ARTICLES

An Abortion Every Hour

Business is Booming at Planned Parenthood Abortion Clinics

By Bob McPhail

Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties performed 9,196 abortions in 2000, according to state records. That's more than 25 abortions a day, and slightly over one abortion every hour of every day when averaged over the 365 days in a year.

The abortion totals come from statistics collected every year by the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. The latest report available contains statistics for the year 2000.

State officials were at first reluctant to provide the abortion statistics but relented when News Notes hired an attorney and threatened a lawsuit under the California Public Records Act. The report was originally obtained from the state in February, but all information about abortions had been deleted. I contacted the state health agency on March 1 to inquire about the deleted information and was told that, as a matter of policy, the abortion statistics were not available to the public. A state statistician said the abortion information was "non-public data" available only to persons with "legitimate reasons."

On March 25, News Notes hired Nick Sauer, a Solana Beach attorney who has a record of success in First Amendment law. On March 28, Sauer wrote Diane Dargan, chief of state health information resources, requesting an unexpurgated report. Dargan referred the matter to state attorneys. During the week of April 8, Sauer exchanged phone calls with the attorneys. He told them that, if the case were to go to court, the state would lose. "They had already given the information up to the Guttmacher Institute," he said. "I went over the Public Records Act with them. I told them, "You can't selectively distribute this information.' And I advised them that, if we had to go to court, we would be seeking attorney's fees."

On April 17, state attorneys told Sauer that, after considering his arguments, state officials had agreed to make the records available in their entirety. "They told me they didn't understand why our request had been denied in the first place," said Sauer. The records, contained on computer diskettes, were mailed from Sacramento on April 18.

In San Diego County, most abortions were performed at Planned Parenthood's clinics in Encinitas and Mission Valley. In Encinitas, 3306 abortions were performed, including one in the category 12 years old and under. At the Mission Valley clinic, 3873 abortions were performed.

Planned Parenthood reported that it employed a total of 2.4 full-time physicians between the two clinics. Since state law requires that every abortion be performed by a licensed physician, that means that each Planned Parenthood doctor would have had to perform an average of 2991 abortions during the calendar year. The state defines a full-time physician as working 2080 hours a year -- 40 hours a week for 52 weeks. If you apply that formula to Planned Parenthood's 2.4 physicians at its San Diego abortion clinics, that translates to 57.5 abortions per week per doctor -- or 11.5 abortions each day of the work week per doctor.

And both the Encinitas and Mission Valley clinics are devoted to performing abortions and little else, according to the state report. While performing 3873 abortions, the Mission Valley clinic reported that it provided "family planning services" for only 40 patients, and treated 24 patients for sexually-transmitted diseases. At the Encinitas clinic, more than 62 percent of all patients who visited the clinic went there for an abortion.

Both clinics also reported operating losses for the year. At the Mission Valley clinic, expenses exceeded revenues by $119,960. Salaries accounted for $687,189 of the expenses at Mission Valley. The clinic in Encinitas reported a loss of $138,632. Big-ticket expenses included $559,578 in salaries and $75,730 for rent.

Planned Parenthood also operates two abortion clinics in Riverside County -- one in Riverside, the other in Rancho Mirage. The Riverside clinic reported 1859 abortions in 2000; the Rancho Mirage clinic reported 158. Both of those clinics also reported operating losses exceeding $100,000 -- with salaries accounting for more than $1 million of total expenses. Between the two clinics there were 1.25 full-time physicians -- an average of 1613 abortions per doctor per year, or 31 abortions a week by each doctor.

Also reporting abortions in 2000, according to state records, were the following San Diego County clinics: Carlsbad Family Medicine at 3050 Madison St. in Carlsbad reported 80 abortions; Community Surgery Center at 17190 Bernardo Center Drive in San Diego reported 19 abortions; and Pomerado Outpatient Surgical Center at 15525 Pomerado Road in Poway reported three abortions.

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