Overwhelming majority of Planned Parenthood abortions now done by pill, says president

Nearly 70% of Planned Parenthood abortions are now committed using deadly chemical abortion pills, according to a recent statement from the abortion corporation’s president. Utilizing this percentage, it is plausible that nearly 275,000 chemical abortions were committed at Planned Parenthood in their 2022-23 service year alone.

“Patients often choose medication abortion because it allows them to end their pregnancies early, on their own schedule, and in the privacy of their own home,” Alexis McGill-Johnson stated in response to last month’s abortion pill lawsuit heard before the U.S. Supreme Court in the Alliance Defending Freedom (AHM) v. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) case.

The Planned Parenthood president added, “When given information about all their options, nearly 70% of abortion patients at Planned Parenthood health centers choose medication abortion instead of in-clinic abortion.”

In addition to McGill-Johnson, who was the highest paid executive at the national organization, MaineMorningstar.com recently reported that “Planned Parenthood of Northern New England… says about 70% of their patients choose medication abortion.” And Planned Parenthood of New Hampshire Action Fund also claimed that “about 70% of abortion patients choose medication abortion” at Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.

Planned Parenthood Abortion Pill Totals

Planned Parenthood’s latest annual report  2022-23 annual report revealed that Planned Parenthood committed a total of 392,715 abortions that year. During that time frame, Planned Parenthood held 40% of the abortion market share.

While Planned Parenthood’s report does not breakdown how many abortions were committed by the abortion pill, we can utilize McGill-Johnson’s latest abortion pill percentage of 70% to estimate that they could have been as high as 275,000 (274,900) out of the 392,715 they committed in that time.

Planned Parenthood Abortion Pill Facilities

A report compiled by the American Life League’s (ALL) STOPP International project found that the nation’s largest abortion provider saw an 82% increase in affiliates offering the abortion pill regimen between 2005 and 2021, as Live Action News previously reported.

As of 2021, 391 of Planned Parenthood’s 567 active locations (69%) offered either chemical or surgical abortions.

According to ALL’s report, out of those 391 Planned Parenthood locations which committed abortion pill abortions in 2021, there are “176 centers that commit surgical abortions plus pill abortions” and “215 centers that commit pill abortions (not surgical abortions).”

“Planned Parenthood runs 55% of all surgical and/or pill abortion facilities in the United States. This includes 82% of abortion pill-only locations and 39% of surgical locations,” ALL’s analysis also showed.

National Abortion Pill Number Estimates 

In 2023, Guttmacher estimated that “1,026,690 abortions occurred in the formal health care system” and that abortion pill use climbed from 53% in 2020 to 63% in 2023.

As Live Action News previously documented, Guttmacher data for 2023 claimed that abortion pill use increased nearly 31% (30.57%) from the 492,210 reported abortions in 2020 (53% of all abortions) to 642,700 abortion pills recorded by 2023 (63% of all abortions).

Since the pill was approved in 2000 (through December 2022), nearly 6 million preborn children have been killed by the abortion pill in the U.S. And with the proliferation of unregulated online virtual abortion businesses, chemical abortion numbers are likely to grow. This number does not represent abortion pills being shipped into the country illegally.

Virtual Abortion Pill Facilities

A report published last year by the Abortion Care Network (ACN), which analyzed “independent abortion clinics” referred to as IAC’s or “Indies” (and which excluded Planned Parenthood facilities, hospitals, and physician’s offices) found that  there were 143 online abortion pill dispensaries operating in 2023 (346 out of 489 independent abortion clinics were brick-and-mortars), nearly 43 more than what ACN estimated in 2022.

Virtual abortion businesses are far more profitable, because they require fewer overhead costs and are largely unregulated. In addition, online abortion businesses often offer the abortion pill regimen to minors while providing less than a few minutes of implied care with little to no follow-up.

However, the Guttmacher Institute recently claimed that in total, “The number of US providers offering a telemedicine consultation—by video, phone call, text or online platform—and mailing abortion pills increased from 7% of all providers known to offer medication abortion in 2020 to 31% in 2022.”

“Online-only clinics, after first appearing as a new type of abortion provider in 2021, accounted for 8% of all abortions provided within the formal health care system in the first six months of 2023,” the former “special affiliate” to Planned Parenthood added.

According to Planned Parenthood’s president, “In 19 states where abortion is still legal, Planned Parenthood affiliates provide medication abortion via telehealth, allowing people who live far from health centers in those states to get the care they need without taking the time and resources to travel.”

Prescribing Abortion Pills Past FDA Limits

A Live Action News series entitled “Bad Actors” documented that the abortion industry is instructing women to take the drugs off-label, is failing to properly date a pregnancy or rule out dangerous ectopic pregnancy before prescribing the drugs, is spending little to no time at follow-up, is scheming to hide abortion pill related complications, and much more.

