Defunding Planned Parenthood is now an attainable goal for the pro-life movement. President-elect Donald Trump aimed to do so during his first time in office, and the pressure remains for his coming term.
The case is nondiscriminatory: Planned Parenthood uses its funding poorly and dishonestly. A look into the rampant unionization and various substandard working conditions makes the case itself. That is not to say Planned Parenthood is corrupt and greedy; case closed — its executives really are partial to abortion and feel responsible for it, so they maneuver accordingly and do not care about much else. Besides, given the reversal of Roe v. Wade, federal funding for an abortion-plus-side-gigs operation does not fit the frame. Is more money supposed to fix Planned Parenthood?
Of course not. But that is the question the Trump administration is betting will occur to congressmen as part of “getting everybody on the same page.” Trump aided the pro-life cause by reinstating the Mexico City Policy that discontinues federal funding to international organizations that refer to abortion, as well as rolling back an Obamacare rule in order to allow exemptions for contraception coverage. In 2019, he regulated abortion funding by making it illegal for organizations that receive Title X funding to provide abortion referrals. (Planned Parenthood Action courteously compiled those and the rest of Trump’s related successes on its website.)
The Title X rule passed and held effect until President Joe Biden undid it in 2021. It is easy to imagine more party-dependent flip-flopping on Title X, but what is more crucial is the funding Planned Parenthood receives by way of the Affordable Care Act: The majority of the organization’s overall funding, hundreds of millions of dollars, comes from Medicaid reimbursements made possible through ACA rules. Since many Republican lawmakers are hesitant to repeal the Affordable Care Act, every attempt to defund Planned Parenthood by doing so has failed.
On the campaign trail, the Trump-Vance administration stated its intention to defund Planned Parenthood, possibly as a target of the Department of Government Efficiency. It is not a good look for the federal government to be in bed with Planned Parenthood — and the organization’s own internal disorder makes the argument compelling.
The hand that rocks the boat
The exact amount of federal funding within Planned Parenthood’s 2022-23 income was $699.3 million. No number of government health services grants and reimbursements, however, seem to ensure that the nonprofit runs smoothly.
Across the country, Planned Parenthood workers’ unions have sprouted up in response to feeling overworked, stressed out, and unable to provide high-quality “care.” Since the most prominent unionization news came about in 2022, many attribute the organization’s dysfunction to the Dobbs v. Jackson decision in June of that year. Women seeking abortions now choose to — and are encouraged to — travel to states that permit them, and the influx has pushed employees over the edge. Abortion “sanctuary state” statuses certainly contribute to the overwork that workers invoke. But Planned Parenthood unionizing has been public since at least 2017. And once COVID-19 hit, employees reached their limit. The health crisis led to “essential worker” conditions that only amplified Planned Parenthood’s busy, no-lunch, low-pay environment. For employees in Pennsylvania, COVID-19 made it obvious that they were “being exploited.”
The pandemic, along with the significant, though proven incorrect, impression that abortion is a constitutional right, coincided with an already difficult (some might say, conniving) employer. The explosion of unions afterward was unavoidable.
In Oregon, Planned Parenthood employees felt unsupported by the organization. Service quality was down, frustration was high, and emotional content played no little role in motivating workers—some “were in tears” upon completion of the union contract. Agreements such as a 15% pay increase and an $18 per hour minimum wage fit into this.
One might think that given the amount of income that Planned Parenthood reports, over $2 billion in 2022, its problems would be better fixed by reallocation than by substantial union promises.
But, the people who have the best intuition for the organization’s intentions doubt the idea. It is why Oregon Planned Parenthood’s union was no one-off. Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest, in California, saw similar unionization as workers claimed they had been “underpaid and overworked” and needed “better balance” in their lives. That union contract concluded also with a 15% pay raise, and a $23 per hour minimum wage.
Planned Parenthood North Central States has an even larger union. It represents more than 400 workers assembled behind numerous claims of burnout and union busting. The range of complaints amounts to overall poor employee treatment. One Minnesota nurse said of her coworkers, “Not a lot of them make it to the one-year mark.” More damning: “Without significant changes in how we are treated, our organization will continue to be a revolving door.”
New unions are still forming in 2024, in locations such as Wisconsin, Long Island, and Michigan.
It does not help that, just as identical problems of overwork sprung up at Planned Parenthood offices across the country in 2022, a prominent regional executive issued an anti-union letter. The then-CEO of Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, Jennifer Childs-Roshak, discouraged employees from joining the union on the grounds that unionizing makes the organization less “flexible.”
