More budgetary fireworks from the abortion industry. Will they flame out? June 24 was the third anniversary of the Supreme Court’s controversial abortion ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, re-vesting the states with the power to regulate the procedures. Many feared the decision would spell the end of abortion in America.
The nation’s leading abortion business executive,
Alexis McGill Johnson, CEO of Planned Parenthood, fears the passage of the "Big Beautiful" federal budget threatens 200 of their locations.
But the demise of the abortion industry will not be in the anti-abortion stars, the Supreme Court, the federal budget, or even state abortion restrictions. The fault, dear reader, will be their own.
How is it that abortion numbers can be up 10% while abortion businesses close even in abortion sanctuary states like New York? Since Roe v Wade was overturned in June of 2022, 105 abortion clinics closed and only 29 of them were in states that ban the procedures.
Money problems they say. But if abortion demand is up, why isn’t it raining cash for abortionists in states that protect it?
Full disclosure: I am "pro-life," believing all people are fully and equally human at the moment of fertilization and ought to be protected under law according to both the Fifth (no deprivation of life without due process of law) and the 14th (equal protection under the law) amendments to the Constitution.
I believe that the Declaration of Independence carries the seed of a truly blind justice system when it says that “all people are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.”
I believe the right enumerated first in America’s founding Declaration of sovereign existence is not just first in order but also first in importance: Life.
It should go without saying that all other rights, however defined, presume upon the foundation and protection of this prime right. Life is the true sine qua non of whatever other right one may ascribe to liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
And so, when government fabricates a right, such as a woman’s right to abortion, inherently interfering with another person’s inalienable right to life (such as a preborn baby’s), it is, as Justice Alito would say, “on a collision course with the Constitution.”
And while I think closing an abortion business is a net gain for society, how could money be the reason? Let’s just for the moment assume the cynical view that the use of medical technology for the destruction of nascent life is healthcare and that abortion clinics are not harming women by engaging in serial medical malpractice.
Perhaps the abortion industry set sail down a river of cash that is simply drying up?
If so, it is odd that even Planned Parenthood’s flagship clinic in Manhattan is claiming financial pressure as the reason for their closure. How could this be if New York Gov. Hochul earmarked over $100 million for abortionists in 2024 while Planned Parenthood of Greater New York reportedly received over $24 million in grants for that same year?
Even a recent New York Times exposé reveals, “Planned Parenthood of New York City was one of the strongest affiliates. It had wealthy donors, celebrity-filled fund-raisers and a State Legislature that supported abortion rights and paid some of the highest state Medicaid reimbursement rates in the country.”
There are a couple of glaring faults with the abortion industry’s business model. One clue is the abuse of funds to overpay executives who rake in more than three times the average nonprofit executive.
Further, the Times article on Planned Parenthood pointed out that the group, “spends the majority of the money … on the legal and political fight.”
Money follows morality. If you want to find out what someone values, look at where they spend their money.
How the nonprofit abortion giant gets its money is also an indicator of a flawed business model. The abortion industry is a case of too many eggs in one basket.
Abortion has never really been a grassroots-supported initiative, unlike Pregnancy Resource Centers. Pregnancy Resource Centers are a true example of thrift and compassion, not only outnumbering abortion businesses, but historically getting little to no government money to provide women with nearly $400 million worth of free medical care, etc.
On the contrary, payment for services rendered, plus nearly one billion dollars in opulent government grants, are not enough to keep the voracious abortion business satiated. Without government money propping them up, abortion businesses wither on the vine.
And now that the government money spigot is shut off in the short-term — and likely for the long-term. With the “Big, Beautiful” budget pending, the abortion giant can’t develop a revenue stream that large that fast.
To survive, they need to make pre-emptive and deep cuts while diversifying services. Perhaps that is one reason for the introduction of their new experimental transgender hormone therapy product line, likely the largest in the nation?
In a hurry to protect abortion, the industry stupidly flooded the market with cheap and easy-to-get DIY chemical abortion, revealing they were less concerned about women’s health and more concerned about their bank accounts.
Supply outpaced demand. And now, cheap yet dangerous chemical abortion, sending 1 in 10 women to the ER, increased from 39% of all U.S. abortions in 2017 to 63% by 2023. Expensive surgical abortion clinics, ensconced in minority communities, apparently failed to adapt their business model to changing laws and market demand.
Say what you will about the morality of the abortion industry, they certainly cannot be lauded for their business acumen. And most obvious and worst of all, the abortion industry has always carried with it the seeds of its own demise.
After all, the very practice of abortion by definition erases the industry’s future customer base. But then, perhaps that was always their eugenic goal?
The Rev. Jim Harden is CEO of CompassCare, an anti-abortion medical network based in Buffalo, New York. He is married with 10 children. Recently his medical center was firebombed by anti-abortion activists. Read more of his reports — Here.