US government funds nearly half of Planned Parenthood's $1 billion revenue

Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards & Senator Barack Obama on Oct. 25, 2008

(EWTN News) The Planned Parenthood Federation of America announced Dec. 30 that it brought in over $1 billion in revenue during 2009 and 2010, nearly half of which came from government grants and other public funds.


Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser criticized Planned Parenthood's “business model centered on abortion and government subsidies,” in her response to its annual report.
The government funds come from contracts and Medicaid reimbursements, as well as grants, at the state and federal level. Together, they make up 46 percent of the non-profit organization's $1.048 billion in revenue for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.


Dannenfelser said the nation's largest abortion provider was “unwilling to answer to the pro-life American majority,” despite an “unprecedented effort by statewide and federal leaders to defund them” during 2011. Several of the state defunding efforts were challenged in court and now await resolution.


The SBA List president also urged Congress to support an investigation by Florida Republican Representative Cliff Stearns, who has asked Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards to turn over documents on the group's use of government funds as well as its treatment of clients.
But Richards, along with Planned Parenthood Federation Chair Valerie McCarthy, conveyed a message of optimism to abortion advocates and other supporters in the introduction to their latest annual report.


They spoke of “tremendous new prospects” that had emerged during 2009-2010 – including the “pivotal achievement” of the federal health care reform law. The chair and president hailed its passage as a “heroic victory” for President Obama and Planned Parenthood's own supporters.
McCarthy and Richards also praised President Obama for establishing a “Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative” in 2010. Planned Parenthood received $22 million in grants from the program.
Planned Parenthood did not release figures detailing what proportion of its revenue comes from abortion.


The organization acknowledged that it performed 329,445 abortions in 2010, during a period when it offered services to around three million individuals. In that same year, Planned Parenthood offered prenatal services in 35,062 cases, and made only 841 referrals for adoption.
In a Dec. 30 column, National Right to Life Education and Research Director Randall O'Bannon said Planned Parenthood was an abortion-based business, not a “health care” provider. By his calculations, more than a third of Planned Parenthood's 2009 clinic revenues came from abortion.
“And while Planned Parenthood tried to argue that none of the federal money went towards abortions,” O'Bannon noted, “those funds helped to keep those facilities open and those clinicians employed, freeing up other funds for the promotion and performance of abortion.”