With the controversy surrounding Planned Parenthood over the sale of fetal tissue from abortions at their affiliated clinics, here are 10 facts about the organization’s practices, scope and finances.
Unless otherwise noted, all figures come from Planned Parenthood’s 2013-2014 annual report.
3% – Planned Parenthood (PP) often claims that abortions account for only 3 percent of the services they provide. While this may be technically true, it is a highly misleading statistic. PP considers an “activity” any separate action, exam or test they do for a patient. If a patient comes in for an abortion, they may also give her an HIV test, a STI test, a pap test, medication to prevent a urinary tract infection and some oral contraceptives. PP counts each as an “activity.” Even if a pregnant woman came to a PP clinic specifically for an abortion, the actual abortion would only count, in this example, as 16 percent (1 of 6) of the “activities” for that particular woman.
77 – Number of years Planned Parenthood Federation of America, commonly shortened to Planned Parenthood, has been in existence. The precursor of the organization, the American Birth Control League, was started in 1921. That group became PP in 1942.
700 – Approximate number of “health centers” connected to PP in America. PP works on a franchise model, so each of the centers is part of a network of 66 independently incorporated affiliates.
327,653 – Number of abortions PP performed in 2013.
$495 – Median charge for a surgical abortion at 10 weeks’ gestation in 2011 and 2012, according to a study published in the journal Women’s Health Issues in December 2013.
$523,616 – Compensation PP’s CEO Cecile Richards earned for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2013.
$60,319 – Average amount American taxpayers (at the local, state and federal level) give PP every hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
$528,400,000 – Amount of revenue PP received from government health services, grants and reimbursements in 2014.
$1,303,400,000 – Total revenue PP earned in 2014.
$3,123,963 – Total domestic gross of Obvious Child, an “abortion comedy” released in 2014. PP brags that it “worked for years with the film’s writer, director, and producers to shape the story, helped them film it in a Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic health center [in the New York City area], and oversaw its release to widespread critical and commercial success.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE – Joe Carter is a communications specialist with the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. This article first appeared at the ERLC’s website, www.erlc.com.)
