PLANNED PARENTHOOD

 

Why are abortion clinics called ‘businesses’?

Here are some quotes from abortion workers to answer this question:

 

"When I first started working there [at the clinic], I had to sit and listen to women answering the phone for at least a month before they would allow me to answer the phone. We had to know exactly what we were doing when we were talking to these women. We had to find out very quickly what their problem was, play on that and get them in the clinic for an abortion. We were very good salespeople."  (Joy Davis, Abortion clinic employee)

 

"If a woman we were counseling expressed doubts about having an abortion, we would say whatever was necessary to persuade her to have the abortion immediately ... The abortion clinic that I managed was strictly a business operation.  We did not consider the well-being of the women who had abortions." (Judy W., Office Manager of a Texas abortion clinic)

 

The December 30, 2000 article of the New York Times headlined, "As Abortion Rate Decreases, Clinics Compete for Patients" stated, "Renee Chelian (owner of Northland Family Planning Centers) was worried about her business. With competitors charging lower prices, she needed something special to draw customers. So she created an almost spa-like atmosphere at her offices, with low lights in the rooms, aromatherapy, candles and relaxing music." Obviously, profit is paramount. In her promotional video, she even offers the clients the opportunity to celebrate their abortion in the 'Tea and refreshments' room.

 

The Times article continued, "'The fees are not set by the cost of the services but by the cost of the competition. The competition for patients is absolutely ruthless," said Dr. Warren Hern, owner of the Boulder Clinic in Colorado."

 

Why are abortion businesses accused of greed?

Abortion providers profit financially - and significantly so - from performing abortions. Their business model is purely a financial one. But they never mention financial profit as the basis for their pro-choice platform. Rather, they prefer to mention their concern for 'women’s' rights' instead - a decidedly more noble sentiment.

 

From 2006 to 2007, Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, increased the number of abortions from 264,943 to 289,650. With that increase, total revenue was over 1 BILLION dollars. This included taxpayer dollars in the form of government grants and contracts in excess of $336 million dollars (ref: Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Annual Report 2006).

 

Planned Parenthood lobbies our politicians at Washington D.C. to remove abortion restrictions in order to assure their future financial success. In 2006, the Planned Parenthood Political Action Committee spent 53.1 million dollars to 'adjust' public policy. (Ref: Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Annual Report, 2006). See http://www.feministschoosinglife.org/counter/

 

On December 27, 2010, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) released its Annual Report for 2009-2010. The report indicates they had a total budget of $1.04 billion and an excess of revenue over expenses of 18.5 million dollars — a net profit. The report also reveals 46 percent of the total budget comes from taxpayer dollars in the form of government funding.
(See http://www.lifenews.com/2012/10/16/planned-parenthood-marks-96th-birthday-with-6-million-abortions/)

 

Nina Whitten, chief secretary at Dr. Curtis Boyd's abortion clinic in Dallas, said: "I was trained by a professional marketing director in how to sell abortions over the telephone. He took every one of our receptionists, nurses, and anyone else who would deal with people over the phone through an extensive training period. The object was, when the girl called, to hook the sale so that she wouldn't get an abortion somewhere else, or adopt out her baby, or change her mind. We were doing it for the money."

 

"There was a public health center in a town not far from Denver and they sent a lot of girls to us. They told us they did all the counseling. We weren't allowed to counsel them or even ask them about birth control. We couldn't even tell them what could happen during the abortion. Nothing. If we tried to discuss alternatives, we would get in trouble with the doctor because then the health center would threaten to send their business elsewhere. All we did was find out how far along they were, tell them when they were going to be finished, get their money, do the abortion, and send them home."  (Registered Nurse Sam Griggs, "Abortion Clinics: An Inside Look", Last Days Ministries.)

