Planned Parenthood and the Birth Control Pill
p.10
By Jim Sedlak, copyright 1994

IN 1986, WE SHOCKED MANY legislators in Dutchess County, New York, by 
handing out a flier claiming that Planned Parenthood pushes drugs on 
teens. "What drugs?" the legislators asked.

"The birth control pill," we told them.  They looked at us as if we 
were crazy. But we stand by our accusation. As the horrendous effects 
of this prescription drug become better known, and as Planned 
Parenthood continues to give it to our children, it becomes more 
obvious that Planned Parenthood is pushing a very dangerous drug. We 
care too much about women and children to allow Planned Parenthood to 
go unchallenged!

Their love affair with the birth control pill is not hard to 
understand. Planned Parenthood's founder, Margaret Sanger, was 
personally involved in securing money for the research that led to 
development of the Pill. Planned Parenthood has been reaping financial 
dividends from that investment for decades.

Many people fight Planned Parenthood because they see the Planned 
Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) running America's largest chain 
of surgical abortion facilities (approximately 112) and being America's 
largest single provider of surgical abortion (132,000 per year). But 
PPFA has always contended that abortion is not its main business - that 
it performs fewer than 10% of all the abortions in the United States 
and that less than 10% of its income is derived from abortion. What 
else, then, is Planned Parenthood's business?

Besides abortion, the birth control pill is its business. Most Planned 
Parenthood activity involves instruction for, or provision of, means of 
"contraception." (Four of Planned Parenthood's so-called 
"contraceptives" - the Pill, the IUD, Norplant and Depo-Provera - 
sometimes act to prevent the implantation of an already conceived human 
being.)

In 1991, Planned Parenthood reported that 1,813,000 [1] women had 
purchased birth control devices from its 922 clinics around the 
country. 

Of these customers, [2] 83% purchased birth control pills; 9% purchased 
condoms; and 8% purchased other devices.

Birth control pills are sold by the "cycle." A cycle is simply a 
month's supply. Pharmacists for Life did a survey to discover how much 
pharmacies typically charge for a cycle of birth control pills. The 
charges vary by area of the country and by type of pill. Typically, 
pharmacies charge $23 to $26 for a cycle. STOPP (Stop Planned 
Parenthood International) conducted an independent survey of a number 
of PPFA affiliates and found that Planned Parenthood affiliates charge 
$5 to $15 for a cycle of pills. PPFA also charges on a sliding scale so 
that poorer women (and teens) can receive the pills for less (or even 
for free).

As part of its survey, Pharmacists for Life determined that pharmacists 
typically pay drug companies $14 to $17 for a cycle. PPFA, then, sells 
its pills for less than pharmacists are paying to buy them. How can 

PPFA afford to do that?

This question was answered in the October 1991 issue of the newsletter 
of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association.

According to an article in that issue, [3] family planning providers 
around the United States pay an average of $0.38 to $2.40 for a cycle 
of pills, with most pills costing $0.65 to $1.40 per cycle.

The article specifically stated that these figures did not include 
"Planned Parenthood or other non-profit grantees." This implied that 
Planned Parenthood pays less than $1.40 for a cycle of pills that it 
resells for $5 to $15. This would indicate that PPFA receives a 
tremendous profit from the sale of these pills.

To confirm this, we searched through hundreds of Planned Parenthood 
financial statements. Unfortunately, these statements routinely include 
Planned Parenthood's pill business under a general heading of "Clinic 
Income" and "Clinic Expenses." As we kept looking, however, God 
provided us with the proof we needed. Like most nonprofit 
organizations, each PPFA affiliate files a yearly federal Form 990 tax 
return, which gives financial information about the operation of that 
particular affiliate. One Form 990, filed by Planned Parenthood of 
Dutchess-Ulster, Inc., [4] listed its "contraceptive" business 
separately. According to this report, in 1985 Planned Parenthood of 
Dutchess-Ulster, Inc., purchased "contraceptive" supplies for $61,030. 
It sold these for $252,015. In addition, their Form 990 said that this 
Planned Parenthood affiliate had started the year with an inventory of 
$27,214 and ended with an inventory of $26,212. [5] If we add the 
inventory reduction to the cost of the "contraceptives" sold, we find 
that this affiliate of Planned Parenthood made a profit of $189,983 in 
one year from the sale of birth control devices.

