Analysis: Abortion accounts for 22.6% of Planned Parenthood’s clinic revenue

Planned Parenthood has often said that abortion accounts for just 3% of what they do. But is it true?

Planned Parenthood’s latest annual report shows the organization’s health service revenue came in at $833.7 million (305.3+528.4):

Abortions performed by Planned Parenthood totaled 327,653 last year:

Guttmacher Institute, an abortion research group founded by Planned Parenthood reported that in 2009, the average surgical abortion cost $451 and the average drug based abortion cost $483. Using average inflation since 2009, we get $490 and $525 respectively in 2014. Guttmacher also lists that abortion at 20 weeks cost $1,500 on average. Most second trimester abortions are done a little earlier than 20 weeks so we will use $1,200 as an average second trimester abortion cost.

Again using data from Guttmacher, we find about 11% of abortions are second trimester and 23% are drug based abortions. The math looks like this:

This analysis tells us that out of Planned Parenthood’s $833.7 million in annual clinic revenue, $188.8 million is from abortion. This comes to 22.6% from abortion, and not the 3% Planned Parenthood likes to use. The Washington Post earlier this year called Planned Parenthood’s 3% claim “misleading” and gave it three Pinocchios.