“It is extremely difficult to watch doctors lie, clinic workers cover up, and hear terrifying stories of women dragged out of clinics to die in cars on the way to the hospital without beginning to question the party line.  I began to wonder if we were really caring for these women, or if we were just working for another corporation whose only interest was the bottom line.  But these are questions that one does not voice at Planned Parenthood.”  (Former Planned Parenthood employee Judith Fetrow, “Meet the Abortion Providers III:  The Promoters”, Pro Life Action League Conference, 4/3/93)  

 

"Abortions are very draining, exhausting, heart-rending. There are a lot of tears. Some patients turn on you...I do them because I take the attitude that women who are going to terminate babies deserve the same kind of treatment as women who carry babies...I've done a couple thousand, and it’s been a significant financial boon...the only way I can do an abortion is to consider only the woman as my patient and block out the baby."  (Abortionist quoted in “M.D. Doctors Talk About Themselves”)

 

“Some abortion practitioners have refused to train colleagues, fearing that they will only help a potential competitor in a lucrative, cash-only business.”  (From the article “Abortion Businesses Struggle to Compete Against Other”, New York Times, Dec. 31, 2000)

 

Just because the abortion industry is big business doesn't mean all abortion workers are in it for the money.

True. Some workers may be in the abortion industry for their own convictions or "principles". However, there can be no doubt that the huge financial benefits can be a motivating factor to follow those "principles".

 

It is important to note that no abortionist, past or present, was or is a completely unpaid volunteer. None. Every abortionist is paid and well-compensated for those "principles", either by the pregnant woman, her health insurance company, or by various organizations including our Federal Government - using taxpayer funds.

 

By contrast, most workers at pregnancy help centers across the country are strictly unpaid volunteers. Their services are free, ultrasounds - if provided - are performed for free, and infant-care supplies are given to mothers for free.

 

While there are significant financial incentives for pro-choice advocates and workers, there are no financial incentives for pro-life advocates and workers.  The only motive is to save the lives and health of the baby and mother.

 

Planned Parenthood claims they are trying to decrease the number of abortions. Is this believable or is it another fairytale?

Abortion is an extremely lucrative business - with total revenues of over 1 billion dollars annually - by Planned Parenthood alone. Similarly, another lucrative business - the tobacco industry - also claims they are trying to decrease tobacco-use. In both cases, the business which is making them very rich is also the one they claim they want to reduce. On the surface, this claim sounds selfless, self-sacrificing, and beneficent to all of mankind. It sure is nice of them, right?

 

If we don't believe the tobacco industry, why should we believe the abortion industry?

 

"We didn't do any real counseling. We answered only the questions the woman asked and tried not to 'rock the boat'…The counselor does try to determine the reason this woman wants the abortion. Not so much to help as to use the fear to reinforce the abortion decision."  (Carol Everett, Former Abortion Clinic Director and Owner)

 
Adoptions decrease profits for abortion clinics. How does this affect the willingness of abortion clinics to give counseling and referrals for adoptions?
There is absolutely no financial motivation for Planned Parenthood, or any abortion provider to offer adoption referrals.

 

In 2006, Planned Parenthood increased the number of abortions by 48%. In that same year, adoption referrals decreased by 81% (ref: Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Annual Report 2006). Yet, abortion providers are the ones primarily tasked, by law, with providing information and counseling about adoption as a viable option for those with unexpected or unwanted pregnancies. If this isn't a case of 'conflict of interest', what is? See http://www.feministschoosinglife.org/counter/

 

With significant profits from performing abortion procedures at stake, there is no wonder why the abortion industry consistently opposes laws which require them to provide more information about adoption, the medical and psychiatric risks associated with abortion, to provide ultrasounds of the unborn child, etc. which women need in order to make a more fully informed decision.

 

"We only sold one product -- abortion and abortion only. We took whatever other ideas the pregnant woman had and used them to sell abortion. We effectively sold our product." (Carol Everett, Former Abortion Clinic Director and Owner)

 

What about other services Planned Parenthood provides besides abortion?

The chart above shows that in 2010, Planned Parenthood's prenatal services (services provided to women who chose to keep their baby) was 8.6 percent of all services provided. Adoption referrals accounted for 0.2 percent of all services provided. But if you think those numbers were small, in 2011, those numbers got smaller. In 2011, prenatal services accounted for a measly 0.28 percent of all services provided. Adoption referrals accounted for an even smaller 0.0076 percent of all services rendered.

