Every year, around Thanksgiving, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) releases its annual Abortion Surveillance report. Published earlier today, the report shows that once again, the number of abortions in the United States is continuing to decrease. This is great news, so why is Planned Parenthood dedicated to building mega clinics across the country?
According to the CDC, there were 623,471 abortions in 2016, which represents about a 2% decrease from the previous year. The report indicates that 47 states and New York City reported, but California, the country’s most populous state, the District of Columbia, Maryland and New Hampshire did not officially report to the CDC but shared data with the Guttmacher Institute. If you add in the numbers reported to Guttmacher from those three states and the District of Columbia, the number of abortions performed in the United States in 2016 was around 793,791. That’s down from 826,199 in 2015.
As no abortion business or state is required to report to the CDC, the number is a fairly accurate guesstimate based off self-reported numbers from places like Planned Parenthood.
Again, this is all good news. Fewer women are choosing abortion and instead are deciding either to parent or give their child up for adoption. This is part of a trend. The report indicates abortion has decreased by about 30% since 1998. So, if fewer women are choosing abortion, then why is Planned Parenthood in the process of building and opening four new so-called “mega-clinics?”
From a business standpoint, it doesn’t make any sense. Why increase your operation if there are fewer customers?
In a previous article, I concluded that Planned Parenthood was trying to make itself the sole abortion provider in the United States. Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood employee and now pro-life activist, agreed.
In the past 25 years, Planned Parenthood has drastically increased the number of abortions that it performs. According to a 1991 annual report from the abortion business, it completed 132,314 abortions in house and referred out 77,768 abortions. The abortion business then slowly began decreasing the number of abortions it referred out, down to 47,550 in the last report in 1997, and started bringing more in house. By 2017-2018 annual report, the abortion business now performs 332,757 abortions in a single year. That’s about 14% of its business, up from 4% in 1993.
An argument could be made that perhaps Planned Parenthood has more clients, as the patients are referred to in the annual reports, but that isn’t the case. In 1994, the abortion business reported a high of 3,300,000 clients that year. By 2018, that number has dropped by nearly a million to 2,400,000 clients, but the abortion business keeps building.
The newest mega clinic in Illinois, across the border from St. Louis, Missouri, is an 18,000 square foot facility and has a capacity to support 11,000 clients a year. But for what? Planned Parenthood has refused $60 million in Title X funding, which could help them offer health care to low income women but it would require a separation of the abortion and health care business.
It’s clear that Planned Parenthood is positioning itself as the sole abortion provider in the United States, regardless of the impact it has on health care in local communities. At this point, about 40% of abortions in the U.S. are performed at Planned Parenthood locations across the country. This trend doesn’t appear likely to go away—in fact it will likely increase. Abby Johnson also believes that in addition to Planned Parenthood dominating the abortion industry, it also wants to absorb all the abortionists that it puts out of business. It’s a shrewd strategy, but one that may backfire on them at some point if there are fewer women interested in having an abortion.
Every year, the number of women seeking an abortion is decreasing in this country. That is something that pro-life activists can definitely celebrate. Planned Parenthood may believe that building mega clinics will secure its future, but the business is mistaken.
