Planned Parenthood Is Not Irreplaceable and It Certainly Doesn’t Save Lives

The Charlotte Lozier Institute says that two fundamental claims Planned Parenthood made their recent report are absolutely false.

• First, they claim that Planned Parenthood health centers are “an irreplaceable component of our country’s healthcare system”, and;
• Second, they say Planned Parenthood provides “lifesaving care.”

Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) President Chuck Donovan and Dr. James Studnicki, CLI’s Vice President and Director of Data Analytics, wrote in a recent paper that Planned Parenthood relies heavily on an abortion-centered business model. They also demonstrated that the abortion giant is not a significant provider of medical care in the United States.

They write:

Planned Parenthood is unquestionably, and clearly by design, the dominant provider of induced abortions in the U.S.; it is their “raison d’etre.”  Between 2011 and 2016, Planned Parenthood has increased its service-to-unique-client ratios for contraceptive services (+2.1%), STI testing (+19%), and abortions (+25%). During that same period, other Planned Parenthood services were deemphasized as shown by the decline in service-to-client ratios for breast exams (-37%) and pap tests (-37%). As their total client volume has decreased, Planned Parenthood has maintained contraception and STI testing as important support services for their major objective — abortion.

“With the exception of abortion, Planned Parenthood does not provide any service that is not easily available from alternative providers,” write Donovan and Studnicki.

Their paper compares Planned Parenthood’s share of the U.S. abortion market to the market share of well-known leaders in other industries:

• General Motors, automobile sales – 17.3 percent
• Southwest Airlines, domestic air travel – 19.1 percent
• Samsung, LCD televisions – 21.6 percent
• Planned Parenthood, abortions – 35.4 percent

The report also notes that Planned Parenthood provides less than 1.4 percent of the nation’s HIV tests and less than 1 percent of pap tests, and that in the last five years service-to-client ratios for breast exams and pap tests have declined by 37 percent.

“No service Planned Parenthood provides is irreplaceable. Ironically, the elimination of abortion services is the only action Planned Parenthood could take that could be legitimately considered as ‘lifesaving,’” they conclude.