Planned Parenthood: A Business That's Never Been Richer

By Charles A. Donovan

[Pro-Life Infonet Note: Charles A. Donovan is president of the Family Action Alliance in Washington, D.C.]

In June 1971, Dr. Alan Guttmacher, then-president of Planned Parenthood, mapped out the future of his massive agency.

"Service to the unmarried minor on her terms should be expanded. If we don't do it, no one else can or will. Abortion-referral services, and in some instances performance of abortion, is our special responsibility."

Today, three decades later, Planned Parenthood thrives on the delivery of birth control and abortion to women whom the sexual revolution has failed women who are, on balance, young, unmarried, childless and, all too often, abandoned and afraid. Their misery has been Planned Parenthood's gain.

In 2001, its 129 affiliates nationwide had combined income of more than $670 million. The inflow was so great that over a five-year period (1997-2001), the charity called Planned Parenthood generated net income, or profit, of more than $300 million. Congress helped drive this increase in revenue by committing $254 million annually to the federal family-planning program known as Title X, of which Planned Parenthood is a major beneficiary, nearly doubling its size.

Analysis of what Planned Parenthood has done with this flood of new money is revealing.

First, the group's senior officials, even at the local level, receive generous salaries and benefits. One Indiana affiliate paid its medical director more than $265,000 and another $24,000 in benefits. Another Indiana affiliate reported paying its president and CEO $357,000 in 2000.

When it's not handed out in bonuses and limitless salary increases, profits are invested in stocks and other securities, applied to endowments and foundations or used to purchase and manage affiliate buildings and clinics.

In some cases, an affiliate has invested in companies prone to further its agenda. The Planned Parenthood affiliate in Des Moines, Iowa, for example, purchased more than $120,000 in stock in Intimate Brands, maker of lingerie for Victoria's Secret.

Deep pockets haven't helped Planned Parenthood diversify its services, though. During his tenure, Guttmacher wanted Planned Parenthood associated with positive projects like infertility treatment and marital counseling. Without fanfare, however, Planned Parenthood has allowed such projects to falter and even decline. From 1989 to 2000, breast exams performed at Planned Parenthood fell 30 percent. Adoption referrals have declined by three quarters since 1994.

Even sterilization, which Gutt-macher hailed as a priority in 1971, has virtually disappeared from Planned Parenthood's playbook. It performed fewer than five female sterilizations per affiliate in 2000 (about one every 10 weeks), and the number of vasectomies peaked in 1984.

Obviously, sterilized patients do not return to Planned Parenthood, but the decline in these statistics probably has more to do with the shifting demographics and psychology of Planned Parenthood's market. The vast majority of younger women who have abortions today eventually expect to have children, but have concluded that today's circumstances (more likely, today's boyfriend) are not right. A study by Wirthlin for the Family Research Council in 1998 found that, for wealthier women especially, the preservation of future fertility is a deep concern as they assess the abortion's risks.

In light of these and other facts, federal and state lawmakers should think harder than ever before handing over any more taxpayer money to Planned Parenthood. After all, the organization is clearly doing less with more.

-- National Right to Life will host its 2003 national convention in St. Louis. Come celebrate the 4th of July with pro-life speakers, workshops and much more. For details, see http://www.nrlc.org/convention/index.html