Planned Parenthood reports more money, fewer services

Abortion giant Planned Parenthood raised more money in 2016 but provided fewer services, including abortions, according to the annual report it released last week. The report struck a tone of defiance against recent pro-life efforts but offered no explanation for the drop in assistance for women not seeking abortions, services political activists claim are vital to the organization’s mission.

Students for Life of America president Kristan Hawkins likened the report to “crocodile tears,” saying in a statement that Planned Parenthood leaders “claim to be under attack, but their profits from the rising number of abortions and from the hard-working taxpayers are up again. Making money from ending lives is big business at Planned Parenthood.”

Planned Parenthood performed 321,384 abortions in 2016, down slightly from the previous year and down by more than 12,000 compared to 2011. It also reported an 18 percent drop in prenatal care over the previous year, as well as a 4 percent drop in pap tests and a slight drop in pregnancy tests. Still claiming abortion makes up only 3 percent of its total services, Planned Parenthood reported that it provided more than 9.5 million services to 2.4 million individuals. That’s slightly more services than the previous year but 1.3 million fewer services given to 600,000 fewer people when compared to 2011.

Abby Johnson, a former manager of a Planned Parenthood facility, called the total service number a “joke.”

“Every time they hand out a pack of birth control pills, they consider that a patient service,” she told me. “And so for one patient, if she’s on birth control pills, she automatically is going to have 12-plus visits per year for her. It’s just ridiculous how they come to these numbers.”

Despite offering fewer services, Planned Parenthood brought in $1.5 billion in revenue in 2016, up by more than $155 million from the previous year and by more than $260 million in 2011. Government funding accounted for 37 percent of that revenue—down by 4 percentage points from the previous year.

Private contributions took a greater share of the revenue—up 10 percentage points from five years ago—and the report touts the success of the Women’s March, legal victories, and its growing support base. The report claims 1.3 million new supporters, more than 700,000 new donors, and 156,000 young people engaged in pro-abortion activism.

But Hawkins sees the abortion giant’s reported growth as a “silver lining” in an otherwise grim outlook, noting the pro-life movement’s growing strength on the ground. She compared Planned Parenthood’s 50 new campus groups and 750 trained activists to Students for Life’s 120 new groups and 11,000 trained pro-life advocates.

“We can see that more students are responding to the human rights interests of the preborn than to the business interests of Planned Parenthood,” Hawkins said.

Planned Parenthood’s report outlined its political and legislative battlegrounds but mentioned very little about improving women’s health. Johnson noted the money Planned Parenthood spends on events like the Women’s March or “movement building” could go toward patient services like mammograms and prenatal care.

Johnson, now a pro-life activist, said her And Then There Were None organization has helped more than 400 abortion industry workers leave their jobs. Planned Parenthood's loss of workers, the closure of abortion centers across the country, and the decrease in services for women has contributed to what Johnson called a “desperate pull of support.”

“I think they are just trying to keep quiet and keep convincing people that they are still relevant among young people, that they are still needed,” she said. “The way to do that is just to talk about, oh all the wonderful things we are doing across the country, instead of really focusing on patient services, because they really don’t have that much to brag about when it comes to patient services.”

No charges in New Mexico fetal tissue case

New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas announced last week he will not prosecute the University of New Mexico and the Southwestern Women’s Options abortion center for their alleged fetal tissue trade, but the university has launched its own internal investigation into the transactions.

In a letter sent Thursday to the U.S. House of Representatives Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives, Balderas said he found no violation of state law in the transfer of dead babies and their body parts from the abortion facility to the university. His letter came a year after the congressional panel referred the two entities for criminal investigation.

Profiting from fetal tissue transfer violates state law, but Balderas’ letter stated “there is no evidence that any of the donated fetal tissue was used for any purpose other than research and education.”

New Mexico Alliance for Life director Elisa Martinez said in a statement it “is shameful and disgusting that [Balderas] isn’t prosecuting the law on behalf of New Mexico women, and by not even bothering to contact the victims he chose to trust the lawbreakers over trusting women.”

Meanwhile, the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center is investigating faculty member Robin Ohls for her alleged transfer of fetal tissue from Southwestern Women’s Options to Michigan research company Zietchick Research Institute LLC.

University officials suspended Ohls’ research in October and locked her out of her lab, according to internal documents released to the Albuquerque Journal.

The concealment of its own internal investigation, Martinez said, shows the university “misled the public and protected the lawbreakers in the midst of systemic violations of laws and regulations.” She urged the FBI to “take immediate steps to obtain all documents and investigate the ongoing multiple violations” between the university and the abortion center.

At least one woman has sued Southwestern Women’s Options for concealing its relationship with researchers at the University of New Mexico. —S.G.

Abortion on California college campuses

California lawmakers are considering a bill that would require all state colleges to stock campus health centers with abortion-inducing drugs.

The bill wants California to ensure women seeking abortions have “access to that care as easily and as early in pregnancy as possible.” It claims chemical abortions are “an essential part of comprehensive women’s health care, and should be accessible at on-campus student health centers.” The state Senate referred the bill to a committee last week, and it’s slated for a vote Wednesday.

Californians for Life called on its supporters to protest the proposed mandate to carry abortion-inducing drugs, “ending lives up to 10 weeks of pregnancy and hurting many women for a lifetime.” —S.G.

Court sides with pregnancy centers in Baltimore

A federal appeals court ruled Friday against a Baltimore, Md., city ordinance requiring pro-life pregnancy resource centers to post signs saying they don’t refer for or perform abortions. The law forced “a politically and religiously motivated group to convey a message fundamentally at odds with its core belief and mission,” the court stated. Tom Schetelich, board chairman for the Greater Baltimore Center for Pregnancy Concerns, applauded the ruling as “a victory for the First Amendment and for the women of Baltimore.” —S.G.

British Columbia makes abortion drugs free

British Columbia will soon begin providing abortion drugs for free, becoming the sixth Canadian province to do so. The two-drug combo, which can end a baby’s life up to about 10 weeks gestation, formerly cost women about $300. Abortion advocates have applauded the move, but Stephanie Fennelly, a spokeswoman for the pro-life group The Wilberforce Project, called the decision “reckless.” —S.G.