(LifeSiteNews) — As federal and state governments take aim at the abortion giant’s taxpayer funding, some of Planned Parenthood’s own donors and other insiders are worried that “mission creep” into broader left-wing activism has exacerbated the organization’s struggles, according to a recent report.
According to the Wall Street Journal, former Planned Parenthood president Leana Wen’s brief tenure following the late Cecile Richards caused internal consternation for her attempts to broaden the mission into non-“reproductive” issues, but a “different kind of mission creep set in” under current president and self-proclaimed “social and racial justice” warrior Alexis McGill Johnson, alienating donors with activist stands on topics like gender, gun control, Senate rules, and the size of the Supreme Court.
Paradoxically, now the “only mention of ‘women’ among its promotional items are T-shirts emblazoned with ‘Stand with Black Women,’” WSJ notes, while the “organization’s pervasive language around ‘pregnant people’ is intended to be inclusive of [so-called] transgender people, a cause that the organization connects to abortion … under the umbrella of ‘bodily autonomy.’”
READ: Planned Parenthood offers transgender hormones to minors at first appointment: undercover report
“I don’t understand the national office’s thinking in not allowing anyone to talk about women’s health anymore,” said former PP CEO Pamela Maraldo, who resigned over dissatisfaction with her self-described “safe, legal, and rare” approach to abortion. “These really, really left-wing ideological postures are to me just as off-putting as they are on the right when they’re counter to basic Americans’ common sense.”
The report notes that perceived threats to abortion “access” tend to help the organization’s fundraising, but such boosts are not sustainable and tend to only support more activism.
“Though the Dobbs ruling led to a surge in fundraising, donations have dropped 15% from a decade high of $428 million in 2022, and most of those funds go toward advocacy” as opposed to Planned Parenthood’s “services,” WSJ notes. Further, “Some former staff members describe the national office as bloated, with too many employees making too much money in undefined roles. (Planned Parenthood did not respond to a request for comment.) McGill Johnson received more than $900,000 in compensation, according to the organization’s most recent publicly available tax returns.”
“Meanwhile, many clinics are underfunded and operate at a deficit,” the report added. “Some former executives said the national office’s outspoken progressive agenda can make it harder for affiliates to gain the support of local and state governments. Over the past two decades, clinics have closed or left the network. (Planned Parenthood would not provide specific numbers.)”
Live Action notes that several comments on the article claim to be from former donors, who say they no longer give money after realizing the organization is far more extreme than they initially thought.
“I understood that PP needed some funds to run the organization and that lobbying and advocacy (or, at least, public relations) were part of the organizations functioning, but I never thought most of my donations went to those purposes,” one said. Another called the organization little more than a “laundering scheme” for the Democrat Party.
While Planned Parenthood is best known as the nation’s largest abortion chain, it is also deeply involved in the LGBT movement. It advertises itself as a “safe and welcoming place to get transgender/nonbinary hormone therapy,” including estrogen, anti-androgen, testosterone, and puberty blockers. According to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s (PPFA’s) most recent annual report, 45 of its affiliates offered so-called “gender-affirming hormone therapy” in 2022.
The report also revealed that PP affiliates across the nation took in $699.3 million in government “health services” reimbursements and grants, accounting for 39 percent of its total revenue during that period. At the same time, the abortion chain committed 392,715 abortions – yet its non-abortion procedures, such as pap tests and cancer screenings, continued to decline as percentages of its overall business.
Last month, President Donald Trump signed into law his controversial “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (BBB), a wide-ranging policy package that includes a one-year ban on federal tax dollars going through Medicaid to any that provides abortions for reasons other than rape, incest, or supposed threats to the mother’s life, although that provision is currently held up by a legal challenge.
Within weeks of returning to office, Trump began enforcing the Hyde Amendment (which forbids most federal funds from directly supporting elective abortions), reinstated the Mexico City Policy (which forbids non-governmental organizations from using taxpayer dollars for elective abortions abroad), and cut millions in pro-abortion subsidies by freezing U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spending.
In March, the administration froze Title X “family planning” grants to nonprofits it said violated its executive orders on immigration and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, including Planned Parenthood affiliates in nine states.
Other Republicans have proposed standalone measures to fully cut off Planned Parenthood’s government funding: the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act, which permanently bans federal funds from being used for abortion; and the Defund Planned Parenthood Act, which disqualifies Planned Parenthood and its affiliates specifically. But they would require 60 votes to make it through the Senate.
