Do abortions make up only 3% of Planned Parenthood's services?

Question

According to this chart, (showing percentages of the absolute number of services provided) only 3% of PP's services are abortions.

Source: Planned Parenthood fiscal year 2013-2014 annual report

This report by NPR repeats the claim that "indeed, abortions are 3 percent of the services provided".

Is the 3% figure true?

@DJClayworth I think many would have expected that number to be higher. And many may expect that because they confuse "services provided" with "people who use Planned Parenthood to get abortions." — LCIII, Aug 04 '15 at 19:11
@nomenagentis I am not convinced: that would be an appeal to authority? Unless there is some form of in-depth investigation (e.g. by the tax authorities), an external review can't be much more than "the numbers are believable" which... is an expert opinion, nothing more. Just guessing here, but I am not sure it would convince the OP. :-D — Sklivvz, Aug 04 '15 at 19:33
I'm having trouble viewing the report on my device, but financial statements for organizations like this are often prepared and certified by a professional auditing firm. Is that not the case here? — Nate Eldredge, Aug 04 '15 at 20:33
The next page of the report includes actual numbers, and shows it to be number of services provided. Including that chart would help clear this up. — Is Begot, Aug 05 '15 at 13:18
Planned Parenthood's official website seems to be horribly broken, the link for their financial statement is broken and links to their "About Us" page. Older financial statements did not disclose the exact breakdown of the "Medical" section. I updated the question to add the implied question (since the numerical 3% of all services figure seems to not be in doubt). — March Ho, Aug 05 '15 at 22:49
@nomenagentis Thanks for pointing it out, reverted that edit, must have missed the line above it. — March Ho, Aug 05 '15 at 23:00
On a per-service basis, the stats are most likely correct. The problem isn't so much that the stat is incorrect as that it is grossly misleading. It would be akin to Boeing saying that selling airplanes is only 3% of their business because they sell 97 $10 items in the museum gift shop for every 3 $300,000,000 airplanes. Technically true, but not especially meaningful. Various sources have analyzed this claim, but the short answer is that abortions constitute about half of the health center revenue of the PP federation. — reirab, Dec 17 '16 at 05:46
[Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/08/12/for-planned-parenthood-abortion-stats-3-percent-and-94-percent-are-both-misleading/?utm_term=.ee914a15b7b4) is an example of a source that has evaluated this claim by PP. They rate it 3 Pinocchios. — reirab, Dec 17 '16 at 05:49
@reirab I find the claim that PP gets 50% of its revenue from abortion equally misleading. It's the high range of some very iffy estimation, it's probably more in the 15 to 30 percent range. I think percent of patients who got abortion is slightly better metric. WP reports that to be 12% — ventsyv, Dec 18 '16 at 03:32
@ventsyv Most of the estimations I've seen were based on PP's own numbers... It's almost certainly far more than 15%, most that I've seen have been in the 40-50% range. It's the largest single source of revenue from their health clinics, by far. Percent of patients who (in a given year) got an abortion (from them) is also an interesting statistic, but it's not nearly as meaningful in describing the percentage of their business as percent of revenue is. Again, it would be like Boeing saying that only 12% of their customers bought an airplane in a given year, with the rest from the gift shop. — reirab, Dec 18 '16 at 04:21
One way to further fact-check is go through each of the 59 affiliates and look at their individual reports. For example "Planned Parenthood Keystone" https://www.plannedparenthood.org/files/4214/2842/5725/PPKey_Annual_Report_FY14_web_4-7-15.pdf says they had 39,550 unique patients, to which they gave 4,193 abortions. — DavePhD, Dec 18 '16 at 12:47
"Source of revenue for their clinics" is grossly misleading. Those 50% numbers are talking about non-governmental funding, which is, in and of itself, a small fraction of PP's overall budget. If you want to claim 50%, cite some sources, please. Since they use a lot of their government grant money to provide free non-abortive services, just looking at "clinic revenue" is a dishonest metric as well. — PoloHoleSet, Dec 19 '16 at 20:10
@reirab Assuming the highest possible price for all abortions is obviously biased, even the WP article you are siting calls those calculations speculative. If a thrift store owner finds a lost Picasso in his store, sells it for $100 million, is he a thrift store owner or a art dealer? Revenue is as bad indicator as number of services because it can easily be skewed by a few expensive items. — ventsyv, Dec 20 '16 at 18:02
It's worth mentioning that planned parenthood performs about a third of all abortions in the USA. That likely makes them the top abortion provider. If your goal is to make abortion illegal, abortion being 3% of their business is a rather inconsequential fact compared to them being the largest abortion provider in the country. This 3% fact is irrelevant to any abortion/defund PP argument. — , Jul 19 '19 at 03:03

DavePhD · Accepted Answer · 2016-12-17T21:54:55.497

The national entity is Planned Parenthood Federation of America. It does not conduct any abortions.

