Planned Parenthood - Misplaced Pages

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Revision as of 09:22, 3 February 2011 by Haymaker (talk | contribs) (many things, restored controversy section)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) This article is about Planned Parenthood Federation of America. For the international organization, see International Planned Parenthood Federation.

File:Logo plannedparenthood.png
Operates in the USA
Abbreviation	PPFA
Formation	1916
Legal status	Federation
Purpose	Reproductive Health
Location	820 locations
Region served	United States
Membership	85 independent affiliates
President	Cecile Richards
Affiliations	International Planned Parenthood Federation
Budget	$1,038.1 million
Website	Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), commonly shortened to Planned Parenthood, is the U.S. affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and one of its larger members. PPFA provides reproductive health and maternal and child health services. Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Inc. (PPAF) is a related organization that lobbies the U.S. political system for pro-choice legislation, comprehensive sex education, and access to affordable health care.

The organization has its roots in Brooklyn, New York where Margaret Sanger opened the country's first birth control clinic. Sanger founded the American Birth Control League in 1921, which changed its name to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. in 1942. Since then, it has grown to 850 clinic locations in the United States, with a total budget of approximately US$1 billion, and provides an array of services to over three million people. It is the largest provider of surgical abortions in the United States.

History and organization

Planned Parenthood traces its origins to 1916 when Margaret Sanger opened the first American birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York. The organization began as the American Birth Control League and was incorporated in 1923. The League was influential with laws concerning birth control throughout the 1920s and 1930s. In 1942 the League was reorganized as Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc.

Faye Wattleton was president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America from 1978 to 1992, the longest term in the organization's history since Sanger. During her term in office, the organization expanded considerably and became publicly focused on working for women.

On February 15, 2006, Cecile Richards became president of the organization.

Facilities and funding

PPFA is a federation of 86 independent Planned Parenthood affiliates around the United States. These affiliates together operate 825 locations, offering a variety of information and procedures to more than three million people, including: contraceptives (birth control); emergency contraception; screening for breast, cervical and testicular cancers; pregnancy testing and pregnancy options counseling; testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases; comprehensive sexuality education, menopause treatments; vasectomies, tubal ligations, and abortion. Not all procedures are available at all locations.

The largest of these facilities, a $26 million, 78,000-square-foot (7,200 m) structure was completed in Houston, Texas in May 2010. This serves as a headquarters for 12 clinics in Texas and Louisiana.

Planned Parenthood describes itself as "the nation's leading sexual and reproductive health care advocate and provider." In 2008, contraception constituted 35% of total services, STI/STD testing and treatment constituted 34%, cancer testing and screening constituted 17%; other women's health procedures, including pregnancy, prenatal, midlife, and infertility were 10%, and 3% of total procedures involved surgical and medical abortions. Planned Parenthood affiliates performed 305,310 medical and surgical abortions in 2007, compared to 289,750 in 2006.

Planned Parenthood receives about a third of its money in government grants and contracts ($349.6 million in the 2008 fiscal year). In the 2007–08 Annual Report, clinic income totalled $374.7 million and miscellaneous operating revenues $68.9 million. Planned Parenthood is also heavily sponsored by private individuals, with over 700,000 active individual contributors. Large donors such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation contribute a substantial part of the organization's budget. Pro-life groups have long advocated the boycott of these private organizations.

Some pro-life organizations have lobbied federal lawmakers to halt government funding for Planned Parenthood.

Stand on political and legal issues

Planned Parenthood and its predecessor organizations have provided and advocated for access to birth control. The modern organization of Planned Parenthood America is also an advocate for reproductive rights, principally the right to abortion. This advocacy includes contributing to sponsorship of abortion rights and women's rights events and assisting in the testing of new contraceptives. The group opposes restrictions on abortion, including, laws requiring parental consent or notification for girls under the age of 18 (or 17 in some states) to have an abortion, requiring an ultrasound before abortion (many Planned Parenthood clinics perform, but do not require, ultrasounds), laws that necessitate a waiting period (ranging from a couple of hours to a day or more) and bans on late-term abortions including partial-birth abortion, which is now illegal in the United States.

Planned Parenthood argues for the wide availability of emergency contraception (EC) measures, and opposes refusal clauses (also called conscience clauses) which would allow pharmacists to refuse to dispense contraceptives if doing so would conflict with their religious or personal beliefs. Planned Parenthood has also been critical of hospitals that they claim obstruct access to EC for rape victims. Planned Parenthood supports and provides FDA-approved abortifacients such as mifepristone.

Planned Parenthood also opposes abstinence-only education in public schools. Instead, Planned Parenthood favors (and offers) comprehensive sex education, which includes discussion of both abstinence and birth control.

Controversy and criticism

Pro-life groups have accused Planned Parenthood of failing to report potential cases of statutory rape, or following parental notification laws in some states. Although a 2005 federal inspection by the Bush administration's Department of Health and Human Services "yielded no evidence of clinics around the nation failing to comply with laws on reporting child abuse, child molestation, sexual abuse, rape or incest", some pro-life activists have carried our their own investigations to attempt to substantiate their claims:

In 2002 an elaborate sting conducted by an antiabortion group from Denton, Texas hired a pro-life activist to pose as a 13-year-old impregnated by her 22-year-old boyfriend, calling over 800 clinics requesting an abortion. The Texas group claimed over 90% of the clinics agreed to her request not to report the boyfriend to the police for statutory rape. Subsequent law enforcement investigations found that Planned Parenthood had broken no laws, but the Texas group may have broken laws related to secretly recording phone calls.