A check of their operations showed that Planned Parenthood of 
Dutchess-Ulster, Inc., operates just like other PPFA affiliates, 
offering birth control pills at $5 per cycle (one of the lowest PP 
prices in the country) and also charging on a sliding scale. Yet this 
affiliate made a tremendous profit from birth control sales.

Travelling around the country last year, we tested our findings by 
talking about the profits PP makes from birth control sales. The 
response of a PP affiliate in Springfield, Illinois, was typical. After 
we told reporters about PP's profit on birth control pills, the 
reporters asked the local PP executive director about it; she confirmed 
our statement by saying, "Planned Parenthood makes money by selling 
contraceptives." [6]

With this basic information, we can estimate the total profit Planned 
Parenthood makes from the sale of birth control pills to American 
women.

The latest data from PPFA indicate that they have "almost 1.9 million 
contraceptive clients." [7] We know that 83% of these (1,577,000 women) 
purchase birth control pills. If each of them purchases pills an 
average of six times a year, and pays an average of $9 per cycle, then 
birth control pills represent $85,158,000 in income for PPFA. Using 
what we know of PPFA's costs, we can estimate that birth control pill 
sales give them an annual profit exceeding $64 million.


Not surprisingly, Planned Parenthood is continually seeking ways to 
distribute more birth control pills. During 1992, Planned Parenthood 
launched an effort to change federal law so that birth control pills 
could be dispensed without a prescription. [8] This effort failed when 
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration canceled an advisory pa
nel's plans to discuss the issue. [9] An Associated Press story quoted 
Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, 
as calling the proposal to dispense birth control pills without 
prescriptions "a nitwit idea." "There are enough dangers about the pill 
that it's just unthinkable that it should be dispensed without any 
medical involvement," he said.

In 1993, Planned Parenthood launched a new scheme. This one would allow 
the distribution of the Pill to women (including teens) without a 
medical exam. (For years, manufacturers of pharmaceuticals have 
strongly recommended that physicians take a complete medical and family 
history before prescribing the birth control pill. Physical 
examinations should include special reference to blood pressure, 
breasts, abdomen and pelvic organs.) This time, Planned Parenthood 
succeeded. [10] Health care providers across the United States may now 
prescribe oral contraceptives without first conducting a physical exam 
of their patients. Dr. Michael Policar, PPFA's medical director, said 
that PP sought the change in the law because of widespread concern that 
fear of pelvic exams was preventing many young sexually active women 
(teens) from seeking oral "contraceptives."

Planned Parenthood is a business. Its business is the pushing of drugs 
(the birth control pill) primarily to women and frequently to teens. It 
is making millions from the promiscuous sexual activity of our 
children, which it encourages in its "reality based" sex education 
programs. It is time we stopped this drug pusher's free access to our 
children in our schools and elsewhere.
 
References:

1. PPFA 1992 Service Report, p. 29.

2. PPFA 1991 Service Report, p. 7.

3. NFPRHA News, Vol. 10, No. 3, October-November 1991, p. 8.

4. Federal Form 990, Planned Parenthood of Dutchess-Ulster, Inc., 
Fiscal Year 1985, Part IV, line c, and attached Statement of Functional 
Expenses.

5. Ibid, line 52.

6. The State Journal-Register, Springfield, IL, October 8, 1993, p. 11.

7. 1992 PPFA Annual Report, p. 3.

8. Washington Post, January 26, 1992, article by Virginia Postrel.

9. Associated Press, January 28, 1993, via Executive News Service.

10. ADVANCE for Nurse Practitioners, November, 1993.

Jim Sedlak is the author of Parent Power and the founder of Stop 
Planned Parent-hood International (STOPP), P.O. Box 8, LaGrangeville, 
NY 12540.
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