Abortion group spreads biased research on Wikipedia, says 'Abortion is... for all people who want one'

The Society of Family Planning (SFP), known for funding many abortion-related studies, has published position statements opposing limits on abortion at any gestational age or for any reason, calling it "essential."

Key Takeaways:

• The Society for Family Planning's (SFP) recent position statements are clear in opposing gestational limits or restrictions of any kind for any reason, stating that "abortion is indicated for all people who want one."

• SFP collaborates with and funds studies for the purpose of expanding abortion in alignment with its position statements.

• SFP has, for several years, partnered with Wikipedia to propagate its own information favorable to abortion and contraception across Wiki pages online.

The Details:

The SFP website is clear in advocating for absolutely zero restrictions on the killing of preborn children, for any reason, at any time:

The Society opposes the inclusion of gestational duration limits, including viability, in legislation, laws, initiatives, or regulations.

Abortion care is an essential and critical component of comprehensive healthcare, and must be equitably available and accessible to all people who need it.

Clinicians who provide abortion care must be able to practice evidence-informed, person-centered care.

Abortion is indicated for all people who want one.

The "Society of Family Planning supports legislation and policy efforts that prioritize expansive, inclusive protections for abortion care for all people.... The Society opposes criminalization of abortion care at any point in pregnancy, including patients and clinicians," the group's 2024 position statement reads.

"Safe and effective abortions can also be accessed outside of the formal healthcare system," SFP states. "The biggest threats to the safety and quality of abortion care are laws and regulations that are not based in evidence or centered on peoples’ needs," the Society claims in an updated 2025 version.

Why It Matters:

SFP collaborates with abortion industry insiders and funds projects promoting the expansion of abortion as safe and essential.

Some examples:

• Last year, SFP funded a study "to generate evidence that documents the safety and efficacy of medication abortion care provided by" non-physicians. Another proposal sought to "generate evidence that can be used to support people’s access to and experience of out-of-state abortion care in the post-Dobbs environment."

• SFP's "Later abortion service delivery, post- Dobbs" funding proposal sought to "generate evidence that can be used to support people’s access to abortion throughout pregnancy..." "Later abortion service" was defined as "abortion beyond 13 weeks that requires a two-day procedure." Abortions that require multiple-day procedures are generally committed much later in pregnancy.

• SFP has even published “Clinical Recommendations” encouraging use of the abortion pill for third-trimester abortions up to nearly 28 weeks gestation.

• The SFP funded an article authored by Aid Access founder Rebecca Gomperts, entitled, "Safety and effectiveness of self-managed medication abortion provided using online telemedicine in the United States: A population based study."

• In 2025, SFP awarded a $500,000 grant to “Understand people’s experiences with remote provision of medication abortion.” Others promoted dispensing the abortion pill via pharmacies.

• SFP is currently reviewing guidelines for "abortion after 24 weeks" as well as separate guidance which suggests that "Healthcare professionals must commit to mitigating risk for their patients and provide abortion care and miscarriage management that does not put their patients at risk of being targeted by the criminal legal system."

Spreading Skewed Studies

SFP “partnered with Wikipedia Education to train members to improve the quality of abortion and contraception information on Wikipedia,” according to its 2020 annual report.

In addition, the pro-abortion group offers training courses "for their members to help improve the quality of abortion and contraception content on Wikipedia."

"SFP and Wiki Education saw an opportunity to partner because of a shared mission to give the public access to scientific research," the Wiki.org Blog states. "A participant in this SFP class improved the self-induced abortion article, as have participants in previous groups," a separate blog post reads.

According to the Wiki.org Blog:

The page about medical abortion (or medication abortion) describes the use of pills to bring about an abortion. It is another high-impact Wikipedia page, with 450 people checking it each day. A health professional in one of the SFP courses made a wide range of improvements, including reworking the introduction, expanding content, adding references, and replacing references with up-to-date research...

... An abortion fund is a non-profit that provides assistance to low-income women who cannot afford the costs of an abortion. The abortion fund page was expanded, many parts rewritten, and many sources added or replaced by an SFP scholar.

Other scholars fixed errors, updated statistics, expanded sections, or improved citations in the pages on emergency contraception, reproductive coercion, dilation and evacuation, late termination of pregnancy, mifepristone, and the main abortion page.

