While public statements, legal maneuverings, and political activities have been well documented, there is limited information available about the operations of Planned Parenthood clinics and offices over the past few years. Planned Parenthood has not published an annual or service report in eighteen months, making it challenging to ascertain key financial metrics such as revenue, the number of abortions or other services performed, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their business.
It is clear that the organization has been affected by internal challenges, including allegations of systemic racism, unequal pay, and limited opportunities for advancement among its African American staff (The New Republic, 6/18/20). This has led to a public rejection of Planned Parenthood founder and icon Margaret Sanger (NY Times, 4/17/21).
Recent events have led to an intensification of tensions, rather than a resolution (The Intercept, 6/13/22).
As with many other businesses, many non-abortion-performing Planned Parenthood centers closed during the COVID-19 outbreak. However, some clinics remained open for abortion services only, citing the government’s designation of these services as “essential.” Without the annual report or any service data from 2020 or 2021, it is not possible to ascertain how many abortions Planned Parenthood performed during the pandemic, and certainly not how many they have performed since the leak of the Dobbs decision.
According to data from the Guttmacher Institute, which was released earlier this year, the number of abortions in the country as a whole has been on the rise in recent years. In 2020, there were 8% more abortions than in 2017.
Given the consistent increase in abortions at Planned Parenthood over the past three decades, despite a decline in the national average, it is reasonable to anticipate that the group will continue to represent a significant share of the abortion market when their service figures are released.
It is not possible to determine whether Planned Parenthood’s other business suffered during the pandemic without additional information. While abortion has been on a steady increase, other services have been on the wane. The annual report revealed a decline in both clients and total services. Notably, cancer screenings have decreased by over 70% since 2005, while contraception has declined by over a third since 2006.
The 2020 annual report revealed that revenues reached an all-time high of 1.6414 billion for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2020. However, with a new head (Alexis McGill Johnson) in place at the organization, the pandemic, and all the internal strife, it’s challenging to predict what the next fiscal report will bring.
Planned Parenthood indicates that services and finances improved following the Dobbs decision. A fact sheet on the organization’s website states that within the first 24 hours of the Court’s decision, Planned Parenthood organizations received four times the typical number of donations and had more than three times the usual number of website visitors. Even after the initial surge, donations over the following weeks remained seven times higher than the previous year, with over half of these being new donors, according to Planned Parenthood.
Traffic to the website also increased. This may be attributed to the dissemination of misinformation by Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups, which resulted in a significant rise in the number of individuals seeking information on ectopic pregnancy, vasectomies and sterilization, and scheduling appointments for “emergency”.