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Planned Parenthood and the Factory Abortion Industry Part III

October 18, 2019, by Eric Criss

Our blog series, Planned Parenthood and the Factory Abortion Industry, explores the Protect Life Rule.  In part II of our series, we described the burden placed upon women with low incomes by Planned Parenthood’s refusal of Title X funds.  This week, our blog focuses upon pro-life groups’ perceptions of the Protect Life Rule. 

Protect Life Rule Takes Effect

After legal challenges from abortion rights advocates, Planned Parenthood among them, the San Francisco-based U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on July 11, 2019 that the Protect Life Rule may take effect even as legal challenges continue.  This court ruling and the Protect Life Rule, in general, received a delighted welcome from pro-life groups like the Susan B. Anthony List, March for Life, Students for Life of America, and Americans United for Life.  

Taxpayers, Especially Young Women, Don’t Want To Fund Abortion 

Americans United for Life’s president and CEO, Catherine Glenn Foster stated that under the Protect Life Rule, “no physician in America is being stopped from referring a patient for an abortion – they just can’t demand taxpayer funding to do so.” 

Kristan Hawkins, President of Students for Life of America explained, “Planned Parenthood has violated the spirit of the Title X family planning program for years by collecting millions of dollars while they marketed abortion.”  Further clarifying the pro-life movement’s position toward the value of women’s health and unborn children’s lives, Hawkins insisted, “Pregnancy is not a disease cured by abortion, and ending the connection between abortion and family planning is a victory for common-sense health care.”   

Hawkins’ group, Students for Life of America, commissioned a poll conducted by The Polling Company/Woman Trend, finding that, by a 3 to 1 margin, 18 to 34 year olds would rather their tax dollars support Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) than Planned Parenthood.  FQHC refers to centers with a government designation that offer health care services to U.S. locations which are not being adequately served.

Future for America’s Unborn Looking Brighter

Concerning the on-going legal challenges to the Protect Life Rule, there is hope.  A 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court 1991 ruling held that the establishment of rules to grant tax dollars exclusively to family planning clinics that neglect to “encourage, promote, or advocate abortion” was the government’s right.  

Legal challenges mounted against the Protect Life Rule may thus be doomed by legal precedent. Either way, this sad chapter in American history continues to be written.

Be on the lookout for our follow-up blog, detailing the life span of Title X from its 1970 inception to the present.  We will demonstrate the historical ebb and flow of Executive policymaking on behalf of women and the unborn.

Check out these links for more about the national Pro-Life groups mentioned in this blog.

The Susan B. Anthony List https://www.sba-list.org/

March for Life https://marchforlife.org/

Students for Life of America https://marchforlife.org/

Americans United for Life https://aul.org/

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Planned Parenthood and the Factory Abortion Industry – Part II

Welcome back to our blog series, Planned Parenthood and the Factory Abortion Industry.  Last week, we explained the connection between the Protect Life Rule and Title X’s original intent.  This week, our blog focuses upon Planned Parenthood’s greed and their decision to marginalize women with low incomes.

Straining Women’s Finances Even Further

In the U.S., Planned Parenthood is one of about 100 groups that run hundreds of clinics receiving Title X funds.  Planned Parenthood traditionally serves 40 percent of the 4 million women with low incomes who benefit from Title X; however, the national network of clinics bowed out of funding in August 2019 because of the Protect Life Rule’s insistence on adherence to Title X stipulations.  Particularly, the stipulations barred Title X grantees from providing abortion. (Note: A grantee is an organization which receives Title X funds.) Planned Parenthood has 400 clinics nationwide that have foregone Title X funds.  Approximately $60 million in Title X funds annually has gone to Planned Parenthood. 

The Trump administration addressed Planned Parenthood’s decision to forego Title X funding as a “self-inflicted” injury.  Planned Parenthood plans to make up the financial shortfall by tapping into reserves and reaching out to private donors for funding.  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) website states that Planned Parenthood “is actually choosing to place a higher priority on the ability to refer for abortion instead of continuing to receive federal funds to provide a broad range of acceptable and effective family planning methods and services to clients in need of these services.”

In states like Minnesota, areas of New Hampshire, Utah and Vermont, Planned Parenthood is virtually the sole Title X provider for women’s health services.  Thus, these states will have patients forced to pay higher fees.  “This means that women are going to have to struggle with maybe trying to come up with $10 to contribute to their health care when before they only had $5” stated Karrie Galloway, chief executive officer and president of Planned Parenthood Association of Utah. 

Rural Women With Low Incomes Set To Suffer Most

Smaller health clinics, especially in rural locations, that have no connection to Planned Parenthood will be particularly hard hit by a refusal to comply with the Protect Life Rule.  Without Planned Parenthood’s extensive donor list, rural clinics will have to search for funds elsewhere. 

The decision by large conglomerates like Planned Parenthood and smaller rural clinics to forego Title X funds so they can continue offering and providing abortions is ominous.  Their actions paint a dismal picture of the value placed upon human life and women’s health.  The current situation certainly sheds light upon an expanding hole left among women’s health services providers and, thus, an opportunity for faith-based clinics to meet women’s health care needs. 

