Planned Parenthood Federation of America | January 2019 1
The Irreplaceable Role of
Planned Parenthood Health Centers
Planned Parenthood is a leading provider of high-quality, affordable health care for
women, men, and young people, and the nation’s largest provider of sex education.
Planned Parenthood health centers provided millions of people in the U.S. with
contraception, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs),
lifesaving cancer screenings, and safe, legal abortion. At least one in five women has
relied on a Planned Parenthood health center for care in her lifetime.
• In 2017, Planned Parenthood health centers saw 2.4 million patients and provided more than 4.7 million
tests and treatments for sexually transmitted infections, nearly 300,000 breast exams, more than 270,000
Pap tests, and birth control to nearly 2 million people.
• Planned Parenthood leads the country with the most up-to-date medical standards and guidelines for
reproductive health care and uses clinical research to advance health care delivery to reach more people
in need of care.
• Fifty-six percent (56%) of Planned Parenthood health centers are in health professional shortage areas,
rural or medically underserved areas. Planned Parenthood health centers provide primary and preventive
health care to many who otherwise would have nowhere to turn for family planning care.
• More than one-third (39%) of Planned Parenthood patients are people of color, with more than 560,000
patients who identify as Latino and nearly 390,000 patients who identify as Black.
• Of Planned Parenthood patients who report their income, nearly 75 percent live with incomes at or below
150 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL), and at least 60 percent of Planned Parenthood patients
access care through the Medicaid program and/or the Title X family planning program.
For many people, Planned Parenthood is their only source of care — making our
health centers an irreplaceable component of this country’s health care system. And
as experts in reproductive health care, Planned Parenthood health centers often
provide family planning services that other safety-net providers simply do not offer.
• For many women, Planned Parenthood health centers are their main source of primary and reproductive
health care. Research has shown that four in ten (41%) patients rely on a family planning clinic as their only
recent source for health care services.
1
1 Frost, Jennifer J., et al. (2012). “Specialized Family Planning Clinics in the United States: Why Women Choose Them and Their Role in Meeting Women’s Health Care Needs,”
Guttmacher Institute. New York, New York. [Online]. https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/les/pdfs/pubs/journals/j.whi.2012.09.002.pdf
Planned Parenthood Federation of America | January 2019 2
• In a study of community health centers (CHCs), over two-thirds (69%) reported referring their patients to
family planning providers, like Planned Parenthood health centers, for family planning care.
2
• Planned Parenthood health centers serve more contraceptive clients than any other publicly funded health
care provider, serving 32 percent of all contraceptive patients, even though Planned Parenthood health
centers comprise just 6 percent of the provider network.
3
• The average FQHC site offering contraceptive care serves 320 contraceptive patients in a year. The average
Planned Parenthood health center serves 2,950 contraceptive patients in a year. That’s more than nine times
as many contraceptive patients each year.
4
• Many FQHC sites do not offer reproductive care. In fact, in 2015, 40 percent of FQHC locations provided
contraceptive care to fewer than 10 patients. In stark contrast, nearly all Planned Parenthood health centers
offer the full range of contraceptive method options, compared to only 52 percent of FQHC sites.
5
• In 57 percent of counties with a Planned Parenthood health center, Planned Parenthood serves at least
half of contraceptive patients seeking care at publicly funded providers. In 26 percent of the counties with
a Planned Parenthood health center, Planned Parenthood serves five times as many contraceptive patients
as FQHCs.
6
Blocking people from accessing family planning and preventive care at
Planned Parenthood health centers comes at too high a cost. Without Planned
Parenthood, many people would have nowhere else to turn for care. Those who
already face barriers to accessing health care – especially people of color,
people with low incomes, as well as people who live in rural areas — would be
impacted the most.
• The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that 360,000 women would completely lose access to care if
Congress were to block all Medicaid patients from accessing care at Planned Parenthood health centers.
