State Politicians Continue to Interfere in Women's Bodies and Lives

The Washington state House and Senate voted to increase funding for Take Charge Program. The bill will make the state's "Take Charge" family-planning program available to families earning 250 percent or less of the federal poverty level. Currently, it is available only to families earning 200 percent or less of federal poverty levels.
From what we read in the Kitsap Sun article the debate was predictibly banal.

We've said many times on this blog: Get the government out of women's bodies and lives. Quit interfering in their reproductive choices and health.

But no. The busybodies in Olympia and the state's sex planners just can't seem to quit their puritanical chatter about "health" and "safe sex" while demanding more money for their bizarre social experiments. Puritanical because the people running and supporting Planned Parnethood have a fanatical obsession with other people's sex lives and a rigid adherence to making sure everybody has sex within the rules outlined by Planned Parenthood.

No other organization on the planet, not even the usually hoisted strawman of the Catholic Church, is so singularly obsessed with who's sleeping with who, how they are doing it, how many times, where and when. Quite frankly Planned Parenthood has probably ruined the sex lives of most Americans with the mechanization of sex and constant interference discussion by the government, media, and educators, etc.


In their email blasts before the votes PP rolled out a  blackmail threat -- "vote for family planning or the poor get it" -- I hadn't seen that tactic before but it was sure to appeal to dim-witted democrats, Malthusian republicans and cowards of all stripes. "For many families who are barely hanging on, family planning is a lifeline; an unintended pregnancy can result in hunger, homelessness, or worse."  Worse? Are you kidding? Do these people think the poor can eat condoms?

Planned Parenthood to Receive Funding Boost from Bankrupt State of Washington

We've written about and led the charge against the Take Charge "Family Planning" program for years.

It is basically a decade old program which funnels millions of taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood affiliates of Washington in a way that makes everybody say, "Look, we are helping to decrease the need for abortion."

NARAL was the first to celebrate the Olympia House Democrats' new "austerity" budget:

"While there are many steep cuts in critical programs and services, the House budget not only protects family planning funds, it expands eligibility in the Take Charge Medicaid family planning program. This means that more women will be able to access birth control, STD screening and treatment, and other basic medical care."

It's interesting that they were the first to know. Readers will also observe that NARAL exists for one and only one reason: abortions here, abortions there, abortions absolutely everywhere.

This is the actual text from the Washington House Democratic budget summary:

Eligibility for the Take Charge program, which provides family planning services for adults under 200 percent of the federal poverty level, will expand to cover adults under 250 percent of the federal poverty level. Savings are expected from reducing unplanned pregnancies. Approximately 45.6 percent of Washington births are reimbursed through the Medical Assistance program.

If you look at their budget, they are actually booking this as a budget cut of more than $7 million! Yes, we just have to repeat this one. The people who gave us a $5 billion budget deficit increased spending (by $2-3 million) and called it a $7 million cut. Even the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) which administers the program didn't do that when they proposed cutting the program last year to help balance the budget.

As Dan Kennedy from Human Life of Washington pointed out:

"So now we know the priorities of the Olympia Democrats budget. They are writing checks to Planned Parenthood with your money. Apparently subsidizing sexual activity is more important than feeding the poor, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, and caring for the sick. Are these the priorities they should have? You may want to let them know how you feel about it. LEGISLATIVE HOTLINE 1-800-562-6000"

At Governor Gregoire's 2010 Everett townhall, we personally delivered to her and the panel of experts she organized an information sheet on Take Charge with data clearly showing that Take Charge doesn't work. It simply doesn't deliver the promised decrease in costs.

Here's the truth we reported to them:

When the program began, the state was paying out $200 million a year for childbirth services under Medicaid. That figure has shot up 50%, to $300 million under the program.

The state’s primary subcontractor for Take Charge, Planned Parenthood of Western Washington, has seen their annual revenues skyrocket from about $17 million to near $35 million since the program was started. According to Planned Parenthood of Western Washington’s latest Annual Report: “Over the previous 5-year period, approximately 70% of our clinic visits were covered by Take Charge." The state is then left to cover the cost of an abortion or a Medicaid birth.

We also know that PP's abortion numbers have sky-rocketed since Take Charge was initiated. The frightening thing to ponder now is: Will Planned Parenthood and the state start putting more pressure on Medicaid eligible women to abort to make the Take Charge numbers look better?

It's not too late to end this madness. We're calling on the state senate to strip this ideologically-driven, extremist provision in their budget and cut this failed program once and for all.

Well, We Finally Did It

We found somewhere in Washington State law which recognizes the unborn child as a separate and unique person under the law.

As most people know, in America if you are poor and need medical attention, you can apply for the Medicaid program. It turns out that the government not only uses your income to determine if you qualify for the benefits, but also your family size. That makes sense: the same amount of income spread over more children means less money per child.

For example, Washington State's Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) has an online questionnaire here where you can fill out your info and it will tell you if you qualify. Question 2 is about family size, specifically "how many children live with you?". The comments add: "If you are pregnant, please include that unborn child." (emphasis ours)

Gregoire Restores Funding to Planned Parenthood, Cuts Billions Everywhere Else

Confirming once again that the Washington State Governor's Mansion is little more than the Olympia office of Planned Parenthood, Governor Christine Gregoire just decided to preserve the state's "Take Charge" free birth control program.

We have exposed how the program, now in its 10th year, has done almost nothing to reduce the rate of unwanted pregnancies, births to low-income women, or abortions, but has become a massive, multi-million dollar slush fund for Planned Parenthood affiliates of Washington.

As everyone now knows, the state has been facing a budget deficit in the billions, and state legislators have been forced to cut spending on a host of health and education programs, even those which are widely supported, and which help the truly sick and destitute.

The Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) gave Gregoire a list of programs for possible elimination. The Take Charge program was in that list, raising hopes that the scandalous scheme would be eliminated once and for all, and abortion clinics would start closing immediately.

But, alas, Gregoire decided to cut the state's Basic Health Plan, which covers 66,000 otherwise uninsured Washingtonians, rather than cut birth control payments to Planned Parenthood.

She cut the Children’s Health Program, which was helping 27,000 kids. But Planned Parenthood's sacred cow was untouched.

She chose to eliminate Disability Lifeline grants to 28,000 people each month who are temporarily disabled and who can’t work, rather than cut the Planned Parenthood CEO Cadillac plan.

She chose to eliminate the Disability Lifeline Medical Program, but not the Abortion Industry Slush Fund.

Gregoire cuddling former NARAL
director Karen Cooper

She thought it better to reduce in-home Medicaid personal care, which benefits 45,000 people, who will now have to look elsewhere for assistance with bathing, dressing, medication management and other activities. But the Planned Parenthood spendapalooza? Not on your life.

She slashed public education funding in every direction. But free birth control that essentially ends up as millions of dollars in Planned Parenthood's Abortion Clinic Expansion Program was off the table.

You get the idea.

"Take Charge" -- which is exclusive to Washington State, and started in the George W Bush administration -- is an 'experimental' Medicaid program which provides a year's supply of birth control to women who would normally be ineligible for Medicaid because of income at taxpayer's expense.

