The media claims defunding Planned Parenthood will hurt women. They’re wrong.

Planned Parenthood supporters, with the help of the media, continue to claim that defunding Planned Parenthood will hurt women. But Live Action News has documented time and again the ways in which this claim is deceptive. Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) can handle Planned Parenthood’s patient load in the event that the abortion corporation is defunded, and FQHCs offer even more comprehensive care than Planned Parenthood. So why does the media continue to spout these false narratives? And how can we know that Planned Parenthood’s claims are not true?

There is more to the data than Planned Parenthood’s spokespersons and media supporters are acknowledging.

CLAIM: If Planned Parenthood is defunded, women will have few places to go to receive health services, specifically contraception care, because it would overwhelm FQHC sites.

WHY THIS CLAIM IS DECEPTIVE: If Planned Parenthood is defunded, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) could likely accommodate the influx of contraception patients. It is possible that many of Planned Parenthood’s clients are already using FQHCs for primary care services not available at Planned Parenthood, and if this is the case, an influx of Planned Parenthood’s clients to FQHCs may not be nearly as large as its supporters claim. Planned Parenthood’s non-abortion related health services to women have been decreasing for years, as have the organization’s patient numbers — which will be shown in detail below.

WHERE THIS CLAIM ORIGINATES: A study conducted by Guttmacher, which compared the 2015 contraception care services at Planned Parenthood centers (PP), Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) sites, and Title X facilities.

Guttmacher is a former research arm and special affiliate to Planned Parenthood, and receives taxpayer funding. It has also received funding from Planned Parenthood, so it has good incentive to keep Planned Parenthood’s tax dollars flowing.

Nationally, the Guttmacher data revealed (ref: table 3/ page 7):

• FQHCs operated 9,636 services sites in the U.S.
• 5,829 FQHC’s (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 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).

Live Action News has documented that Planned Parenthood, which masquerades as a health care provider, is actually decreasing the number of services that it offers women. When comparing Planned Parenthood’s services to FQHC sites you see that defunding this abortion corporation will have little effect on women in particular.

Live Action News has looked at state data as well, in Alaska, Arizona, Indiana, Iowa,  Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, Tennessee and West Virginia.

A review by Newsbusters examined deceptive media reports from Mississippi.

Live Action News has broken down the numbers as follows:

FACILITIES

According to the data, there are 9600 FQHC sites (which offer a vast array of health care services). Guttmacher claims that 60 percent of those 9600 sites offered contraception services to ten or more clients. If you do the math, that still leaves 5,830 sites.

In contrast, Planned Parenthood states in its 2015 annual report that it operated nearly 650 Planned Parenthood health centers. As of today, however, Planned Parenthood’s website shows that it operates “more than 600 centers,” a clear decrease from the 800 it operated just ten years ago.

PATIENTS

Taxpayer-funded health centers, as identified by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), saw a 2 million patient increase by 2015, providing care to 24,295,946 patients. In contrast, Planned Parenthood has lost more than half a million patients (600,000) since 2011.

Breast Exams:

• In 2015, federal health centers performed mammograms on over 521,000 patients – an increase from 470,000 in 2014.
• Planned Parenthood performed zero mammograms, because Planned Parenthood facilities do not have mammogram machines.
• In 2015, Planned Parenthood breast exams dropped 12 percent from 2014. Stunningly, from 2005 to 2015, breast exams declined by more than 62 percent (842,399 to 321,700).

Pap Tests:

• In 2015, federal health centers administered over 1.8 million Pap tests to patients — an increase from 1.7 million in 2014.
• Planned Parenthood’s 2015 report reveals that between 2005 (1,116,681) and 2015 (293,799), Pap tests (tests for detecting cervical cancer) at Planned Parenthood declined nearly 74 percent (73.68%).

Cancer Screenings:

• The most recent figures show that cancer screenings continue to decline at Planned Parenthood. From 2005 (2,009,835) to 2015 (665,234), cancer screenings plummeted nearly 67 percent (66.90%).

