Response to Planned Parenthood's Sarah Scranton

The following letter was submitted to the Lansing State Journal in response to a recent editorial by Sarah Scranton, the executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan.

In a recent editorial Planned Parenthood's Sarah Scranton writes, "Reducing the need for abortion is a goal we can all support." Scranton also claims 90% of Planned Parenthood services are preventative.

While Planned Parenthood claims abortion makes up a small percent of its services, they typically fail to mention abortions make more than a 1/3 of their clinic income. Planned Parenthood provided 332,278 abortions in 2009. The average abortion costs around $450. That means Planned Parenthood's abortion income was approximately $150,000,000 in 2009. That's no small part of what they do. It's central to who they are. That's why as the number of abortions have decreased in the United States over the past decade, the number of abortions provided by Planned Parenthood has doubled since 1997. That's also why Planned Parenthood has created a "new patient services initiative" which requires every one of their affiliates to provide abortions by 2013.

Planned Parenthood claims abortion is only a small part of what they do but their own internal information tells a much different story.