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July/August 2002 ARTICLESLETTERS
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Contents © 2002
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
Planned Parenthood's Dirty Little Secret
Less Wholesome Than They Seem
By Bob McPhail
A bill pending before the state legislature would eliminate a legal requirement that abortion providers in California report the number of abortions they perform. The bill, SB-1301, repeals the California Therapeutic Abortion Act and replaces it with the Reproductive Privacy Act, which provides, among other things, that "every woman has the fundamental right to choose to bear a child or to choose and obtain an abortion...." While most pro-lifers find the measure alarming because it enshrines "abortion rights" in California law and would permit non-physicians to administer the abortion drug RU-486, the measure would also make it virtually impossible to obtain reliable abortion statistics for California.
"Existing law provides that the Department of Health Services shall establish a system for the reporting of abortions to determine their demographic effects, and to assess legal and medical standards pertaining to abortion practices, and shall report its findings to the Legislature every two years," explains the state senate analysis of the bill. "This bill would delete this provision."
The bill was approved by the senate on May 16, and is now before the assembly. The assembly judiciary committee approved the bill June 11 on an 8-2 vote and forwarded it to the assembly health committee.
The reason pro-abortion forces want to change California abortion law is transparent; but why would they want to relegate abortion statistics to the status of official secrets? The answer probably lies in who is behind the measure: Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, the powerful lobbying arm of Planned Parenthood. Michael Quinn, chief of the state office for health information, noted in the June Faith story that high-volume abortion clinics are "very reluctant" to provide abortion information to the state. "They don't want their addresses known; they don't want their numbers known," he said.
When the bill was before the senate, Planned Parenthood Affiliates issued a May 15 "floor alert" warning legislators there would be a political price to pay if they failed fully to support the measure. "We anticipate hostile amendments on the Senate floor and ask you to vote Aye when the vote is taken to lay the amendments on the table," the alert said. "SB-1301 will be included in the Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California Reproductive Health Legislation Scorecard. Votes to lay amendments on the table will also be included in the PPAC Scorecard."
One reason Planned Parenthood may want to abolish the abortion reporting requirement is to maintain its carefully-manicured public persona as a "reproductive health" organization that provides sex education, family planning and services to prevent sexually-transmitted diseases. The truth is, Planned Parenthood's principal activity is providing abortions -- something they may prefer be kept secret.
Using the California Public Records Act, I have obtained abortion statistics for Northern California from the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. The statistics show that Planned Parenthood is far and away the largest provider of abortions among community and specialty-care clinics in Northern California. The statistics do not include abortions performed in private physicians' offices. Statistics on abortions performed in hospitals will be published in a later issue of the Faith.
Of the 31,710 abortions reported to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development for the year 2000 in the 45-county coverage area of the Faith, 86.6 percent of them were performed at Planned Parenthood clinics. Here is a county-by-county breakdown (PP = Planned Parenthood):
ALAMEDA COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 2921
PP abortions: 1623 (55.5%)
BUTTE COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 558
PP abortions: 558 (100%)
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 3347
PP abortions: 3193 (95.4%)
HUMBOLDT COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 503
PP abortions: 503 (100%)
MARIN COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 632
PP abortions: 620 (98%)
MENDOCINO COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 28
PP abortions: 0 (0%)
MERCED COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 7
PP abortions: 0 (0%)
MONTEREY COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 1129
PP abortions: 1084 (96%)
PLACER COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 274
PP abortions: 273 (99.6%)
SACRAMENTO COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 7956
PP abortions: 6824 (85.7%)
SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 1273
PP abortions: 1127 (88.5%)
SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 1364
PP abortions: 1364 (100%)
SAN MATEO COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 1934
PP abortions: 1835 (94.8%)
SANTA CLARA COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 5752
PP abortions: 5384 (93.6%)
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 1370
PP abortions: 1370 (100%)
SOLANO COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 1346
PP abortions: 1346 (100%)
SONOMA COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 1316
PP abortions: 368 (27.9%)
The largest abortion provider in Sonoma County was Commonwoman's Health Project in Santa Rosa, which reported 893 abortions (67.8%).