Her statement communicates to the public just what its employees recognize, namely that Planned Parenthood does not actually care about using its funding well. Unions forced Planned Parenthood’s hand, and only temporarily.
Still ill
Given Planned Parenthood’s foundational eugenicism, it is not much of a surprise to hear that the organization cares little for the dignity of its workers, however undignifying the work. And while its leadership has made many a statement to convince the public of an inclusive and progressive ethos, allegations run wild.
As always, Planned Parenthood faces accusations of racism. Someone claims a form of discrimination from the organization just about every year. Dozens of staff have filed lawsuits. It is difficult to take claims of systemic racism seriously in today’s society — but the claims are still there. If not systemic racism, they speak to something of the inner workings of this organization.
Perhaps it indicates, as already hinted by the unionization, blatant apathy for anything apart from abortion itself. Moldy facilities and alleged disability discrimination make up some of the complaints that accompany “stress,” “sobbing,” and “chaotic conditions.”
When one Planned Parenthood employee received a cervical cancer diagnosis, a condition to which the organization claims commitment as it counts screening for cancer among its services, her employer denied family medical leave and soon fired her. The woman sued and settled for $75,000.
That was in 2017, and there is no reason to believe that Planned Parenthood’s disposition has changed.
As its goals suggest, Planned Parenthood discriminates also based on pregnancy. Many women have claimed they “were scared to tell managers they were pregnant,” other employees emphasizing their own singleness or homosexuality. Other pregnant women have been denied breaks and pressed to return early to work. It might be reasonable to want to consider pregnancy during hiring and operational processes — but that does not make it legal.
For Planned Parenthood, especially, to punish pregnant women for wanting to work is beyond ironic. The nonprofit organization giant leads the movement for “equal pay,” “trust women,” and “my body, my choice.” Then again, it is right in line with the hyperfocus on abortion.
Suffer, little children
Whatever their money is spent on, it is not maternity leave. Nor healthcare support, building maintenance, or an innovative business model that would help fund these things.
The lawyer who handled the cervical cancer suit pointed out, “There’s an assumption that when you treat women with those issues, you’d be sympathetic to those issues.”
But Planned Parenthood is not sympathetic, and it does not intend to be. The fact of the matter is that, both ideally and practically, the organization’s priority is abortion. More than priority: Given the amount of income it receives, which has been upwards of $1.5 billion for at least the past five years, and the breakdown of its services, it is safe to say that abortion may be Planned Parenthood’s only object. At the mention of the organization’s defunding, the first concern most outlets wave is “low-income women without access to affordable birth control” or abortion and contraception.
But total contraceptive services were down 4% in 2021-22, per an analysis of statistics from Planned Parenthood’s most recent report. Exceptionally, male sterilization was up 43%.
As with contraception, many of the other services that Planned Parenthood uses to claim that it offers indisposable, normal healthcare were down: Colposcopies and pap smear tests, both exams that screen for cervical cancer, each decreased 14%. Family practice services were down 1.5%, adoption referrals were down 4.5%, and telehealth appointments were down 65% from its pre-COVID-19 level.
Prenatal care is one statistic to note. It was up 1.2% from the previous year but down 31% from its pre-COVID-19 average. As the beacon of Planned Parenthood, abortion increased by 5% to a total of 392,715. Abortion sweeps away any other type of service on Planned Parenthood’s agenda, along with any doubt as to where the organization directs most of its income.
The prenatal care total is just 1.6% the size of the abortion total. When added to the total of adoption referrals, which at times consists of advice just to “Google it,” as some recordings show, the two make up 2% of the number of abortions in the same year.
It could be said that, given recent years’ restrictions on abortion, of course, the numbers for most other services pale in comparison. Yet Planned Parenthood’s total services for 2021-22 declined 3.8%. It is not just that abortion is taking the place of other services because of demand: Even as the aggregate of Planned Parenthood’s services decreased, abortion increased — and did so by 1.2 percentage points more.
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These and similar abuses are not unknown. Groups such as Stop Planned Parenthood, the organization that provides statistical analysis of Planned Parenthood’s reports, and 40 Days for Life regularly document Planned Parenthood’s work. However, part of how the nonprofit organization succeeds is because of its linkage to progressive politics.
The organization adopts the left-wing default for any given issue and publishes needless statements on them, such as Black Lives Matter, transgenderism, and the Israel-Gaza war. It is how Planned Parenthood maintains blind loyalty in the face of severe disorganization. That way, Planned Parenthood is given the benefit of the doubt and can remain devoted to the singular cause of abortion — all without protest from anyone but unwitting taxpayers.