Planned Parenthood: Abortion Rate Up 8,000 in One Year

Planned Parenthood Federation of America's Web site shows that it performed 332,278 abortions in 2009, a 2.5 percent increase.

P>WASHINGTON, DC (CNSNews.com) - According to a fact sheet published in February 2011, Planned Parenthood clinics in 2009 performed 332,278 abortions - up from 324,008 in 2008, or a 2.5 percent increase.

Planned Parenthood also distributed more than 1.5 million emergency contraception kits, which contain hormones that can prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in a women's uterus.

Planned Parenthood received $349.6 million in tax dollars in the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2008, according to its annual report.

Although federal law prohibits direct taxpayer funding of abortion, critics of Planned Parenthood claim the millions of dollars given to the organization (through Title X family planning appropriations) frees up other funds that can be used to perform and promote the procedure.

In 2009, Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) introduced legislation to defund Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers that receive taxpayer money. Last month, Pence offered the legislation as an amendment to a new continuing resolution (CR) that Congress had until March 4 to pass, replacing the CR put in place by the lame duck session after the November mid-term elections.

But Pence's amendment was dropped from the two-week extension of the CR, which Congress passed on Thursday, and even though he voted for the extension, Pence said on the House floor the same day that he would not give up the fight to defund Planned Parenthood and the health care law signed by President Barack Obama last year.

"The time to put our fiscal house in order is now," Pence said. "No more delays. No more kicking the cans. Let's have the debate. Let's hash it out. Let's defund Obamacare. Let's defund Planned Parenthood."

Pro-life advocates have already reacted to the amendment being dropped from the CR and are mounting efforts to make sure it is included in a longer term provision that will be taken up by Congress on March 18.

"The onus is now on the Senate to ensure that Americans are no longer forced to fund the nation's largest abortion provider with their tax dollars," Charmaine Yoest, president of American United for Life Action, said in a statement.

"The Government ought to spend its time and our money funding things that matter to the American people - not subsidizing the abortion industry and funding corrupt organizations like Planned Parenthood," Yoest said.

Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood has mounted a major lobbying campaign in the Senate to fight efforts to strip the organization of its federal funding.

Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richard - who was paid $385,163, plus another $11,876 in benefits and deferred compensation for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008, according to the organization's annual report - has been trying to rally supporters. At a rally on Feb. 28 in New York City, Richard claimed that efforts to defund Planned Parenthood came from "extreme leadership" in the House.

"The extreme leadership in the House of Representatives voted to completely eliminate the nation's family planning program that serves 5 million women every single year," Richards said. "Then they aimed both guns at the largest single provider of women's health care in America, Planned Parenthood, ending our ability to provide lifesaving cancer screenings, birth control, sex education through any federal program.

"The House of Representatives has declared a war on women's health care, and we're here to say not without a fight," Richards said.

According to Planned Parenthood's fact sheet, one number did go down in 2009. The number of adoptions for 2008 numbered 2,405, with only 977 adoption referrals made in 2009.

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