Most women enrolled in the program get their contraceptives through Planned Parenthood, so it is this organization which ends up getting paid. PP makes huge profits on oral contraceptives sales, and so the program has been a cash cow for them for a decade.

For example, in 1998, Planned Parenthood of Western Washington was pulling in about $5m each year in program revenue. Ten years later, in 2008, that figure had rocketed up to over $25m. In their 2006 annual report, they admitted that fully 70% of their clients the previous 5 years had been Take Charge participants.

PPWW has used these millions in revenue to expand their network of clinics, all of which provide or abortions or at least close the abortion sale.

Defenders of the program argue that all those women on free birth control adds up to fewer unplanned pregnancies, fewer Medicaid-paid births, and fewer abortions. As hard as it may be for contraceptive ideologues to accept this, the numbers are in, and the truth is just the opposite.

In 1999, before the program, Medicaid was paying for 32,000 births each year, at a cost of less than $200 million. Now it's 42,000, at a cost of over $330 million.

Before the program began, Medicaid paid for over 10,000 abortions in Washington. At the program's peak, that figure crossed 14,000, with Planned Parenthood doing an increasing share of those. It's not known how many abortions PPWW was committing back in 1999, but the figure grew from about 6,000 to about 9,000 at one point during the program, due in part to their massive new reach.







State Must Cancel 'Take Charge', End Bogus Birth Control Boondoggle for Planned Parenthood

Readers of this blog know that we were the first to call attention to a little known state Medicaid program called Take Charge, and have worked hard to get it terminated.

So we were thrilled to discover, originally from Planned Parenthood as it turns out, that the the 10-year-old program is on the chopping block. With record budget shortfalls, Olympia is being forced against their will to find programs to cut. And the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) has indicated that all optional Medicaid programs are fair game.

Take Charge is a federally approved exception to standard Medicaid rules exclusive to Washington State. It means about 50,000 low-income women who normally are above the income cutoff for Medicaid can get free birth control for a year courtesy of taxpayers. (When liberals says 'get the government out of my sex life', they only mean when the government is encouraging the formation of new life, it turns out.)

Planned Parenthood: Bad for the Budget Town Hall Budget Meeting in Everett Last Night

I attended the governor's town hall budget meeting in Everett Last Night.

Planned Parenthood send over a bevy of young things in pink t-shirts to adovcate for making sure the government continues to fund pills and contraptions and abortions for the state's youth. The young college student who spoke explained how she needed to make sure she was able to get her pills through Planned Parenthood.

The last time I checked, helping college students have sex wasn't a critical government service.

Pro-lifers were well represented and Ed Mohs of the Everett 40 Days for Life Campaign got on the list to speak.

Several points he made to the governor and her board of advisors and need repeating:
-Abortion is not health care.
-Abortion and contraception do not save money.
-Contraception does not prevent abortion.
-Specifically the state should immediately defund any and all Planned Parenthood family planning programs and cease funding abortions ($7 million) and the transportation to those abortion appointments.

We'd also like to point out that the Take Charge program has been a complete failure. Our expose on this program uncovered the fact that:

When the program began, the state was paying out $200 million a year for childbirth services under Medicaid. That figure has shot up 50%, to $300 million under the program.

The state’s primary subcontractor for Take Charge, Planned Parenthood of Western Washington, has seen their annual revenues skyrocket from about $17 million to near $35 million since the program was started. According to Planned Parenthood of Western Washington’s latest Annual Report, “Over the previous 5-year period, approximately 70% of our clinic visits were covered by Take Charge." The state is then left to cover the cost of an abortion or a Medicaid birth.


It's time to cut-off Planned Parenthood.

Federal law requires that this program be revenue neutral, i.e. the money spent on government provided birth control must be offset by the savings in births avoided. No data or officials responsible for monitoring the program have demonstrated that to be the case with Take Charge.

These costs don’t even take into account the cost of treating sexually transmitted diseases that are promoted through Planned Parenthood’s free-for-all approach to sexuality. Neither does it account for treating the negative side-effects of abortion and contraceptive use such as cancers of the reproductive organs, infertility, ectopic pregnancy, depression and increased drug and alcohol use.

Planned Parenthood only provides testing to diagnose STDs and cancer. They never pay a cent for treating these conditions.

Where will the money come from to treat those problems?



 

DSHS Holds Regular Planning Meetings with Abortion Providers, Divulges Names of Citizen Watchdogs

Would you expect that if you file a request with the state government as to how much an organization is receiving in state funds that the government would disclose your name to the organization in question?

Well, if you're dealing with the Take Charge Family Planning program at the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), that's apparently what you should expect.

In 2008, we submitted a complaint to the Attorney General's office regarding the late-term abortion clinic chain known as Cedar River Clinics. In the response to that complaint, Cedar River director Beverly Whipple indicated that she knew this writer had requested information from DSHS about payments (tax dollars) to her organization.

There is no way Ms. Whipple should have known this.

We had filed a "Public Disclosure" request with DSHS to find out how much money DSHS had given to Cedar River in previous years in the form of Medicaid insurance payments.

(Cedar River Clinics does abortions up to 24 weeks, and even does secret abortions on teenage girls spirited out of other states without their parents' knowledge.)

While there may not be an absolute legal guarantee of privacy in such cases, most would expect that their name wouldn't be passed along to the organization under scrutiny. At least not without some sort of consequence.

We confronted a DSHS official about this. Her answers were woefully inadequate, and mostly incoherent.

One of her arguments was that it was good for organizations receiving government money to know that there are individuals keeping them accountable. She couldn't explain why that required the citizen's actual name from being disclosed.

She then suggested that the name might have been disclosed inadvertently at one of the "regular meetings" that this official, on behalf of DSHS, holds with the state's "family planning" agencies.

These meetings apparently include the Cedar River Clinic abortion chain, and the Planned Parenthood affiliates of Washington, including PP of Central Washington (which does what amount to coerced abortions), and PP of Spokane (which has been illegally overbilling Medicaid for years), and PP of Western Washington (which is doing 50% more abortions than it was just 3 years ago, while making millions of dollars in profits off emergency contraception).

We didn't know about these meetings, and this certainly didn't qualify as an excuse.

The bottom line was that this official seemed unperturbed by the privacy violation, and while she claimed she would "look into it", there have been no developments from "this investigation". And we don't expect any.

What we have learned is that the government (DSHS) admits to holding regular strategy meetings with the abortion industry to see how they can help each other, and these meetings include chit-chat, with private details, about members of the public who might be getting in their way. Ladies and gentlemen: welcome to the Land of Gregoire.

Blog Mentioned in Wash. Times, PP Spokane Overbilling Gets National Attention

The Washington Times yesterday published a story on the DSHS audit of Planned Parenthood of Spokane, including the requirement to repay $629,000 by today. The story appeared in Amanda Carpenter's daily Hot Button, and cited this blog as the original source.

Perceptively, the Times linked the Spokane audit with the massive case of Medicaid fraud that Planned Parenthood was comitting over the course of many years in California.

