(CNSNews.com) -- A report released in January by the American Life League (ALL), a pro-life organization, revealed that while Planned Parenthood currently operates more than half of all free-standing abortion facilities in the United States, the abortion giant’s clinic numbers are “dwindling” at a “rapid pace.”
Based on data collected in December 2018, Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, operates 51.5 percent of abortion facilities in the United States.
Yet despite its status as the country’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood is “closing its facilities at a rapid pace,” according to ALL.
In 1995, Planned Parenthood had 938 medical facilities. By 2006, that number had dwindled to 859, and by the end of 2018, it had fallen sharply to 590. As ALL noted, the organization closed a net 348 facilities between 1995 and 2018, or 37 percent of its facilities.
In 2018 alone, Planned Parenthood, which frequently uses the slogan, “these doors stay open,” closed 11 medical facilities and opened only three new ones. Among the closures were seven facilities that performed surgical abortions.
ALL pointed out that “Planned Parenthood has tried to offset this loss of facilities by opening larger and more upscale buildings to attract new customers and accommodate those people who went to its now-closed facilities.”
This approach “is not working,” according to ALL, which noted that the organization’s customer base dropped by 23.6 percent (740,500 customers) from 2006 through 2016.
Planned Parenthood has also tried to market itself as a “health care” organization, even appointing a medical doctor as its new president. A Buzzfeed article suggested last month that Planned Parenthood wanted to “focus on non-abortion health care” – though Parenthood President Leana Wen quickly asserted that abortion access is still the organization’s “core mission.”
ALL reported that despite its emphasis on abortion, Planned Parenthood “has struggled to even maintain its abortion numbers,” and currently performs 1,207 fewer abortions than it did in 2011. According to ALL, an estimated 51,852 babies “will be saved yearly” from abortion because of the net 348 Planned Parenthood clinic closures since 1995.
In addition to Planned Parenthood’s closures, independent abortion clinics, which collectively perform about 60 percent of abortions in the United States, are closing at an “unprecedented rate,” according to a November 2018 report by the pro-choice Abortion Care Network (ACN).
ACN reported that, from 2012 to 2018, the number of independent abortion clinics decreased from 510 to 370, a nearly 28 percent reduction.
ALL collected data for the report over a 30-day period, ending Dec. 15, 2018, from Planned Parenthood’s national website, the websites of its local affiliates, and individuals and organizations throughout the United States.