The report says:

Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) supports 59 independently incorporated affiliates

In other words, PPFA affiliates itself with 59 other entities, the 59 entities collectively providing a range of "services".

Collectively, the 59 affiliates provide:

STI/STD Testing & Treatment
STI Tests: 3,533,522
Genital Warts (HPV) Treatments 32,233
HIV Tests, Women and Men 651,695
Other Treatments 699
[subtotal] 4,218,149

Contraception
Reversible Contraception Clients, Women 2,009,307
Emergency Contraception Kits 931,589
Female Sterilization Procedures 718
Vasectomy Clients 3,445
[subtotal] 2,945,059

Cancer Screening and Prevention
Pap Tests 271,539
HPV Vaccinations 24,063
Breast Exams/Breast Care 363,803
Colposcopy Procedures 20,736
LEEP Procedures 1,621
Cryotherapy Procedures 446
[subtotal] 682,208

Other Women’s Health Services
Pregnancy Tests 1,172,989
Prenatal Services 17,419
[subtotal] 1,190,408

Abortion Services
Abortion Procedures 323,999

Other Services
Family Practice Services, Women and Men 33,060
Adoption Referrals to Other Agencies 2,024
Urinary Tract Infections Treatments 55,912
Other Procedures, Women and Men 4,763
[subtotal] 95,759

Total services 9,455,582

The report explains that the affiliates saw:

two and a half million patients, collectively delivering nearly 10 million services during over four million clinical visits

So a person is receiving about 2 services per visit. For example a pregnancy test and an abortion or a pregnancy test and a so-called "Emergency Contraception Kit".

So, in summary, PPFA does not provide any medical services or abortions, but chooses to affiliate itself with 59 entities which provide various services and on a per service basis, meaning providing a condom or pregnancy test counting as 1 service, these 59 entities conducted 323,999 abortions out of 9,455,582 services (3.4%). About 13% of the patients seen in the year received an abortion, neglecting consideration of patients having more than one abortion in the year.

So the answer is yes? Either way, this seems to just repeat the claim of the OP, using the same source. And do you have a source that states that PP considers handing out a single condom as a service, and that this service would then be counted in this statistic? And if so, is there a reason that your answer highlights this service which - if it is even considered a service of which I am not convinced - seems to be in the minority even among the contraception services offered? I also doubt that any credible source considers ECs abortions — tim, Dec 16 '16 at 18:15
@tim This is actually a more recent report I think, I couldn't read the OP report in my browser, but I think this is a year more recent. Of the 2,009,307 "Reversible Contraception" services the report says 16.8% were "non-prescription barrier". I am not saying that each individual condom counts as a separate service. Each visit where a person receives at least one condom is one service. 100 condoms in one visit would still be one service. Answer is "yes on a per service basis" considering only post-implantation abortions, not morning after pills, for the 59 affiliates, not PPFA. — DavePhD, Dec 16 '16 at 18:43
@tim as far as mainstream medical literature, "Women who abort before the fertilized egg nests in the womb wall ..." (1952) https://books.google.com/books?id=jd48AQAAIAAJ&q=%22Women+who+abort+before+the+fertilized+egg+nests+in+the+womb+%22&dq=%22Women+who+abort+before+the+fertilized+egg+nests+in+the+womb+%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjztJqIwPnQAhVqIcAKHXr_DGMQ6AEIGjAA suggests that "abortion" was anytime after the egg was fertilized, but I suppose people have succeeded in redefining the word. — DavePhD, Dec 16 '16 at 20:27
Big problem--emergency contraception is far more about preventing the release of an egg than about preventing it's implantation. Thus your 13% is utterly wrong. — Loren Pechtel, Dec 17 '16 at 21:53
There's a serious problem with this 3% argument's logic that I think you should mention: At 330K abortions a year, PP is the largest abortion provider in the country, accounting for about one third of all the abortions in the USA. This 3% fact is irrelevant to any abortion/defund PP argument. It illuminates nothing that supports nor opposes PP. — , Jul 19 '19 at 03:10

yters · Answer 2 · 2016-12-19T15:22:39.640

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Not necessarily. The actual abortion is one of multiple services incurred when a client has an abortion. The 3% statistic only counts the abortion itself (page 18 of Planned Parenthood's annual report).

