Planned Parenthood — an organization founded by “white supremacist” Margaret Sanger in 1916, is still accused today by its own staffers of being systemically racist. It has grown exponentially since its founding, now committing 40% of all abortions in the United States. It also continues to receive millions of taxpayer dollars every year, and the frequently-believed myths below continue to allow this corporation to fool the public while receiving ever-increasing excess revenue.
Myth #1: “Planned Parenthood is about health care. Abortion is only a tiny fraction of what they do.”
The Truth: Planned Parenthood is an abortion advocacy organization, and their own attempts to downplay their abortion services have been labeled “misleading.”
Planned Parenthood presents itself primarily as a health care organization, despite the fact that it commits 40% of the national market share of reported abortions.
In the 1990s, Planned Parenthood attempted to reinvent itself as an organization focused on broader, more general health care — but that attempt was disfavored by some within Planned Parenthood, because it diverted resources and focus from the corporation’s “reproductive rights” (abortion) emphasis. Later, in 2019, the organization selected Dr. Leana Wen as its president, and she was ousted when she attempted to move away from advocating for abortion to advocating for legitimate health care.
In a letter to her colleagues posted to Twitter/X, Wen wrote, “The new Board leadership has determined that the priority of Planned Parenthood moving forward is to double down on abortion rights advocacy” (emphasis added).
Leana Wen statement Planned Parenthood abortion advocacy (Image Leana Wen Letter on Twitter 07-16-2019)
While Planned Parenthood does offer limited health care services, many of these services have been on the decline for decades. The corporation’s latest annual report from 2022-23 reveals that over the past several years, the following services have decreased:
- Contraceptive services (includes counseling and care): Down 44% since 2009
- Overall cancer screenings (breast exams and pap smears): Down nearly 79% from 2004
- Breast cancer screenings: Down over 80% from 2000
- Pap Tests: Down over 83% from 2004
- Adoption referrals: Down nearly 65% from 2007
- Prenatal care: Down 80% from 2010
- STI treatments: Down nearly 15% from 2019
- Clients: Down nearly 34% from 2006
While these have decreased, abortions at Planned Parenthood have increased nearly 100% since 2000. In total, since that year, Planned Parenthood has committed over 7.1 million abortions, making it the largest abortion corporation in the United States.
In addition, Planned Parenthood’s 2022-23 annual report claims that abortion now makes up 4% of its total services, up from 3% previously reported. But in 2015, the Washington Post Fact Checker called Planned Parenthood’s then-“3%” abortion services claim “misleading,” writing: “The 3 percent figure that Planned Parenthood uses is misleading, comparing abortion services to every other service that it provides. The organization treats each service — pregnancy test, STD test, abortion, birth control — equally. Yet there are obvious difference between a surgical (or even medical) abortion, and offering a urine (or even blood) pregnancy test. These services are not all comparable in how much they cost or how extensive the service or procedure is.”
In 2023, Planned Parenthood committed a total of 392,715 abortions, the highest number recorded to date.
Myth #2: “Planned Parenthood is one of the main places women go for prenatal care.”
The Truth: Planned Parenthood’s prenatal care services have plummeted 80% since 2010, and it commits 62 abortions for each reported prenatal care service provided.
In the mid-to-late 1990s, Planned Parenthood suggested in an annual report that prenatal care was its “fastest-growing area.” Today, the tune has drastically changed. Prenatal care at Planned Parenthood has been on the decline even as its abortion numbers continue to increase year after year.
Live Action’s own undercover investigation into Planned Parenthood’s alleged “prenatal care” services not only exposed this fiction but caused the corporation to purge misleading ‘prenatal care’ text from its own website.
Today, Planned Parenthood’s website reflects the fact that only “some” Planned Parenthood facilities actually offer prenatal care.
While its abortions totaled nearly 400,000 in 2023 alone, prenatal care services at Planned Parenthood increased slightly — 1.15% — from 6,244 in 2021-22 to 6,316 in 2022-23. But since 2010, the corporation’s prenatal services have been on the decline dropping a staggering 80% from the 31,098 prenatal services reported that year. Since 2020, it committed 7.1 million abortions yet only offered 300,000 prenatal services.
Myth #3: “Planned Parenthood offers mammograms.”
The Truth: According to an August 2024 search at GoodRx, “Planned Parenthood health centers don’t have mammogram machines or perform mammograms.”
In 2011, a Live Action actor contacted 30 Planned Parenthood facilities in 27 different states to inquire about getting a mammogram. Every single facility told the investigator that they do not provide the service, despite the fact that many politicians and media have claimed they do. Even Planned Parenthood’s president at the time, Cecile Richards, misled the public to believe that its centers offered that service:
While on occasion, the organization will partner with mobile mammogram clinics to offer screening outside their facilities, the organization itself only offers “breast exam” services, and advise potential clients to “Ask your doctor or your local Planned Parenthood health center where you can get a mammogram near you.”
Myth #4: “A large percentage of women rely on Planned Parenthood for their health care.”
The Truth: Just 2% of women of reproductive age receive services from Planned Parenthood.
Since 2000, Planned Parenthood’s own reports reveal that many of its services have been in decline while abortions continue to increase along with its taxpayer funding. Planned Parenthood has received nearly $10.7 billion from taxpayers. And yet, while the media portrays Planned Parenthood as necessary for women, the statistics do not show proof of that claim.
