Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS

Even though the embattled abortion giant routinely claims that abortion is only three percent of its business, Planned Parenthood has been caught playing fast and loose with its own numbers.

According to a new video released by the pro-life activist group, Live Action, Planned Parenthood is manipulating its own data in order to arrive at a number that disguises the extent of its abortion business. The company’s executives insist that the lion’s share of their business is routine reproductive care and cancer screening and that only one in 33 women who come to the clinic receive an abortion. So, if they see 2.5 million women a year, that means only three percent of their business is abortion, right?

Wrong.

Here’s how Planned Parenthood arrives at the erroneous three percent figure.

It divides the number of abortions it performs by the number of “discreet clinical interactions” it performs, which include STI testing, pregnancy tests, pap smears, breast exams, birth control and other services. An abortion procedure is counted as just another service even though, in reality, it’s much more expensive for the woman and profitable for Planned Parenthood. By using this counting system, Planned Parenthood can claim that it performs 9.4 million services. When you divide 323,999 abortions by 9.4 million, you get to the three percent number.

Using this method of calculation, Planned Parenthood can claim that when a woman comes in for an abortion, because she gets a pregnancy test, cancer screening and pack of birth control pills as well, abortion is only 25 percent of the services rendered.

Now here’s why this is so erroneous. Including abortion in with other services would be like saying that because the NFL sells five million hot dogs over the course of 256 games, football is only .005 percent of what they do. Or a steakhouse saying that steak is only a small percentage of what they serve because they also serve potatoes, salad, desserts, coffee, beer, and breath mints.

The reason Planned Parenthood resorts to these mathematical contortions is because the truth would pose a serious public relations problem. How many Americans would be pleased to know they’re funding an organization that commits 160 abortions for every child they put up for adoption? This correct statistic proves that over 90 percent of Planned Parenthood’s services to pregnant women are for abortions.

And for all of its bragging about providing vital health care to women, Planned Parenthood performs less than one percent of the 28 million pap smears conducted annually. Their market share for breast exams (which are physical exams, not mammograms) is only 1.8 percent of the 20 million exams performed annually.

However, in fiscal year 2014-15, 1.06 million abortions were performed in the U.S. Planned Parenthood performed 323,999 of those abortions. This amounts to 30.6 percent of the country’s abortions every year. To say that Planned Parenthood is not an abortion business is as ludicrous as saying the NFL is a hot dog business.

This explains why their claim that abortion only accounts for three percent of its annual business is an outright lie, and one that even the secular media has caught on to.

Slate recently published an article about this subterfuge entitled, “The Most Meaningless Abortion Statistic Ever” and the Washington Post gave the three percent claim three Pinocchio’s.

It’s vitally important that this information be disseminated far and wide because Planned Parenthood is spending record amounts to influence this year’s election.

“Citizens have a right to know the truth behind an organization that has their politicians’ ears,” said Live Action president and founder, Lila Rose. “We are giving activists a powerful new tool to counter one of Planned Parenthood’s biggest lies, and we have the platforms in place to ensure this video is seen by tens of millions of people.”

Share this video with everyone you can between now and November 8!