[10/17/16] Planned Parenthood Federation of America marked its 100th birthday on Oct. 16, the day in 1916 that eugenicist Margaret Sanger opened the first “birth control” clinic in Brooklyn. Since 1978, Planned Parenthood, which is America’s largest abortion provider, has ended the lives of approximately 6,803,782 babies.
That is the number of abortions Planned Parenthood has reported in its own documents. CNSNews.com obtained the Planned Parenthood annual reports, fact sheets, and service reports from 1978 through 2014 and counted the number of abortions that the organization said it had performed over that time frame.
To put that number (6,803,782 abortions) in perspective, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the combined populations of Los Angeles and Chicago in 2015 was 6,692,379.
CNSNews.com obtained Planned Parenthood records from the organization and from Jim Sedlak, the founder of Stop Planned Parenthood (STOPP International) and executive director of the American Life League, which has collected Planned Parenthood documents for decades. These records included Planned Parenthood annual reports, as well as “fact sheets” and “service reports” published by the organization.
Although abortion was not legal when Sanger opened the first birth control office in Brooklyn, the procedure was legalized in the state of New York on July 1, 1970. The very next day, July 2, 1970, the New York clinic performed the first abortion, according to Sedlak.
The Chicago Tribune reported that 58 abortions were performed in total on that one day in New York City. Planned Parenthood, as The Tribune reported, said it planned to handle at least 5,000 resident NYC abortions per month.
Only estimates can be made on how many abortions Planned Parenthood performed at its clinics in the early 1970s, even in the first few years following the1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
But for the years 1978 through 2014, the numbers are available. The numbers range from 70,000 abortions in the first annual report (from 1978) to 323,999 abortions reported in the 2014-15 annual report, the latest available, for “medical services” from Oct. 1, 2013 to Sept. 30, 2014.
Every year, Planned Parenthood receives millions in tax dollars through Title X Family Planning appropriations. Its latest report shows that 43 percent of Planned Parenthood’s revenues come from government health services grants and reimbursements (state and federal) for a total of $553.7 million in 2014.
The estimated number of abortions performed by Planned Parenthood from 1978 through 2014, based on Planned Parenthood documents, are presented below by year and by Planned Parenthood source document.
