If Planned Parenthood’s not about abortion, why do they commit more than a third in the U.S.?

By comparing data from Planned Parenthood’s annual reports with reported abortion numbers published by Guttmacher (Planned Parenthood’s former research arm, once referred to as a “special affiliate” to the organization), Live Action News has noted that as government funding has increased over the years, so has Planned Parenthood’s number of abortions. However, what many Americans may not know is that the organization’s abortion market share has also increased steadily over the years — over 325 percent since the early 1990s.

According to Investopedia, “a company’s market share is its portion of total sales in relation to the market it operates within.” Small Business Chronicle describes market share as “one of the primary indicators companies use to measure how well they are doing versus competitors.”

A look at Planned Parenthood’s most recently published annual report (2014-2015) reveals that the organization currently holds 34.9 percent of the market share of abortions in the country. This market share continues to grow annually, and is seen in reports from Guttmacher and the Centers for Disease Control.

In 1991, Planned Parenthood held only 8.2 percent of the market share of abortions in the United States, which equated to 129,000 abortions. According to a report published by Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health (available at the Guttmacher website), 1,556,500 abortions were reported nationally in 1991.

By 2000, Planned Parenthood’s abortion market share had risen from 8.2 percent to 15 percent (reflecting an increase of 82 percent). In addition, the number of abortions performed at Planned Parenthood also rose by 52 percent to 197,070.

Then, in 2007, only a few years after Cecile Richards took over as president, the organization’s abortion market share rose to 25.2 percent (increasing 68 percent from 2000). During this time frame, Planned Parenthood performed over 54 percent more abortions (305,310) than they did in 2000, and over 136 percent than what they performed in 1991.

But market share is not the only statistic which has increased at Planned Parenthood, as readers can see from the graph above. As abortions have risen, so has government funding to the abortion corporation.

In fact, between 1991 ($124,000,000) and 2000 ($202,700,000), Planned Parenthood saw an increase in taxpayer revenue of more than 63 percent. Between 2000 ($202,700,000) and 2007 ($349,600,000), government funding increased again by a whopping 72 percent. And Planned Parenthood’s share of the abortion market continued to climb.

By 2011, Planned Parenthood reported 333,964 abortions, (reflecting an increase of over 9 percent from 2007), while its share of the abortion market rose to 31.5 percent, according to national numbers published by Guttmacher. Along with this came a 55 percent increase in government dollars, giving the largest chain of abortion providers $542.4 million annually.

But what is even more striking is that today (using the most recent numbers available from 2014), Guttmacher statistics show that as abortions had decreased nationally by 12 percent from 2011 (926,200), Planned Parenthood’s market share of abortions increased again by over 10 percent. That means that after taxpayers were forced to hand over $553.7 million to Planned Parenthood, the organization increased its abortion market share in the country to 34.9 percent.

In other words, Planned Parenthood is responsible for performing well over one-third (323,999) of the nation’s reported abortions (926,200).

Allow that to sink in for a minute, because the organization would have you believe that abortion is just a small percentage of what they do — a false talking point which Live Action has already debunked:

What this reveals is that while Planned Parenthood masquerades as a “health care” provider, its main focus is abortion — and the organization’s own statistics bear this out.

According to statistics published in Planned Parenthood’s 2014-2015 annual report:

• Planned Parenthood performed 151 percent more abortions in 2014 than they did in 1991 (129,000 in 1991 vs. 323,999 in 2014.)
• In 2014, the abortion corporation received over 346 percent more in federal tax dollars than they did in 1991 ($124 million in 1991 to $553.7 million in 2014).
• Profitable abortion market share has increased more than 325 percent at Planned Parenthood since the early 1990’s (8.2 percent in 1991 to 34.9 percent in 2014).

All of these things happened while Planned Parenthood’s patient load decreased dramatically. As I previously reported, “In 2014, Planned Parenthood saw 2.5 million patients — down a whopping 24.24 percent since 1996, when they saw 3.3 million and received far less government funding ($177.5 million in 1996 compared to $553.7 million in 2014).”

The fact is that Planned Parenthood is not about primary health care for women. Despite Planned Parenthood’s claims to offer broad based services, Live Action investigations have revealed that women who seek pregnancy-related services from Planned Parenthood find prenatal care almost impossible to obtain. So what service does Planned Parenthood offer pregnant women? Abortion.

In addition, Live Action’s investigation showed that women who are choosing life for their preborn children are turned away when seeking ultrasound services, which Planned Parenthood reserves for abortion patients.

Live Action’s interviews with former Planned Parenthood staffers, who have courageously come forward on the record, reveal that Planned Parenthood has abortion quotas, and despite the hype, is not the primary health care organization it makes itself out to be. Planned Parenthood’s high and ever-increasing market share of abortions confirms what Live Action’s investigations and former staffers revealed: Planned Parenthood is abortion-focused.

Let’s not wait for Planned Parenthood’s abortion market share to quadruple again at the expense of the American taxpayer. Let’s defund Planned Parenthood once and for all.