While PPINW mulls an appeal, P. Victor Gonzalez, a former vice president of finance and administration at Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles, is pursuing a whistleblower lawsuit against PPLA on grounds that he was fired for speaking out about "illegal accounting, billing and donations practices of Planned Parenthood."

He is seeking $1.2 million in damages and says he has evidence that PPLA overbilled the state close to $180 million.

A state audit released in 2004 of Planned Parenthood of San Diego lends some credence to Mr. Gonzalez's allegations. It found the state made $5.2 million in overpayments in 2003.

There are two notable differences between the California case and the Spokane case. First, the California fraud primarily involved the 340B Drug Discount Program, in which PP purchased huge quantities of drugs at enormous discounts -- about $2 per unit for oral contraceptives and the abortifacient 'morning-after pill' -- under the federal 340B program, and then illegally billed Medicaid at standard rates, about $20, when the law clearly required them to bill at "acquisition cost".

The Spokane audit didn't contain any findings of 340B Medicaid fraud, but we are conducting a separate investigation of that. What we do know so far is that there was at the very least some confusion between the federal government and the Washington State government as to whether or not Planned Parenthood of Spokane was enrolled in the program.

The second difference was that in California, PP shockingly and successfully lobbied the state Medicaid department, known as Medi-Cal, to call off the audit before it was completed. This was revealed in the lawsuit. You are not supposed to be able to lobby to get an audit stopped, but there have been widespread allegations of corruption in California, and critics argue that the Medi-Cal bureaucracy is filled with individuals friendly with and sympathetic to DSHS.

The same allegations have been made about Washington, but it does at least appear that they were unable in this state to get the audit canceled.

Interestingly, Washington State's Medicaid director, Doug Porter, was the chief executive of Medi-Cal before he came here in 2000. The lawsuit, which has been explained in detail here, doesn't cover the period of Mr. Porter's tenure.

Will Planned Parenthood Financial Scandal Put "Take Charge" Renewal At Risk?

This is the year that the state Medicaid program which has been called Planned Parenthood's private slush fund comes up for renewal again. While many critics consider the review of any program that supplies half of that controversial organization's revenue little more than a formality, the recent financial audit finding Planned Parenthood of Spokane guilty of five separate categories of overbilling Medicaid could make it awkward to rubber-stamp the program this fall. The abortion chain was told to repay $630,000.

The state government has not said whether the group is still engaged in these types of overbilllings today, and has thus far declined to answer questions as to whether other PP affiliates in the state are guilty of the same practices. They have also not indicated thus far what they have concluded as to whether the overbillings were deliberate, rising to the level of fraud. So far no fraud charges have been filed.

The "Take Charge" program was started in 2001, at the beginning of George W. Bush's first term. An experimental program, it required the permission of the federal government to get started, and needs the feds' review for re-authorization every three years. The initial trial ended in 2006, when it was renewed, despite objections.

"Free Birth Control For a Year"
The premise of the program is simple. Extend Medicaid coverage for birth control to more people by relaxing the income qualification threshold. The result is free birth control for a year for qualifying individuals, mostly women.

It is a fundamental and unquestionable dogma of the sexual left that putting women with dark skin on birth control is A Very Good Thing. Taking oral contraceptives is perhaps the closest thing our cultural Marxists have to a sacrament.

While theoretically any health care provider can sign up to be a "Take Charge Provider" -- i.e., someone who signs individuals up for the program, administers an exam, and provides them with birth control -- it didn't take long for Planned Parenthood affiliates across the state to position themselves as the primary face of the initiative.

Half of Planned Parenthood Clients are Take Charge
A review of Planned Parenthood of Western Washington's finances since 2000 shows a doubling of the revenues since the program began, from about $15 million a year, to about $40 million in revenues each year today! Their annual report freely admits that half of their clients are Take Charge enrollees.

We have conducted an exhaustive review of the Take Charge program, including interviews with Washington State and federal officials who oversee it. The overall objective of the program is to reduce the financial burden on Medicaid of all the birth expenses it pays for. If all these women who end up having babies at Medicaid's expense could be put on birth control, the thinking goes, Medicaid will save money.

Has it worked out that way? You be the judge: just before the program began, in 2000, Medicaid was paying out $200 million for childbirth expenses. Five years later, when the program came up for review and was approved for 3 more years, you might expect that this number had gone down. In fact, that figure had jumped 50% to a staggering $300 million!

The number of births paid for by Medicaid had gone up from about 33,000 to 40,000.

Program Has Led to Expansion of State Abortion Chain
Unfortunately, not all pregnancies end in birth. What about abortion? Since Take Charge began, while the overall abortion rate has declined slightly, the rate amongst Medicaid-eligible Washingtonians has jumped from just over 40% of all abortions to just under 60%.

As we've noted, the largest single gateway for Take Charge clients is Planned Parenthood. Not only have they made literally tens of millions of dollars off the program from birth control sales, their abortion business has mushroomed. They are doing 50% more abortions now than just 3 years ago. While they refuse to make abortion figures for 2000/2001 available, by any estimate they are doing more than twice as many abortions as they were when Take Charge began.

Brian Cutler, spokesman for Planned Parenthood of Western Washington, even admitted to us that they had used the windfall revenue from Take Charge to "upgrade" existing clinics -- including adding "abortion services" -- and to open new ones. In other words, Take Charge money has been used to open abortion clinics.

We confronted state DSHS and federal HHS officials who oversee this program with all this information. The state government has shown little to no interest in addressing our concerns. The federal government did hold a conference call with us to discuss the matter, but provided no meaningful assurances as to how this situation would be remedied.

Breaking the Law?
As if this were not enough, there are two additional matters. Federal law requires that these kinds of experimental programs, known as "Section 1115 Waivers", must be revenue neutral. In other words, the cost of the program -- all that "free" birth control -- must be balanced by savings in terms of births avoided. Nowhere in the Take Charge Final Report presented to the federal government in 2006 did the report's author, Dr. Leslie Cawthon, provide a figure indicating the financial cost of the program, let alone demonstrate its revenue neutrality.

Requests for these figures have been unmet. DSHS may have opened itself up for a lawsuit. We will be following up on this.

Finally, we have asked the federal government point blank: is the goal of the program to reduce the cost to Medicaid by reducing the number of births, or reducing the number of pregnancies? Clearly the former can be achieved through abortion, Planned Parenthood's specialty. The latter cannot. If the only measure is cost, since abortions are cheaper than childbirth, then the current situation would be perfectly acceptable to them. No-one was willing to provide a definitive answer to this question. This is an outrage.

We have called on the government to make it explicit that the cost-saving goals of the program must not be met through abortion. The only way to do this is to require unequivocally that no Take Charge provider can also be an abortion provider.

A long-serving state senator from Western Washington told us off the record that DSHS was so corrupt and "in bed with" Planned Parenthood that there was simply no chance that any program providing so much revenue to the abortion chain would be cut. We shall see soon enough if known Medicaid abusers get their primary source of revenue rubber-stamped.

Planned Parenthood Spokane Slapped with $700,000 Bill from Audit

This is an AIW Exclusive.