 

As aptly stated by Matthew Clark in his article, 'Media's Abortion Distortion Plays into Abortion Industry's Deception' (9/4/12), "Planned Parenthood’s claim that only 3 percent of its business is abortion is no different than if a car dealership claimed that it wasn’t really in the business of selling cars because the number of new car sales was only a fraction of its total services provided (financing cars, repairing cars, providing manufacture recommended maintenance for cars, cleaning cars, and so forth). Of course no one would believe such an outrageous claim. Sure, a car dealership does all of those things, but its purpose is to sell cars. The abortion industry is no different. The abortion industry, led by Planned Parenthood, is about committing abortion. Sure they provide some other services, but when your only self-sustaining revenue source is one thing and you are responsible for 40 percent of that one thing in the entire nation, that is what you are about. Planned Parenthood is about abortion." (See http://aclj.org/media-abortion-distortion-plays-abortion-industry-deception).

 

Abby Johnson, former Planned Parenthood Clinic Director, said: "The abortion giant (Planned Parenthood) thinks it is above the law even though it is under criminal investigation for many, many good reasons. It has defrauded Medicaid to the tune of millions of dollars. At my clinic, we didn't have cancer screening quotas to fill. We had abortion quotas to fill, because that's what made us money."

 

Besides profitable abortion businesses, what are new ways in which businesses profit from abortion?

Human tissues from aborted babies are being used for cosmetic surgery in Hungary. Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Legal Counsel Daniel Lipsic, who will be presenting arguments at a hearing in Hungarian General Court, said, "A baby is precious, not a precious commodity.  This horrific and inhuman use of a child’s cells and tissues has no place in a civilized society. No one should be allowed to line their wallets with profit gained from creating this kind of black market - one that generates a hideous demand for babies’ bodies for use in unapproved, elective cosmetic procedures."

 

Each cosmetic procedure commands a price tag of $25,000. (See http://www.lifenews.com/ 'Pro-Life Group Tries to Stop Using Aborted Babies for Cosmetics', Steven Ertelt, 3/12/13).

 

How can Planned Parenthood and organizations that provide free abortion referrals be accused of being profit-oriented if they are non-profit?

Non-profit status does not mean the abortion doctors, counselors, administrators, marketers/salespersons and other workers aren't getting paid. They all have a significant financial interest in their abortion businesses. In fact, the president/CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Cecile Richards, makes an annual salary of nearly $400,000 as a worker of the non-profit abortion giant. Needless to say, this is many times the national average and is in the top 1 -2% of all salaries in the U.S... See http://www.charitynavigator.org/).

She claims no taxpayer dollars go toward her lucrative salary because taxpayer funds remain separate from her salary in their accounting practices - as if the amount of those federal taxpayer funds coming into her organization have no effect on her salary whatsoever. But is this true? Does the nearly $500,000,000 of federal funds which Planned Parenthood receives each year - which represents almost 50 percent of their total annual revenue - have no effect whatsoever on her salary or that of the other Planned Parenthood executives? Or is their accounting practice to keep federal moneys separate from their salaries nothing more than a deceitful accounting exercise at best?

 

In addition, a Planned Parenthood CEO Report based on IRS tax filings, and released by American Life League’s STOPP International, shows that many top executives of Planned Parenthood are paid annual incomes above the $250,000 mark - that benchmark that the White House has defined as denoting a “millionaire,” or the “top one percent of income earners” that do not pay their fair share of taxes needed to help the less fortunate.

 

“Our research shows 88 percent of Planned Parenthood affiliate CEOs have no healthcare backgrounds,” said Jim Sedlak, vice president of American Life League and co-author of the report. “But they pay themselves quite well to claim they are first and foremost a critical healthcare provider to the poor.”

 

The report shows that the average salary of a CEO at a Planned Parenthood affiliate is $158,275. This falls in the top six percent of all household incomes in the United States. Thirty of the top executives receive salaries in excess of $200,000 (the top 2.67 percent of household income), while 18 of the executives rank in the top 1.5 percent receive annual incomes in excess of $250,000.

 

So the question these executives need to answer is: "How does it make you feel to know those you are serving - who are often destitute and impoverished - are helping you live a life of luxury by having you perform abortions on them? (Ref: 'The ‘1%’: Planned Parenthood execs making more than $250K per year', LifeSiteNews.com , Jan 09, 2012).

 

Is the career of an abortionist about honor, courage, sensitivity, and pride? An abortionist's testimony:

How honorable, courageous or sensitive is it to rip off the arms and legs of an unborn baby? Or to plunge surgical scissors into the head of a baby who is squirming and fighting for life? These are hardly topics spoken with pride even among abortionists themselves.

