Background – U.S. Trends
In 1973, with Roe v. Wade, abortion numbers soared as hospitals, doctor’s offices, and clinics added abortions to what they did. Then they started a downward trend which has mainly been maintained.
Abortion practice became centralized into freestanding facilities. Protests, stigma, and legislation lowered the number of locations that did it as a sideline, leaving only those that concentrate on it. Currently, over 90% of abortions are done in abortion “clinics.” Yet those have also been in a dramatic free-fall for the past few years.
The number of abortion centers spiked in the 1990s at over 2,000, but there are now fewer than 800 in the U.S. This includes both PP and independent centers. However, the number of independent facilities is also declining as PP acquires them and turns them into PP centers. The number of PP centers, whether they do abortions or not, has also declined dramatically, from a height of over 900 to under 600 now.
HOWEVER – the number of PP centers that do abortions has gone up. More centers are taking on the practice (it was around 350 in 2017 and is around 375 now). Currently, PP runs just over half of the abortion facilities in the U.S.; they do over 40% of the abortions.
Several PP centers have more expenses than revenue – that is, they lose money. This became more acute as PP withdrew from the Title X program in August, 2019, due to abortion restrictions they couldn’t abide, and lost around $60 million in taxpayer funding.
As a result, two centers in Cincinnati closed permanently. Yet the rate of PP closures that had been happening for some time actually slowed down. One theory is that PP didn’t want to give an impression that they were succumbing to pro-life pressure, and perhaps the reaction to the Cincinnati closures wasn’t as supportive as they had hoped. They had plenty of money in reserve nationally to keep money-losing centers afloat, if they offered the money to cash-strapped affiliates.
With Covid-19, however, they have a face-saving way of closing the money-losing centers, as shown in this comment on the sudden closure of 11 centers in New York (originally 12, but they reopened one), from the Times Union:
Planned Parenthood of Greater New York has begun laying off and furloughing employees and will temporarily close a dozen of its health centers, citing a strain on resources posed by the corona virus pandemic . . . Former staff told the Times Union the organization was facing significant losses before the pandemic hit and said they believe the crisis gave leadership cover to implement layoffs and closures it had already been planning. The organization did not respond to this allegation, and said only that the pandemic had forced its hand.
How many of the “temporary” closings will become permanent once the crisis is past? We’ll be watching to find out.
Current State of PP with Covid-19
Before March in 2020, there were only a few PP centers listed as “closed until further notice.” Sometimes this was a prelude to closing permanently. Other times, the problem got resolved and the center re-opened. This wasn’t too common, so we simply marked the status under that PP center’s listing.
But with the Covid-19 crisis, temporary closings skyrocketed; at its peak, there were 47 locations.
The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) reported over a fifth of its “static clinics” were closed due to Covid-19, 546 centers as of April 9, 2020. We haven’t yet found any updated information on this since then.
Congress’s CARES act provided a Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses and non-profits with under 500 employees. Though PP was ineligible and knew it, 43 individual regional affiliates applied for loans and got them – something in the range of $65.8 million and $135 million (the figures from the Small Business Administration [SBA] come in categories of loans, which gives ranges rather than precise figures). The SBA caught this and instructed them to return the money; as of February, 2021, it appears this isn’t being pursued.
Impact on Specific U.S. PP Centers
The Flagstaff center temporarily closed by mid-July and re-opened by mid-October.
There had been 10 temporarily closed at the time the Covid-19 crisis started. Five were re-opened, and four were removed from the list of centers immediately and another later. The remainder have now re-opened. A new center was opened in Highland Park, Los Angeles, but the Eagle Rock Center in that city closed.
In mid-April, 2020, 9 of 16 centers were no longer on PP’s list for Connecticut. In mid-May, 2 of them re-appeared. In mid-June, another re-opened. By mid-July, 2 more re-opened. In early August there were 2 more; so 7 of the 9 were only temporarily closed. PP has confirmed the remaining two are closed permanently.
PP of Illinois announced, with much press coverage, that they were consolidating their services to only 6 places, with expanded hours. Therefore, as of March 23, 11 centers were temporarily closed. All but 3 re-opened June 15. Two of those re-opened with shortened hours later.
The Elkart center was open only two days a week, and in July finally “merged” with the Mishawaka center 12 miles away.
Originally temporarily closed: 5 of 16; no reason given, but timing and number suggest Covid-19. In early June, two of those re-opened; soon after, two more re-opened.
Temporarily closed: 3 of 18 centers, attributed to Covid-19. One re-opened by September.
Temporarily closed in March: 4 of 12 centers, attributed to Covid-19. They all re-opened by June 12.
Eleven centers forwarded to “Teleheath” with the affiliate’s page, but later got their pages back and were listed as temporarily closed. One was always listed that way, and another disappeared from the list and is apparently closed permanently. An additional 22 centers of the 46 remaining were limited in service for a time.
The only U.S. center to be a student services center is closed because the university is closed.
Originally temporarily closed: 5 of 21; no reason given, but stated as being until June 30, 2020. Soon thereafter, 2 were re-opened, and 3 were closed until July 31, 2020. Soon thereafter, 1 was re-opened and 2 were closed until August 31, 2020. Within days, 1 more was re-opened, and 1 remains closed until October 31, 2020.
For a time at least, abortions weren’t being scheduled at the one PP center – the only place abortions are done in the state. Travel restrictions keep the provider from coming from Minnesota. The listing never did reflect this, so web research can’t be used to figure out how long this lasted for.
Four centers are temporarily closed without saying why but, timed in April or May; at least three others were temporarily closed but did re-open. One other is closed for renovations. Most of the centers stated they were doing urgent care only.
The one center that had long been referral-only started listing abortion around August, 2020.