7
• The CBO also projected that permanently barring Planned Parenthood health centers from participating
in federal programs would result in a net cost of $130 million to taxpayers over 10 years, due to an increase
in unintended pregnancies without the high-quality contraceptive care Planned Parenthood provides.
8
It is
estimated Planned Parenthood health centers prevent nearly 400,000 unintended pregnancies each year.
• When Texas eliminated Planned Parenthood from its state family planning program, researchers found
women had reduced access to the full range of contraceptive methods and likely experienced higher
rates of unintended pregnancy. Specifically, researchers found a 35 percent decline in women using the
most effective methods of birth control and a dramatic 27 percent spike in births among women who had
previously used injectable contraception.
9
2 Wood, Susan, et al. (2013). “Health Centers and Family Planning: Results of a Nationwide Study,” Washington, DC: George Washington University.
3 Hasstedt,Kinsey.(2017).“FederallyQualiedHealthCenters:VitalSourcesofCare,NoSubstitutefortheFamilyPlanningSafetyNet,”GuttmacherInstitute.[Online.]
https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/les/article_les/gpr2006717_0.pdf
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 CongressionalBudgetOfce.(2017).“CongressionalBudgetOfceCostEstimate:AmericanHealthCareAct.”March13,2017.[Online.]https://www.cbo.gov/system/
les/115th-congress-2017-2018/costestimate/americanhealthcareact.pdf
8 LetterfromKeithHall,DirectorofCBO,toRepresentativeKevinMcCarthy,MajorityLeader,U.S.HouseofRepresentatives.(2015,September22).[Online]https://www.cbo.
gov/sites/default/les/114th-congress-2015-2016/costestimate/ltrpermanentdefundplannedparenthood.pdf
9 Stevenson,AmandaJ,etal.(2016).“EffectofRemovalofPlannedParenthoodfromtheTexasWomen’sHealthProgram,”NewEnglandJournalofMedicine.2016;374:853-860
Planned Parenthood Federation of America | January 2019 3
• Following the closure of Planned Parenthood health centers in Wisconsin and Texas, researchers found that
an increase of 100 miles to the nearest health center resulted in a 6 percent decrease in women obtaining
breast exams, and a 9 percent decrease in women accessing Pap tests.
10
The public health community has been clear – community health centers (CHCs)
cannot absorb Planned Parenthood’s patients. Blocking patients from coming
to Planned Parenthood would cause a national health care disaster, with many
completely losing access to the timely health care they need.
• “... [FQHCs] cannot be expected to deliver contraceptive care to the large numbers of women who currently
rely on Planned Parenthood or other Title X-supported providers. In fact to suggest otherwise willfully
oversimplifies the considerable challenges FQHCs would face in doing so, and ignore how these proposals
put millions of U.S. women at very real risk of being unable to obtain the basic care they need.” – The
Guttmacher Institute
• The head of the American Public Health Association, called the proposal to defund Planned Parenthood
and redirect funding to FQHCs “ludicrous.” – Dr. Georges Benjamin, president, American Public Health
Association, USA Today
• “Proponents of Planned Parenthood defunding often assert that other providers will fill the gap.
They are wrong.” – Hal Lawrence, Executive Vice President & CEO, American Congress of Obstetricians
and Gynecologists & Debra Ness, president, National Partnership for Women & Families, Annals of
Internal Medicine
• “To assume that health centers are in a position to fill the void left by barring a health care provider of
Planned Parenthood’s importance to Medicaid beneficiaries … is simply wrong.” – Sara Rosenbaum,
George Washington University, Health Affairs
• “The AMA cannot support provisions that prevent Americans from choosing to receive care from physicians
and other qualified providers, in this specific case, those associated with Planned Parenthood affiliates, for
otherwise covered services.” - The American Medical Association
10 Lu,Yao,etal.(2014).“TheImpactofFamilyPlanningFundingCutsonPreventiveCare,”PrincetonUniversity,CenterforHealthandWellbeing.[Online.]https://chw.princeton.
edu/publications/working-papers