When it comes to funding the nation’s largest abortion chain, Planned Parenthood, the media typically fails to point out Planned Parenthood’s increasing market share of abortion versus its declining patient numbers and non-abortion services. After all, revealing such information might reveal to the American public what the organization’s mission really is. Numbers from Planned Parenthood’s own annual reports reveal that Planned Parenthood is not focused on healthcare for women, but is instead abortion-focused, performing over 34 percent of the nation’s abortions.
This important fact was missing in a NorthJersey.com report on Planned Parenthood’s share of abortions in the state of New Jersey, which read in part:
Services at about 650 Planned Parenthood centers, including 26 in New Jersey, will be at risk if Congress follows through on proposals to “defund Planned Parenthood” and slash federal family-planning funding. The proposals include ending Medicaid reimbursement for any services patients receive at Planned Parenthood sites. Private insurance coverage for abortions also is at risk.
The online media outlet then used the very deceptive claim that abortion is just three percent of the services Planned Parenthood provides. From the report:
According to Planned Parenthood’s figures, abortions, nationwide, make up 3 percent of its services. In New Jersey, Planned Parenthood provided 7,925 abortions in 2015. Its patients received 98,000 tests for HIV and sexually transmitted infections and 30,000 cancer screenings; 36,000 patients sought contraceptive services, said Casey Olesko, communications manager for the state Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
This claim has been used by media mouthpieces for Planned Parenthood, despite the fact that the Washington Post gave the misleading claim “Three Pinocchios,” and the liberal media outlet Slate called it “the most meaningless abortion statistic ever.”
Live Action also debunked Planned Parenthood’s three percent claim, but rather than point this out, the North Jersey media outlet — as most media outlets do — simply regurgitated Planned Parenthood’s own talking points.
As Live Action News has previously detailed, Planned Parenthood misleads the public in how they come to the three percent figure.
To get to this “small number,” the abortion corporation simply adds many items (referred to as “services”) together with abortion numbers. For example, if a patient comes to Planned Parenthood for an abortion but also receives a pregnancy test, birth control, and STD testing while there for her abortion, it gives the appearance that the abortion was only a small portion of the reason for her visit.
Planned Parenthood has a total of 26 centers in New Jersey, and according to a 2016 report, 21 of Planned Parenthood of Northern, Central and Southern New Jersey’s centers operate in 14 of the state’s counties. The organization was formed in 2016 after a merger of Planned Parenthood of Central and Greater Northern New Jersey and Planned Parenthood of Southern New Jersey. The other five centers are operated by Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan New Jersey. A listing of services and locations on Planned Parenthood’s website reveals that a majority (almost 85 percent) of Planned Parenthood centers in New Jersey say they offer “abortion services.”
According to NJ.com, the state of New Jersey received $7.6 million in federal reproductive health funding in 2015, and Planned Parenthood received the lion’s share, at $5.2 million.
Past years of annual reports published by Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan New Jersey (PPMNJ) were reviewed by Live Action News, and reveal that while a number of legitimate health services at the NJ Planned Parenthood affiliate have decreased, abortions have actually doubled.
A breakdown of those services is listed below:
- Breast exam services decreased 45 percent from 11,387 in 2011 to 6226 in 2015.
- HIV testing decreased 11 percent between 2012 and 2015 (from 9263 to 8218).
- Pap smears decreased almost 71 percent from 4757 in 2012 to only 1384 in 2015.
In contrast – abortions increased 101 percent. At just five centers operated by PPMNJ, medication abortions doubled from 340 in 2013 to 684 in 2015.
In addition, the second affiliate, Planned Parenthood of Northern, Central and Southern New Jersey, reported to NorthJersey.com that, in 2015 alone, they performed 7,241 abortions, including both medical and surgical procedures.
In spite of decreasing health services and the doubling of abortions at PPMNJ, federal dollars funneled to PPMNJ have remained relatively steady since 2013.
And, while the numbers of abortions rose at PPMNJ, statistics show that abortions have actually been decreasing statewide. In 2008, there were 54,160 abortions committed in the state.
According to a spokesperson at the New Jersey Department of Health, the state is only mandated to collect abortion reports from hospitals and licensed ambulatory care facilities — which could explain why in 2014 the state reported only 24,181 abortions to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). However, the Guttmacher Institute, once referred to as Planned Parenthood’s “special affiliate,” collects data from several sources in the state, and their statistics indicate that abortions fell to 44,460 (4.8 percent of abortions reported nationwide) in 2014 — a 5 percent decrease from 2011.
NJ abortion decline chart provided by Guttmacher
It is no secret how invested in abortion Planned Parenthood really is. The numbers do not lie. Live Action News recently documented that the organization’s abortion market share has increased over 325 percent since the early 1990s. And despite Planned Parenthood’s media mouthpieces collaborating to deceive the American taxpayer, Live Action has found:
- Planned Parenthood is the single largest abortion chain in America, committing 887 abortions a day and over 320,000 abortions last year alone.
- Planned Parenthood is so focused on abortion that it aborts 160 children for every adoption referral.
- If a woman with an unwanted pregnancy goes to Planned Parenthood, that child is 160 times more likely to be poisoned or dismembered than to be put up for adoption to a waiting family.
Testimony from former Planned Parenthood staffers recently revealed that Planned Parenthood offers few health services to pregnant women nationally, while at the same time pushes abortion quotas. While a small number of centers claim to offer prenatal care, calls made to 97 Planned Parenthood centers by Live Action investigators (in states where recording was legal) revealed that with few exceptions, the only service Planned Parenthood offers to pregnant women is abortion.
