Contributor: ATTWN Staff
In a breathless story put forth by NBC News, the headline attempts to be eye-catching and heart-wrenching but falls flat:
Cue the hysteria.
When the Trump administration suddenly froze federal funding to more than 100 Planned Parenthood clinics this spring, the organization’s Michigan branch was already deep into hard discussions about its finances.
“The leadership team and our board had been scenario planning for months to try to fill those gaps to see how we could continue providing care,” said Ashlea Phenicie, chief external affairs officer of Planned Parenthood of Michigan.
The only option was clear. Michigan’s 14 Planned Parenthood clinics serve tens of thousands of women. In order to save clinics around the state that were either busier or in places where women had few other options, the team would have to close multiple clinics, including the only one in the state’s Upper Peninsula, a large, isolated and mostly rural area surrounded by a stretch of Lake Michigan.
“If NBC had their research for half a second, they would have found that there are 300 Community Health Centers in Michigan where women could go to receive actual healthcare, including several on the Upper Peninsula where several Rural Health Clinics are located,” said Abby Johnson, former Planned Parenthood director and founder of And Then There Were None. “Women have options, and they deserve so much better than Planned Parenthood.”
President Trump froze a small part of federal funding to Planned Parenthood clinics because of their relentless promotion of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in violation of federal civil rights laws.
The Facts
According to Planned Parenthood’s annual reports, they only increased the number of patients they saw last year by 1%, while the overall number has dropped 23% since 2013. Also, since 2013, actual non-abortion healthcare numbers have plummeted: total cancer screening and prevention services have fallen by 54%, including a decrease of 61% for breast exams and a decline of 54% for pap tests. Prenatal services are also down 63%.
Meanwhile, the number of abortions has increased by 23% and taxpayer dollars by 50% since 2013.1
“Planned Parenthood’s only goal is to make money, and they do that through abortion and taxpayer funding,” said former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson. “They have abortion quotas that each clinic must meet every year while the national Planned Parenthood Federation of America rakes in cash and spends the vast majority on attorneys to increase ‘access’ to abortion.”
Community Health Centers
To answer NBC’s question, the people who went to Planned Parenthood for actual healthcare and not abortions can go to Community Health Centers, which outnumber Planned Parenthood’s 15 to 1.2
These health centers serve vastly more patients than Planned Parenthood and offer many more healthcare services in addition to women’s health services. In 2023 alone, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FHQCs) served about 1 in 10 Americans, and Rural Health Centers (RHCs) served 60% of America’s rural population.
The Charlotte Lozier Institute has a handy map of where to find these health centers, which also shows just how outnumbered Planned Parenthood actually is and how many choices women do have when it comes to receiving legitimate healthcare.
“The fact that NBC News deems it a news story to ask the dumbest question possible about Planned Parenthood is just ridiculous,” said Abby Johnson. “Why not speak to former Planned Parenthood workers and ask them what a typical day of ‘healthcare’ looked like? Why not pour over the state inspection reports of abortion clinics that show just how filthy and disgusting these clinics are? Why not be actual journalists and ask questions that matter like why Planned Parenthood had an excess revenue of more than $27 million last year yet clinics are closing all over the country?”
Are You an Abortion Worker?
If you work for Planned Parenthood or any abortion clinic and are disheartened by what you see and are required to do for your work, And Then There Were None (ATTWN) can help. No one grows up wanting to work in an abortion clinic. ATTWN has helped more than 750 abortion workers leave their clinics, find healing, and join a tribe of women (and some men) who understand exactly where they are coming from, have the same experiences, and have dealt with all the same challenges that only abortion clinic workers face.
Call or text 888.570.5501 to get started on the path to freedom.