Planned Parenthood
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization[4] that provides reproductive and sexual healthcare, and sexual education in the United States and globally. It is a member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).
Abbreviation
PPFA
American Birth Control League, Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau, Birth Control Federation of America
October 16, 1916[note 1]
Reproductive health and education
- Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S.
- Washington, D.C., U.S.
PPFA has its roots in Brooklyn, New York, where Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, in 1916. Sanger founded the American Birth Control League in 1921,[5] and 14 years after her exit as its president, ABCL's successor organization became Planned Parenthood in 1942.
Planned Parenthood consists of 159 medical and non-medical affiliates, which operate over 600 health clinics in the United States.[2][3] It partners with organizations in 12 countries globally.[2][3] The organization directly provides a variety of reproductive health services and sexual education, contributes to research in reproductive technology and advocates for the protection and expansion of reproductive rights.[3] Research shows that closures of Planned Parenthood clinics lead to increases in maternal mortality rates.[6][7]
PPFA is the largest single provider of reproductive health services and the largest single provider of abortions in the United States.[11][12] In their 2014 Annual Report, PPFA reported seeing over 2.5 million patients in over 4 million clinical visits and performing a total of nearly 9.5 million discrete services including 324,000 abortions.[15] Its combined annual revenue is US$1.3 billion, including approximately $530 million in government funding such as Medicaid reimbursements.[3][14] Throughout its history, PPFA, and its member clinics have experienced support, controversy, protests,[16] and violent attacks.[17]
Worldwide availability
PPFA's international outreach and other activities are performed by Planned Parenthood Global, a division of PPFA,[3][74] and by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) which now consists of more than 149 Member Associations working in more than 189 countries.[75] The IPPF is further associated with International Planned Parenthood Federation affiliates in the Caribbean and the Americas,[76] and IPPF European Network,[77] as well as other organizations like Family Planning Queensland, Pro Familia (Germany) (de) and mouvement français pour le planning familial (French Movement for Family Planning) (fr). Offices are located in New York, NY; Washington, D.C.; Miami, FL; Guatemala City, Guatemala; Abuja, Nigeria; and Nairobi, Kenya. The organization's focus countries are Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Kenya.[78] The Bloomberg Philanthropies donated $50 million for Planned Parenthood Global's reproductive health and family planning efforts in Tanzania, Nicaragua, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Uganda.[79] Among specific countries and territories serviced by Planned Parenthood Global's reproductive planning outreach are Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Dominican Republic, Barbados, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guadeloupe, Saint Martin, Guyana, Cape Verde and Samoa.[74][75]
Funding
Planned Parenthood has received federal funding since 1970, when President Richard Nixon signed into law the Family Planning Services and Population Research Act, amending the Public Health Service Act. Title X of that law provides funding for family planning services, including contraception and family planning information. The law had support from both Republicans and Democrats.[80] Nixon described Title X funding as based on the premise that "no American woman should be denied access to family planning assistance because of her economic condition."[81]
Donors to Planned Parenthood have included the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Buffett Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Turner Foundation, the Cullmans, and others.[82][83][84][85] The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's contributions to the organization have been specifically marked to avoid funding abortions.[82] Some donors, such as the Buffett Foundation, have supported reproductive health that can include abortion services.[82] Anti-abortion groups have advocated the boycott of donors to Planned Parenthood.[86] Corporate donors include CREDO Mobile.[87]
In the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014, total revenue was $1.3 billion: non-government health services revenue was $305 million, government revenue (such as Medicaid reimbursements) was $528 million, private contributions totaled $392 million, and $78 million came from other operating revenue.[88] According to Planned Parenthood, 59 percent of the group's revenue is put towards the provision of health services, while non-medical services such as sex education and public policy work make up another 15 percent; management expenses, fundraising, and international family planning programs account for about 16 percent, and 10 percent of the revenue in 2013–2014 was not spent.[88]
Planned Parenthood receives over a third of its money in government grants and contracts (about $528 million in 2014).[89][88] By law (Hyde Amendment), federal funding cannot be allocated for abortions (except in rare cases),[90] but some opponents of abortion have argued that allocating money to Planned Parenthood for the provision of other medical services allows other funds to be reallocated for abortions.[66]
A coalition of national and local anti-abortion groups have lobbied federal and state governments to stop funding Planned Parenthood. As a result, federal and state legislators have proposed legislation to reduce funding levels.[90][91] Eight states—Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Utah—have enacted such proposals.[100] In some cases, the courts have overturned such actions, citing conflict with federal or state laws; in others the federal executive branch has provided funding in lieu of the states.[94][95][101] In some states, Planned Parenthood was completely or partially defunded.[102][103]