As an analogy, when you break your arm the doctor will perform multiple services including putting a cast on your arm to heal the break. However, even though there are multiple services, they all go towards healing your broken arm.

The same thing happens with an abortion. When a lady goes to have an abortion, a number of other services are also performed, but they are all to assist with the abortion.

For example, if 4 services are incurred for an abortion, such as a medical tests, physical exam, ultrasound along with the abortion, the percentage of services that go towards abortion is 3% * 4 = 12%.

This is the same point made during the NPR interview:

"Absolutely. So many of those patients are getting more than one services and who - many of the patients who get an abortion are probably getting other services as well."

So, the statistic is misleading since it implies abortion is an extremely small percentage of what Planned Parenthood does. However, since other services offered are used during the abortion process, it would give a better understanding of how much of Planned Parenthood's activities are dedicated to abortion to include all services incurred for an abortion.

UPDATE: Many claim my argument is flawed. Be that as it may, the Washington Post agrees the statistic is largely false, 3/4 Pinocchios.

edited Dec 19 '16 at 15:22

answered Aug 06 '15 at 00:24

yters

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Can the downvoters provide advice on how to improve the answer? – yters Aug 06 '15 at 01:15
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My guess is that people downvoted because it's unclear what these numbers mean. Can you explain in more detail? – Goodbye Stack Exchange Aug 06 '15 at 04:33
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I haven't downvoted (yet?), but I see two major problems. (1) Your first link doesn't clearly support your main claim. Quote the part that corroborates it. (2) Your claim seems to be in direct conflict with the initial graph - cancer screening, STI testing/treatment and contraception are not categories that could cover ancillary services related to an abortion. "Other Women's Health Services" might, but you need to show that. – Oddthinking Aug 06 '15 at 15:56
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-1 The answer is incomplete (no quoted citations) and the "4 services" you are citing seems very arbitrary given the information published. Plus, you can't just multiply the services together like that and get a new number, the 12% figure you are giving is effectively meaningless. – rjzii Aug 06 '15 at 17:04
@rjzii, I haven't been able to find a source yet that would detail the services incurred better. My point is that the number of services incurred by an abortion is greater than 3%. – yters Aug 06 '15 at 17:12
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@yters Then you need to justify that position with evidence, otherwise you are just stating your opinion. – rjzii Aug 06 '15 at 17:27
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I am downvoting because you are saying the stats are wrong, but every source you quote says they are right. The fact that you think they should use a different measure is irrelevant. Make sure you read the NPR article in the question, which explains the situation. – DJClayworth Aug 06 '15 at 17:45
@DJClayworth, it appears I am agreeing with the NPR interview: "Absolutely. So many of those patients are getting more than one services and who - many of the patients who get an abortion are probably getting other services as well." Another way to say this: say you break your arm and go to the doctor. Putting a cast on your arm is merely one of multiple services you receive in order to fix with your broken arm, but they all go towards fixing your broken arm. Same with abortion. Multiple services go towards the single abortion, including the abortion itself. – yters Aug 06 '15 at 19:01
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@yters That's not what the NPR interview is saying. What they are saying on NPR is that a woman might go in for an STI test, then a pregnancy test, and then an abortion at some point in the future. The STI and pregnancy tests are not part of the abortion procedure even though that woman used multiple services from Planned Parenthood. – rjzii Aug 06 '15 at 19:24
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@yters Conveniently, you skipped the sentence prior to that (emphasis added): "*And the difference might be that the same woman who **later received** an abortion also got a pregnancy test and counseling and some other services.*" What they're talking about isn't like a broken arm. They're talking about people who used PP for other services in addition to abortion, much like you might see your GP for different reasons at different times. – Is Begot Aug 06 '15 at 19:25
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@IsBegot That the services may be unassociated with the abortion does not negate they may be associated with the abortion. To say they are always unassociated is special pleading, making the 3% derived from that assumption unlikely. – yters Dec 16 '16 at 17:35
@yters you should quote the part of the report that says "In 2013, Planned Parenthood health centers saw 2.7 million patients, who collectively received 10.6 million services during 4.6 million clinical visits." You could explain that 327,653 abortions were perform on the 2.7 million patients. So on average 12% of patients had abortions. – DavePhD Dec 16 '16 at 18:10
@rjzii There is an average of 2.3 "services" per visit. – DavePhD Dec 16 '16 at 19:10
@DavePhD Necroposting? – rjzii Dec 16 '16 at 19:38
The Washington Post article is a great find - consider quoting it more extensively, and replacing your own disputed arguments with theirs. – Oddthinking Dec 17 '16 at 22:19

Do abortions make up only 3% of Planned Parenthood's services?

2 Answers2

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