 

Here is a testimony given by former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino before a U.S. House subcommittee in May 17, 2012. Describing the abortion procedure on a 24-week pregnant woman, he said, "A second trimester D&E abortion is a blind procedure. The baby can be in any orientation or position inside the uterus. Picture yourself reaching in with the Sopher clamp and grasping anything you can. At twenty-four weeks gestation, the uterus is thin and soft so be careful not to perforate or puncture the walls. Once you have grasped something inside, squeeze on the clamp to set the jaws and pull hard – really hard. You feel something let go and out pops a fully formed leg about six inches long. Reach in again and grasp whatever you can. Set the jaw and pull really hard once again and out pops an arm about the same length. Reach in again and again with that clamp and tear out the spine, intestines, heart and lungs. The toughest part of a D&E abortion is extracting the baby’s head. The head of a baby that age is about the size of a large plum and is now free floating inside the uterine cavity. You can be pretty sure you have hold of it if the Sopher clamp is spread about as far as your fingers will allow. You know you have it right when you crush down on the clamp and see white gelatinous material coming through the cervix. That was the baby’s brains. You can then extract the skull pieces. Many times a little face may come out and stare back at you. If you refuse to believe that this procedure inflicts severe pain on that unborn child, please think again." (Ref: 'The most heartrending abortion testimony you’ll ever hear, from a former abortionist', John Jalsevac, May 29, 2012. http://www.lifesitenews.com/blog/the-most-heartrending-abortion-testimony-youll-ever-hear-from-a-former-abor/).

 

How does the abortion rate in the U.S. compare to other countries?

According to a 2007 article from the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute, the United States has the HIGHEST abortion rate in the western world, and the third-highest abortion rate of all developed nations worldwide (Gilda Sedgh et al., "Legal Abortion Worldwide: Incidence and Recent Trends," International Family Planning Perspectives, 33 (September 2007): 108). Over 3000 helpless human beings are killed by abortion daily in the U.S. alone. Worldwide, there are over 46 million abortions performed annually - 1.2 million in the U.S. and 13 million in China.

 

Aren't the majority of abortions in the U.S. for cases of rape/incest, a malformed baby or the mother's health?

According to the pro-choice group, the Guttmacher Institute (established by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America), their studies conducted over the last 25 years shows the following:

 

- Less than 0.5% of women report that their abortion was because they became pregnant as a result of rape.

- Only 7% of women report that their abortion was because of a health reason or a possible health problem with the baby

- 92% of abortions in America are purely elective - done on healthy women to end the lives of healthy children.

 

Based on these statistics from a pro-choice organization, we should ask ourselves why rape and the health of mother/child are the main focus for their pro-choice arguments.

 

Why did legalizing abortion increase the abortion rate?

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that the number of abortions increased every year from 1970 through 1982.  Furthermore, the National Abortion Federation (NAF), provided the following data regarding the possible influences on the increase in abortions:

 

- The abortion rate per-capita was twice as high in metro areas (with more abortion clinics) than in non-metro areas (with less abortion clinics). This shows that legal availability of abortion also encourages more abortions. This is undoubtedly why Planned Parenthood regularly lobbies Capitol Hill for more federal funding to open more clinics - even while simultaneously claiming to try to decrease the number of abortions.

 

- Women with access to taxpayer-funded abortion services were up to three times as likely to have an abortion as those who didn't have "free" services. This is no surprise in that when something is "free", business goes up.

 

- Mandatory delay laws - a.k.a. two-trip requirement - decreased the number of abortions in Mississippi by over 15% in the first year. This law is designed to provide women with additional time to make a more fully informed decision and also to decrease the risk to a woman who might be hastily coerced by others into having an abortion against her will. This pro-woman law shows that, given some extra time, many people tend to rethink their initial impulsive response and make decisions which support their own well-being rather than the will of others.

 

“Very commonly, we hear patients say that they feel like they’re on an assembly line. We tell them they’re right. It is an assembly line…We’re trying to be as cost-effective as possible and speed is important…We try to use the physician for his technical skill and reduce the one-to-one relationship with the patient. We usually see the patient for the first time on the operation table and then not again. More contact is just not efficient.”  (Ref:  Abortionist Dr. Edward Allred, founder of Family Planning Associates Medical Group, quoted in The San Diego Union, October 12, 1980, and “Doctor’s Abortion Business Is Lucrative”, ALL About Issues, December 1980)