Analysis

The numbers Planned Parenthood doesn’t want you to know

We’ve all heard Planned Parenthood’s trite mantra that “only 3%” of their services are abortion procedures in order to downplay the pivotal role that “service” has to their financial stability.  Their supporters (and sadly, many pro-lifers) have succumbed to believing that abortion is merely a small part of what Planned Parenthood is all about.

Here are the facts, straight from their most recent annual report and the Alan Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood’s research arm.

Planned Parenthood provided a total of 11,003,336 services (one service=one manual breast exam, one pap smear, one individual packet of birth control, one STD or pregnancy test, one abortion procedure, etc) to three million clients in 2010.  329,445 of those services were actual abortion procedures.  That’s where the “3%” claim comes from. If we use Planned Parenthood’s logic, we can equate an invasive surgical abortion procedure to handing someone a condom.

Planned Parenthood never delves any deeper into their abortion numbers, though.  What are they hiding?…

Nearly 11% of Planned Parenthood’s overall clients obtain abortions.  This is far from the deceptive “3%” notion they advocate.

Those abortion services garner Planned Parenthood millions upon of millions of dollars every single year.  According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, the average cost of a surgical abortion is $451.  (Chemical abortions, which are becoming more commonplace, are more expensive than surgical abortions, so the following calculation is a very conservative estimate.)  Abortion is Planned Parenthood’s cash cow.

Abortion makes up almost 14% of Planned Parenthood’s overall billion-dollar income.  Planned Parenthood is acquiring a hefty chunk of their overall income from the one procedure they “want to reduce.”  Keep in mind this percentage is actually higher considering the increased usage of more-expensive chemical abortions.

Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion organization.  They claim to be “the nation’s leading sexual and reproductive health care provider and advocate.”  In reality, it’s the nation’s leading abortion committing organization, performing over 27% of all abortions annually in America.

Over nine out of ten of Planned Parenthood’s pregnant patients get abortions.  But hey, they’re all about “choice,” right?

Don’t let the “3%” claim fool you.

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  • Matthias

    Wow, thanks for this – very informative. But then again… it is rather like a serial killer defending himself saying “I only kill 3% of my time… give me a break!”

    • http://twitter.com/Jennie_Stone Jennie Stone

      Great point.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Michelle-M-Williams/1021964754 Michelle M. Williams

    Do you guys really think there is more money to be made in abortion as opposed to prenatal services or adoption? Adoption is big business. It’s so big that many countries have decided to stop doing international adoption with the US because baby selling is such big business. 

    • LoveTheLeast8

      Planned Parenthood doesn’t do adoptions. Their only involvement in it is “adoption referrals” which = giving you a phone number of an adoption agency if you ask.

      And their latest annual report showed that they did a mere 3 adoption referrals a year for every clinic of theirs. 2,400 referrals out of about 800 clinics.

    • dreames

       To adopt our daughter cost us approximately $20,000.  The fee to the agency was just under 10k, and that was a lower cost agency.  You’ll find that most agency fees are 15-20k at least.  Do the marketing right,  and hey,  yeah PP could make billions in profits while at the same time reducing the costs.  But they wouldn’t reduce the cost because it would be such a money machine.  Seriously,  think about it for 5 minutes.   :)

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  • Shelly200

    Thanks for all the numbers! Everyone talks about the 3%, but no one ever mentions the 13.7% of profit that comes from that 3%. And certainly no pro-choicers talk about the 91.1% ratio of abortions to all pregnancy services.

  • http://twitter.com/Battle4DaLost Jackie Perez

    Thx so much..I’ve been wanting some facts and figures like this. Regarding the  “total PP services” of 11,003,336, can you provide more detail? I have heard that if a woman comes into their office and they give her a 12-month supply of birth control pills, they count that as 12 services, to pad their non-abortion stats. Any additional info would be appreciated. Thx again.

    • http://twitter.com/Jennie_Stone Jennie Stone

      You’re correct.  And I’ve edited the article to specify that each individual packet of birth control, each individual test, each individual surgical/chemical abortion procedure counts as “one” service.

  • Mortemmor T. Snerd III

    What is your address?  You need a really big house and lots of help to take care of all the unwanted children. 

    • Memudd

      Sorry I cannot afford the really big house to take care of all of those unwanted children because my tax money is going to kill them instead!  Not to mention the FACT that many adoptive parents must go outside of the US to adopt because it has been made insanely expensive here.  This is done by pro-abortionist so pro-abortionists can sit back and claim that the “system” would be overwhelmed by unwanted children. More weak pro-abortion rhetoric!