In August 2015, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal attempted to end Louisiana's contract with Planned Parenthood to treat Medicaid patients at a time when there was an epidemic of sexually transmitted infections in Louisiana.[67] Planned Parenthood and three patients sued the state of Louisiana, with the United States Department of Justice siding with Planned Parenthood.[104]
On February 2, 2016, the U.S. House failed to override President Obama's veto of H.R. 3762 (Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015) which would have prohibited Planned Parenthood from receiving any federal Medicaid funds for one year.[105]
Late in 2016, the Obama administration issued a rule effective in January 2017 banning U.S. states from withholding federal family-planning funds from health clinics that give abortions, including Planned Parenthood affiliates; this rule mandates that local and state governments give federal funds for services related to sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy care, fertility, contraception, and breast and cervical cancer screening to qualified health providers whether or not they give abortions.[106] However, this rule was blocked by a federal judge the day before it would have taken effect.[107] In 2017, it was overturned by new legislation.[108]
The proposed American Health Care Act (H.R. 1628), announced by Congressional Republicans in March 2017, would have made Planned Parenthood "ineligible for Medicaid reimbursements or federal family planning grants."[109]
On August 19, 2019, Planned Parenthood voluntarily withdrew from Title X funding due to a regulatory gag order stating that medical institutions that receive Title X funding cannot refer patients for abortions.[110]
Planned Parenthood regional chapters have been active in the American courts. Several cases in which Planned Parenthood has been a party have reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Notable among these cases is the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the case that sets forth the current constitutional abortion standard. In this case, "Planned Parenthood" was the Southeast Pennsylvania Chapter, and "Casey" was Robert Casey, the governor of Pennsylvania. The ultimate ruling was split, and Roe v. Wade was narrowed but upheld in an opinion written by Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony Kennedy, and David Souter. Harry Blackmun and John Paul Stevens concurred with the main decision in separately written opinions. The Supreme Court struck down spousal consent requirements for married women to obtain abortions, but found no "undue burden"—an alternative to strict scrutiny, which tests the allowable limitations on rights protected under the Constitution—from the other statutory requirements. Dissenting were William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Byron White. Blackmun, Rehnquist, and White were the only justices who voted on the original Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 who were still on the Supreme Court to rule on this case, and their votes on this case were consistent with their votes on the original decision that legalized abortion.[136] Only Blackmun voted to maintain Roe v. Wade in its entirety.[137]
Planned Parenthood v. Casey, along with Roe v. Wade, was eventually overturned by Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in 2022.[138]
Other related cases include:
Other court cases
Some state attorneys general have subpoenaed medical records of patients treated by Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood has gone to court to keep from turning over these records, citing medical privacy and concerns about the motivation for seeking the records.[148]
In 2006, Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, a Republican, released some sealed patient records obtained from Planned Parenthood to the public. His actions were described as "troubling" by the state Supreme Court, but Planned Parenthood was compelled to turn over the medical records, albeit with more stringent court-mandated privacy safeguards for the patients involved.[148] In 2007 Kline's successor, Paul J. Morrison, a Democrat, notified the clinic that no criminal charges would be filed after a three-year investigation, as "an objective, unbiased and thorough examination" showed no wrongdoing. Morrison stated that he believed Kline had politicized the Attorney General's office.[149] In 2012, a Kansas district attorney found that the practices of the Kansas City-area Planned Parenthood clinic was "within accepted practices in the medical community" and dropped all of the remaining criminal charges. In all, the Planned Parenthood clinic had faced 107 criminal charges from Kline and other Kansas prosecutors, all of which were ultimately dismissed.[150]
In 2006, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled that Planned Parenthood was not required to turn over its medical records in an investigation of possible child abuse.[151] In 2005, Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota was fined $50,000 for violating a Minnesota state parental consent law.[152]
In 2012, a Texas state court judge, Gary Harger, denied Planned Parenthood's request for a temporary restraining order against the State of Texas, concluding that the State may exclude otherwise qualified doctors and clinics from receiving state funding if the doctors or clinics advocate for abortion rights.[153]
In 2022, Nicole Moore, a Black woman who was the director of Planned Parenthood's multicultural brand engagement from January 2020 to November 2021, filed a lawsuit alleging that she faced months of racial discrimination while working at Planned Parenthood.[154]
Impact
A 2020 study found that closure of Planned Parenthood clinics resulted in increases in the maternal mortality rate: "Planned Parenthood clinic closures negatively impacted all women, increasing mortality by 6–15% across racial/ethnic groups."[6][7]
A 2016 study found that the exclusion of Planned Parenthood-affiliated clinics from Texas's Medicaid fee-for-service family-planning program was linked to reductions in the provision of contraception and an increase in child-bearing for women who used injectable contraceptives and who were covered by Medicaid.[155]