like Planned Parenthood?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest abortion numbers, abortion pills are now used in at least 56% of all abortions. And thanks to President Joe Biden and the FDA, it’s never been easier for Planned Parenthood to get dangerous do-it-yourself abortion pills into the hands of women and girls across the country.
These executive policy choices should not go unanswered. Congress’ federal role over the power of the purse provides a path forward. Congress can and should defund Planned Parenthood and redirect funding to real women’s health care.
It should restore the Trump-era pro-life Title X rule. It should prohibit the FDA’s reckless disregard for women’s health and safety that opened the door to dangerous DIY abortion pills.
All of this could be accomplished through the appropriations process through policy riders. In fact, each of these solutions was proposed for fiscal 2024 appropriations, but didn’t make it across the finish line. For the sake of women, girls, and unborn children everywhere, let’s hope pro-life policymakers in Congress hold the line as Congress begins considering fiscal 2025 appropriations.
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