In 2021, census data shows that the female population (all ages) totaled around 166,219,000. Those of reproductive age (15-44) totaled approximately 106,271,000. Planned Parenthood served 2.13 million (male and female) clients, according to its 2021-22 annual report, and 2.05 million in 2022-23.
This means that Planned Parenthood’s female clientele represents just 2 percent of the U.S. female population of reproductive age.
According to the National Vital Statics at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), just over 3.6 million women began receiving prenatal care in 2022. And less than 1% of those women received those prenatal services from Planned Parenthood. With Pap tests, the picture is the same: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 66% of women aged 18 and over had a Pap test within the past three years, and less than 1% of women received theirs at Planned Parenthood.
130,547,000 (est. females 18 and older in 2021) x 66% (86,161,020/by three years = (28,720,340); PP’s 2021 pap test service amount was 228,466/28,720,340 = .007 x 100= .70% — less than 1%
Myth #5: “If Planned Parenthood is defunded, women will have nowhere else to go.”
The Truth: FQHCs offer more locations and serve more men and women than Planned Parenthood.
Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) offer multiple services for both men and women while remaining free of the controversy of abortion.
Planned Parenthood’s 2022-23 report revealed a nearly four percent drop in clients (2.13 million recorded in the 2021-22 annual report to 2.05 million in the 2022-23 annual report). But since 2006 (when it reported 3.1M clients), Planned Parenthood’s clients have decreased by nearly 34%.
In 2022, Planned Parenthood reported that “men make up 13% of Planned Parenthood’s patients…” This means it is likely that out of the 2.05 million clients Planned Parenthood recorded last year, an estimated 1.8 million were women.
Comparing FQHC’s to Planned Parenthood, Live Action News found that:
- LOCATIONS: FQHCs had 15,000 location sites in 2023, up from the 14,000 sites in 2022. In contrast, there were around 600 Planned Parenthood facilities both years.
- CLIENTS: FQHCs served 30.5M patients in 2022 (17.5M were female). In contrast, Planned Parenthood clients dropped to 2.05M last year. FQHCs therefore served nearly 15 times as many men and women and nearly 10 times as many women as Planned Parenthood in 2023.
- PRENATAL CARE: FQHCs served almost 560,000 prenatal care patients in 2022. Planned Parenthood offered 6,316 prenatal services in 2022-23. FQHCs served 88 times as many prenatal care patients as Planned Parenthood in 2023.
- BREAST and CERVICAL CANCER SCREENING: FQHCs tested over 4 million females for cervical cancer and screened 1.7M patients with mammograms in 2022. Planned Parenthood’s overall cancer screenings (pap tests and breast exams, since PP doesn’t offer mammograms) decreased from 470,419 in 2021-22 to 464,021 in 2022-23 (a nearly 1.4% decrease) while total cancer screenings dropped nearly 79% from a high of over 2.1M in 2004.
Myth #6: “Planned Parenthood’s founder was just a product of her times. The organization isn’t racist.”
The Truth: After decades of denial, the organization admitted their founder was a “white supremacist,” and current employees have accused Planned Parenthood of having a racist culture.
Planned Parenthood has for decades downplayed the racist beliefs of its founder Margaret Sanger, lauding her as a heroine. They failed to remove Sanger from a place of honor until July 2020, when hundreds of past and current Planned Parenthood of Greater New York employees published an open letter which alleged the abortion organization was “founded by a racist white woman” and had a “present steeped in white supremacy.”
Planned Parenthood former staffer on Twitter said she experienced racism
Planned Parenthood’s racism was not only tied to Sanger, who recruited a board member with connections to the Ku Klux Klan. Planned Parenthood had other leaders directly connected to the systemically racist eugenics movement, and the organization was once granted free rent by racist eugenics groups.
Planned Parenthood’s move towards abortion came through former Planned Parenthood president Dr. Alan F. Guttmacher, a physician and past VP of the American Eugenics Society. Guttmacher was already steeped in abortion (which is tethered to eugenics) prior to his election as president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) in 1962 and is still praised by the organization to this day.
In more recent years, Live Action News has documented how Planned Parenthood employees at multiple affiliates claim to have witnessed “open racism,” endured “segregated” offices, and experienced overall unequal treatment of Black and minority employees. Planned Parenthood’s “systemic racism” was later acknowledged by multiple affiliates. An internal audit also confirmed that Planned Parenthood Federation of America had a racism problem.
In addition, multiple former Planned Parenthood staffers have filed lawsuits against the organization for alleged racism (see links here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.)
Myth #7: “Planned Parenthood is not political.”
The Truth: Former president Cecile Richards once admitted that as Planned Parenthood president it was her goal to make the corporation into the largest ever “kick butt political organization” – and as a result, the corporation has made many political alliances that benefit its bottom line.
Year after year, Planned Parenthood’s clients and legitimate health care services decrease while abortions and government funding increase.
In 2023, Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) made the “strategic decision” to restructure the organization by laying off staff at the national level and using those dollars to “build a powerful movement for abortion access at the local and state level.”
Today, Planned Parenthood is often painted as a victim by pro-abortion media despite the organization being rife with accusations of abuses, scandals, fraud, racism, pregnancy discrimination, privacy breaches, and Medicaid fraud.
And, despite years of complaints from staffers about discrimination, retaliation, abuse, and racism, the organization now receives over $1.9 million dollars from U.S. taxpayers every day while servicing fewer clients and decreasing legitimate health services.
