The New York Times recently published a disconcerting report on the state of Planned Parenthood, America's leading abortion provider.
The report, titled "Botched Care and Tired Staff: Planned Parenthood in Crisis," paints a grim picture of the organization's current situation. The report begins with a chilling account of a botched abortion that resulted in a woman giving birth in an emergency room three months after the procedure, only for the baby to die shortly after.
The Times, however, did not delve into the specifics of why the woman went into labor at five months, leaving readers to infer that the premature labor was a consequence of the botched abortion.
According to the New York Times, this incident is not an isolated case but one of many instances of subpar care at Planned Parenthood. The report attributes these issues to outdated equipment and inadequately trained staff. In one case settled in California last year, a woman accused the organization of improperly implanting a birth control device in her arm, resulting in nerve damage. In another shocking incident in Nebraska in 2022, a clinician failed to realize that a woman was four months pregnant when she inserted an IUD. The patient was later rushed to an emergency room where she gave birth to a stillborn fetus.
The report also highlighted unsanitary conditions at a clinic in Omaha, where sewage from a backed-up toilet seeped into the abortion recovery room for two days. Staff salaries are so low that many qualify for Medicaid and federal food assistance, and turnover rates are alarmingly high, with many clinics experiencing a 50% turnover rate annually. This has led to a situation where clinic workers are learning from inexperienced peers, further compromising the quality of care.
The root of these issues, as reported by the New York Times, is financial. Planned Parenthood has fewer clinics and significantly fewer patients than it did in the past, and federal funding continues to dwindle. Patient counts have dropped from a peak of five million and 900 clinics in the 1990s to 2.1 million patients and 600 clinics today.
Clinics primarily rely on Medicaid payments for non-abortion procedures and donations, but government reimbursements have seen sharp reductions. Arkansas, Missouri, and Texas have blocked Planned Parenthood clinics from receiving Medicaid payments, a crucial source of revenue, and a pending Supreme Court case could allow other states to follow suit.
The financial struggles extend beyond Planned Parenthood. Amy Hagstrom Miller, the CEO of Whole Womans Health, which operates six clinics in four states, revealed that only two of her clinics were currently profitable.
The cost of late-term abortions is so high that Planned Parenthood of New York had to stop offering them, despite New York having the most liberal abortion laws in the country. This decision is a clear indication of the financial struggles faced by Planned Parenthoods New York chapter, which also plans to close four clinics around the state.
Despite these financial struggles and the substandard care, Planned Parenthood continues to make substantial political donations, almost exclusively (99.85%) to Democrats. This pattern suggests that the organization prioritizes its role as a Democratic fundraiser over its role as a healthcare provider.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Planned Parenthood has seen a fundraising boom, with $498 million in donations that year. However, little of this money goes to state affiliates to provide healthcare at clinics. Instead, the majority of the funds are spent on legal and political efforts to maintain abortion rights.
Over the last five years, the national office has distributed more than $899 million to affiliates to help them deliver care, but none of it went directly to medical services. Much of the national funding to affiliates went to legal support, public campaigns to expand abortion access, and subsidies for patient navigators who help patients access abortions.
This report paints a bleak picture of Planned Parenthood's current state, with the organization facing financial difficulties even as it continues to spend heavily on lobbying and propaganda. Once boasting a patient count of 5 million, the organization now struggles to maintain a patient base of 2 million. This decline, coupled with the reported substandard care, raises serious questions about the future of Planned Parenthood.
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