Planned Parenthood of Spokane (PPS) has been caught overbilling Medicaid for condoms, charging for contraceptives without a prescription, "unbundling" abortion claims, and claiming patients were having doctor visits when they were just picking up a prescription.

All of this is in an audit of the organization just completed by the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS). And as a result, PPS has been ordered to reimburse the government $630,000 plus interest for the overpayments. The audit did not get into the question of whether the overbilling was part of a systematic fraud scheme, but it also was clear that if this practice continued PPS would lose its Medicaid billing priveleges.

The audit found 5 categories of overbilling:

1) Numerous examples of billing Medicaid for oral contraceptives either without any underlying prescription for the drugs, or where the prescription was completely invalid, e.g., "Continue with drug XYZ".

2) Many cases where male condoms were billed at some nicely rounded up price instead of the actual acquisition price, as has been required since 2003. For example, in some cases they billed Medicaid $3.00 where the invoices clearly showed that PPS paid $0.84. In other cases, they billed $2.00 where the invoice showed the acquisition price was $0.56.

3) Unbundling post-abortion antibiotics and billing them to Medicaid under Family Planning, which is strictly prohibited.

4) Billing office visits to pick up a prescription or get an injection as "Evaluation and Management" -- a sit-down consult with a doctor or ARNP, and which have a higher reimbursement rate, in some cases double.

5) Billing for pregnancy tests which were done when the client never even suspected she was pregnant, and without any indication of medical necessity.

The audit covered the three-year period from Spring 2004 through Spring 2007, and made a point that it didn't claim to have been exhaustive, meaning that PPS shouldn't assume that they are free and clear if they are guilty of additional overbilling from this period not discovered in the audit.

The audit didn't address the question of whether these practices were going on prior to 2004, or after 2007, including up to the present, or the question of whether it was systematic and intentional, thus rising to the level of fraud.

If it's any indication, though, PPS has lawyered up and hired a fancy Medicaid fraud expert from Seattle to defend itself. The audit was addressed to David B. Robbins, with Bennett Bigelow& Leedom. Mr. Robbins was "selected for inclusion in the 25th Anniversary Edition of The Best Lawyers in America 2008 Edition," according to his website. That can't be cheap.

The audit itself also didn't deal with the question of who is going to ensure that these overbillings are not going on right now.

There is also the question of whether these practices are common to the other Planned Parenthood affiliates in the state, including PP of the Great Northwest (formerly Western Washington), and PP of Central Washington, and whether this audit will trigger audits of the sister organizations.

The audit made it into the news back in June when it was reported in the Spokane Spokesman-Review. The organization's then president was removed, and the group is reportedly being run by Anna Franks, president of Planned Parenthood of Central Washington, which is right now trying to expand into Pasco. But there's nothing to indicate that her practices are any different from the Spokane-centered affiliates.

A $700,000 bill would be a bitter pill for most "non-profits", but with over $11 million the bank, PPS can easily afford it. How did a supposed not-for-profit get into such a comfortable financial situation? Some critics argue that this huge cash reserve has been generated through schemes uncovered in this audit, and that there is more to be discovered.

In 2005, for example, they reported $2 million in profits off of total revenue of $6 million. That's a 33% (net) profit margin for a non-profit.

Some might argue that Medicaid billing is complicated and errors are inevitable. But no organization on earth should have more expertise in how to bill Medicaid correctly for contraceptives than Planned Parenthood.

In the days ahead, this blog will be contacting representatives of Planned Parenthood for comment, as well as representatives of the government to get answers to some of these questions.

The audit didn't mention what prompted the government to initiate this investigation in the first place.

View the Audit Documents here.

Shocking New Report from Seattle's Largest Abortion Chain

In a stunning new annual report, Planned Parenthood of Western Washington (PPWW) reveals that it saw a significant drop in customers in 2007 … with one major exception.

The total number of “medical visits” fell 15%, from 150,000 in 2006, to 127,000 in 2007.

The number of emergency contraception sales – a significant source of largely illegal revenue – fell 13%. Government records show a $1m drop in revenue from Medicaid billings for emergency contraception.

And their number of Take Charge patient exams actually fell 25%, from just under 70,000 to just over 50,000. The Take Charge program has been the major factor behind PPWW’s doubling in size and revenue under the Bush Administration. Again, state Medicaid records show a $1.5m drop in reimbursements for oral contraception. Their extraordinary – and again largely illegal – profits from reselling all forms of contraception at a 3 to 4 times purchase price even fell, from $9.6 million to $7 million.

Even more dramatically, the number of “Pregnancy Visits” fell a startling 50%, from just under 32,000 to just over 16,000.

Their number of “Tests and treatments for Sexually Transmitted Infections” also fell 50%.

With this drop in clients and revenue line items, you would expect their program revenue to have taken a hit from the 2006 level of $22.5 million.

And you would expect the number of abortions to have declined also, right?

But you would be wrong on both counts. Very, very wrong.

Program revenue stayed pretty much flat. How did they do that? Well, we don’t know for sure. But we have a partial explanation.

The only number that didn’t go down was the number of abortions performed. In fact, that number jumped a shocking 16% from 2006 to 2007, to a record 9,059.

It seems that regardless which direction all the other numbers move, one thing that is constant with PPWW is that their number of abortions goes up.

We have noted on this blog that their number of abortions has been rising at 11% per year despite all their claims that “no-one does more to reduce the need for abortion” than Planned Parenthood, and their repeated promise that distributing emergency contraception was going to result in hundreds of thousands of fewer abortions across the country.

But now they are actually killing 50% more babies than they were just 3 years ago!

How Do They Do More Abortions With Fewer Clients?

We have asked PPWW about these stunning figures, but they have refused to comment, so we are left to speculate.

The most obvious question is: how are they doing 16% more abortions with 50% less “Pregnancy Visits”? Now almost 60% of all pregnancy visits end in abortion. Three years previously, just 18% of pregnancy visits ended in abortion.

Our best guess is as follows: historically abortion clinics like PP have women come in when they are pregnant for a pregnancy test and a counseling session. That counts as 1 visit. Then they would schedule an abortion, previously all surgical. That’s a second visit. Then some of those women would come in for a followup. Third visit.

The new PP “protocol” seems to be to do the counseling session on the first phone call. This includes the abortion sell. At the end of that phone call the abortion is scheduled for the first visit. No pregnancy test. No ultrasound viewing of their baby. No viewing of fetal models. No reflection period. We suspect these conversations include subtle pressure about how if they “wait too long” they will no longer be eligible for a chemical abortion, which is “more natural”, “more like a miscarriage”.

Probably most of these abortions are now chemical. The 2006 annual report noted that 33% of their abortions were now chemical. The new report (2007) made no mention of the new figure.

We don’t know if the women are pressured to take the first abortion pill at the clinic to avoid the “risk” of the women changing their mind if they take it home to take. But we do know that many women don’t return for the followup visit.

This would perfectly explain the new numbers.

Interestingly, the annual report is long on whining and complaining about government cutbacks and forced employee layoffs. But there is no attempt to explain any of these astonishing trends in their abortion rate, or how they managed to keep their program revenue almost flat despite the loss of non-abortion clients.

