Planned Parenthood - Profits Up, # of Sites Down

On Tuesday STOPP International (Stop Planned Parenthood, aproject of American Life League) issued it's 2010 Report on U.S. Planned Parenthood Facilities. The good news, "for the fifth straight year, the number of Planned Parenthood centers has declined. In 2010, the Parenthood Federation of America opened 18 new clinics and closed 49, bringing its total clinic number down to 785 – the lowest it has been since 1986."

But, as the report goes on to show, things involving Planned Parenthood aren't always that simple. "Each year we are faced with Planned Parenthood reporting that it attained another record income year and committed a record number of abortions. It operates with millions of dollars of profits each year. All of these are signs that it is a thriving, growing organization.” That is the picture PP tries to present

But as the STOPP points out “Then comes this survey each year and a different picture of Planned Parenthood begins to emerge. Behind all the hype and all of the big income and big profits, it is an organization losing support throughout the country. It is an organization becoming more and more out of touch with the people of America.”

A part of the change has been the reduction in the number of affiliates due to mergers, or in a couple cases disaffiliation. "At one time (1977), Planned Parenthood had 191 affiliates across the country providing input. Today, it has lost 55 percent of those affiliates and is down to just 86.” & all 86 affiliates are being forced to provide abortions if they don't so so now.

Another interesting fact that STOPP points out is 1 I have noticed myself when researching where local affiliates operate. “In performing this survey, we encountered a number of locations where Planned Parenthood claimed more than one clinic at the same physical address. This most frequently happened where PP was making a separation between its abortion business and the rest of its services.” Yet, they are in the same building so clearly they are not so seperate as they want it to appear. having the "seperate"clinic makes it seem like the federal funds aren't supporting the abortion side when they really are.

The report also shows the shift from surgical to medical abortions that is taking place. In "2010 PPFA decreased by 8 the number of surgical abortion facilities, but increased its number of medical abortion facilities by 25. Thus, it ended the year with a total of 321 abortion facilities with 165 doing surgical and medical abortions and another 156 doing medical abortions, but not surgical. This represents an increase of 5.5 percent from the 304 abortion facilities it operated at the end of 2009. Over 40 percent of Planned Parenthood clinics now commit surgical and/or medical abortions." You can be sure that as time goes on the shift will continue towards medical abortions as they are more profitable. You can also be sure that the trend will be towards telemed abortions like those done in the majority of the Iowa sites that offer "medical abortions".

The report gives hope that PP is losing ground in many ways, including the so-called local support it claims it has. As the report points out, this declining support is making it harder for people to be willing to provide tax dollars to PP. & while the report doesn't mention it, the recent scandals aren't helping to build that support back up either.

So while PP is trying to keep painting a rosy picture, things aren't so rosy. PP knows that they are facing a huge loss of income if things don't turn arround. In the short run they still have enough support in Congress to put up a fight. & how willing the Republicans in the House are to not surrender will determine if PP's decline is sped up, or given an extention because they didn't stop the funding.

This is all the more reason we must keep the political pressure up so that the House leadership & rank & file don't cave in. Harry Reid, Pelosi & the rest of the Pro-aborts have made it clear they are willing to shut down the governement if need be. Let them. Then maybe more people will face the truth about what they really care about. & it isn"t the American people, born or unborn.

Source: Report: Number of Planned Parenthood Centers at 25-Year Low