Prenatal Care:

• In 2015, federal health centers cared for a total of 552,000 prenatal patients — an increase from 528,000 prenatal patients in 2014.
• Planned Parenthood’s prenatal services were nearly cut in half in the last year (17,419 in 2014 to 9,419 in 2015) — a trend that has continued for years. From 2005 (13,261) to 2015 (9419), prenatal care dropped nearly 29 percent (28.97%).

Contraception Care:

• FQHC sites outnumber Planned Parenthood in counties that provide contraception care in every state except Connecticut, Minnesota and the District of Columbia, according to Guttmacher’s 2015 data (table 1/page 1).
• Planned Parenthood health centers account for just 6 percent of all safety-net family planning providers. (Source: Guttmacher).
• Recently released Planned Parenthood numbers reveal that in 2015, contraception services decreased 4.6 percent from the previous year.
• In fact, that latest annual report reveals that contraception services at Planned Parenthood are at their lowest in years (2,808,815), decreasing nearly 30 percent since 2009 (4,009,549), according to that year’s Annual Affiliate Service Census Report.
• A review of the past ten years (2005 vs. 2015), reveals that contraception services at Planned Parenthood have decreased by 25 percent.

Abortions:

• Abortions are increasing at Planned Parenthood even while the Guttmacher Institute reports they are declining nationally.
• Planned Parenthood committed 328,348 abortions in 2015 vs. 323,999 in 2014 (over 4000 more in 2015).
• Planned Parenthood commits one-third of abortions in the U.S., nearly 900 abortions every day.
• Planned Parenthood reports 2,889 adoption referrals in 2015. Therefore, the organization committed nearly 114 abortions for every one child referred out for adoption.

As Live Action News has documented, the Guttmacher report actually supports our claim that women don’t need Planned Parenthood for contraception services or any other health service.

There are plenty of reasons to defund Planned Parenthood:

• Women do not need Planned Parenthood for contraceptive services.
• Planned Parenthood is losing patients.
• Planned Parenthood’s services are on the decrease, despite an increase in abortions and government funding.
• Planned Parenthood’s 3% abortion services claim is a myth.
• Planned Parenthood misleads about the services they provide, including prenatal care.
• Planned Parenthood does not provide mammograms, despite claiming they did.
• Funding Planned Parenthood also funds its abortion facilities.
• Planned Parenthood has abortion quotas.
• Abortion is the primary service that tax funded Planned Parenthood offers pregnant women because as a former worker testified, “They made their money if somebody had an abortion.”
• Planned Parenthood offers a poor standard of care to its clients. Former Planned Parenthood managers accused the abortion focused organization of “treating women like cattle” and using ultrasounds only for abortions.
• Planned Parenthood misinforms women about the development of their babies.
• Planned Parenthood was founded on the philosophy of eugenics.
• Planned Parenthood has been cited for overbilling abuses and Medicaid fraud, and violating patient privacy.
• Planned Parenthood is failing to report child sexual abuse (a violation that alone should result in the organization losing millions of taxpayer dollars granted to it under the federal Title X Family Planning Program).
• Planned Parenthood’s teen sex “education” promotes BDSM and other disturbing sexual practices to teenagers.

The list above does not even include the number of women injured or killed after using Planned Parenthood’s alleged “services.”

Taxpayers should not be forced to send half a billion dollars to an organization accused of fraud and potential violations of the law, whose market share of abortions continues to increase while other services are decreasing.

The government takes vital health dollars away from more worthy facilities like FQHCs, while private donations to Planned Parenthood swelled by an additional $92 million in 2015-2016 alone. (The total private donations in 2015-2016 were $445.8 million.)

This cash flow enabled Planned Parenthood to end its year with an excess of $77.5 million in 2015, an increase of nearly 39 percent from 2005 when they netted $55.8 million.

Planned Parenthood has been netting a profit for many years, with yearly surpluses ranging from $12.2 million in 2001 to a high of $155.5 million in 2010).

It’s time to remove government dollars from Planned Parenthood once and for all.