Planned Parenthood Worships The Almighty Dollar

So why has Planned Parenthood chosen now to turn its back on women with low incomes? Title X funds enabled Planned Parenthood’s abortion focus to be unencumbered until the Protect Life Rule demanded they separate Title X resources from abortion services. “Money is fungible,” points out Jeanneane Maxon, associate scholar with the Charlotte Lozier Institute.  Maxon notes that “Money designated for one purpose (e.g., family planning) necessarily frees up funds for other purposes (e.g., abortion/abortion referrals).  As such, organizations that provide abortions or abortion referrals have consistently opposed measures that require them to bifurcate or designate Title X funding . . . Such organizations have prioritized reliance on abortion as a method of family planning over the provision of Title X-funded services to women seeking assistance with family planning.” Clearly, Planned Parenthood is sincerely interested in abortions and money.

  Related Articles

Ten Truths About Title X

Title X Final Rule Compliance and Enforcement

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Planned Parenthood and the Factory Abortion Industry Part I

September 4, 2019

By Dr. Eric Criss

This image is above the blog post

Press coverage intensified in August as the deadline for compliance with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Title X Protect Life Rule came and went.  This blog series, Planned Parenthood and the Factory Abortion Industry, covers the current Protect Life Rule’s impact and its origins. Today let’s talk about the history of Title X, specifically the recent rule’s link to Title X’s original intent, and the reason Planned Parenthood’s sacrificed its Title X funding. 

The Act’s Original Intent

Pro-life groups, the Trump administration, the medical establishment, and pro-choice groups alike have reacted to the Protect Life Rule also known as Title X’s Abortion Provider Prohibition Act.  The original intent of Title X reveals the necessity for the current Protect Life Rule.  In 1970, under Nixon, Congress passed the Family Planning Services and Population Research Act which included Title X.  Significant for the 2019 Protect Life Rule is section 1008 of the original 1970 act, which reads “none of the funds appropriated under this title shall be used in programs of facilities where abortion is a method of family planning.”  At issue under the current rule lies taxpayer funded abortion and, more specifically, funding family planning and women’s health services as opposed to abortion. 

HHS clarified the need for clear streams of funding saying there is a need for “clear financial and physical separation between Title X funded projects and programs or facilities where abortion is a method of family planning.  This separation will ensure adherence to statutory restrictions and provide needed clarity for the public and for Title X clinics about permissible and impermissible activities for Title X projects.”  In other words, the Protect Life Rule requires grantees (clinics receiving Title X funds) to be located separately from abortion clinics and expects grantees to receive funding which remains entirely separate from moneys which cover abortion. 

Planned Parenthood: Factory Abortion Provider

Now, the response of some women’s health clinics is telling and, considering their disregard for human life, their refusal of Title X funds falls right in line with their political and fiscal agenda.  We know clearly who responds to politics rather than the needs of American women in rural and urban areas who struggle financially.  Guess who doesn’t prioritize women’s health care?  Clinics who provide abortion and women’s health services, namely, Planned Parenthood, who have refused Title X funds since the Protect Life Rule’s passing.   The need for cancer screenings, annual exams, pregnancy testing, and STI testing exists among 4 million women with low incomes.

Planned Parenthood’s decision to turn down Title X funds reveals the priority they place upon abortion services and their pro-abortion political agenda even above providing health services for women with low incomes. According to its 2017-2018 Annual Report, Planned Parenthood performed 332,757 abortions.   Do you wonder how much Planned Parenthood makes for performing abortions?  You guessed it . . . Planned Parenthood obscures their abortion earnings.  Within the same annual report, Planned Parenthood claims over $2 billion in net assets, including income of $1.6 billion for its last fiscal year and $244.8 million in excess of revenue over expenses. 

Factory Abortion Profits

Jeanneane Maxon, J.D., an associate scholar for the Charlotte Lozier Institute, estimates Planned Parenthood’s possible range of abortion income as roughly $216 million to $334 million.  Maxon explains, “Assuming that the prices shown in Planned Parenthood of Southern New England’s Cost Calculator are reflective of nationwide prices, Planned Parenthood would have received income between $216,292,050 on the low-end (an in-clinic abortion under 12 weeks without sedation) to $334,420,785 on the high-end (an in-clinic abortion between 16-18.6 weeks with sedation).” Planned Parenthood’s significant abortion earnings reveal why they chose to turn down Title X funds which serve women with low incomes.  They prefer raking in the dough by discussing and promoting abortions and sharing locations with abortion facilities over providing health services for women.  Next week, we further consider the impact of clinics’ refusal of Title X funds upon women with low incomes and describe the responses to the Protect Life rule by pro-life groups.

Related Articles:

Planned Parenthood’s Abortion Priority Revealed Through Rejection of Title X Funding

HHS Title X Statutes & Regulations