Planned Parenthood has come out with its annual report, and in it the abortion giant boasted that its affiliates around the nation performed 333,964 of the murderous procedures during 2010-11, up from 332,278 pre-born deaths in 2009, the previous yearly record. The latest number, which represents an abortion performed every 94 seconds, is just one of the many statistics the group crowed about in its just-released report. “We are so proud of the year’s many successes, and deeply grateful for all the partners, sponsors, volunteers, staff and friends who helped make them possible,” the group’s president, Cecile Richards, said in a statement.
A fact sheet released with the report noted that among the “services” provided by Planned Parenthood during the reporting period were the distribution of 1.43 million “emergency contraception kits,” which include birth control drugs known to cause abortion in pregnant women who take them. And while the abortion giant oversaw the killing of hundreds of thousands of babies, it could only muster 2,300 adoption referrals over the same time period, which comes out to some 145 abortions for every adoption.
As for other services it boasts, the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) noted that over the past three years, while its revenue has skyrocketed, Planned Parenthood’s contraceptive services have dropped by 12 percent and its cancer screenings by 29 percent.
Meanwhile, according to its annual report, in 2010 Planned Parenthood raked in a record $542.4 million in federal, state, and local government funding — nearly half of its $1.2 billion in total revenue. Overall, Planned Parenthood ended the 2010-11 fiscal year with a $87.4 million profit.
According to Fox News, tax dollars accounted for 45 percent of Planned Parenthood’s budget in 2010, a 167 percent rise in government funding of the abortion giant in the past 10 years, by one account. While many states are working to defund Planned Parenthood, the fact that the organization is responsible for nearly one million abortions (995,687) over the past three years while receiving billions in government dollars prompted a response of alarm and outrage from pro-life leaders.
“Planned Parenthood has spent much of the last few years demanding that taxpayers add millions more to their coffers, citing their non-profit status and so-called focus on women’s health,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA List. “What have we received for our money? While government subsidies to Planned Parenthood have reached an all time high, so too has the number of lives ended by this profit-driven abortion business. Destroying nearly one million children in three years is not health care and does not reflect a concern for vulnerable women and girls. As Planned Parenthood’s funding goes up, abortions increase and real health services for women go down.”
Douglas Scott of Life Decisions International, a Planned Parenthood watchdog group, said that for decades “Planned Parenthood has operated the most proficient killing machine in the United States. And the machine has set yet another record.” Scott recalled several months ago when Planned Parenthood was faced with a scandal that threatened a minor loss of funding. “Do you remember when Planned Parenthood was crying over the disastrous blow it claimed would have been done to healthcare for women if Susan G. Komen for the Cure were to stop funding the controversial group?” Scott asked. “‘Women will die! Women will die!!’ This is what everyone was told. Yet this ‘not-for-profit’ goliath ends every fiscal year with millions of dollars in ‘excess revenue over expenses.’”
Scott noted that the group’s excess for 2010-11 “was a record $155.5 million. In 2011-2012 alone, the excess was $87.4 million. Still, Planned Parenthood and its affiliates often make wild claims whenever a corporation, organization, or government entity chooses to eliminate or cut funding.” Since the 2000-2001 fiscal year, Scott said, Planned Parenthood has enjoyed an astounding excess of $771 million.
SBA List’s Dannenfelser said that as if its abortion numbers and crazy revenue were not sufficient, “Planned Parenthood has upped the ante even further by mandating that all affiliates provide abortions beginning this year. Americans are sick and tired of underwriting the nation’s largest abortion business. We call on Congress to immediately investigate and defund Planned Parenthood.”
One lawmaker has answered that challenge. On January 4, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, (R-Tenn.) introduced a bill that would end federal funding of Planned Parenthood. “As a woman, I believe America deserves better than abortion,” Blackburn offered in a statement with the bill. “America shouldn’t celebrate abortion and our taxpayers shouldn’t subsidize abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood, who profit from the destruction of human life with taxpayer money. It’s fiscally irresponsible and morally indefensible.”
The bill, entitled the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act (H.R. 217) would “prohibit family planning grants from being awarded to any entity that performs abortions.” Blackburn cited a 2010 report from the Government Accountability Office showing that Planned Parenthood had received $340 million from the Department of Health and Human Services under Title X’s family planning services umbrella.
A similar Planned Parenthood defunding bill failed in 2011 when Democratic legislators threatened to shut down the government rather than defund the abortion provider, a war cry that has again been heard in this session as the fight shapes up over spending cuts keyed to Obama’s request for a rise in the debt ceiling. “We Republicans need to be willing to tolerate a temporary partial government shutdown — which is what that could mean,” said Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).
Planned Parenthood has long said that the hundreds of millions it receives in federal funding does not go toward its lucrative abortion business. “Every dollar from the federal government that Planned Parenthood receives pays for lifesaving cancer screenings, birth control, family planning visits, annual exams, testing for HIV and other STIs, and other kinds of basic care,” one of Planned Parenthood’s affiliates insisted.
But pro-life leaders point out that such tax dollars are fungible, which means that money supposedly earmarked for “family planning” services could also be funneled into Planned Parenthood’s abortion business.