In December 2008, Planned Parenthood suspended a nurse after Live Action Films, a UCLA pro-life student organization, released an undercover investigative video showing the nurse at an Indiana Planned Parenthood clinic encouraging a young woman, who was posing as a 13-year old girl impregnated by a 31-year old man, to lie about the age of her partner to avoid reporting statutory rape under Indiana law.

In 2007, The Advocate magazine (not The Advocate), which is run by Live Action Films, called Planned Parenthood offices in several states, offering to make donations if the money can be earmarked to abort black women's babies. The calls included one in July 2007 to Planned Parenthood of Idaho offering a donation if it could be earmarked for abortions for black women because, "the less black kids out there the better." Answering the phone call, the state organization's vice president of development and marketing said, "Understandable, understandable" and continued, "Excuse my hesitation, this is the first time I've had a donor call and make this kind of request, so I'm excited and want to make sure I don't leave anything out." Planned Parenthood of Idaho's CEO later issued a statement saying that the officer "violated the organization's principles and practices" and was suspended. Planned Parenthood's mission specifically prohibits racial discrimination.

The Focus on Planned Parenthood newsletter stated, "Most of the Planned Parenthood employees who took these calls quickly ended the conversation," those who did not hang up had a "serious lack of judgement," and to remedy this "our national federation has put forth a Donation Acceptance Policy" but that policies already in place made it impossible for the two employees in this case to have actually earmarked the money for a woman of any specific race(s), even if the caller posing as a racist actually had finalized and sent the pledged donation. They added that the "entrapment" involved "a 30-minute conversation...edited down to about three minutes" where the conversation started about a normal non-racial donation but the caller later indicated the racist intent for the donation. The editor of The Advocate stated that Planned Parenthood of Idaho and the six other states were selected, in part, for having laws that allow single party approval of taped telephone conversations.

Planned Parenthood has been criticised for withholding court-subpoenaed medical records of patients. Planned Parenthood defended its refusal on the grounds of medical privacy. In a case in Indiana, Planned Parenthood was not required to turn over the records. In Kansas, redacted copies of the records were turned over pursuant to stringent court-ordered protections. In October 2005, Planned Parenthood Minnesota/North Dakota/South Dakota was fined $50,000 for violation of a Minnesota state parental consent law.

In 2004 a Kansas-based Planned Parenthood clinic was investigated by Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, of violating late-term abortion and statutory rape notification laws. Following a three year investigation, Kline's successor, Kansas Attorney General Paul Morrison notified a Planned Parenthood clinic that no criminal charges would be filed. He said "an objective, unbiased and thorough examination" showed no wrongdoing. Morrison also commented that he believed Kline had politicized the attorney general's office.

In the US Supreme Court

Planned Parenthood regional chapters have been active in the American courts. A number of cases in which Planned Parenthood has been a party have reached the US Supreme Court. Notable among these cases is the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the case that sets forth the current constitutional abortion standard. In this case, "Planned Parenthood" was the Southeast Pennsylvania Chapter, and "Casey" was Robert Casey, a pro-life Democratic governor of Pennsylvania. The ultimate ruling was split, and Roe v. Wade was narrowed but upheld in an opinion written by Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony Kennedy, and David Souter, with Harry Blackmun and John Paul Stevens concurring with the main decision in separately written opinions. The Supreme Court struck down spousal consent requirements for married women to obtain abortions, but found no "undue burden" from the other statutory requirements. Dissenting were William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Byron White. Blackmun, Rehnquist, and White were the only justices who voted on the original Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 who were still on the High Court to rule on this case, and their votes on this case were consistent with their votes on the original decision that legalized abortion. Only Blackmun voted to maintain Roe v. Wade in its entirety.

Other related cases include:

Planned Parenthood of Central Missouri v. Danforth (1976). This was a constitutionality challenge by Planned Parenthood to a Missouri law encompassing parental consent, spousal consent, clinic bookkeeping and allowed abortion methods. Portions of the challenged law were held to be constitutional, others not.
Planned Parenthood Association of Kansas City v. Ashcroft (1983). This was a constitutionality challenge by Planned Parenthood to a Missouri law encompassing parental consent, clinic record keeping, and hospitalization requirements. Most of the challenged law was held to be constitutional.
Planned Parenthood v. ACLA (2001). The American Coalition of Life Activists (ACLA) released a flier and “Wanted” posters with complete personal information about doctors who performed abortions. Through the release of the information, the ACLA promoted controversy and called people to action. A civil jury and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals both found that the material was indeed "true threats" and not protected speech.
Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood Federation of America (2003). This case was over the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. Planned Parenthood argued the act was unconstitutional because it violated the Fifth Amendment.
Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (2006). This relates to a constitutionality challenge by Planned Parenthood et al. of a 2003 New Hampshire parental notification law related to access to abortion. In Sandra Day O'Connor's final decision before retirement, the Supreme Court sent the case back to lower courts with instructions to seek a remedy short of wholesale invalidation of the statute. New Hampshire ended up repealing the statute via the legislative process.