What Percentages Of Services At Planned Parenthood Are Abortions?

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee supports the federal government cutting off more than $500 million to Planned Parenthood, calling the organisation "an manufacture of ballgame" in a recent Fox Concern Channel interview.

His interviewer, Play a trick on Business reporter Sandra Smith, did not disagree — and she offered numbers to support her signal.

"Almost 95 percent of all their pregnancy services were abortions," Smith said equally she guest-hosted Mornings with Maria on July 28, 2015.

We wanted to know if the percentage of abortions was really that high.

Nosotros reached out to Smith for comment merely did not hear back.

'Pregnancy services'

Viewers may miss that Smith's statement refers only to "pregnancy services." Past choosing those words, she is likely referencing a fact sheet by the Susan B. Anthony List, a political action committee that opposes ballgame and supports anti-abortion candidates.

The Susan B. Anthony Listing's numbers derive from Planned Parenthood's 2013-14 annual study.

The first caveat to know is that Planned Parenthood does non have a category for "pregnancy services." That'south a category the Susan B. Anthony Listing created, and the background reasoning has been the same equally similarly misleading claims over the years.

On the fact canvass, "pregnancy services" are broken down into 3 categories: abortions, prenatal intendance and adoption referrals. Susan B. Anthony List spokeswoman Mallory Quigley said these are the three ways a woman can respond to a pregnancy.

With that in listen, here's the section from Planned Parenthood'southward annual report that contains those categories.

2015-08-04 12_09_39-Greenshot.png

To arrive at the Susan B. Anthony List figure, you have to tease out specific elements from the chart: prenatal services (18,684), adoption referrals (i,880) and abortions (327,653). Abortions business relationship for 94 pct of the sum of these subcategories.

For several reasons, that's a misleading way to analyze the data.

Referrals for prenatal intendance not in equation

Non all of Planned Parenthood approximately 700 clinics offer prenatal services because prenatal care is not Planned Parenthood's focus. As a result, many pregnant women are referred to outside obstetricians or other wellness providers for prenatal care.

How many? It's impossible to know.

Planned Parenthood does non record how many pregnant patients are referred to outside health care providers,said Elizabeth Clark, a Planned Parenthood spokeswoman.

If referrals were included, the 95 percent figure would likely modify, though we can't say by how much — and neither tin Smith nor the Susan B. Anthony List.

The balance of the story

Planned Parenthood does non specifically track of the number of significant women who come up into clinics for other reasons. And many of Planned Parenthood's services are not related to prenatal care, abortion or adoption.

Testing and treatment for sexually transmitted disease and infection, both for men and women, accounts for the largest share of services provided by Planned Parenthood at more than iv.47 1000000.

Contraception, which includes birth control, emergency contraception kits, and sterilization and vasectomy procedures, accounts for more than three.58 million services. Different types of cancer screening and prevention, including chest exams, account for 935,573 services.

As show on the nautical chart to a higher place, there were also more than 1.1 million pregnancy tests, 47,2000 urinary tract infection treatments, or 65,500 "family practice services."

Over the course of 2013-14, Planned Parenthood performed more than than 10.5 million services. Sometimes patients are double-counted considering they receive multiple services. Put another style. Planned Parenthood clinics saw 2.seven million individual patients that twelvemonth.

Of all services, abortions business relationship for 3 percentage of services performed, said Erica Sackin, a Planned Parenthood spokeswoman, pointing to page 18 of the report.

Simply looking at the share of abortions per patient (and assuming one process per patient), the effigy rises to 12 percent.

Some critics take taken result with Planned Parenthood's measurement of "services." Performing an ballgame is more than involved than administering pregnancy tests or giving someone a contraception kit, for example. The share of abortions might be different if cost or hours of services were used. (However, that data is not in the 2013-xiv almanac report.)

Our ruling

Smith said, "Almost 95 percent of all (Planned Parenthood's) pregnancy services were abortions."

An anti-abortion group puts the figure at 94 percentage using a ruby-picked method that ignores the bulk of Planned Parenthood'due south services, which aim to prevent pregnancies. The group describes "pregnancy services" every bit counting what Planned Parenthood does for women once they are already pregnant.

But Planned Parenthood does not fully runway this number, making the claim a leap of logic based on bereft information. What's most noticeably missing amidst the number of Planned Parenthood services used past pregnant women are the number of pregnancy referrals.

Planned Parenthood says it doesn't keep records of how many pregnant women are referred to outside healthcare providers. Without that information, we don't know an accurate percentage of "pregnancy services" that were abortions. Neither, however, does Smith.

We rate the claim False.

UPDATE: After this fact-check published, an official with Planned Parenthood contacted us and said that she was not authorized to speak on the tape. A spokeswoman who is authorized to speak on the record, Elizabeth Clark, then provided united states the same data. Nosotros've updated this fact-check to include her comments.