Planned Parenthood's Annual Report: Abortion Giant Cashes in, Taking $550M in Tax Dollars
America's largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, conducted nearly 324,000 abortions and received over $553 million from taxpayers in 2014, the organization's latest report shows.
Planned Parenthood released its annual report for 2014-2015 which shows that although the organization performed fewer abortions, provided fewer services and saw about 200,000 fewer clients than in 2013, the organization received increased funding from the federal government.
Although the Hyde Amendment explicitly forbids federal tax dollars from being used to pay for abortions, the amount of taxpayer dollars that went to Planned Parenthood increased by about $25 million from 2013 to 2014, as the group received $553.7 million in 2014.
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According to the report, "government health services grants and reimbursements" accounted for 43 percent of Planned Parenthood's $1.29 billion in revenue during the reporting period.
While Planned Parenthood officials and supporters have claimed in combating attempts last year to strip the organization of its federal funding that the tax money it receives is vital for providing women with the "healthcare" they need, the report indicates that the organization is still benefiting from $61 million in "excess revenue." In 2013-2014, the organization benefited from $127 million in excess revenue.
While Planned Parenthood maintains that abortions only consist of about 3 to 10 percent of its services, the abortion giant only issued 2,024 adoption referrals, as compared to the 323,999 abortions it conducted in 2014.
While Planned Parenthood conducted approximately 4,000 fewer abortions than it did in 2013, the report states that the organization conducted over 4.2 million STD/STI tests, over 682,000 cancer screenings and 1.1 million other women's health services.
The pro-life group Live Action, headed by Lila Rose, found some inconsistencies with Planned Parenthood's report.
In 2014, Planned Parenthood claimed to have prevented more unintended pregnancies than it did in 2013. Although the organization saw a decliine of more than 500,000 contraceptive services in 2014, it claims that it averted 578,681 unintended pregnancies, which is about 62,000 more than the 516,000 unintended pregnancies that the organization claimed to have averted in the 2013 report.
"So Planned Parenthood's contraceptive services are DOWN across the board and yet they claim to have prevented MORE unintended pregnancies than the year before. How does that make sense?" the Live Action report asks. "Planned Parenthood says the number of unintended pregnancies averted is calculated using a formula from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, which was founded by Planned Parenthood. Their report does not disclose the formula they used or how it apparently changed from 2013 to 2014."
After the pro-life group Center for Medical Progress released a series of undercover videos last year purporting to show high-level Planned Parenthood officials violating a number of ethical and legal codes in negotiating compensation for aborted baby body parts, conservatives renewed a call to strip Planned Parenthood of its federal funding.
Despite the fact that Republicans had control of both the House and Senate, Congress was unable to defund Planned Parenthood in the latest spending legislation from December.
Congress, however, will be sending a bill to President Barack Obama this week to defund Planned Parenthood, known as the Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act, although the president is expected to veto the legislation.
