- The Washington Times - Thursday, April 18, 2024

Planned Parenthood saw fewer patients but performed more abortions — and raked in more taxpayer funding — in the fiscal year that saw the fall of Roe v. Wade.

The 2022-23 Planned Parenthood Annual Report showed its centers performed 392,715 abortions, representing a 5% increase from the previous year and 20% over the past 10 years, according to the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute analysis.

The abortion uptick came even though Planned Parenthood affiliates saw 2.05 million patients, or 80,000 fewer than the previous year.

The report covered the period from Oct. 31, 2021, to Sept. 1, 2022, meaning that it included the nine months before and the three months after the Supreme Court’s decision on June 24, 2022, overturning Roe v. Wade.

“Since the Supreme Court’s decision to take away the federal constitutional right to abortion, more than 20 states have banned some or all abortions,” said the report released this week.

No state bans all abortions. Every state has an exception to save the woman’s life and most states offer other exceptions, such as in cases of rape or to prevent serious risk to the woman’s physical health.

“For Planned Parenthood health center staff, this was a year of moving mountains: finding appointments in other states and the resources to get patients there, building as much capacity as possible for abortion appointments, fulfilling increased demand in some places for birth control, and much more,” the report said.

For the nation’s largest abortion provider, it was also a good year financially. The organization reported nearly $2.1 billion in income and over $2.5 billion in net assets, as well as a surge in both private and public funding.

Private donations hit $997.5 million, up 44% from the previous year. Taxpayer funding in the form of government grants, contracts, and Medicaid reimbursements reached nearly $700 million, up from $670.4 million.

“Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding has increased by 43% since 2010,” the Lozier analysis states. “However, taxpayer funding is reported by Planned Parenthood’s affiliates, whose information lags behind the national office and covers fiscal years ending in 2022.”

Planned Parenthood has also jumped gender-transition care, offering “gender-affirming hormone therapy” at 45 of its affiliates in 2022, an increase from the previously reported 41 affiliates.

Planned Parenthood has described itself as the nation’s second-largest provider of sex-change “hormone therapy,” although the report was unclear on the number of services provided.

“Transgender services” were lumped into the “other services” category, which included those under the federal Women, Infants and Children [WIC] program; pediatric care; adult preventive care, and “high complexity visits” such as infertility services.

“Other services” represented 177,172 out of 9.13 million services total.

A Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania document says that it does not offer hormone therapy to those under 18, although Planned Parenthood says on its website that its services include puberty blockers.

Planned Parenthood once again reported that abortion represented just 4% of its total medical services, a figure that has long been disputed by pro-life groups.

“Planned Parenthood arrives at this false statistic by dividing the number of children it aborted (392,715) for the year by the number of ‘services’ the group provided (9.13 million),” said the Liberty Counsel. “This means when a woman visits a Planned Parenthood facility to obtain an abortion, she is also given a pregnancy test, an STI test, a cancer screening and contraception. Therefore, the abortion procedure would be considered 20 percent of the ‘services’ she received.”

The group accused Planned Parenthood of manipulating the data “to make it appear as if abortion is a tiny percent of its ‘services,’ though a much higher percentage of actual patients who visit Planned Parenthood facilities are there, first and foremost, to obtain an abortion.”

Planned Parenthood bills itself as “one of the nation’s leading providers of high-quality, affordable health care,” but the data show that abortion is increasingly the focus.

Prenatal services have dropped 80% from their peak in 2009. Since 2010, cancer screenings and prevention have fallen by 71%, including a 72% decline in breast exams and 74% reduction in pap tests, according to the Lozier analysis.

Abortions accounted for 97.1% of Planned Parenthood’s pregnancy-resolution services. The organization made just 1,721 “adoption referrals,” or 0.4%. Post-miscarriage treatment represented 0.9%, and prenatal care accounted for 1.6% of the total.

“For every adoption referral in 2021-22, Planned Parenthood performed 228 abortions,” said Lozier.

• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.

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