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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

Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, the powerful lobbying arm of all Planned Parenthood branches in the state, is pushing a bill through the state legislature that would repeal a provision in existing state law that requires abortion providers in California to 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. While pro-lifers find the measure alarming because it enshrines "abortion rights" in California law and because it 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? Michael Quinn, chief of the state office for health information, noted in a June Mission 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 "floor alert" warning legislators there would be a political price to pay if they failed to fully 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."

Planned Parenthood may want to abolish the abortion reporting requirement in order 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.

Using the California Public Records Act, the Mission has obtained abortion statistics for Southern 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 the region. 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 Mission.

Of the 33,640 abortions reported to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development for the year 2000 in the 12-county coverage area of the Mission, 30,259 -- or 89.94 percent of them -- were performed at Planned Parenthood clinics. Here is a county-by-county breakdown:

FRESNO COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 1,624
PP abortions: 1,624 (100%)

LOS ANGELES COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 19,296
PP abortions: 19,059 (98.8%)

ORANGE COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 7,584
PP abortions: 4,545 (59.9%)

RIVERSIDE COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 2,021
PP abortions: 2,017 (99.8%)

SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 1,166
PP abortions: 1,166 (100%)

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 356
PP abortions: 270 (75.8%)

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 1,169
PP abortions: 1,168 (99.9%)

VENTURA COUNTY:
Total abortions reported: 424
PP abortions: 410 (96.7%)

The following counties reported no abortions at community or specialty care clinics in the year 2000: Imperial, Inyo, Kern and Kings.

WHERE ARE THE ABORTION PROVIDERS?

Planned Parenthood
633 North Van Ness Ave., Fresno
1,624 abortions


LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Planned Parenthood,1045 North Lake Ave., Pasadena
299 abortions

Planned Parenthood, 1550 North Garey Ave., Pomona
971 abortions

Planned Parenthood, 7100 Van Nuys Blvd., Suite 108, Van Nuys
2,304 abortions

Planned Parenthood, 5525 Del Amo Blvd., Lakewood
9,504 abortions

Planned Parenthood, Bixby Center,1057 Kingston, Los Angeles
2,404 abortions

Planned Parenthood, South Bay Center, 14623 Hawthorne Blvd., Suite 300, Lawndale
1,902 abortions

Planned Parenthood: Whittier Center, 7655 Greenleaf Ave., Whittier
1,675 abortions

Venice Family Clinic, 905 Venice Blvd., Venice
39 abortions

Beverly Health & Birthing Center, 4620 W. Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles
76 abortions

Beverly Surgical Center, 105 West Beverly Blvd., Montebello
7 abortions

Huntington Outpatient Surgery Center, 797 South Fair Oaks Ave., Pasadena
19 abortions

Surgery Center of Santa Monica, 2121 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica
46 abortions

The Beverly Hills Center for Special Surgery, 1125 S. Beverly Drive, Suite 505, Los Angeles
1 abortion

Columbia West Hills Surgical Center, 7240 Medical Center Drive, West Hills
49 abortions


ORANGE COUNTY

Planned Parenthood, 700 S. Tustin St., Orange
4,545 abortions

Doctors Surgical Center Inc., 9461 Grindlay St., #102, Cypress
2,791 abortions

UCI Family Health Center, 800 North Main St., Santa Ana
180 abortions

Fountain Valley Outpatient Surgical Center, 11190 Warner Ave., Suite 212, Fountain Valley
54 abortions

Out-Patient Surgery Center, 17752 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach
11 abortions

Newport Beach Surgery Center, 361 Hospital Road, Suite 124, Newport Beach
3 abortions


RIVERSIDE COUNTY

Planned Parenthood, 3772 Tibbets St., Riverside
1,859 abortions

Planned Parenthood, 71777 San Jacinto Drive, Suite 202, Rancho Mirage
158 abortions

Riverside Community Surgi-Center, 3980 14th St., Riverside
4 abortions


SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY

Planned Parenthood, 918 W. Foothill Blvd., A, Upland
877 abortions

Planned Parenthood, 1873 CommerCenter West, San Bernardino
289 abortions


SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY

Planned Parenthood, 743 Pismo St., San Luis Obispo
270 abortions

Coastal Medical Center, 354 South Halcyon Road, Suite C, Arroyo Grande
86 abortions


SANTA BARABARA COUNTY

Planned Parenthood, 518 Garden St., Santa Barbara
730 abortions

Planned Parenthood of Santa Maria, 415 East Chapel St., Santa Maria
438 abortions

Santa Maria Ambulatory Surgery and Laser Center Inc., 120 North Miller St., Suite C, Santa Maria
1 abortion


VENTURA COUNTY

Planned Parenthood, 5400 Ralston St., Ventura
410 abortions

Los Robles Surgicenter, 2190 Lynn Road, Suite 100, Thousand Oaks
14 abortions

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