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Matthew-Gerlach/100000135309573 Matthew Gerlach

        I know some people that have adopted. It is extremely difficult to adopt, and it cost them upwards of $30K  

    • Gfd

      Ill take them, just dont kill them.

    • Prolifer!!!

      There are plenty of couples to take all the unwanted children Mort. No child is ever unwanted.

    • http://www.facebook.com/rosiejones114 Rose Jones

      that’s uncalled for, Jennie is helping our country, and perhaps saving lives! that’s patriotic! Thank You Jennie!

    • http://twitter.com/Jennie_Stone Jennie Stone

      What’s yours? We’ll need a big backyard to bury bodies when we implement an execution age for the elderly since so many people don’t want to care for them, either.

      • Anadrs23

        How can we improve adoption procedures and fix the whole foster care system, so that adoption becomes easier for couples seeking to adopt?

    • Guest

      Every child has value, and no child deserves to die. Period.

      And actually, the pro-life movement gives a great deal of practical help to mothers and children.

  • Lynn Bedford

    There are no practical, political solutions to the unwanted pregnancy problem.  There are only non-government, social solutions.  That is where we must concentrate our efforts.

  • Guest

    Great job.  Too many pro-lifers are sloppy with these numbers and often make careless mistakes.  Unfortunately for us, the mass media is relentless and will not let anyone get away with false claims unless they happen to be supporters of Planned Parenthood.  Case and point:

    http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/apr/08/jon-kyl/jon-kyl-says-abortion-services-are-well-over-90-pe/

    You’ve done well to avoid this.

    I think your case is stronger than you realize for two reasons:

    1.  You mentioned abortion as percent of total income.  When Planned Parenthood states that abortions are 3% of what they do, they are referring to the percentage of their health services.  They are leaving out other things they do, such as advertising and lobbying.  So logically, we should look at abortion as a percent of their clinic revenue.  This comes out to over 36%:

    http://liveaction.org/blog/data-36-7-of-planned-parenthoods-health-center-income-is-from-abortions/

    2.  For the sake of the argument, you’ve assumed that Planned Parenthood accurately reports its abortion numbers.  But contrary to this premise, there is a small but growing body of evidence that abortion providers in general and Planned Parenthood in particular underreport them (probably to a massive extent):

    http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-06-16/news/ct-met-abortion-reporting-20110615_1_abortion-providers-fewer-abortions-national-abortion-federation

    http://liveaction.org/mona-lisa/indianapolis-in-is-planned-parenthood-underreporting-abortions

    http://www.jillstanek.com/2011/11/breaking-whistleblower-alleges-texas-planned-parenthood-committed-massive-medicaid-fraud/

    This means that all of your percentages should be even higher.

    • http://twitter.com/Jennie_Stone Jennie Stone

      Thanks for your post.  Jon Kyl’s comment makes me cringe as badly as when people claim abortion income makes up 50% of Planned Parenthood’s revenue, when in reality, it makes up half their CLINIC income, not overall income.  We need to take caution when we discuss these numbers.I looked for the most conservative or average statistics possible from the very source, so that if they are biased (which I have no doubt in my mind they are), it is in Planned Parenthood’s favor and they can’t cry foul when this is exposed.  I am certain that these abortion numbers, in all aspects, are far higher than reported here.

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  • http://twitter.com/GregortheMendel Gregor Mendel

    This isn’t really logical at all.   3% is of the number of procedures they claim, not the number of clients.  

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  • Stephen Brown

    LOVE this–I hear the 3% comment still, even though I’ve done quite a bit in my own circles and social networks to dispel that “rumor”. I’ve bookmarked this to make my life a LOT easier!

  • Anon

    I feel like it is important to point out that fooling people with
    fractions and percentages is a common marketing scheme employed by many,
    many corporations. For example, I’m sure you have seen, at some point, a
    shelf product where the advertisement says “33% more!”. It sounds more
    appealing than saying “an additional one third of the original product”.
    In that case, people also overlook the fact that because there is “33%
    more”, the price will most probably have gone up, too. PP’s 3% claim is
    not incorrect, unless of course they are blatantly lying about their
    numbers. However, when considering percentages, one has to give
    importance to the part as well as the whole, which is the key difference
    between your 3% and your 11%. So, PP isn’t so much lying as they are
    using a tactic that tricks those who are “math illiterate” and quick to
    believe numbers without understanding what those numbers mean.