Industry statistics show that the failure rates for the abortion pill regimen increase as the gestational age of the preborn baby increases. Yet, the abortion pill is being used well into the second and even third trimester of pregnancy, well past the 70 days/10 week limits approved by the FDA. In 2021, chemical abortions recorded by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) revealed that nearly 1,000 were reported at gestational ages above 13 weeks.

Planned Parenthood’s website reveals that the abortion giant is also willing to prescribe the abortion pill past the FDA-approved gestational limit, and their own statistics reveal that when they do, the abortion pill regimen is twice as likely to fail:

• “At 8 weeks pregnant or less, it works about 94-98% of the time” a 2 to 6% failure rate.

• “At 8-9 weeks pregnant, it works about 94-96% of the time” a 4 to 6% failure rate.

• “At 9-10 weeks pregnant, it works about 91-93% of the time” a 7 to 9% failure rate.

• “At 10-11 weeks pregnant, it works about 87% of the time” a 13% failure rate.

Planned Parenthood claims that when abortion clients take “an extra dose of misoprostol,” the abortions are completed 99% of the time at 9-10 weeks and 98% of the time at 10-11 weeks.

This contradicts the drug’s own label and FDA medication guide.

Published percentages for ER visits on the abortion drug’s 2023 label states that 2.9 to 4.6 percent of women who take abortion drugs end up in the emergency room, indicating that abortion pill ER visits could be in the tens of thousands every year. In addition, the FDA’s medication guide acknowledges that as many as seven percent (7%) of women will need surgery after taking mifepristone ‘to stop bleeding’ or to complete the abortion.

The data is also similar to findings from a previously documented Gynuity Health Projects (GHP) telabortion study which found that six percent (6%) of participants (70 out of 1,157) faced complications from the abortion pill resulting in ER or urgent care visits. Gynuity is a pro-abortion group conducting clinical trials on the abortion pill and is funded by organizations with deep historic ties to the American eugenics movement.

Utilizing the statistics on the abortion pill’s own label and medication guide, Live Action News estimates that:

• ER visits following the purchase of abortion pills at Planned Parenthood (estimated by multiplying the potential of 274,900 abortion pill sales at Planned Parenthood for 2022-23 service year times the 2.9%-4.6% ER visit range on the drug’s label) indicates that between 7,972 and 12,645 women who purchased abortion drugs from Planned Parenthood may have potentially ended up in the emergency room in the 2022-23 service year.

• In addition, using the 2-7% figure for failures of the abortion pill from the medication guide, we estimate that between 5,498 and 19,243 women who purchased the abortion pill from Planned Parenthood potentially required “a surgical procedure because the pregnancy did not completely pass from the uterus or to stop bleeding.”

Currently, Gynuity Health Projects (GHP), with a grant from the Society of Family Planning Research Fund, is now utilizing Planned Parenthood facilities to test the abortion pill further in gestation, through 84 days/12 weeks, much later than what the FDA has approved. There, GHP is recruiting participants 11 years old and up.

In the first study, GHP concluded that in the 10th and 11th week of pregnancy, “Ongoing pregnancy was 3.6% and 8.7%, respectively,” but with dosage changes, a second study allegedly found that “ongoing pregnancy was much lower (0.4% and 1.4%, respectively).”

However, despite the reported lower failure rates, GHP acknowledged that “A quarter of clients did not return to the clinic for follow up, making it difficult to draw definitive conclusions about the efficacy of the study regimen.”

Planned Parenthood Lawsuits 

Live Action News previously documented that a lawsuit claimed a Planned Parenthood client referred to as Jane Doe obtained abortion pills from Planned Parenthood “via a fifteen minute, two second telehealth conference” without any physical exam. Doe then alleged that Planned Parenthood miscalculated her pregnancy so egregiously that she painfully delivered a “fully formed” 30 to 36-week baby boy into a toilet.

This case is similar to a separate lawsuit filed that same year against Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, which alleged that the assessment of Planned Parenthood’s certified nurse midwife (CNM) Gannon Ward was so egregiously incorrect that she misdated the late pregnancy of Plaintiff Christin Lafo at just six weeks and three days before selling her an abortion pill. Lafo gave birth two days later to a 22-week stillborn baby boy whom she named Kyle Shawn Brady — and he, too, was delivered into a toilet.

Babies Delivered into Toilets are Traumatizing

Women who use abortion pills to end their pregnancies could potentially see the remains of their babies once expelled into a toilet.

The First 10 Weeks Of Human Life

Live Action’s I Saw My Baby website details the horrific fallout when women see their own aborted children floating in the toilet after taking the drugs at home.

Serena Dyksen, who moderates the I Regret My Abortion Facebook group and runs the post-abortive ministry She Found His Grace, told Live Action News that women who purchased abortion pills and later reach out to her group claim that “they were lied to.”

“They thought that it wasn’t going to be a big deal. And they are traumatized on a new level, because now they are seeing their babies. They’re told just to flush them. It has affected their mental health in a whole new way that I don’t think people are really prepared for,” Dyksen claimed.

Editor’s Note, 4/18/24: This article has been updated with the most recent information available.

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