Planned Parenthood operates just one facility in the state of West Virginia while Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) operate in many more locations and offer a wider range of services. In the debate over funding the nation’s top abortion provider, it is important to be aware that several states have just one Planned Parenthood facility. And while Planned Parenthood operates one center in West Virginia, in contrast, there are 28 Federally Qualified Health Centers providing services at 270 sites in the state, according to the Rural Health Info website.
In addition to having just one location, news reports indicate that the Vienna Planned Parenthood center in West Virginia, which refers for abortions, saw a minuscule number of patients compared to those seen by publicly funded health centers in the state.
While Planned Parenthood in WV saw approximately 960 patients in 2015, data published by Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) shows that in the same year, publicly funded health centers in the state saw almost 400,000 (399,213) patients.
Planned Parenthood, which masquerades as a health care provider, has been losing patients nationally as well.
In 2011, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards boasted that the organization served three million patients. By 2015, those numbers had dropped by more than 600,000 to 2.4 million. Nationally, the organization which now receives over $554 million in annual government revenue has been decreasing its services – all except abortion.
In FY 2014-2015, Planned Parenthood performed 323,999 abortions, accounting for 34.9 percent of the overall abortion market share in the United States. (This data is based on the latest abortion numbers published by Guttmacher.)
By FY 2015-2016, Planned Parenthood’s abortions rose to 328,348.
This was not the case for many other health services such as cancer screenings like Pap tests and manual breast exams, which decreased nationally at the abortion corporation. In addition, Planned Parenthood’s latest annual report reveals that the organization’s contraception services are at their lowest in years (2,808,815), decreasing nationally nearly 30 percent since 2009, according to that year’s Annual Affiliate Service Census Report (4,009,549).
In West Virginia, a look at contraception care revealed that Planned Parenthood served just one percent of all contraception clients that visited publicly funded family planning centers in West Virginia.
And no, those statistics did not originate from the pro-life community. The data was put together by Guttmacher, Planned Parenthood’s former special affiliate, in response to a request from pro-abortion Senator Patty Murray.
The data, which looked at Planned Parenthood centers (PP), Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), as well as Title X facilities for 2015 revealed that in West Virginia:
- 55 counties offered publicly funded contraception care
- One county had at least one Planned Parenthood facility
- 48 counties had at least one FQHC site
- There were no Planned Parenthood centers located in 54 counties
- Just 1 out of 202 of publicly funded family planning centers in the state was a Planned Parenthood center
- Planned Parenthood shows they operate just one facility in the state
Nationally, the Guttmacher data revealed some startling facts as well (ref: table 3/ page 7):
- FQHCs operated 9,636 services sites in the U.S.
- 5,829 FQHCs (60 percent) offered contraceptive care to at least 10 female clients
- 361 counties out of 3,142 counties had both a Planned Parenthood and a FQHC site
- 580 counties had neither
- Out of the 2,201 counties that remained, there were 54 counties that did not have a FQHC site and 2,147 which did not have a Planned Parenthood (table 3/ page 7)
- In at least 23 states, FQHC sites served more contraception clients than Planned Parenthood in at least one or more counties
- In four states (Hawaii, Kentucky, Mississippi and Rhode Island), FQHC sites served more contraception clients than Planned Parenthood in every county where Planned Parenthood had a facility
- In two states (Alaska and Georgia) that ratio dropped to 80 percent, 66 percent in one state (Arizona) and 50 percent in Massachusetts, Nebraska and South Carolina
- In all, Planned Parenthood centers were located in just 415 U.S. counties, while 1,719 counties had a FQHC site
- FQHC sites outnumbered Planned Parenthood in counties that provided contraception care in every state except Connecticut, Minnesota and the District of Columbia (table 1/ page 1).
The Planned Parenthood center in West Virginia is operated by Planned Parenthood of South Atlantic, headquartered in South Carolina. This Planned Parenthood affiliate is not known for its stellar oversight.
As Live Action News has previously reported, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control’s Bureau of Health Facilities Licensing and Bureau of Land and Waste Management detailed gross violations against the affiliate in September of 2015, which included the following violations against their South Carolina center:
- The facility did not have documentation on training in infection control for two staff members.
- Planned Parenthood did not adhere to and follow provisions for tissue examination and disposal and did not have a written policy and procedure regarding registration of fetal death or death certificates.
- Planned Parenthood’s emergency drug cart did not have a listing of contents on the cart.
- Expired medications were stored in the patient care areas and pharmacy.
- Products of conception resulting from abortion procedures were not managed and properly disposed of by incineration according to regulations.
- Several abortion records involving minors did not include the name of a parent.
- Sterile gloves were stored and mixed with non-sterile supplies including non-sterile examination gloves.
- Waste meeting the definition of “infectious waste” was not managed or properly disposed of by incineration.
The fact is that Planned Parenthood is not deserving of the dollars they receive from taxpayers. As the Senate gears up to debate continued funding of Planned Parenthood, it is important that senators in West Virginia understand that Planned Parenthood is not the so-called health care organization it portrays itself to be.
Every single day that the Senate delays in defunding Planned Parenthood, the organization aborts almost 900 preborn children and continues to receive $1.5 million from American taxpayers.
