Planned Parenthood Annual Report: Abortions Up, Real Healthcare Down

Planned Parenthood recently released its 2019-2020 annual report. Once again, Planned Parenthood has increased its share of the abortion market while sidelining legitimate, non-violent reproductive health services. This will come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. It is a continuation of a trend that has been going on for many years.

I can’t summarize it better than Dr. Michael New, writing for the Charlotte Lozier Institute:

The report indicates that in 2019, Planned Parenthood performed 354,871 abortions. This is the most abortions that Planned Parenthood has ever performed in a given year and marks a 2.6 percent increase from 2018. Interestingly, while abortions increased, the number of adoption referrals decreased by 37.6 percent between 2018 and 2019. Overall, for every adoption referral Planned Parenthood did in 2019, they performed 133 abortions.

The long-term trends are even more revealing. Between 2009 and 2019, the number of abortions performed by Planned Parenthood increased by 7.7 percent. However, during this time Planned Parenthood has provided significantly fewer health services. Breast exams fell by over 63 percent, pap tests fell by over 64 percent, HPV vaccinations fell by more than seven percent, and prenatal services fell by more than 72 percent. These numbers demonstrate that Planned Parenthood is steering resources away from women’s health and toward abortion.

As National Right to Life president Carol Tobias put it: “It is obvious, given the volume of killing, the group’s enormous budget, and its aggressive abortion advocacy, that abortion is essential to Planned Parenthood and that Planned Parenthood has tried to make itself essential to the performance, promotion, and defense of abortion in this country.”

Planned Parenthood’s supporters sometimes argue that it prevents more abortions through contraception than it commits. They are wrong. According to the Guttmacher Institute, which opposes the right to life, 48% of unintended pregnancies in the United States end in abortion. Planned Parenthood would therefore have to prevent 739,315 unintended pregnancies (354,871 ÷ 0.48) to come out “even” from killing 354,871 babies. Instead, Planned Parenthood only claimed to prevent 395,000 unintended pregnancies last year — a 29% drop from 2015.  

Disgustingly, Planned Parenthood appropriates the imagery and language of racial justice throughout its report. The very first photograph is of a Black person’s raised fist, and the phrase “Black Lives Matter” appears repeatedly. Planned Parenthood was not only founded in eugenics but continues to come under fire for mistreating its employees of color. The racist organization kills tens of thousands of Black babies in the womb every year. Planned Parenthood’s attempt to hide its radical abortion agenda by riding the coattails of good causes shouldn’t fool anyone. 

[Photo credit: Maria Oswalt on Unsplash]