What is Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood is the world’s largest birth control enterprise and the most vocal proponent of legal abortion. Founded in 1916 by elitist and eugenics advocate Margaret Higgins Sanger, Planned Parenthood Federation of America Inc. (PPFA) is affiliated with the London, England-based International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).
Planned Parenthood argues that "everyone has the right to choose when or whether to have a child..." It pushes for laws and constitutional amendments that guarantee "reproductive freedom," a phrase encompassing unlimited birth control and abortion for everyone, regardless of age.
What is the relationship between a local Planned Parenthood and PPFA?
PPFA has nearly 108 affiliates and 860 "health centers" in every state and Washington, D.C. Affiliates must maintain an active lobbying unit. Those not yet committing surgical abortions onsite must refer to abortionists elsewhere.
Local units must abide by a strict set of standards, including staunch devotion to all goals. Any suggestion that the objectives or activities of an affiliate are in any way dissimilar to those of PPFA is flatly untrue.
What is Planned Parenthood’s budget?
PPFA’s income for fiscal year 2005-2006 was $902.8 million (up 2.4 percent from 2004-2005), with more than one-third coming from taxpayers. This "not-for-profit" entity ends virtually every fiscal year with tens of millions of dollars in "excess revenue over expenses" (known to most people as "profit"). The "excess" for 2005-2006 alone was $55.8 million.
On June 30, 2006, PPFA had net assets valued at $839.8 million, of which $330.9 million was unrestricted (essentially a savings account) and $116.6 million was temporarily restricted. Despite these huge sums, PPFA incessantly claims to need more taxpayer dollars.
Does Planned Parenthood commit abortions?
Planned Parenthood commits more abortions than any other single entity in the United States. In a newsletter distributed to its abortionists, PPFA said, "We see abortion as a necessary, desirable service and as an integral piece of comprehensive reproductive health care services."
Planned Parenthood opposes proposed laws that would protect human beings who live in the womb, including bans on late-term abortions, those committed for "birth control" or "convenience," and those executed for the purpose of sex selection. It fights legislation that would require parental consent or notification before an abortion may be committed on a minor, as well as other bills that have widespread public support. At the same time, Planned Parenthood claims its views are in harmony with those of most Americans.
PPFA admits that it killed 264,943 preborn human beings in 2005 alone (up 3.9 percent from 2004), generating $112.6 million. A scant 1,414 customers were referred to adoption agencies in 2004, but the category is not even included in PPFA’s Annual Report for 2005. In fact, the word "adoption" cannot be found anywhere in the document&183;
PPFA confesses to having sold 1,245,506 "emergency" birth control kits in 2005 (nearly 26.6 percent more than in 2004). Every PPFA "clinic" dispenses "emergency" birth control. Many prescribe it over the phone and accept orders over the Internet with no physical examination required.
Planned Parenthood claims to prevent the "need" for abortion while simultaneously working to increase its share of the lucrative abortion market. In 1984, PPFA committed just over 5.5 percent of all abortions in the United States. The figure is now nearly 20 percent. Planned Parenthood’s failed programs create a demand for abortion.
Technology has forced Planned Parenthood and its collaborators to engage in verbal engineering to back its opinions and activities. From Conception to Birth, a 1971 book endorsed by then-PPFA President Alan Guttmacher, defined "pregnancy" as the "period between conception [fertilization of the ovum] and birth." Yet Vanessa Cullins, M.D., PPFA’s vice president for medical affairs, said, "Pregnancy begins with the implantation of the developing fertilized egg...(emphasis added)." Similarly, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists has abandoned the term "pregnancy" and now uses the phrase "established pregnancy," which it claims does not occur until somewhere between eight and 18 days after "fertilization." Despite Planned Parenthood’s deception, the indisputable truth is that "emergency" birth control typically causes an early abortion.
Is Planned Parenthood pro-woman?
Planned Parenthood claims to be pro-woman but it opposes "women’s right to know" legislation ..ion. And despite dozens of studies showing a link between breast cancer and abortion, Planned Parenthood refuses to tell women about the research, all of which dismisses as flawed. "There is no truth to this at all," Vanessa Cullins said of the link. "It is one of those nasty myths invented by anti-choice organizations to frighten women away from having an abortion."
