Latest Pro-Life News

Tessa Cox, Senior Research Associate at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, joins host Eva Cooley on “Exposed: Abortion in America” to discuss her research on abortion trends and Planned Parenthood’s operations. She critiques Planned Parenthood’s heavy focus on abortion, reliance on taxpayer funding, and declining non-abortion services, while highlighting the comprehensive, free support offered by pregnancy resource centers and federally qualified health centers as life-affirming alternatives.

Cox emphasizes the importance of exposing Planned Parenthood’s priorities, drawing from her extensive work analyzing abortion data and women’s experiences. She also underscores the pro-life movement’s progress since the Dobbs decision, reflecting on her time at CLI during this pivotal shift. Her insights aim to equip listeners with facts to counter emotional narratives surrounding abortion and women’s healthcare options.

Episode 20 is on the following platforms:

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2xRGsQkfXCA3EzHvioPnpt?si=b9c874c3ae714bb4

Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-20-sales-over-services-breaking-down-planned-parenthoods/id1769630555?i=1000702716854

Amazon Music:
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/3273b561-9afa-4f75-8aba-87a956f41b7f/episodes/a5656df8-3a61-44f5-a686-e048068539c3/exposed-abortion-in-america-ep-20-sales-over-services-breaking-down-planned-parenthood%E2%80%99s-annual-report

