Does Planned Parenthood Offer Prenatal Care?

Emily Capps|August 5, 2022||Abortion

Planned Parenthood’s website claims, “Only a small number of Planned Parenthood health centers offer the full range of prenatal care services,” though they do offer referrals.

The truth is: Planned Parenthood rarely offers prenatal services—and certainly not a “full range” of them. A select few Planned Parenthood clinics offer limited prenatal services, but most only offer referrals, at best.

Based on Planned Parenthood’s own report, 96.9% of pregnant women who sought assistance there had abortions.¹ In contrast, prenatal services and adoption referrals made up only about 3.1% of their total services.²

In other words, Planned Parenthood is not about planning for parenthood at all. Their purpose is not women’s health or women’s choice—it’s abortion.

Most Planned Parenthood Clinics Do Not Offer Prenatal Services

Most Planned Parenthood clinic webpages say, “If you choose to continue a pregnancy, we will provide you with a list of resources to help you obtain prenatal care.” Most don’t even include prenatal care in their list of services.

Many Planned Parenthoods do not even mention prenatal care or offer resources for it on their website.

There are a few Planned Parenthoods that offer some prenatal care, but do not mention the nature of these services. A few others specify that they offer early prenatal visits only, before referring the patient for further care. Evidently, their services are limited at best.

Planned Parenthood Employees Say PP Doesn’t Provide Prenatal Care

According to a Live Action investigation, Planned Parenthood’s prenatal care is “virtually nonexistent.” During their research, only five out of the 97 clinics they contacted said that they provided prenatal services.

In these statements, Planned Parenthood employees themselves admit that they do not offer prenatal care—rather that they “specialize” in abortions:

Tempe, Ariz.: “We don’t have prenatal care here…. Planned Parenthood offers abortions, so they don’t offer prenatal care.”
Athens, Ohio: “Unfortunately, no, we wouldn’t provide any type of prenatal services here at Planned Parenthood.”
Albany, New York: “No Planned Parenthood does prenatal care, hon.”
Farmington, New Mexico: “We don’t offer prenatal care at Planned Parenthood.… We specialize in abortions. You know, that’s what our ultrasounds are for, to see how far along the patient is.”
Elizabeth, New Jersey: “Planned Parenthood, we do birth control, things like that — terminations. We check for STIs, but we don’t do prenatal.”
Cornell, New York: “We tell you you’re pregnant and then we offer at Planned Parenthood to do the abortions. So we don’t do any prenatal services here.”
Merrillville, Ind.: “No, we don’t do prenatal services. I mean, it’s called Planned Parenthood, I know it’s kind of deceiving.”

The idea that Planned Parenthood actually helps women plan for parenthood, that they provide pregnant women with unbiased options and equal opportunities—that is a lie. That they do not pressure women to have an abortion over keeping the child or putting them up for adoption—that is a lie.

Why then does Planned Parenthood call itself “Planned Parenthood”? Why do its supporters claim it provides health services that it does not? As Live Action president Lila Rose says: “Its executives are conducting a false campaign to preserve the group’s public image.”

To put it simply: they are trying to cover up their lies so they can continue garnering public approval, doing more abortions, and making more money. (From 2019-2020, PP made over $1.6 billion—and about $583,350 every day from abortions alone).

This is also why its supporters claim that Planned Parenthood provides other essential healthcare services like mammograms and ultrasounds—another stretch of the truth.

They want to make Planned Parenthood seem essential for women’s healthcare, when it is anything but.

We Don’t Need Planned Parenthood

The fact of the matter is: Planned Parenthood’s one focus is abortion, and women do not need it to obtain prenatal care or the other healthcare services they need.

According to the Health Resources and Services Administration, we have more than enough healthcare providers besides Planned Parenthood. The HRSA funds almost 1,400 health centers and over 13,500 service delivery sites across the U.S.

Every state has a free or reduced cost prenatal care program operating through local health departments. If you’re interested in learning more about the program in your area, call 800-311-2229.

To uncover more myths about Planned Parenthood, see Planned Parenthood: Your Questions Answered.

Endnotes

[1] PPFA’s 2019 – 2020 Annual Report, Page 35 lists the services they provided to pregnant women: 354,871 abortions, 2,667 adoption referrals, and 8,626 prenatal services. Thus, we can calculate that 96.9% of those services were abortions: 354,871 / (354,871 + 2,667 + 8,626) = 0.9691.

[2] Same as above. (2,667 adoption referrals + 8,626 prenatal services) / 366,164 = .0308 = 3.08%