Planned Parenthood has long insisted that its mission is to “educate and empower communities, provide quality health care, [and] lead the reproductive rights movement,” decrying its reputation decrying its reputation as first and foremost the largest abortion provider in the country. The organization even professes disinterest in clients’ ultimate choices regarding pregnancy (parenting, abortion, or adoption, presented in that order) saying rather that it simply provides education and information on the various options. Planned Parenthood’s own numbers, however, show that it performs more than 82 abortions for every every adoption referral. The reality is that adoption is clearly given short shrift, not only in the numbers, but in emphasis as well.
Check out, for example, the glossary provided on Planned Parenthood’s website. Although the glossary is ostensibly a list of “sexual health terms”, the entries are wide ranging and varied. Terms as general as “abortion,” “marriage,” “deductible,” “infatuation,” “spouse,” and “health insurance premium” are presented alongside every imaginable sexual term, both scientific and slang. Not included in the glossary? Adoption.
The glossary is not the only place “adoption” is difficult to locate among Planned Parenthood’s resources. More than three dozen publications or pamphlets are offered on Planned Parenthood’s online store. A keyword search for “Adoption” returns only one result, a pamphlet entitled “What if I’m Pregnant?” in which adoption is given as one alternative. None of the publications deals with adoption as the primary topic.
A visit to Planned Parenthood’s website to find any information about adoption is something of a seek-and-find exercise. The home page offers four featured “health topics”: STDs, birth control, abortion, and emergency contraception. Clicking on “See more topics” doesn’t reveal adoption either, nor does clicking on the “Learn” tab at the top of the page. Not even the “Our Services” page contains a reference to adoption; it does, however, include “abortion services”, “abortion referrals”, “LGBT Services”, “Pregnancy Testing”, and eight other services.
If one manages to find information about adoption on the website, don’t expect to find a supportive tone. The section on “Considering Adoption”[link to this?] includes a section titled “How does it feel to place a baby for adoption?” Although the site says many who choose adoption are “happy knowing that their child is living with a family who loves and cares for them,” a caution is also given:
The webpage on “considering abortion,” on the other hand, includes no comparable section on “How does it feel to have an abortion?” only mentioning that it is “totally normal to have many different feelings and thoughts when making this decision.” “Grief” is not mentioned. The warning given here is not about abortion at all, but rather about the dangers of Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs):
The link goes to a post on Planned Parenthood’s Tumblr containing an infantile and malevolent attack on CPCs:
Despite Planned Parenthood’s apparent ambivalence toward adoption, the organization’s own figures indicate the option is gaining in popularity among its clients. In 2009, the annual report placed the number of adoption referrals at 977. The most recent annual report, covering the 2016-17 fiscal year, shows that figure had increased to 3,889. It seems even among those who choose Planned Parenthood, an increasing number are choosing life and choosing adoption.