Transcript

0:03: So I am here today with Tessa Cox, a senior research associate at the Charlotte Bossier Institute, and we’re delighted to have you today, Tessa.
0:10: Could you tell us a bit about your background?
0:13: Sure, and thank you so much for having me on.
0:16: I’m from Illinois originally, but I’ve been in the DC area for almost 8 years now, and most of my time has been with CLI and it’s really been just an incredible time to be with CLI and SBA and part of the pro-life movement, the lead up to Dobbs, and then That momentous Dobbs decision overturning Roe v.
0:40: Wade, and then all of the hard work afterward in the past 2, almost 3 years.
0:46: So it’s really been an incredible journey.
0:49: That’s wonderful.
0:50: That’s a great way to start off our podcast.
0:53: could you tell us a little bit more about what types of studies you’ve been involved in during your time with the Charlotte Lozier Institute?
1:00: Well, it’s really been a little bit of everything.
1:03: I’ve spent a lot of time looking at abortion statistics and trends, seeing what the states are reporting, looking at the abortion industry and Planned Parenthood.
1:13: I’ve contributed to quantitative research, looking at data from states that use their own tax dollars to to pay for abortions for women who are enrolled in Medicaid.
1:24: And I’ve also done qualitative research looking at women’s experiences with abortion drugs and how really harmful they can be, obviously to unborn babies, but also to their moms as well.
1:36: And then also looking at pregnancy centers and the good work that they do.
1:40: So it’s been a little bit of everything.
1:43: That’s great, and I just want to say thank you so much for your work because it has been so crucial to the pro-life movement, and I was wondering if you could talk to our listeners specifically about the Planned Parenthood annual report.
1:56: Could you tell us what that is?
1:58: Yes, so this is a report that Planned Parenthood puts out every year.
2:03: A lot of organizations publish these, and it lays out what they’ve been doing for the past year, goes into their priorities, their activities over the past 12 months, and also breaks down their service data and their financial information.
2:20: So it’s really just summarizing everything that they’ve done over a year.
2:25: And what years do you currently have the reporting on from Planned Parenthood?
2:31: So the most recent report that Planned Parenthood has released is for the 2022 to 2023 fiscal year, but because Planned Parenthood is composed of national headquarters overseeing many different regional affiliates, a lot of the service data is from 2021 to 2022, just because it’s based on that data that’s reported to them by the affiliates and then they have to to crunch the numbers and publish it in their reports.
2:58: So that lags behind a little bit.
3:01: OK, that makes sense.
3:03: I’d love for you to talk to our listeners more about the specific services.
3:07: And this the breakdown of these services that you found in this Planned Parenthood report, the most recent one, could you tell us about the breakdown of the types of care that Planned Parenthood offers to pregnant moms?
3:21: Well, so we always are interested in what is Planned Parenthood doing to serve pregnant moms, and what portion of the pie does abortion represent in all this.
3:33: And tragically, abortion makes up the vast, vast majority.
3:38: And so we always look at what we would call pregnancy resolutions.
3:41: Services or asking ourselves the question, if a pregnant woman walks into Planned Parenthood, what are the types of services that she’s going to get?
3:49: She could get prenatal care, she could get care for a miscarriage if that’s how her pregnancy ends.
3:54: She could get a referral for adoption or she could have an abortion.
3:59: And so if you look at these four different things, abortion made up 97.1% in the most recent annual report.
4:08: Prenatal services, miscarriage care, and adoption referrals were only 1.6, 0.9, and 0.4% in comparison.
4:18: So abortion is making up the vast majority, and we know that Planned Parenthood is doing more and more abortions.
4:25: They reported 392,000.
4:28: 715 abortions in the most recent report.
4:32: So that’s nearly 400,000 abortions, and this is an increase that we’ve seen over the past few annual reports.
4:41: In fact, it’s an increase of 20% over the past 10 reports, so something that they’re continuing to increase.
4:48: Those are staggering numbers, Tessa.
4:51: Are there any types of Planned Parenthood’s care that has dropped over the years?
4:57: Yes, basically everything but abortion has gone down, and it’s really been interesting to see these trends over their annual reports to see these services declining.
5:10: Since 2010, we’ve seen that total services are down 17%, that cancer screening and prevention services are down 71%, breast exams down 72%, Pap tests down 74%, contraceptive services are down 39%, and from their peak in 20.
5:30: 9, prenatal services are down 80%, so massive, massive drops across the board in many of these key services, while at the same time, abortions have increased.
5:43: Wow.
5:44: And do you have any statistics on the adoption referral rate as compared to the number of abortions that Planned Parenthood does?
5:52: This is one that’s really particularly sad to me, because Planned Parenthood has been doing more abortions and fewer adoption referrals.
6:02: And in fact, in the most recent report, for every one adoption referral, Planned Parenthood performed 228 abortions.
6:11: So just a staggering number of abortions compared to every woman that is given the option of adoption.
6:19: Wow, that is powerful.
6:22: Can you tell us more about Planned Parenthood and other statistics that you might have for them performing abortions?
6:31: Well, it’s just really interesting and saddening that Planned Parenthood is the market leader in abortion.
6:38: They perform more abortions than any other abortion chain, and even as the total number of patients continues to fall, abortions are rising.
6:46: I remember looking at one Planned Parenthood affiliate back in 2020, and over the same time period that they reported a 31% increase in abortions, they reported a 12% decline in patients.
6:59: And after jobs we’ve seen that many Planned Parenthoods have even closed, saying that they reviewed patient needs and they didn’t have to stay open.
7:07: So once they’re not allowed to do abortions, there’s not reason for many of these Planned Parenthoods to stay open.
7:14: Hm, I find that very interesting because Planned Parenthood on their website and in their messaging just makes it seem like they are all about women’s health care, but when you actually look at the numbers so much, such a huge percentage of their work is just performing abortions on a regular basis, and that’s very distressing to women that might be looking for legitimate health care.
