Pro-Life Advocates Should Pay Attention to Planned Parenthood’s Annual Report

June 24, 2022, will be remembered as the day one of the most consequential Supreme Court decisions was handed down: the day Roe v. Wade was overturned in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Pro-life advocates across the country understood the gravity of the Court’s ruling: pro-life laws in a number of states completely protecting life would soon take effect, and the culmination of thousands if not millions of pro-life advocates’ work over the span of several decades had secured victory in the highest court.

But they also understood that the fight for life was far from over. As Alexandra DeSanctis and Ryan T. Anderson write at National Review, “the pro-life movement must work to make abortion not only illegal but also unthinkable.”

Planned Parenthood’s most recent annual report, released Sept. 9, underscores that point.

Throughout the 2020-2021 report, Planned Parenthood claims again and again that it is in the business of “health care”—“health care” that included a record-breaking 383,460 abortions in 2020. Indeed, Planned Parenthood is upfront that it thinks that ending innocent human life is necessary and something to be proud of: “Abortion is essential health care that cannot wait for the end of a pandemic or the whims of politicians. … Planned Parenthood health centers are proud to provide abortion.”

Planned Parenthood boasts increased numbers of aborted babies and quietly includes that it provided 239,000 fewer health services like well-woman exams and prenatal care than it did the previous year. Yet Planned Parenthood’s revenue managed to increase from $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion.

The abortion organization’s incessant talk of “health care” is nothing more than a marketing ploy. National Review notes that “in 20 years the number of abortions performed by Planned Parenthood affiliates has increased by an astounding 80 percent. During the same period, prenatal services offered by Planned Parenthood have declined by more than 43 percent.” For every one prenatal service Planned Parenthood offers, it performs 41 abortions.

Elective abortion continues to be its main focus (as it has always been), no matter what euphemistic label Planned Parenthood tries to slap on it.

Real health care does not leave patients with increased risks for mental health problems, suicidal behaviors, and drug abuse. Real health care does not end the life of a human being.

Planned Parenthood proudly provides over 40 percent of abortions in the U.S. every year—and it won’t be slowing down any time soon.

Worse yet, Planned Parenthood is doing this deadly work while profiting off of taxpayers. In 2021, Planned Parenthood received $633.4 million in government reimbursements and grants—a number that has steadily increased. And the Biden administration continues to do its best to make sure that Planned Parenthood receives massive amounts of funding through Title X. With the federal government continuing to fuel this billion-dollar pro-abortion machine, it’s crucial that those who believe that life is a human right keep working to save lives—the lives of both mothers and their unborn babies.

Every single life is worth defending. Keep praying with us and working with us to make abortion unthinkable.