The grim numbers are in and, according to its latest annual report, abortion giant Planned Parenthood killed a record number of pre-born babies via abortion during its fiscal year (FY) 2017.

For the operating year running from October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017, Planned Parenthood performed a total of 332,757 abortions, an increase of 11,373 of the murderous procedures it was responsible for in 2016 and the most abortions it has performed annually since 2012. The latest reporting means that during FY 2017 Planned Parenthood performed an average of 911 abortions each day.

Additionally, the report shows that in the year ending June 30, 2018, Planned Parenthood reaped a total of $563.8 million in government funding, an increase of $20.1 million above the $543.7 million in government revenue it received the year before.

While Planned Parenthood has tried to downplay its abortion role and rebrand itself as a women’s healthcare provider, as reported previously by The New American, the group’s president, Leana Wen, confirmed the central role of the killing of pre-born babies in Planned Parenthood’s business model. “Our core mission is providing, protecting, and expanding access to abortion and reproductive health care,” declared Wen in response to an article suggesting that she was trying to distance Planned Parenthood from its traditional role as America’s chief abortionist. “We will never back down from that fight.”

Numbers from the Centers for Disease Control confirmed Planned Parenthood’s leadership in America’s abortion culture, noting that the business provided nearly one-half of all abortions in the U.S. during FY 2017. By contrast, it referred only around three thousand pregnant women for adoption services during the same period, approximately one thousand less than it did during the previous reporting year.

Responding to the latest numbers, Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life of America observed that “the big business of abortion is evident in this report, as Planned Parenthood turned a profit of nearly $250 million, a 150 percent increase, according to its own accounts. While Planned Parenthood pushes talking points about healthcare, the fact remains that Planned Parenthood is the nation’s number one abortion vendor, profiting by violently ending life."

Hawkins added, however, that “pregnancy is not a disease cured by abortion. Women deserve real, life-affirming care, and taxpayers deserve a return on their investment that helps women and their children, born and pre-born.”

Another pro-life leader, Abby Johnson, who used to oversee a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic, recalled that “when I worked at Planned Parenthood managing a clinic in Texas, abortion was always encouraged because it made the most money. Nothing has changed. One of the more glaring aspects of the report is not only how flush with the cash they are (over $1.4 billion in revenue), but how politically active a supposed healthcare organization should reasonably be. The report brags about their activism while at the same time telling the media over the past year that healthcare is not political.”

The good news, according to Marjorie Dannenfelser of the pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List, is that in spite of the record number of abortions and the $1.46 million in income it reported, Planned Parenthood continues to experience a steady decline in its customer base for non-abortion services, along with the closure of many of its facilities across the nation.

“Planned Parenthood’s business model is sinking faster than the Titanic,” said Dannenfelser. “Despite record income, non-abortion services are in decline, clients are abandoning them in droves, and dozens of facilities have closed.”

She added that the most recent report “barely scratches the surface of the abortion giant’s troubles as it faces federal investigation for its role in the grotesque harvest and sale of aborted babies’ body parts for profit.”

Meanwhile, even as pro-abortion Democrats have taken control of the U.S. House of Representatives, pro-life U.S. senators have re-introduced legislation that would bar federal funding from reaching Planned Parenthood.

Senator James Lankford, one of the sponsors of the measure, said the bill would ensure that women “have numerous options to receive quality and affordable health care while preventing federal dollars from going to Planned Parenthood. By redirecting federal dollars away from abortion-providers and shifting them to thousands of other eligible women’s health care providers that do not perform abortions but do provide critical screenings and health care, we can ensure taxpayers do not have to choose between valuing life and protecting women's health care.”

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