And there was absolutely no attempt to explain why their abortion business keeps growing faster than the federal debt despite all their supposed efforts to proliferate contraception, emergency or otherwise.

Washington's Family Planning Experiment Sees Increased Abortion, Medicaid Costs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mary Emanuel
November 18, 2008
seattlecampaign@yahoo.com

Ending Family Planning Programs Would Cut Costs, Decrease Abortion

Seattle, Washington -- An analysis of Washington state’s Take Charge pilot program reveals an increase in both abortion and tax dollars spent on abortion and childbirth services. The investigation by the independent web site Abortion in Washington shows the number of abortions performed by the program's leading partner, Planned Parenthood of Western Washington, (PPWW) has been increasing 11% per year. Additionally, the intended cost-savings are not being realized.

Take Charge is a Medicaid section 1115 Waiver program initiated in 2001 to provide free contraceptives to low-income women not already covered under Medicaid. It was originally funded for 5 years in 2001, then extended for 3 more years, and comes up for renewal in 2009.

“The state is facing serious financial challenges. The last thing we need are government programs that do more harm than good and are actually failing to deliver the promised benefits”, said Mary Emanuel, assistant publisher of Abortion in Washington.

When the program began, the state was paying out $200 million a year for childbirth services under Medicaid. That figure has shot up 50%, to $300 million under the program. The state of Washington is now at a point where almost half of all births in the state are paid for by Medicaid.

“Taxpayers are supposed to be saving money and there are supposed to be fewer abortions but with this program we are seeing the exact opposite,” added Emanuel. “With the tight budgets King County and the state government are facing, ending family planning programs like Take Charge at Community Health Centers would be a win-win for everybody.”

The contraceptives are distributed through Planned Parenthood offices as well as Community Health Clinics on the theory that with more women using contraceptives the number of unwanted pregnancies will decline, thus leading to a decline in the number of high cost Medicaid-paid births. As the data shows, this has not been the outcome.

"Given the budget crisis facing government at all levels, ending this taxpayer largesse to Planned Parenthood is long overdue," said Dan Kennedy CEO of Human Life of Washington.

It seems that the only one benefitting from Take Charge in Washington is PPWW, which has seen their annual revenues skyrocket from about $17 million to near $35 million. (Download a .pdf of PPWW's 2006 IRS 990 form here.) A spokesman for PPWW admitted earlier this year that it had indeed used the profits from the Take Charge business to open up new abortion clinics. Planned Parenthood’s own annual report reveals that fully 70% of their 150,000 client visits were funded by Take Charge. The state is then left to cover the cost of an abortion or a Medicaid birth. Planned Parenthood is under investigation nationwide for Medicaid fraud in the illegal profiteering from contraceptive sales.

###

For more information contact: Mary Emanuel, Abortion in Washington, http://abortionstate.blogspot.com/

HHS Finally Responds to our Charges that Take Charge program is just Planned Parenthood Boondoggle

Readers of this blog know that we have called repeated attention to the state program known as Take Charge. This program is the single greatest reason that Planned Parenthood (PP) has doubled its revenues, profits, clients, and clinics in Washington State in the last eight years. And as such, it is the greatest single contributor to PP's 11%-a-year increase in abortions.

The program is easy to understand: it simply increases the number of people eligible for free (aka Medicaid-funded) birth control. The idea is that by getting more women on birth control, the number of unwanted pregnancies will decline, and then the number of Medicaid-paid births -- which are very expensive -- should go down. Taxpayers are supposed to save money, and there are supposed to be fewer abortions.

The program is an experiment, originally funded for 5 years in 2001, then extended for 3 more years, and comes up for renewal in 2009. It's part of a set of similar experiments governments do to see if Medicaid costs can be reduced. The Washington State program has occurred entirely under the Bush Administration, and Planned Parenthood of Western Washington (PPWW) has seen their annual revenues skyrocket from about $17 million to near $35 million, despite the group's simultaneously monotonous yet shrill declarations of George W. Bush's "war on women".

Planned Parenthood jumped at the opportunity to be the primary agency for delivering this birth control, and has been reaping millions of dollars in extra revenues from the approximately 150,000 Take Charge clients in Western Washington alone.

Half of all WA Births Paid for by Medicaid, since Take Charge began

Unfortunately, in addition to making PP fantastically wealthy, it also seems to have had the opposite results of what was intended. When the program began, the state was paying out $200 million a year for childbirth services under Medicaid. That figure has shot up 50%, to $300 million. The goal was to reduce that number. Put another way, the percentage of births paid for by Medicaid in Washington before the program was just over 40%. Now it is almost 50%.

We have contacted state and federal bureaucrats responsible for this program to confront them with the numbers showing its failure and terrible side-effects. After months of phone calls and emails, we were lead to Dr. Herb Kuhn (pictured right), Acting Director of the Center for Medicaid Studies, in Washington DC, in the Bush Administration's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under Secretary Michael Levitt.

Back in the Spring we sent Dr. Kuhn a detailed report, including graphs, outlining all the numbers in detail. Only after several reminders was a response received, a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, that response was extremely disappointing, and indicates once again a failure by the bureaucracy to show any concern as to the actual effects of their policies, not to mention a lack of concern for their stewardship of taxpayers’ money.

Acknowledges Concerns of PP Medicaid Fraud

Most of the letter was "boilerplate" repetition of known policy and accepted facts.

We will continue to press this issue aggressively and make the proper authorities defend this failed program. It's our view that the only reason this program is able to continue is because of the fact that the public has no idea about it, and also because of the blind faith in contraception, a view which has made serious inroads into the Evangelical community, alas.

The one encouraging element of the letter was where Dr. Kuhn acknowledged that Planned Parenthood is under a federal Medicare fraud investigation for ripping off taxpayers with the 340B drug discount program. PP Affiliates of California is also being sued for defrauding taxpayers of $180 million over several years. We argued that an organization under such a serious cloud should be suspended from participation in a program which specifically revolves around distribution of birth control under Medicaid until it has been cleared of any wrongdoing. Shockingly, while admitting they were watching the case very closely, Dr. Kuhn refused to take that step.

Four Simple Questions The Government Owes Us Answers On

To summarize, here are a few of the basic questions we demand answers to:

1) It is clear that the Take Charge program has massively enriched Planned Parenthood in this state. PP of Western Washington makes no bones about this. It also has admitted that it has used these profits to aggressively expaned its abortion business, which has result in 11% more abortions each year. In short, Take Charge is increasing the abortion rate. That is completely unacceptable. Will HHS acknowledge this fact and state for the record whether it considers that an acceptable side-effect of the program?

2) The program is clearly not reducing the overall amount of money being spent by Medicaid on birth. It is up 50%, or $100 million since the program began. This is the program's stated goal, yet it is failing. How long will this program be allowed to continue while having the opposite results of what was intended?

3) Federal law requires that this program be revenue neutral: the money spent on all this "free" birth control must be offset by the savings in births avoided. Yet nowhere has anyone involved in this program demonstrated with hard numbers that the program is revenue neutral. The Final Report which led to the program extension didn't even include any claimed figures as to overall costs to taxpayers, and only intimated at cost savings. What are the alleged cost and savings figures for this program as required by law?