The Background:

SFP "members" are "united by a vision of just and equitable abortion," the website claims. These members were part of a team conducting a study on TelAbortion to promote mail order abortion pills. SFP influencer, Dr. Philip Darney (a professor at UCSF’s Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health), created the Ryan Program that trains abortionists.

The group's Abortion Clinical Research Network "supports researchers and clinics to work collaboratively to answer pressing clinical questions to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of and access to abortion care," its website states.

SFP operates a "Corporate Council" which "provides an opportunity for meaningful collaboration between Society Board members and private industry partners." SFP partners with the pro-abortion American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and other groups to issue statements promoting abortion access.

The pro-abortion group oversees Complex in Family Planning programs which train in universities across the country. SFP's website claims "fellows are uniquely suited to establish new Ryan Residency Training Programs." Ryan Residencies have trained thousands to commit abortion.

The official journal of SFP is Contraception, which publishes numerous abortion studies often cited by the media or court briefs.

Founding and Funding

The Society of Family Planning (SFP) was founded in 2005 with a “generous contribution” from the David & Lucile Packard Foundation.

In recent years, abortion philanthropist Warren Buffett (the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation) poured over $15.3 million into SFP and millions even further back. Both Packard and Buffett were investors in the manufacturers of the abortion pill, namely either Danco Laboratories or the generic GenBioPro — regular exhibitors and sponsors at SFP events.

A timeline published at the SFP website takes its genesis further back:

• 1991: "The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) becomes the first site for the Fellowship of Family Planning, enrolling its first fellow in 1991."

• 2001: "Dr. Leon Speroff Calls for Formation of Academic Society Dedicated to Family Planning" he "sends a letter to American Society of Reproductive Medicine members Drs. Mitchell Creinin, Carolyn Westhoff, and Anita Nelson to encourage the founding of what will later become the Society of Family Planning."

• 2003: "Dr. Mitchell Creinin Designs Society’s First Logo."

• 2005: "The Society of Family Planning is incorporated as a non-profit organization in Illinois, where Treasurer Dr. Jack Sciarra is based" launching their first website SocietyFP.org and reveals a list of SFP's founding members and Board of Directors.

• 2005: SFP's first meeting runs "concurrently to the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals and the Planned Parenthood National Medical Committee meetings."

• 2007: "The Society leaves the University of California, San Francisco in order to accelerate growth and promote independence as an academic society."

• 2011: The grantmaking arm of the organization, the Society of Family Planning Research Fund (SFPRF), was established.

• 2018: "Society Announces $15 Million in Medication Abortion Grants."

• 2022: SFP launched the #WeCount abortion data collection project.

SFP's 2023-2028 Strategic Plan recounts the following:

In the early 90’s, the Fellowship launched and began training recent Ob/Gyn residency graduates in complex abortion and contraception care. At the time, most abortion care had moved from hospitals to outpatient clinics staffed by 'thinning ranks' of physicians willing to work in a low-prestige field doing 'dirty work'.

Training in abortion care was limited in residency programs due to a lack of qualified educators and training sites, alongside other barriers such as abortion stigma, fear of protest, barriers to hospital privileging, ambivalent or unsupportive leadership, and more. Research on abortion and contraception was minimal and largely unsupported by federal sources.

The Fellowship worked to be an antidote to this context, creating programming to support Ob/Gyns working within academic medicine to develop careers that balanced clinical care, research, and educational expertise in two critical aspects of obstetrics and gynecology: abortion and contraception...

What's Happening:

"To achieve our vision and desired impacts, in the years ahead" SFP's latest strategic plan says it is "Organizing and leveraging research primed for impact..."

"Advancing our vision requires leveraging our existing positions of influence from within academia and medicine and intentionally building power alongside those working outside of those systems," SFP added.

SFP and its partners "weigh[ed] in" on efforts to "ban and restrict access to mifepristone, deny life-saving care in a medical emergency, and impose gestational duration limits on access to abortion," according to its 2024 annual report.

"In the face of the onslaught of restrictions, the Society leveraged institutional power through the growth of Complex Family Planning Fellowship sites, the increase in the number of fellows and subspecialists, and through liaisons who pushed for changes in organizational policy and practice," the report also claimed.

"Scholars, clinicians, and partners are organized to use their expertise for action, gathering the full range of people engaged in the science and medicine of abortion and contraception and mobilizing the power needed for impact," the group's strategy plan said.