7:42: And women that may not want to be always deciding to have an abortion after going to a Planned Parenthood.
7:51: I’d love for you to talk to us more about what you’ve discovered with Planned Parenthood’s finances.
7:56: Are you able to tell us how much Planned Parenthood made from 2022 to 2023?
8:03: Yes, so this is also information that Planned Parenthood includes in its annual report, and in the most recent report, they reported nearly $2.1 billion in income, and over $2.5 billion in net assets, which is an increase from the previous report.
8:21: So even as services and patient volumes have been falling, income has been rising for Planned Parenthood.
8:29: Can you write down for us how much of that income was taxpayer funded versus from private contributions?
8:37: Yes, so nearly a billion dollars, $997.5 million came from private contributions while taxpayer funding, that was nearly $700 million 699.3 million dollars.
8:52: And that works out to almost $2 million a day that Planned Parenthood is bringing in in taxpayer dollars in the form of government grants, contracts, Medicaid reimbursements, and this makes up 34% of Planned Parenthood’s overall revenue.
9:08: And just based on your research and the studies that you have done, what would you say this huge amount of money is going towards?
9:19: Would you say that it’s going to quality care for women?
9:23: Well, that’s a very interesting question and it’s particularly interesting since there was just a major New York Times article that was published this past weekend, detailing story after story of how women have received substandard care at so many Planned Parenthood centers with even Planned Parenthood employees and former employees.
9:44: Speaking out about the decline in quality that they’ve seen in their centers and this is at the same same time that the national headquarters is bringing in more and more and more money.
9:57: They’re spending that on pushing for abortion, promoting abortion, and a lot of it hasn’t trickled down to the affiliates.
10:05: And as a result, there are these stories of botched abortions, patients feeling like they’re on conveyor belts.
10:11: There was one really grotesque example where there was sewage that was flooding into one of the recovery rooms.
10:17: So there were women sitting there recovering from abortions, smelling the sewage, and so you have this dichotomy where even as Planned Parenthood is making more money, they’re spending less on patient care.
10:33: Well, and I think that just really goes to show what it is that Planned Parenthood actually cares about.
10:39: It based on their actions, it does not seem like they are putting all of this money towards making sure that they are giving women the quality, compassionate care that they truly deserve.
10:51: And that example that you brought up of the sewage is just really horrifying.
10:56: That’s the last thing a woman would want to see at a center where she’s seeking to get Health care for herself and for her unborn child.
11:06: I’d love to talk more with you about, about Planned Parenthood’s finances.
11:10: Can you tell our listeners how much Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding has increased by?
11:17: Yes, so that is actually up 43% from 2010, and Planned Parenthood’s revenue is also up over the past several reports, and in fact if you look at the amount of money that they bring in versus their total expenses, In the most recent annual report that was $178.6 million.
11:44: So they made $178.6 million more than they spent.
11:50: So definitely ending the year with more money in than went out.
11:56: Wow, and you’d think that they could use some of that money to make sure that their centers are clean and well taken care of for their patients, but clearly, according to that New York Times article, that’s unfortunately not the case.
12:11: I’d love to talk more specifically about non-planned Parenthood health centers that care for women.
12:17: Could you tell our listeners what are pregnancy resource centers?
12:22: Well, we’ve talked about a lot of depressing topics so far, so it’s good that there are high quality life affirming alternatives that women can go to, and one of the top options are pregnancy centers, and these are pro-life centers that are there to support pregnant women.
12:43: Support moms and dads who are facing difficult circumstances or really just need someone to talk to and someone to process with, and they provide them with medical care and referrals, education, mentoring, and material support, baby clothes, diapers, car seats, everything that they might need, And they do this for basically for free of charge for most clients.
13:10: we did a report here at CLI and we found that pregnancy centers provided services and goods valued at least at least $358 million in 2022.
13:23: So these are major these are major service providers for their communities, for families, and for women that are looking for high quality care.
13:35: Well, that stands in stark contrast to Planned Parenthood’s motivation for why they are, you know, presenting themselves as giving care to women, because Planned Parenthood is able to rake in millions upon millions of dollars versus pregnancy resource centers are giving away millions and millions of dollars in resources to moms and babies.
14:00: Could you tell our listeners more about why a pregnancy resource center might be a top alternative to going to a Planned Parenthood?
14:09: Well, I think one of the main reasons is what you just mentioned, pregnancy centers don’t have ulterior motives.
14:16: They aren’t going to make any money off of your decision.
14:19: And you contrast that with this recent New York Times article that describes Planned Parenthood centers being pressured to drive up patient numbers, to herd patients through.
14:30: there was one affiliate that was trying to limit them to 10 minute appointments, is pushing patients through, and that’s not how pregnancy centers operate.
14:39: They’re there to support women and support life.
14:43: they’ll give information, they’ll give services that Planned Parenthood won’t, like that material support and the parenting support, but they’ll also stay by people’s sides and be that encouragement and listening ear.
14:55: And I’ve heard from so many people that that’s what made the difference, feeling like they finally had someone in their corner, and that’s what pregnancy centers exist to do.
15:05: Yeah, Tessa, I’ve heard that same thing talking with various women that have had experiences at Planned Parenthood where these women have said, I just needed someone to listen.
15:15: I really just needed someone to sit down with me and pause and tell me that it was going to be OK.
