Despite laws claiming to restrict abortion, many so-called “pro-life” states remain fertile ground for Planned Parenthood’s operations and profits, according to new research released this month by the American Life League (ALL).
The data suggest that political labels may be misleading when it comes to actual protections for preborn life, according to Katie Brown Xavios, national director of ALL, who challenged the common narrative surrounding state abortion laws.
“I’ve heard life-advocates celebrate over states that have laws intended to protect preborn life at conception,” she said in an Aug. 18 press release from ALL. “And yet those same states have active Planned Parenthood facilities and readily accessible abortion services. Despite legislative intentions, preborn babies are being aborted at record numbers in these so-called pro-life states. To call a state in which that happens ‘pro-life’ is both a myth and a travesty.”
According to ALL’s findings, even states with some of the strictest abortion laws, such as Texas, Florida, and Indiana, continue to allow a network of Planned Parenthood facilities. While often labeled “pro-life,” these states maintain legal frameworks — including broad exceptions — that have not prevented abortion providers from operating or profiting.
Texas, for example, still hosts 29 locations — more than any state aside from California (106), New York (47), and Washington (30). Florida and Indiana maintain more centers than many states that openly support or permit abortion.
Mississippi stands out as the only state without a Planned Parenthood presence.
Financial data tell a similar story. Eleven Planned Parenthood affiliates operating in states often labeled pro-life bring in an average of $41.2 million annually. That figure nearly matches the $43.3 million average income across 41 affiliates in states that support or permit abortion.
According to ALL’s report, Planned Parenthood’s Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky affiliate earns $85.4 million, with more facilities located in “pro-life” states than in those that are not.
Katherine Van Dyke, the lead researcher behind the project, said the gap between rhetoric and reality remains wide.
“No state in America is abortion free,” she said in the release. “Even those states that enforce heartbeat laws still allow hundreds of thousands of preborn babies to be put to death in the weeks before their heartbeat is detectable and through exceptions post six-weeks’ gestation.”
She noted that Florida, despite its six-week abortion law, includes multiple exceptions that allow abortion beyond that limit. These include provisions for cases such as rape, incest, human trafficking, fetal abnormalities, and threats to the mother’s life or health.
“Planned Parenthood continues to profit,” he said, “more so in some so-called ‘pro-life states’ than in those openly promoting and supporting abortion.”
Xavios argued that as long as legal loopholes remain for some states, pro-life protections will be undermined.
“The exceptions are the cracks that entities like Planned Parenthood prey on, and allow them to perform numerous abortions all while lawmakers can tout a ‘pro-life state,’” she said. “Babies condemned to the exception clause matter just as much as every other child, and until states seek to protect every single pre-born baby, they should not get to call themselves a pro-life state.”
>> Pro-life group starts tracking Planned Parenthood closures nationwide <<
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Author: Rachel Quackenbush
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