Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood is an organization committed to providing access to sexual and reproductive health education and services throughout the world. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), often referred to simply as Planned Parenthood, began with the work of American birth-control advocate Margaret Sanger, who opened the first birth-control clinic in New York in 1916 and founded the American Birth Control League in 1921. Sanger was committed to making contraceptive information and devices available to women and also helped secure funding for new research that led to the development of oral contraceptives (or “the Pill”) in the early 1960s. Although Planned Parenthood thus traces its own history back to the early 20th century, Sanger's activist and research organizations merged to officially operate under the name Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1942. Sanger served as president of PPFA until 1962.

The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) was founded in 1952 out of the Third International Conference on Planned Parenthood in Bombay, India. IPPF is now based in the United Kingdom, with regional offices in Kenya, Tunisia, Belgium, India, Malaysia, and New York City. Representatives from each of these regions form the decision-making board, or Governing Council, of IPPF. In addition to the IPPF's Western Hemisphere program offices in the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean, the PPFA operates as the U.S. affiliate of the IPPF. The IPPF is a nongovernmental organization that receives both government and private funding to operate sexual education and family-planning clinics in close to 200 countries. The IPPF has also had a voice in international commissions, such as those organized by the United Nations and the World Health Organization, to address issues related to population control, development, children's issues, public health, and women's [Page 1107]rights. Challenged by conservative politicians and the Catholic Church throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the IPPF lost as much as 20 percent of its funding under former U.S. President George Bush's 2001 policy that prevented U.S. funds to any international nongovernmental organization providing abortion services; this policy was reversed by President Barack Obama in 2009, and funding was restored.

Both IPPF and PPFA have been at the center of controversies and court cases involving primarily abortion rights and services. In its more than 800 clinics in the United States alone, Planned Parenthood offers a range of sexual and reproductive health services for both men and women, including pregnancy testing; birth control information and prescriptions; surgical sterilization; prevention, testing, and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases; HIV tests; Pap tests; breast exams; and other cancer screenings. Planned Parenthood has also become a clearinghouse for information and education about sexuality, about sexual orientation and gender identity, and about body image and other social and psychological issues.

Still, for many people, Planned Parenthood remains synonymous with abortion services, and PPFA has been at the forefront of pro-choice campaigns to influence or challenge legislation that limits abortion rights and access. Since the 1980s, Planned Parenthood has been a critic (and often target) of antiabortion activists, including staged protests outside of clinics and even violence directed at clinics and abortion providers. Planned Parenthood has also been involved in several court cases regarding abortion, arguing against attempted legislative restrictions such parental or spousal consent, mandatory waiting periods, restrictions on doctors providing abortion information to patients, or violating the privacy and free-speech rights of both patients and doctors who perform abortions by publicizing medical and personal information.

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