Does Planned Parenthood reduce abortions?

by Bill Beckman

A headline in the October 15th Chicago Sun-Times reads, “Planned Parenthood is not the enemy in abortion fight.”  Such a statement could have come straight out of Planned Parenthood’s own marketing plan.  Unfortunately, the facts do not support the perception Planned Parenthood wants to create with this marketing message.

In 2006, the Guttmacher Institute (research arm of Planned Parenthood) rated the states on the effectiveness of their state-funded birth control distribution programs.  States such as New York and California were rated excellent while Nebraska was rated poor.  Which of these states do you think have high abortion rates?  Remember, Planned Parenthood claims that better access to birth control will reduce abortions.  Well, New York and California are among the states with the highest abortion rates while Nebraska has low abortion rates.  Thus, Planned Parenthood's own statistics demonstrate the failure to achieve their claimed results.

In 2005, the Guttmacher Institute, in a study on unplanned pregnancies, noted that 53 percent of women who have unintended pregnancies used a contraceptive method during the month they got pregnant.  Of those unplanned pregnancies, 47 percent end in abortion, 40 percent are carried to full term, and 13 percent end in miscarriage.   Whether this is due to usage failure or method failure, it shows that artificial contraception is largely ineffective in preventing unplanned pregnancy and abortion.

Planned Parenthood is pushing hard for access to the morning-after pill at every pharmacy in the nation.  They consider it a national problem if even one pharmacy does not have Plan B readily available.  They claim that over-the-counter access to Plan B will reduce unwanted pregnancy and abortion by 50%.  However, after the FDA allowed over-the-counter sales to anyone at least 18 years old, one of the most active promoters of Plan B, James Trussell from Princeton University, co-authored a study that evaluated the results of over-the-counter sales from 10 nations. 

The authors reported, “no study has shown that increased access to this method reduces unintended pregnancy or abortion rates on a population level” and “the consistency of their primary findings is hard to ignore."  They concluded that the morning-after pill “is unlikely to produce a major reduction in unintended pregnancy rates no matter how often women use it” and that “previous expectations that improved access could produce a direct, substantial impact on a population level may have been overly optimistic.”  They also stated the drug's effectiveness may be "substantially ... overstated."  Again, reality is far different from the marketing hype.

The above evidence demonstrates that Planned Parenthood’s claims of reducing unwanted pregnancies and abortions are not supported by the facts.  Consider also the business perspective.  Would any business really be serious about reducing use of their products?  If their claims were true, why did the number of abortions provided by Planned Parenthood climb from 5% to 20% of the national total over the last 20 years, reaching 264,943 when last reported for 2005?  With estimated abortion revenue over $110 million, abortion is much more than 3% of Planned Parenthood’s business.  In fact, abortion revenues produce about 32% of the income its clinic facilities generate annually.

Planned Parenthood claims that abstinence education does not work.  Their solution is called “comprehensive sex education.”   Ironically, they claim “comprehensive sex education” provides “a strong abstinence message.”  Abstinence educators have reviewed the programs advocated by Planned Parenthood.  None of them emphasize abstinence so again the marketing hype does not square with reality. 

Why would Planned Parenthood have any interest in promoting abstinence?  Teenagers who practice abstinence will never become customers of Planned Parenthood.  They do not need birth control, STD testing and treatment, pregnancy tests, and abortions.  These are the services that Planned Parenthood sells. 

Laura Berman (author of the Sun-Times article) can believe Planned Parenthood’s marketing hype if she wants, but the facts do not support their claims.   As the largest abortion provider in the nation, Planned Parenthood certainly is the enemy in the effort to end abortion.

Comments

[Pat Hickey]

Nope - PP is there to make abortions ( which it calls counselling; education and caring).

Hook Nosed Maragret Sanger and her girlfriends set up this nice butcher shop to stop poor people from having babies.

Chanel # 5 on Pig is still a Sow.

[Pete Speer]

There is no profit to Planned (Infanticide) Parenthood from carrying babies to term or from abstinence.

The money comes from abortions

[spin]

Why would Planned Parenthood have any interest in promoting abstinence?

That's like asking
Why would a welfare worker have any interest in promoting prosperity?
Why would a medical care system have any interest in promoting health?
Why would a politician have any interest in solving a crisis?