Planned Parenthood just released its annual report for the fiscal year 2018-2019, and it shows that the organization faced some dismal numbers. Buried deep within the report was the alarming statistic that Planned Parenthood lost 400,000 individual donors this past fiscal year.
Planned Parenthood brands itself as the premier women’s health organization for women seeking reproductive care across the country, but the report confirms what the organization’s critics have said: abortion is at the top of Planned Parenthood’s priority list and at the center of its business model. The report shows that in the previous year, Planned Parenthood performed 345,672 abortions, the organization’s highest total to date.
This mass exodus of donors also occurred just after Planned Parenthood ousted Dr. Lena Wen, the first actual physician to be the face of the organization in nearly fifty years, on account of ‘philosophical differences.’ Wen, in addition to her seasoned resume, offered Planned Parenthood a chance to dispel the narrative that abortion is the organization’s sole focus, to prove critics wrong. This opportunity was short-lived when Planned Parenthood chose increasing abortion revenue over Dr. Wen’s medical expertise.
It was soon discovered, via her op-ed in the New York Times, that Wen wanted to shift the focus back to actual health care for women; not to get rid of Planned Parenthood’s abortion services, but rather to prioritize real healthcare such as mammograms, pap smears, and cancer screenings. Wen is by no means pro-life, but as a physician, she simply wanted to expand real healthcare options for women in need.
In a release, Executive Director of American Life League, Jim Sedlack, attributed the donor exodus to Planned Parenthood’s exclusive focus on performing abortions:
“Apparently,” Sedlak continued, “as the truly abortion focus of the organization became more and more apparent, not only did Wen leave, but 400,000 individual donors to Planned Parenthood stopped giving. That exodus resulted in Planned Parenthood reporting a $39.5 million drop in donations and a $26.5 million drop in total income—despite the fact that its taxpayer income increased by $53 million.”
The loss of donors should sound the alarms for Planned Parenthood; the organization has embraced a radical pro-abortion agenda, one that is staunchly different from the ‘women’s health’ narrative that the organization pushes, which does not resonate with the American people at-large.