Planned Parenthood’s former research arm gets millions from taxpayers

As pro-lifers expose how government funding of abortion giant Planned Parenthood is increasing annually (and in turn, is increasing Planned Parenthood’s percentage of U.S. abortions), annual reports from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute reveal that government funding is pouring in there as well.

While the Guttmacher Institute is now a separate entity from Planned Parenthood, it wasn’t always this way. In fact, Guttmacher used to be Planned Parenthood’s own research arm – and the funding received by both taxpayer-supported organizations flowed freely between the two.

The Guttmacher Institute – which supports and promotes the full agenda of Planned Parenthood – has been successful in convincing the media that they are the most credible source on all things “family planning” and “abortion.” And in turn, the media has happily presented Guttmacher as an impartial research organization. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In 1968, Dr. Alan F. Guttmacher, a eugenicist and one time president of Planned Parenthood, established the Guttmacher Institute. The Institute described him by saying, “No one was better able to unite the Planned Parenthood organization or summon it to carry out its historic mission.” Guttmacher’s “history” page reveals more of the research organization’s connection to Planned Parenthood:

The Guttmacher Institute was founded in 1968 as the Center for Family Planning Program Development… The Center was originally housed within the corporate structure of Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA). Its program, however, was independently developed and overseen by a National Advisory Council separate from the PPFA Board of Directors. Its early development was nurtured by Alan F. Guttmacher, an eminent obstetrician-gynecologist, teacher and writer who was PPFA’s president for more than a decade until his death in 1974. The Center was renamed in Dr. Guttmacher’s memory, and the Guttmacher Institute incorporated as an entirely independent nonprofit policy research institute with its own Board in 1977.

“Entirely independent”? Not quite. In 2010, Guttmacher’s President and CEO Sharon Camp told CUNYTV that while Guttmacher was no longer associated with Planned Parenthood, “In 1977, call it the divorce that didn’t work because we remained for a number of years after that a special affiliate of Planned Parenthood.”

She then tells the host that “for the last four or five years” Guttmacher has “been completely unaffiliated with Planned Parenthood.” But that would put the disaffiliation somewhere between 2005 and 2006 – not 1977. And up until that time, Planned Parenthood gave a substantial amount of funding to Guttmacher. (Planned Parenthood’s 2000-2001 annual report indicates that Guttmacher gave the abortion business, $6.4 million that year, and other annual reports show similar contributions.)

Ryan Bomberger of The Radiance Foundation also found evidence that indeed, in its 2007 tax filing, Planned Parenthood still listed Guttmacher as an “independent affiliated organization” which was receiving money from the abortion giant. Bomberger wrote, “Planned Parenthood… gave $2,142,076 of our tax dollars to their ‘research’ arm, Guttmacher….”

But while Planned Parenthood (which was, of course, receiving a large amount of taxpayer dollars) was funneling money into Guttmacher,  Guttmacher was also receiving taxpayer dollars – and funneling a significant amount of money back to Planned Parenthood.

In 2001, Guttmacher gave Planned Parenthood $16.7 million; in 2002, $7.8 million; in 2003, $7.6 million; in 2005, $7.9 million. Guttmacher’s payouts to Planned Parenthood total around $40 million.

The American taxpayer deserves to know that Guttmacher is funded by the taxpayer and has given those funds to Planned Parenthood in the past, and vice-versa. So much for being an impartial research organization.

American taxpayer dollars continue to support the Guttmacher Institute. Here are the figures from the organization’s annual reports:

• 2014 $827,961

• 2013 $1,062,276

• 2012 $1,525,996

• 2009 $1,026,676

• 2008 $1,195,894

• 2007 $1,904,127

• 2005 $1,926,689

• 2003 $2,195,930

• 2002 $1,671,342