Planned Parenthood Committed 374,155 Abortions, Received $670.4 Million in Taxpayer Funding in 2022
The Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision has already impacted Planned Parenthood according to its newly released annual report, which shows the group committed thousands fewer abortions in the year justices delivered the landmark human rights ruling. Yet the amount of taxpayer dollars flowing to the nation’s largest abortion business increased by tens of millions.
Planned Parenthood committed 374,155 abortions and received $670.4 million in taxpayer funding during its 2021-2022 fiscal year, according to its latest annual report, released on Monday. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) carried out 9,305 fewer abortions than the previous year, a 2.4% reduction from the 383,460 abortions the group committed in 2020-2021.
“We are thrilled that Planned Parenthood performed more than 9,000 fewer abortions this year. This means that 9,000 more babies will have the opportunity to cry, laugh, and look into their mothers’ and fathers’ eyes. It means that over 9,000 fewer moms’ and dads’ hearts were broken by the tragedy of abortion,” Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand. “This is something to celebrate.”
Despite an abortion reduction which pro-life advocates welcome, Planned Parenthood committed the second-highest number of abortions in its history — 1,025 babies aborted every day — an increase of 46,989 abortions compared to the organization’s 2013 report. “Horrific,” reacted Live Action founder Lila Rose. “Shut. Them. Down.”
Observers on both sides of the abortion debate agree that overturning Roe v. Wade saved tens of thousands of unborn lives. “Since the Dobbs decision, compared to the average monthly number of abortions observed in the pre-Dobbs period, there were 32,260 cumulative fewer abortions from July to December” of 2022, according to the #WeCount report published earlier this month by the Society of Family Planning, which favors abortion-on-demand. That number largely dovetails with a 2022 report from Planned Parenthood’s former affiliate, the Guttmacher Institute, which found that in 2020 just seven pro-life states “accounted for 80,500 abortions, or an average of about 6,700 abortions each month.”
It is noteworthy that the 9,305 fewer abortions committed by Planned Parenthood accounts only for its fiscal year, which ended last June 30. Supreme Court justices delivered their Dobbs decision on June 24, and many states’ pro-life laws did not take effect for days or weeks — seemingly indicating that even the threat of enacting pro-life protections at the federal level significantly reduces the number of abortions carried out.
At the same time, Planned Parenthood received more government funding last year than at any time in its history — a $37 million increase over the $633.4 million it collected the previous year.
“Democrats and the Biden administration made certain that Planned Parenthood received almost 6% more in taxpayer dollars,” Szoch noted. “That means that every taxpaying American, whether willingly or not, contributed to this agent of death.”
Funds expropriated by compulsory taxation (35%) and private contributors who voluntarily gave their own money (36%) essentially tied as Planned Parenthood’s top source of revenue. Only 19% of PPFA’s revenue came from fees collected from its products. Altogether, Planned Parenthood’s revenue far outstripped expenses in the 2021-2022 fiscal year, yielding $204.7 million in profit and reports total assets of $2.7 billion.
The Dobbs decision delivered an emotional, if not financial, wallop to Planned Parenthood, as evidenced by its report. “This was the year the worst happened,” the report began. PPFA said the 6-3 Supreme Court ruling, which returned abortion to the democratic control of the people after Roe v. Wade invented the “constitutional right” to abortion 49 years earlier, created “a devastating new reality.” Planned Parenthood finds pro-life America “heartbreaking,” the report stated.
PPFA described its efforts to promote abortion nationwide irrespective of the law as “relentless.” At least three full pages of the report contain nothing but the word “relentless” in all capital letters printed over and over again. Its overall tone differed markedly from the 2020-2021 report, belatedly released last September.
Planned Parenthood managed to offset any impending revenue loss in 2022 by asking friendly politicians at all levels of government to open the coffers to the abortion giant. “PPFA is focused on supporting affiliates in states with favorable policy environments to … increase their capacity as patients travel from [pro-life] states,” the 2022 report revealed.
Democratic governors in deep-blue states responded before the Dobbs decision had even been handed down. California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) proposed a whopping $125 million to cement the state’s status as an “abortion sanctuary,” including $20 million to improve abortion facilities’ “capital infrastructure.” New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) gave $35 million in state taxpayer funds to abortion facilities, including $25 million “to expand abortion provider capacity.”
Cities and municipalities have also diverted unspent COVID-19 emergency funding to abortion. The city of Rochester, New York, made Planned Parenthood of Central and Western NY eligible to split $5 million in American Rescue Plan funding as one of 20 members of its “Rochester Peace Collective.” The city offered up a $225,000 grant for the affiliate’s sex education program, which links minors to Planned Parenthood’s website. Numerous other cities used federal, state, or local funds to fund abortion, directly or indirectly. A fuller account of the Dobbs decision’s impact on Planned Parenthood’s financial standing and death toll will be revealed in next year’s report.
By contrast, Planned Parenthood announced it would spend a record-breaking $50 million supporting pro-abortion candidates in the 2022 midterm elections.
“We must put an end to this and call on our local, state, and federal legislators to protect unborn children beginning at the moment of conception,” Szoch told TWS, “and to only spend our taxpayer dollars in efforts that help Americans thrive — not efforts that destroy the nation.”
Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.