Why is Planned Parenthood closing centers that don’t offer abortion?

Live Action News’ Danny David reported yesterday that a Planned Parenthood in Scranton, Pennsylvania, plans to close December 1. The center provided services other than abortion, though it did offer abortion referrals. Currently, 35 Planned Parenthood centers exist in Pennsylvania, with 10 of those committing abortions. The Scranton center is the seventh Planned Parenthood to close in the state in three years.

If it seems we are reporting of Planned Parenthood closures on a fairly regular basis, it’s because we are.

American Life League’s STOPP Planned Parenthood International reported at the end of 2015 that 23 Planned Parenthood centers closed just that year. The organization’s non-abortion services have been on the decline. However, we know from the group’s annual reports that Planned Parenthood’s abortion numbers have gone up even as the group’s legitimate health services have trended downward. STOPP notes that in 2015:

Total Planned Parenthood centers went DOWN from 668 to 645.Total Planned Parenthood centers that commit abortions went UP from 337 to 353Planned Parenthood centers that commit surgical abortions went DOWN from 173 to 166.Planned Parenthood centers that commit medication abortions (but not surgical abortions) went UP from 164 to 187.

STOPP also notes that “[t]he growth of medication-only abortion centers in the United States has been driven almost exclusively by Planned Parenthood,” which “operates 90 percent of all such centers in the country.”

Wow, this is pretty stunning for an organization claiming that abortion only comprises 3 percent of its services — a claim wholly debunked by Live Action in the video below:

Debunking Planned Parenthood's "3%" Abortion Myth

Today, Operation Rescue mentioned the trend of Planned Parenthood closings, stating that while Planned Parenthood is “downsizing,” the organization seems to be trimming mainly centers which don’t offer abortion:

For the past two years, Operation Rescue has noted a well-developed trend: if a Planned parenthood office cannot convert to a profitable abortion center, it gets shut down. The fact is that Planned Parenthood has been in the process of downsizing, and the closing of the Scranton Center is just one more in a long list of closed Planned Parenthood clinics that did not offer lucrative abortions.

So much for Richards’ insistence that her organization’s primary purpose is to provide “health care” to poor people, and that abortion services are just a small fraction of what they do. Abortion is PRIMARILY what Planned Parenthood does, and the closing of the non-abortion centers proves it….

As Planned Parenthood consolidates their abortion businesses to operate out of high volume “mega-centers,” there is an increased risk of complications, especially at the busy clinics that run women through the abortion process like cattle in order to maximize profits.

This should come as no surprise, since in 2011, Planned Parenthood announced that by 2013, it would require every affiliate to offer abortions… and this has since come to pass.

But Planned Parenthood’s consolidation is dangerous for women for more than just the risk of rushing women through surgical abortions.

It’s risky because Planned Parenthood is beginning to capitalize on medication abortions utilizing the abortion pill regimen. As STOPP noted, for the first time, 2015 marked a greater number of “medication-only abortion centers” for Planned Parenthood than its surgical facilities.

Women have been led to believe that this method of abortion is safer and easier than a surgical abortion. But for many women, this has not been the case at all. And Planned Parenthood has, for years, dispensed the abortion pill regimen against FDA safety protocols. Instead of getting in line for the sake of women’s safety, Planned Parenthood and its friends in the abortion industry pushed for relaxed safety guidelines… and got their wish from the FDA, earlier this year. Live Action News’ Kristi Burton Brown noted:

It’s quite worth noting that the FDA changes are right in step with Planned Parenthood’s dangerous practices, as they even disregard the above information from the ACOG and Guttmacher, which demonstrate that allowing the abortion pill at 10 weeks is not safest for women. It is, however, a big money boon for Planned Parenthood, and one the abortion giant is quite thrilled about.

Former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino explains the abortion pill procedure and its risks in the video below:

1st Trimester Medical Abortion: Abortion Pills

As STOPP rightly points out, more abortion that Planned Parenthood doesn’t have to deal with may be good for their business, but that’s about all it’s good for:

Critics of Planned Parenthood have maintained for years that the organization is more concerned with making a profit than women’s health. The significant growth of these abortion pill facilities is yet another demonstration of the truth of those concerns. Get the women in the door, sell them very expensive pills to kill their babies, and send them on their way to deal with any consequences on their own.

Planned Parenthood may ‘care, no matter what.’ But what they care about is their bottom line.