4) Nowhere has anyone explained what safeguards are in place to ensure that abortion isn't used by Take Charge clients to reduce the total number of "Medicaid births". Until demonstrated otherwise, we take it to be true as an observed fact that Take Charge clients who get their birth control from Planned Parenthood and subsequently become pregnant (and 10% of women on the pill will become pregnant in a year, according to the CDC) turn to Planned Parenthood for an abortion. All facilitated by our tax dollars and our federal and state governments.

Planned Parenthood Refuses to Discuss Increased Demand for Abortion Services

We have recently documented the Washington abortion industry's awkward reluctance to talk about what they do.

PP of Spokane makes some provocative claims on their website. They claim that the demand for abortions in eastern Washington has declined in recent years. They also claim that the reasons for this are the Take Charge program and the distribution of emergency contraception.

As AIW readers know, there have been no studies anywhere in the world linking the availability of emergency contraception with lower abortion rates, and we have shown that the massive growth in the Take Charge program has been correlated with large increases in the number of abortions performed by PP of Western Washington. It's also correlated with large increases in sexually transmitted diseases so that today 1 in 4 teenage girls has an STD. In England and Wales the abortion rate hit a record high after a campaign of widespread distribution of Plan B in the United Kingdom began in 2001. "Among the very young, girls aged under 14, numbers have increased from 135 to 163, a jump of 21 per cent."

So we asked PP of Spokane (PPS) how they came to these conclusions. Unfortunately, it turned out to be much harder to get answers than you would hope.

At the very least, we wanted PPS to back up their claim of reduced abortion rates with actual numbers.

It took more than half a dozen phone calls and voicemails to PPS spokesman Jet Tilley to get a returned call. Eventually, we got through and spoke in person. We asked for answers to our above questions.

Ms. Tilley seemed reluctant to disclose any information about their abortion business, but indicated she would do so by email after some research.

No email was forthcoming.

We placed several follow-up phone calls with Ms. Tilley, speaking with her on several occasions.

She admitted that answering our questions was not a priority, but said she had tried to send the answers via emails but that "the emails had bounced", or that she didn't have our email address.

We sent emails to her to make sure she did have the correct email address, yet still no answers were forthcoming.

In fact, we have given her months to get us answers, yet we still have none.

Why is Planned Parenthood of Spokane unwilling to admit how many abortions they do every year? Why do they claim that emergecy contraception distribution and the Take Charge program has reduced the abortion rate when they can't back up this claim?

Is Planned Parenthood of Spokane lying?

If they had the guts to answer our questions, maybe we could find out.

by Jonathan B.

Bad at Science. Great at Math.

Giving new meaning to the word brazen, Planned Parenthood has spent the most recent legislative session lobbying for even more money for the state's largest chain of abortion centers.
It's not enough that Planned Parenthood affiliates across Washington already receive close to $15 million from state and federal tax moneys. Nor is it enough that Planned Parenthood of Western Washington (PPWW) makes a profit of $9 million in contraceptive sales each year. And let’s ignore the fact that all Washington Planned Parenthood branches have seen their revenues soar and coffers swell in recent years under the state’s Take Charge program. (In 2002 Planned Parenthood of Western Washington was listed as the fourth richest Planned Parenthood in the entire nation.)


Now they want another $8 million for their so-called "family planning" programs. Anyone with the eyes to see knows these programs are nothing more than gateway services to PP's higher priced abortion services where they can really make a killing.


As first reported here, PPWW has been growing its abortion business by 11% a year, at the same time as reaching new records in revenues, size, and clients reached with their “prevention” programs. These programs also appear to target the flood of immigrants who are coming to our state looking for work. Many of them are alone, unable to speak English and especially vulnerable to exploitation from organizations like Planned Parenthood.

When we asked PPWW spokesman Brian Cutler to produce a study showing a correlation with their programs and activities in this state and a reduction in teen pregnancy rates and/or abortion rates, he was unable to do so.

I guess Christine Charbonneau’s quarter million dollar a year salary just isn't enough to get by on in high priced Seattle. (She is the sixth highest paid CEO of a non-profit in the Seattle area.)

They've also decided that pimping out Washington teens to pester elected officials like John Ahern (R-Spokane) for the $8 million is a good use of class time. In a pot calling the kettle black story, Wesley Wilhelm, the parent of one of the teens accused Rep. Ahern of being "abusive" and asked that Ahern be investigated and punished for a "complete lack of human decency." I hate to break the bad news to Mr. Wilhelm but...

Representative Ahern asks a good question we wish these "civic-minded" teens would try to get the answer to because Planned Parenthood of the Inland Northwest (PPINW) doesn't seem to want to tell anyone: How many unborn babies has PPINW aborted anyway? We have asked them this question ourselves and will let you know if an answer is forthcoming.

Longview Planned Parenthood Closed for Good; Asking for too Much Money, Un-Wanted Services Says Commissioner

By Jonathan B.
Pro-lifers were excited last February when they found out that Planned Parenthood of Western Washington (PPWW) had decided to shutter their clinic in Longview. But cheer turned to concern when it was later revealed, first in March, then again in July, that the Cowlitz County Board of Commissioners was in negotiations with PPWW to reopen the clinic, and was considering paying their rent, as well as providing other financial sweeteners from their tax-funded treasury.

AIW can now reveal, however, that all negotiations with PPWW and Cowlitz County are dead, and the county has severed all dealings with the state’s largest abortion chain. Commissioner Kathleen Johnson told AIW that there is now no PPWW office in Longview, the county gives no money to PPWW, and there is no relationship of any sort between Cowlitz County and the abortion provider.

It appears that what happened, according to the Commissioner, was that PPWW kept asking for more and more money from the county, reportedly up to $10,000 per year, and then they insisted on offering their high-margin services which the county wasn’t interested in, e.g., birth control, emergency contraception. (As reported on this blog, PPWW makes millions of dollars every year and most of its profits from Take Charge clients and sales of the “Plan B” morning after pill.)

The county, on the other hand, is dealing with an STD outbreak, and high teen pregnancy rates (7th highest in the state), and was looking for a health care partner willing to focus its efforts on those problems. Despite the public image it has so successfully cultivated, PPWW was not sufficiently interested in providing services with that focus, said Commissioner Johnson. She also said they wanted a provider which would care for pregnant women the traditional way, i.e., helping both patients, the mother and the unborn child. As PPWW spokesman Brian Cutler told us in a previous interview, “if a woman plans to keep her baby, she’s probably not going to come to Planned Parenthood.”

AIW spoke with Mr. Cutler about the Longview clinic negotiations. When asked if PPWW was only interested in providing high margin services, and not those being asked for by the community, he said it was “ridiculous, ludicrous.”

“Listen,” he added, “I don’t know where you got this idea that we’re in this to make money. We are a non-profit, a 501c3.” He didn’t, however, dispute the details of the charge.

Show Me The Money
One of the more striking elements of the entire situation has been PPWW’s undisputed claim from the start that it couldn’t afford to keep the Longview clinic open, when it has grown its annual revenue from close to $17 million per year in 2000, to over $32 million now, with $36 million in the bank.