15:21: But instead, when these women go to Planned Parenthood centers, it feels like they’re in a factory.
15:27: There’s this very rushed feeling that they have to make a very specific decision.
15:32: And according to the data that you brought up, pregnant women are almost always pressured into making a decision to be an abortion for their unborn child, and I think you’re exactly right that pregnancy resource centers Do not have that same factory-like feel, and it’s really important for women to know that because unfortunately, Planned Parenthood has made it seem as though pregnancy resource centers are dangerous, they’re evil, they’re out to get women, they’re out to spread lies and spread misinformation, when in reality, that’s quite the opposite, and that’s exactly what Planned Parenthood themselves are doing.
16:11: , but another question for you is, what if someone just needs plain health care?
16:18: Where should they go?
16:20: Well, that’s a great question.
16:22: You know, what if someone isn’t pregnant and they need health care, or maybe they are pregnant, but they just need primary care, where should they look?
16:30: And the good news is that there are really good alternatives in basically every community, and one of the primary examples would be federally qualified health centers or FQHCs.
16:43: And so these are community-based healthcare providers, they’re vetted by the federal government, they receive government funding and they exist to provide that healthcare to low income and underserved populations.
16:57: So they, that usually includes a sliding scale fee structure to make sure that everyone.
17:04: Can afford the health care, and that involves all sorts of healthcare, primary care, internal medicine, behavioral health, even dental care and pediatrics.
17:17: So a whole wide ranging comprehensive set of services that’s designed to be there in the community and accessible for people.
17:27: That’s great to hear.
17:28: And would you say that there are more FQHCs or more Planned Parenthood centers available to women?
17:36: There are definitely way more FQHCs.
17:39: So there are only a few 100 Planned Parenthood centers nationwide, and in contrast, there are thousands of federally qualified health centers.
17:48: And these are in every state, throughout the state, and it’s just a completely different business model from Planned Parenthood.
17:57: most FQHCs are operated by, grantee that’s receiving money from the federal government and operating these health centers, making sure that they have the funds that they need, and most grantees operate just 1 or 2 clinics and some operate a few dozen and so you have these grantees all over the country that are that are running these health centers and operating in all of these different communities, so that people can get the healthcare where they need it.
18:26: That’s very encouraging for women that there are many options readily available to them, and they do not have to be forced to go to a Planned Parenthood.
18:37: They can go to one of these FQHCs, they can go to a pregnancy resource center, and I know you’ve already touched on this, but I’m wondering if you could kind of summarize this for our listeners, but Could you talk to us a little bit more about the types of services that most pregnancy resource centers and federally qualified health centers provide, and then contrast that with the services of Planned Parenthood.
19:02: Yes, so Planned Parenthood services are pretty limited, and then you contrast that with federally qualified health centers that are offering the full gamut of care, and it depends on location to location, different FQHCs specialize in different things, but across the board, they’re providing that primary care, the behavioral health care.
19:27: Family Medicine, women’s health, OBGYN, pediatrics, dental care.
19:33: most Planned Parenthoods don’t provide primary care.
19:36: They don’t do mammograms, they don’t do family medicine and this this holistic sort of health care that FQHCs offer.
19:45: And then Planned Parenthood doesn’t offer the sort of material support and education.
19:51: That pregnancy centers do.
19:54: pregnancy centers are giving away millions of dollars in baby supplies.
19:59: They’re offering parenting classes, they’re providing support groups to make sure that moms and dads don’t fall through the cracks and that families are getting the support and education that they need, and they’re with you long after you have that first appointment, trying to maintain.
20:15: An ongoing relationship, and that is not what Planned Parenthood does.
20:20: They are there to have the 110 or 15 minute appointment, rush you through, make their money, and then that’s the end of the relationship, and that just really stands in contrast to pregnancy centers that are working to have that long term ongoing support for whatever a family needs.
20:40: That’s a great answer.
20:42: And my last question for you, Tessa, is, as someone who has studied both Planned Parenthood and pregnancy resource centers, could you give our listeners your best estimate for what Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer dollars are funding at a Planned Parenthood Center?
20:59: Well, a lot of the taxpayer dollars that Planned Parenthood brings in are supposed to be for family planning, but we know that money is fungible and that if taxpayer dollars prop up part of Planned Parenthood’s budget, that just gives them the bandwidth to focus on what’s really important to them.
21:17: And it’s become so clear from their annual reports, from stories like the one that was just published in the New York Times.
21:24: Abortion is their priority.
21:26: That’s what’s important to them.
21:28: Their income has gone up and their abortion rate has gone up, even as other services have gone down, even as their patient volumes have gone down, they’ve done more and more abortions.
21:39: And so it’s clear to see that.
21:42: When it comes to the heart of the matter, abortion is what Planned Parenthood really cares about.
21:48: Wow, that is such a striking way to end our episode today, Tessa, and I want to just say thank you so much for joining us here today.
21:57: You are such a wealth of knowledge from all of your experience at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, and I know our listeners are really going to look forward to hearing what you have to say because it’s so important that these facts, these statistics get out there in an age where It’s so easy for Planned Parenthood to use more emotional messaging tactics for women, and so it’s just important that they are made aware, well aware of the facts of what Planned Parenthood actually does and what Planned Parenthood actually cares about.
22:29: So Tessa, thank you so much for joining us today.
22:33: Thank you so much for having me on.