Exposing The Truth About Planned Parenthood

Nothing raises the blood pressure of Democrats and their titular leader President Obama like threats to federal funding for Planned Parenthood.  They become apoplectic over the slightest hint of criticism aimed at the organization, regarding any honest appraisal as hostility towards women's health.

Yet so many of the claims made by Democrats and the president about Planned Parenthood are simply not true.  However, an apparatchik media has protected the government-funded program shielding it from a legitimate evaluation of how well Planned Parenthood performs.

On January 4 of this year, Planned Parenthood Federation of America released a plethora of data about its operations, including annual reports covering financials and services during the period from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012.   The pro-abortion mainstream media has buried its head in the sand.

An independent analysis of the information exposes many of the myths about Planned Parenthood that have been fostered by the organization and its fawning supporters in the Democrat Party and the puppet media.  Here are just a few:

• The number of overall health-related services preformed by Planned Parenthood at its 750 affiliate centers nationwide has been declining since 2010.  In 2012, it reached its lowest level since 2006. Planned Parenthood is not delivering on its promises to offer expanded health services to women.  For example, the organization claims it needs more funding to provide breast exams for women.  An analysis of the group's own data shows it is performing fewer exams each year.  Since 2007, exams have declined nearly 25 percent.  
• Planned Parenthood claims abortion procedures are a small part of the services it provides, but it may be the most profitable.  An analysis finds that abortions increased 9.3 percent from 2007 to 2011.  Figures for the latest year indicate a record number of abortions were performed.  Since 2007, the centers have recorded 1,624,523 abortions.  The procedure clearly is a cash cow for Planned Parenthood, which charges between $300 and $950 for each abortion.  Costs for health services are either "free" or offered at nominal expense.
• Federal funding for Planned Parenthood has catapulted 77 percent since 2006, despite claims government support has dwindled.   In 2012, taxpayers transferred $542.4 million to the organization.  Federal dollars represented 45 percent of the organization's total income. The increases were required because Planned Parenthood has lost 27 percent of its individual and corporate donor base since 2007. The jump in federal funding is not commensurate with the services provided.  Since 2009, Planned Parenthood reported its services have fallen 3.3 percent, hardly justification for the stunning increase in federal funding. The number of clients served has also declined since 2007.  

The shrill voices in the women's rights movement have shrink-wrapped Planned Parenthood in an protective coating that frightens most politicians from investigating the expansion in federal funding.  Even legitimate questions about funding are treated as the ravings of Neanderthals who want to enslave women.

Conservatives have played into the hands of the abortion crowd with emotionally-charged arguments against federal funding.  Instead of fighting over abortion policy, Republicans should attack Planned Parenthood on the basis of its failures to deliver on its own mandate of providing health care services to women. 
 
Abortion is not health care.  There should be not one scintilla of taxpayers funds used to support an organization which does so little to advance women's health care.