PPWW’s 2006 Annual Report shows a profit of over $1 million on revenue of over $37 million. Their tax return for the previous year showed a $3.3 million operating profit. Yet they were still demanding Cowlitz County cough up first $400/month in rent (or about $5,000 per year), and then $10,000/year.

Christine Charbonneau, president of PPWW, wrote a guest column in the Longview Daily News, dated March 4, 2007, titled “PP forced into tough decision.” In the piece, she explicitly claimed that they had no choice to close the clinic, because they were “unable” to absorb the costs, and even had the temerity to use the opportunity to urge readers to lobby the state to provide PPWW with even more taxpayers’ money.

I asked Mr. Cutler if PPWW had lied to Cowlitz County about its finances.

That was followed by a full one minute silence. Finally he said: “I’m sure people above me in the organization made a careful, well-considered decision. I don’t know.”

(He subsequently explained via email that some of the organization’s $36 million in assets are endowments which are restricted by “by-laws” in how they can be used, though the interest can be used for operations, and it can be and has been borrowed against for clinic construction.)

“Abortion Services”
I also asked about two “inaccuracies” on the the PPWW Longview webpage. First, it still says that it is “temporarily” closed, even though negotiations officially ended by November 2007. Secondly, and more alarming, the webpage says that the Longview clinic offers “Abortion Services”.

I inquired about a year ago whether this was true. The official response from PPWW was that this was a mistake and would be remedied shortly, with gratitude expressed for bringing the error to their attention. I pointed out to Mr. Cutler that PPWW makes much of providing accurate information to its clients, but he responded to both issues that it was simply an innocent mistake and that the organization hadn’t gotten around to updating the page yet.

Interestingly, the first bullet point in PPWW’s 2005 Annual Report was that they had spent thousands of dollars on a new high-tech internet portal which, they bragged, “now gives important, real-time information to more unduplicated patients than the nearly 850 health centers around the country combined.”

Treating the STDs Outbreak
When the Longview clinic closed, PPWW spokesmen suggested this would be a tremendous deficit for the area because of the STD problem. Cowlitz Commissioners George Raiter and Axel Swanson publicly concurred. I asked Mr. Cutler if he could provide any studies or research to back up this assumption, that PPWW’s presence in a community was correlated with declining rates of STDs.

Nothing came immediately to mind, but he did send me via email some statistics which he said showed STD rates going down during the Clinton Administration and up during the Bush era, which has emphasized abstinence. Interestingly, this data showed gonorrhea rates in Cowlitz County jumping from about 15 cases per 100,000 in 2003 to 230 in 2006. Chlamydia rates followed a similar trend. PPWW opened its Longview clinic in 2003.

Finding an Alternative to Drive-By Women’s Health Care
AIW also spoke with Carlos Carreon, director of the Cowlitz County Public Health Department. Mr. Carreon was directly involved in most of the direct negotiations with PPWW last year. While reluctant to speak to the more controversial elements which Commissioner Johnson cited, Mr. Carreon did say that after months of ultimately fruitless discussions with PPWW, it just struck him that there was a much better way to provide residents with high quality health care.

“It was sort of an ‘Oh-duh’ moment,” he said frankly. “That’s not an official health policy term,” he added self-deprecatingly. Instead of trying so hard to fit a square peg in a round hole, he realized it would make far more sense to partner with the Family Health Center, a local non-profit health care provider with full-time M.D’s and R.N’s to serve as the clients’ primary care providers and able to establish a long-term medical relationship.

This contrasts with PPWW’s clinic which would parachute an R.N. once a week from upstate to walk-in clients without any long-term relationship. (Finding a local R.N. willing to work full-time for Planned Parenthood was proving impossible.) “This was just a superior model of care,” he explained.

Mr. Carreon noted that they still don’t have a handle on the source of the STD outbreak, including whether or not it is localized to a certain community, like the prison population, and until they have determined the cause, it’s premature to start talking about the correct cure. For instance, a walk-in PP clinic is not going to have a significant impact on a prison-based STD problem.

Political Pressure?
In contrast, PPWW’s Brian Cutler told AIW that one of the major reasons for the failure of negotiations with the county was political pressure. “Cowlitz County is a very conservative part of our state,” he said, even though the county voted 56%-40% for Maria Cantwell over Mike McGavick in 2006. “While some of the county commissioners supported our presence in Longview, significant political pressure was applied to keep the doors of our health center there from re-opening.”

Commissioner Johnson strongly disputed this idea. “That’s a very interesting comment,” she told AIW. “The issue for us was always: how could we get the best contract for the services needed in this county (reducing STDs and caring for pregnant mothers). Planned Parenthood was not willing to provide the services we wanted.” She added that the only “political pressure” they ever received was a single citizen who occasionally turned up at council meetings (Jerry Ross) and some pro-life form letters “from Texas”.

“We are just happy that the citizens of Cowlitz County are in some way getting the services they need,” concluded Mr. Cutler.

Washington State Takes Bronze in Funding, Performing Abortions

I just received the information below from a LeAnna Benn of Teen-Aid.

...According to this lastest report Washington State taxpayers pay $8.5 million for abortions. Washington State has the 3rd highest number (15,510) and price tag paid with public dollars ($8,528,000) for abortion. Only CA and NY use more state funds that Washington .

If I had a nickle for every person who said "keep the government out of abortion" but turned a blind eye to all the government involvement in abortion...

This report also comes on the heels of this week's lobbying efforts by Planned Parenthood of Western Washington to try and increase funding for their abortion generating Take Charge Program, which Jonathan has covered in detail here, here and here.

Planned Parenthood asks their supporters in an email dated 1/31/08 to contact the legislature and ask them to approve -

An emergency allocation of $8 million for family planning services across the state. (Maintain the $5 million for family planning in the Governor's budget and include an additional $3 million in the final budget.) This will provide family planning services for the nearly 33,000 low-income Washingtonians who are no longer able to participate in the federally funded Take Charge program, and will likely save nearly $126 million in pregnancy care costs.

Well, yes I suppose abortion is cheaper than pre-natal care.

Here's the rest of the report I recieved from LeAnna:
The Guttmacher Institute (under a grant from the United States Department of Health and Human Services) has just released a report that is a gold mine of information for the pro-life and abstinence movements.

The report, “Public funding for family planning, sterilization and abortion services, FY 1980–2006,” by Sonfield A, Alrich C and Gold RB, Occasional Report, New York: Guttmacher Institute, 2008, No. 38., which can be found here has a lot of information (some of it unpublished) directly from the federal government.

The authors, of course, try to argue that over $1.6 billion a year (!!) in federally funded contraception isn’t enough. They use some interesting math to show that even though the family planning funding has grown astronomically, it still isn’t keeping up with inflation (I didn’t realize that the price of condoms, etc. was keeping pace with the inflation index, would like to see some proof of that). This is the old appropriations trick where interest groups try to downplay their enormous increases by saying it doesn’t keep up with inflation. The reality is it has gone up, a ton! The authors also argue that this enormous federal spending effort, of course, prevents tons of unintended pregnancies and abortions (not substantiated in this paper, either).

