Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, the largest affiliate in the nation, is blaming the Trump Administration for its $100 million annual deficit. Despite California having appropriated more than $230 million since the One Big Beautiful Bill’s defunding provisions were signed into law last July, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte has a new strategy to restore revenue streams: Botox.
While Mar Monte is the first to bring beauty spa services into their abortion clinics, other Planned Parenthood affiliates will likely do the same, especially if federal defunding is extended under a second reconciliation package in the coming months.
But if offering abortion—practically until birth—in the next room is not already deterrent enough to look elsewhere for your beauty treatment, Planned Parenthood’s safety record should be.
Just over a year ago, the New York Times, known for its favorable reporting of abortion, delivered an exposé entitled “Botched Care and Tired Staff: Planned Parenthood in Crisis.” A misplaced IUD in California, a failed abortion in New York and an accidental stillbirth in Nebraska were just some of the stories women told of their experiences with the abortion chain.
Whereas Planned Parenthood wanted to blame its second-class care on a lack of funding, its record of inexcusable harm to women started even before federal lawmakers defunded Medicaid reimbursements. Unfortunately, this is par for the course with Planned Parenthood.
This past November, a woman was reportedly left on the doorstep of a Planned Parenthood in Chicago following her abortion. Eyewitness accounts submitted to our team at the Center for Client Safety noted obvious signs of medical distress, the woman holding her abdomen in pain and nearly passing out. Clearly, this woman was in no condition to be released from medical care following her abortion, much less manage contacting emergency care services on her own.
Surely, Planned Parenthood cannot believe this is an acceptable “standard of care.” Why aren’t these cases investigated by mainstream media?
Our team most recently received a complaint regarding improper disposal of biomedical waste at a Planned Parenthood in Michigan. A biomedical waste bag was discovered alongside worn medical gloves, bloodied gauze and a used cannula at the public right of way outside this clinic.
Biomedical waste laws are strict for a reason, even for abortion facilities. In this case, negligent disposal of this waste exposed passersby to potential pathogens and dangerous medical tools—a public health nightmare. Members of these communities should be rightly concerned, regardless of their personal stance on abortion.
Attempting to trivialize abortion by turning half the clinic into a medical spa is not going to cover up the many practice violations committed by Planned Parenthood affiliates.
Beneath every complaint against Planned Parenthood is the ugly truth that the politicization of abortion has allowed clinics to dodge the health and safety standards of any other medical practice. In fact, many abortion clinics are unlicensed, as permitted by their state’s law and regulatory code.
Currently, only 14 states require abortion clinics to be licensed as ambulatory surgical centers. Clinics with this license designation are held to prudential health and safety requirements, including regular inspections by the state and, often, transfer agreements with hospitals for patients needing higher-level care than the clinic can provide.
Where these safeguards are commonplace and would not be questioned for any other clinical setting, pro-abortion groups like Guttmacher have framed these laws as targeted regulation of abortion providers, or “TRAP,” laws. How can these laws be a trap when we expect the same from our primary care providers and urgent care clinics?
Instead, states like California, New York and Illinois have either issued specialized, relaxed licensure for abortion clinics or don’t require licensure altogether. If anything, their campaign to deregulate abortion is the real “trap” for women.
Abortion providers like Planned Parenthood should not be treated as a protected class, invulnerable to the standard of care women should expect.
Every state must pass legislation requiring abortion clinics to be licensed and regularly inspected as ambulatory surgical centers. Lawmakers must take care to ensure the safety of women in their state. Failure to immediately rectify this enforcement gap would mean siding with bad actors who want to continue endangering women for the sake of profit.
The abortion lobby loves leaving women vulnerable.
In Wyoming, state lawmakers attempted to remedy this exact issue by requiring ambulatory surgical center licensure for abortion clinics—and the abortion lobby sued. However, for the sake of women, the state must pass women-first legislation.
As hard as Planned Parenthood might try, its legacy of harm cannot be covered. No amount of Botox will ever be able to revitalize Planned Parenthood’s image.
Christine Smith serves as Director of Investigations for the Center for Client Safety, the enforcement division of Americans United for Life.