Understanding Our Opposition; 2003-04 Planned Parenthood Annual Report; PPFA Abortions Up Again, Commitment; To Abortion as Strong as Ever.

Editor's note. As pro-lifers anticipate the battles of 2005, it is imperative that we know not only who has an ideological commitment to abortion on demand, but who profits from the deaths of 1.3 million babies each year. That would be Planned Parenthood, which not only performed over 244,000 abortions but whose political arm for the first time endorsed a candidate for President in 2004. When speaking in public, some pro-abortionists try to minimize their advocacy role. Not PPFA, as the following article makes clear.

Thanks to the ongoing work of pro-lifers, the number of abortions is down by 18% since its high point in 1990. But, once again, the number of abortions performed at Planned Parenthood Federation of America clinics has risen, as revealed in PPFA's latest annual report.

Not only that, PPFA is making greater use of chemical abortifacients - - RU486 - - a higher priority in more and more of its clinics. And, without actually naming the ban on partial-birth abortions, PPFA makes much of its role in persuading federal courts to strike down the ban, which was passed last year.

Now approaching a quarter of a million abortions annually, the nation's largest abortion chain accounts for nearly one out of every five abortions performed in the U.S. each year. And there's no indication of any slowdown on the horizon. The latest annual report offers plenty of evidence that abortion remains a prominent business focus and political priority for the organization.

"Clinic Services" in Perspective

According to the 2003-04 Annual Report, there were 244,628 abortions performed at Planned Parenthood clinics in 2003.1 This represented an increase of over 14,000, or about 6.1% above the previous all-time high of 230,640 reported in 2002.

Planned Parenthood gives no indication of any adoptions being handled by its "health centers," but does show a drop in "adoption referrals to other agencies" from 1,963 to 1,774. Comparatively speaking, there were about 138 abortions for every one adoption referral at Planned Parenthood clinics.