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Planned Parenthood

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Revision as of 17:35, 14 February 2011 by Haymaker (talk | contribs) (I can't fathom how that would be undue)(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
AbbreviationPPFA
Formation1916
Legal statusFederation
PurposeReproductive Health
Location
  • 820 locations
Region served United States
Membership85 independent affiliates
PresidentCecile Richards
AffiliationsInternational Planned Parenthood Federation
Budget$1.038 billion
WebsitePlanned 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 have over 820 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 abortions in the United States.

History

The factual accuracy of part of this article is disputed. The dispute is about summarization of details in the early history and organizations involved and their notability. Please help to ensure that disputed statements are reliably sourced. See the relevant discussion on the talk page. (February 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Margaret Sanger, the first president and founder of Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood headquarters on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C.

Planned Parenthood originated in 1916 when Margaret Sanger, already a nationally known birth control advocate, and associates opened the first US birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York. It resulted in her being jailed. In 1938, the clinic was organized into the American Birth Control League, which became part of the only national birth control organization in the US until the 1960s. By 1941, the organization was operating 222 centers and had served 49,000 clients. By 1942 the League had become part of what became the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. It has since become the world's largest organization of its kind.

By 1960, the Federation's grassroots volunteers had provided family planning counseling in hundreds of communities across the country. Planned Parenthood was one of the founding members of the International Planned Parenthood Federation when it was launched at a conference in Bombay, India in 1952.

Following Sanger, Alan Guttmacher became president of Planned Parenthood and served from 1962 till 1974. During his tenure, the Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of the original birth control pill, giving rise to new attitudes towards women's reproductive freedom. Also during his presidency, Planned Parenthood convinced the federal government to fund domestic and international family planning programs. The Center for Family Planning Program Development was also founded as a semi-autonomous division during this time. The center later became an independent organization and was renamed the Guttmacher Institute in 1977.

Faye Wattleton was named president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1978 and served till 1992. She was the first African-American to serve as president, the youngest president ever in its history and the first woman named to the Presidency. During her term, Planned Parenthood grew to become the seventh largest charity in the country, providing services to four million clients each year through its 170 affiliates whose activities were spread across 50 states.

Planned Parenthood President Gloria Feldt with pro-choice congressman Albert Wynn in front of the US Supreme Court

From 1996 to 2006, Planned Parenthood was led by Gloria Feldt. Feldt activated the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the organization's political action committee, launching what was the most far reaching electoral advocacy effort in its history. She also launched the Responsible Choices Action Agenda, a nationwide campaign to increase services to prevent unwanted pregnancies, improve quality of reproductive care and ensure access to safe and legal abortions. Another initiative was the commencement of a "Global Partnership Program" with the aim of building a vibrant activist constituency in support of family planning.

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

Margaret Sanger Awards

In 1966, PPFA began awarding the Margaret Sanger Award annually to honor, in their words, "individuals of distinction in recognition of excellence and leadership in furthering reproductive health and reproductive rights." In the first year, it was awarded to four men, Carl G. Hartman, William H. Draper, Lyndon Baines Johnson, and Martin Luther King. Later recipients have included John D. Rockefeller III, Alan Frank Guttmacher, Jane Fonda, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Ted Turner,.

Services and facilities

PPFA is a federation of 85 independent Planned Parenthood affiliates around the United States. These affiliates together operate more than 820 health centers, offering a variety of information and procedures to about three million people, in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Together, they constitute the largest family planning provider in the United States and are also the largest provider of surgical abortions.

Services provided at locations include 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.

Location in Houston, Texas

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%; and other women's health procedures, including pregnancy, prenatal, midlife, and infertility were 10%. Planned Parenthood affiliates performed 305,310 medical and surgical abortions in 2007, compared to 289,750 in 2006, yet abortions amounted to a mere 3% of services they provided.

Funding

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 funded by private donors, with a membership base of over 700,000 active donors. A coalition of national and local pro-life groups have lobbied the federal government to stop funding Planned Parenthood. By law, Planned Parenthood cannot allocate any of the federal funding for abortions.

Large donors also contribute a substantial portion of the organization's budget. Donors have included the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Buffett Foundation, Ford Foundation, Ted Turner Foundation, the Cullmans and others. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's contributions to the organization have been specifically marked to avoid funding abortions. Others, such as the Buffett Foundation have donated millions to Planned Parenthood, some of it specifically marked for abortion services. The Christian Action Council, STOPP International, and Life Decisions International have advocated the boycott of donors to 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, including 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 illegal in the United States.

Planned Parenthood argues for the wide availability of emergency contraception (EC) measures. It opposes refusal clauses, which allow pharmacists to refuse to dispense drugs against their beliefs. In support of their position, they have cited cases where pharmacists have refused to fill life saving drugs under the laws. Planned Parenthood has also been critical of hospitals that do not provide access to EC for rape victims. Planned Parenthood supports and provides FDA-approved abortifacients such as mifepristone.

Citing the need for medically accurate information in sex education, Planned Parenthood opposes abstinence-only education in public schools. Instead, Planned Parenthood is a provider of, and endorses, comprehensive sex education, which includes discussion of both abstinence and birth control.

In the US Supreme Court

File:Planned Parenthood Fan Page Profile Photo.jpg
A Planned Parenthood supporter participates in a vigil outside 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. Harry Blackmun and John Paul Stevens concurred 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. 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 (2003). In this case, Planned Parenthood sued Attorney General Gonzales for an injunction again the enforcement of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. Planned Parenthood argued the act was unconstitutional because it violated the Fifth Amendment, namely in that it was overly vague, violated women's constitutional right to have access to abortion, and did not include language for exceptions for the health of the mother. Both the district court and the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit agreed.
  • 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.
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2008)

Controversy and criticism

Actions by Pro-life activists

Planned Parenthood supporters in Columbus, OH

A few pro-life organizations have carried out actions against Planned Parenthood in attempts to substantiate claims that Planned Parenthood did not follow applicable local laws. The groups typically call or visit a Planned Parenthood health center with varying acts: sometimes posing as victims of statutory rape, minors who would need parental notification for abortion, racists seeking to earmark donations for abortions for black women, or pimps who want abortions for child prostitutes. The dialogs are recorded and edited to show an employee being seemingly sympathetic to a potentially criminal act leading to allegations that the health center is violating the law. However, none of these stings have led to criminal conviction. Furthermore, a 2005 federal inspection by the pro-life 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."

A Salon.com editorial criticized one such action as a "James O'Keefe-style 'sting' in which deceptively edited Internet videos would prove that some organization dedicated to providing services to the poor or otherwise non-privileged was in fact engaged in high crimes and conspiracy against freedom." These videos have been referred to as "hoaxes" perpetuated by "anti-choice groups" "in order to entrap clinic staff."

Planned Parenthood clinics have been the target of multiple instances of anti-abortion violence by pro-life advocates.

Court cases

  • 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 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 Pro-Life Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, regarding violating late-term abortion and statutory rape notification laws. Following a three year investigation, Kline's successor, Attorney General Paul Morrison notified the clinic that no criminal charges would be filed. He said "an objective, unbiased and thorough examination" showed no wrongdoing. Morrison stated that he believed Kline had politicized the attorney general's office.

See also

References

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External links

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