Some information that the new paper includes:

• The numbers and state breakdown of 191 federally funded abortions in Fiscal Year 2009(under the Hyde amendment rape, incest and life of the mother abortions are paid for under Medicaid),
• The federal gov’t paid for the most abortions in Illinois (89), Virginia (27), Ohio (20), Minnesota (16), and South Carolina (12). See table 3.9 on page 27
• New updated info on how much in public funds goes to family planning ($1.85 billion in FY06--$1.6 billion of which is federal and $1.3 billion (or 71%) of which is from federal Medicaid funds.

I pulled out a couple key parts from the 36 page PDF and pasted them below. A good resource and bookmark for future reference.

The state and federal governments spent $89 million to fund 177,000 abortion procedures for low-income women in FY 2006. The federal government contributed
to the cost of only 191 procedures. Virtually all publicly funded abortion procedures occurred in the 17 states that have nonrestrictive abortion
policies.

Public expenditures for family planning client services totaled $1.85 billion in FY 2006. Medicaid accounted for 71% of the total, whereas state appropriations accounted for 13% and Title X accounted for 12% (Figure A). Together, other funding sources such as the MCH block grant, the SSBG and TANF, account for 5% of total funding. Although Medicaid was the dominant source of funding in most states, the other funding sources were vital in many specific states.

Planned Parenthood Goes on the Defense

Planned Parenthood is not the bad guy. We have been doing everything we can to absorb these costs and remedy the situation as long as we could.

Touchy. Touchy. It seems as though Christine Charbonneau, president/CEO of Planned Parenthood of Western Washington, is getting some scrutiny after pulling out of Cowlitz County. (She makes $226,000 a year and is the sixth highest paid CEO of a non-profit in the Seattle area.)

At least she doesn't mention the "Take Charge" program and the cuts that didn't happen.

Let's review what we know about Planned Parenthood lest anyone think this noble non-profit is limping along to make ends meet in a valiant effort to treat STDs.

Planned Parenthood of Western Washington is rich. We've covered their local accounting here.

In 2002 Planned Parenthood of Western Washington was listed as the fourth richest Planned Parenthood in the entire nation.

Please keep in mind, there is no designated state or federal funding for testing and treatment of sexually transmitted infections.

What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?

Planned Parenthood doesn't need state or federal money to provide STD testing and treatment services. Places like Carenet and Life Choices and other non-profits struggle everyday to help teens and others with unplanned pregnancies and STDs at no charge and with no government money. On top of it all these places are ususally hounded, put down, and disparaged by Planned Parenthood, the state of Washington, and the powers that be.

...Title X, our nation's source of federal family planning funding, has not gotten a raise in over 25 years.

But Planned Parenthood has gotten a raise. Between 1987 and 2003 their funding increased every year.

Coming next...How Planned Parenthood is responsible for the rise in STDs.

Washington's "Take Charge" Program to Receive Funding until 2010

It was recently reported here, here, and here that the Planned Parenthood clinic in Longview, Washington was forced to closed.

The curious thing in all the news reports was the reason given for the closing of the clinic. Jennifer Allen, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Western Washington, told the Associated Press:

"The closure was necessary after federal officials cut family planning services for 7,800 people in the "Take Charge" program."

The main problem with this story line is that the "Take Charge" program hasn't been cut. It's been extented to 2010. According to a spokesman with the Departement of Health it was renewed after negotiations between state and federal officials.

Newly elected Cowlitz County Commissioner Axel Swanson (D) didn't waste anytime lamenting the closure of Planned Parenthood. He told The Daily News, "We're struggling with STDs right now. That's just a flat-out fact."

STDs?

You see, the other problem with the story is that the Take Charge program is indented to "reduce the number of unintended pregnancies in low income populations and the associated costs of maternity and child care by providing comprehensive family planning educational and medical services" i.e. distribution of oral contraceptives, contraceptive shots, patches and Plan B ("morning after pill"). It is not intended for the treatment of STDs.

"It leaves a big question mark in my mind why they would choose to leave Cowlitz County" Mr. Swanson said. Apprently Mr. Swanson is suffering under the illusion that the folks at Planned Parenthood were treating sick people when in fact they were only putting poor folks on birth control pills.

This is as good a time as any to pause and reflect on the deflowering of yet another young politician by Planned Parenthood. According to The Daily News, Mr. Swanson (D) is asking "U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., to look into the matter." Well, that ought to be a real interesting conversation.

Back outside the rabbit hole, however, reality reigns. We took note of Jerry Ross's letter printed in The Reflector, which gave some very good illustrations of how Cowlitz County was taking a significant risk by renting space to Planned Parenthood at sweetheart rates (at $400 a month).

• Is it legal for the county to lease space to private health providers in one of their buidlings?
• If it is legal, are they required to open the contract up to other providers on a bid basis?
• The rent Planned Parenthood was paying for their Longview clinic space was approximately $14/foot -- way under market rates for the town.
• The sidewalk outside the clinic is in need of repair and could open the county up to a lawsuit should anyone slip and fall.
• The county also opened themselves up to liability in the event minors were being brought to the clinic for abortions or referrals by their adult "boyfriends" (a.k.a. statutory rape) and the county is sued for harboring a criminal.

A friendly bit of advice to the Cowlitz County Commissioners: When you sup with the devil, use a long spoon.

Planned Parenthood's Riches

AIW has been analyzing the finances of Planned Parenthood of Western Washington (PPWW) and has discovered many fascinating things. The bottom line is that the bottom line of this "non-profit" organization might make oil executives blush.

Let's start with a picture:


This graph represents the revenues of PPWW from 1998 to 2005. This kind of revenue growth does not happen by accident. The number of clients has essentially followed this curve, correlated in large measure to the DSHS "Take Charge" program, which provides free birth control for a year to income-eligible clients, for which PPWW is a provider. This program has essentially enabled PPWW to use the government, and taxpayers' dollars, to serve as a massive marketing boondoggle.

More interesting numbers which paint the picture of PPWW's extraordinary financial health:

• Net assets stand at nearly $36m.
• Profits (not revenue) from the sale of "inventory" (i.e., birth control, perhaps morning-after pills) have skyrocketed from $0 just three years ago to an extraordinary $7m. This is on $2m of merchandise. In other words, they bought $2m of merchandise, and turned around and sold it for $9m, pocketing $7m in pure cash.
• In 2004, PPWW took in almost $30 million for a net profit of $5m, boosting total net worth of $33m.
• In 2005, they took in almost $34m for a net profit of almost $4m, accumulating a total net worth of $36m.
• Not included in the 2004 profit numbers was $4m in unrealized stock market gains alone.
• In their 2005 annual report, the number of pregnancy-related client visits dropped slightly, but the number of abortions performed jumped from 6,200 in 2004, to just over 7,000 in 2005. In other words, they improved their (abortion) sales conversion rate from 17% to 20%.
• PPWW gets about $3m from various levels of government each year.
• They get $5m-$6m in donations annually.
• In 2004, PPWW spent over $1 million on payroll taxes alone.
  

-- FormerFoetus