Planned Parenthood Propaganda: Debunking the 3% Myth

Planned Parenthood and its supporters love to tout the “Abortions are only 3% of what they do” myth.  You only need a simple understanding of math to know that this is blatant propaganda. 

First of all, Planned Parenthood sees about 2.3 million people annually (men, pregnant women, and non-pregnant women).  They perform about 330,000 abortions annually.  Just looking at this figure, we already know that 14% of their clientele receive abortions. 

But keep in mind, not all of their clientele is female, and not all of their female clientele is pregnant.  So let’s just pretend (since we don’t know this figure) that 500,000 of their clientele consists of pregnant women.  With this figure, 66% of their pregnant clientele receive abortions.  There is of course a chance that the amount of pregnant women going to Planned Parenthood is right around 330,000…..  We don’t know the amount of pregnant women they see annually.

Here’s a quick example of misleading math, and the root of the 3% propaganda figure:

Let’s just say that an abortion clinic sees 100 people per year. 

70 of those people are men and non-pregnant women.

30 of those people are pregnant women.   

Each of those 30 pregnant women receives 10 services each in relation to getting an abortion (doctor’s visit, pregnancy test, consultation, abortion, follow-up, etc.).  So 30 abortions is considered 300 services.

The other 70 people receive 10 services each (birth control, STD tests, other tests, doctor’s visits, etc.).  The amount of services for those 70 people equals 700. 

So with this example, this abortion clinic sees 100 people per year.  They do 1,000 services per year.  Among those services are 30 abortions.  So they can say that 3% of their services are abortions, even though in this example, 30% of their clientele (100% of their pregnant clientele) got abortions….

Propaganda for this clinic will proudly proclaim that abortions are only 3% of what they do.  And a willingly ignorant public eats it up.  But when you look at the actual numbers in this example, you understand the truth.  This abortion clinic isn’t performing abortions for 3 people, as they lead an ignorant public to believe.  They are performing abortions for 30 people (100% of their pregnant clientele).  That’s a huge distortion that most Americans don’t get.

Best analogies I’ve heard on Planned Parenthood's distortion of numbers, from Rich Lowry:

"The sponsors of the New York City Marathon could count each small cup of water they hand out (some 2 million cups, compared with 45,000 runners) and say they are mainly in the hydration business.

Or Major League Baseball teams could say that they sell about 20 million hot dogs and play 2,430 games in a season, so baseball is only .012 percent of what they do."

But with profits around $60 million annually, why would a tax-payer funded organization want to run around saying that they kill 66% of their pregnant clientele’s babies?  That doesn’t sound very appealing.  However, with the lack of any national response to the recent undercover videos, I doubt the American public would bat an eye with Planned Parenthood’s real statistics.  In fact, our morally depraved society would probably prefer something closer to the 66% figure.  

Planned Parenthood should just scream from the rooftops their real statistics, as well as admit they sell baby parts for profit.  In doing so, they would receive a pat on the back from the Liberal left, and a "God bless Planned Parenthood" from our current President.