According to its latest report, Planned Parenthood affiliates around the country performed 345,672 abortions in the 2018-19 fiscal year ending June 30, a three percent increase from 332,757 abortions in the previous fiscal year.  The organization performed 321,384 abortions in the 2016-17 fiscal year, CNA reports.

The organization still received $616.8 million in government funding in 2018-19—a rise of more than eight percent from the $563.8 million it received in 2017-18.

Despite previous House Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, the necessary votes to do so never accumulated in the Senate. The organization and its affiliates receive federal dollars in the form of Medicaid reimbursements.

Accrding to CNA, in 2019, the Trump administration finalized the “Protect Life Rule” mandating that recipients of federal Title X family planning funds not be co-located with abortion clinics, and not refer for abortions, in the spirit of the program’s original intent not to fund abortion as a method of family planning.

The report’s release comes just ahead of the annual March for Life in Washington, DC, on Jan. 24. The annual event marks the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion accross the country in 1974. Last year, more than 25,000 people attended the march and subsequent rally on the National Mall.

See full article here.

Photo by Maria Oswalt on Unsplash