The following counties reported no abortions at community or specialty care clinics in the year 2000: Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Colusa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Glenn, Lake, Lassen, Madera, Mariposa, Modoc, Mono, Napa, Nevada, Plumas, San Benito, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tulare, Toulumne, Yolo and Yuba.
THE BIGGEST ABORTION PROVIDERS
Clinics that performed 99 or more abortions in 2000.Source: Annual Utilization Report of Primary Care Clinics 2000 and Annual Utilization Report of Specialty Care Clinics 2000.
ALAMEDA COUNTY
Women's Choice Clinic, 431 30th St., Suite 3, Oakland
735 abortions
Planned Parenthood, 482 W. MacArthur Blvd., Oakland
641 abortions
Planned Parenthood, 1866 B St., Hayward
537 abortions
Planned Parenthood, 7200 Bancroft Way, Suite 210, Oakland
445 abortions
The Oakland Surgery Center, 3875 Telegraph Ave., Oakland
176 abortions
Washington Outpatient Surgery Center, 2299 Mowry Ave., Fremont
278 abortions
BUTTE COUNTY
Planned Parenthood, 556 Vallombrosa Ave., Chico
558 abortions
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
Planned Parenthood, 1357 Oakland Blvd., Walnut Creek
973 abortions
Planned Parenthood, 2970 Hilltop Mall, Suite 307, Richmond
744 abortions
Planned Parenthood, 2185 Pacheco St., Concord
1476 abortions
HUMBOLDT COUNTY
Six Rivers Planned Parenthood, 2316 Harrison Ave., Eureka
503 abortions
MARIN COUNTY
Planned Parenthood, 2 H St., San Rafael
620 abortions
MONTEREY COUNTY
Planned Parenthood, 625 Hilby Ave., Seaside
1084 abortions
PLACER COUNTY
Planned Parenthood, 729 Sunrise Ave., Suite 900, Roseville
273 abortions
SACRAMENTO COUNTY
Planned Parenthood Surgical Services,1507 21st St., Suite 301, Sacramento
6824 abortions
Health for All, 577 Las Palmas Ave., Sacramento
119 abortions
Greater Sacramento Surgery Center, 2288 Auburn Blvd., #201, Sacramento
733 abortions
Sutter Surgery Center, 75 Scripps Drive, Sacramento
277 abortions
SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY
Planned Parenthood, 815 Eddy St., Suite 200, San Francisco
1127 abortions
North East Medical Services,1520 Stockton St., San Francisco
146 abortions
SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY
Planned Parenthood, 415 Benjamin Holt Drive, Suite D-4, Stockton
1364 abortions
SAN MATEO COUNTY
Planned Parenthood, 2211 Palm Ave., San Mateo
773 abortions
Planned Parenthood, 1230 Hopkins Ave., Redwood City
580 abortions
Planned Parenthood, 219 Southgate Ave., Daly City
482 abortions
Physicians Surgery Center
901 Campus Drive, Suite 102, Daly City
99 abortions
SANTA CLARA COUNTY
Planned Parenthood, 604 E. Evelyn Ave., Sunnyvale Planned Parenthood, 225 San Antonio Road, Mountain View Planned Parenthood,1691 The Alameda, San Jose Planned Parenthood, 5440 Thornwood Drive, San Jose Planned Parenthood, 3131 Alum Rock Ave., San Jose Surgecenter of Palo Alto, 795 El Camino Real, Palo Alto El Camino Surgery Center, 2480 Grant Road, Mountain View Planned Parenthood, 1119 Pacific Ave., Suite 200, Santa Cruz Planned Parenthood 990 Broadway, Vallejo Planned Parenthood,1325 Travis Blvd., Fairfield Commonwoman's Health Project, 2200 County Center Drive, #H, Santa Rosa Planned Parenthood,1370 Medical Center Drive, 2nd floor, Rohnert Park
248 abortions
1426 abortions
383 abortions
767 abortions
164 abortions
107 abortions
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY
1370 abortions
SOLANO COUNTY
726 abortions
620 abortions
SONOMA COUNTY
893 abortions
368 abortions