A "nasty myth" started by "anti-choice" groups? One study was conducted by Janet R. Daling, Ph.D., of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, for the National Cancer Institute. "Among women who had been pregnant at least once, the risk of breast cancer in those who had experienced an induced abortion was 50% higher than among other women," she said. "I would have loved to have found no association between breast cancer and abortion, but our research is rock solid, and our data is accurate. It’s not a matter of believing. It’s a matter of what is."
Daling supports legal abortion but opposes a self-serving "gag rule" that suppresses medical data and leads to patient ignorance. "If politics gets involved in science, it will really hold back the progress we make. I have three sisters with breast cancer, and I resent people messing with the scientific data to further their own agenda..."
In 2005, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organization, released a statement conceding that combined estrogen-progestogen oral birth control causes cancer. IARC put the birth control method into the highest category of carcinogenicity, which is only used "when there is sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in humans." This information has also been withheld from women.
Don’t visits to Planned Parenthood centers sometimes prove fatal?
Yes. For instance, in 2003 Holly Patterson was given mifepristone and told to take misoprostol at home. Within four days she was at an emergency room in great pain and bleeding. The 18-year-old returned three days later, in pain and vomiting. She died that afternoon. The local coroner said Patterson died from septic shock which was due to endomyometritis caused by the drugs Planned Parenthood had administered. The State of California cited Planned Parenthood for not reporting the death, which led to speculation of underreporting of such events, and for failing to give full information on how to take the drugs. Two more women died in early 2006.
Does Planned Parenthood support parental rights?
Planned Parenthood believes every young person is capable of making "responsible decisions" regarding sex, birth control and abortion. It opposes all legislation that would ensure parental involvement in such matters. "As part of its ongoing advocacy to protect and enhance reproductive rights for all Americans," Planned Parenthood began a campaign to "safeguard minors’ access to abortion." Planned Parenthood insists on the "right" to commit an abortion on your minor child and/or give her birth control, even via invasive means such as injections, without your knowledge.
Does Planned Parenthood favor abstinence education?
The goal of Planned Parenthood’s First Things First program is to reduce by half the number of teens who "become pregnant and give birth." Note that the goal regards teenagers that give birth. Planned Parenthood seeks to reduce teen pregnancy that results in childbearing, not sexual activity that results in pregnancy. This may be accomplished with no change in sexual behavior if the number of abortions committed by Planned Parenthood continues to climb.
Planned Parenthood teaches there are no "rights" or "wrongs" with any sexual activity so long as there are no "victims." It vehemently opposes sex education programs that focus on abstinence and has filed lawsuits against school districts that implement such programs. Planned Parenthood has published several articles and "reports" that assail abstinence education. Titles include "Flaws of Global Abstinence-Until-Marriage Programs," "Call for the Investigation of Harmful Abstinence-Only Programs," "The Abstinence-Only Scam," and "Abstinence-Only Sex Education? Not in My Backyard!"
Planned Parenthood claims to offer "value-neutral" sexuality education. But it has insisted upon the implementation of its brand of "comprehensive sex education" programs for decades and the problems have become worse. When the problems get worse, Planned Parenthood demands more money. The cycle never ends.
Planned Parenthood essentially argues that any taxpayer funds not spent on its programs are wasted. It opposes the federal abstinence education program, but failing to kill it, Planned Parenthood applied for and received some of the funds. (Planned Parenthood’s definition of "abstinence" is vastly different from that of Americans.)
What else does Planned Parenthood teach children?
PPFA describes its tantalizing youth website as a "fully confidential" place where teens may "safely and comfortably" get answers they "need" to questions about "sex, relationships, and lifestyles." Planned Parenthood calls teenwire.com, which is visited some ten million times per year, an "important resource to help teens prevent pregnancy, stay healthy, and make responsible choices." PPFA claims its staffers respond to more than 500 inquiries weekly via "confidential e-mail."
Why hasn’t this information about Planned Parenthood been made public?
Public ignorance of Planned Parenthood’s activities, goals and philosophy has long been its greatest ally. The media has not seen fit to educate the public about the real Planned Parenthood. Yet it is clear that the greater the public education about Planned Parenthood, the far less enthusiasm there is for having the behemoth in a community.
The information above is fully accurate. All quotations are used in context. Don’t take our word for it. Check out the facts for yourself.
Note: Statistics come from PPFA documents (primarily its annual reports) or website. All quotations and data are guaranteed to be accurate and presented in context. As used in this brochure, "PPFA" refers to the entire entity or any part thereof, including affiliated units.
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