Planned Parenthood of New York City (PPNYC) was a local affiliate of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the nation’s largest network of abortion providers and a left-of-center activist organization, that folded into Planned Parenthood of Greater New York in January 2020. ^[1] Like other Planned Parenthood affiliates, PPNYC also provided birth control, sexually transmitted infection treatment, and other services in addition to abortion. ^[2]

PPNYC campaigned against pro-life policies as part of Planned Parenthood’s broader agenda to increase access to and taxpayer funding of abortion and contraception. In February 2019, PPNYC attacked the Trump administration’s change to the Title X family planning program that prevented Title X money from funding providing or promoting abortions. ^[3][4]

In January 2020, PPNYC and four other Planned Parenthood affiliates combined to form Planned Parenthood of Greater New York (PPGNY). PPNYC president Laura McQuade took charge of the new organization. ^[5] In April, McQuade announced that PPGNY would cut up to 28% of its staff and temporarily shut down 12 of its locations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2020, McQuade stepped down after hundreds of employees signed an open letter accusing her of unprofessional conduct and poor management. ^[6]

History

Planned Parenthood of New York City was originally founded as a birth control clinic in the Brooklyn borough in 1916 by eugenicist Margaret Sanger and two other women. In 1923, Sanger launched the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau in Manhattan, and she later merged both organizations with her other major birth control initiative, the American Birth Control League, creating the combined entity known as Planned Parenthood. ^[7]

In 1936, a court ruling legalized the distribution of birth control devices in New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, and allowed PPNYC to start providing one of its primary services. Over the next 30 years, other court rulings and legislation expanded contraceptive access nationwide. In 1970, New York state legalized abortion and Title X became federal law, enabling PPNYC to become a major abortion provider. The Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 further empowered Planned Parenthood to expand abortion services in New York and other states by requiring abortion to be legal in all states. ^[8]

In May 2019, PPNYC announced a plan to merge with four other Planned Parenthood affiliates. ^[9] In January 2020, PPNYC effectively absorbed these affiliates and changed its name to Planned Parenthood of Greater New York (PPGNY) while remaining the same organization for legal and financial purposes. ^[10] The new organization re-uses some of PPNYC’s social media resources such as its YouTube channel, and the URL www.ppnyc.org redirects to the PPGNY site. ^[11]

Services

Abortion, Medical, and LGBT Services

Like other Planned Parenthood affiliates, PPNYC performed abortions by medication or by surgery. ^[12] Other services included the provision of a wide range of birth control methods, women’s health care procedures, and sexually transmitted disease treatments. In October 2019, the organization announced that it would offer transgender hormone therapy^[13]

Project Street Beat

PPNYC operated trucks called “mobile medical units” that offered a variety of free services, including HIV testing and medication, health insurance enrollment, and clean syringes for drug users. PPGNY continues this practice. ^[14]

Political Engagement

PPNYC Votes PAC supported pro-abortion candidates. In 2018, 95% of candidates endorsed by the PAC won their races, including State Senate candidate Andrew Gounardes (D-Brooklyn). ^[15]

Controversies

Margaret Sanger

Margaret Sanger was a Progressive Era eugenicist, “birth control” activist, and founder of Planned Parenthood. She wrote that birth control and abortion would limit the reproduction of the “feeble-minded” and “poverty-stricken classes,” who posed the “greatest present menace to civilization.” Through her work, she sought to “limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective.” ^[16] In a 1923 speech, she said that “we want a world freer, happier, cleaner – we want a race of thoroughbreds.” ^[17]

Throughout her career, Sanger endorsed a variety of extremist causes. In 1914, three radicals attempted to bomb the home of industrialist John D. Rockefeller, but the explosive went off prematurely and killed them. Sanger called their deaths a display of “courage, determination, conviction,” and “a spirit of defiance.” In 1926, Sanger spoke about birth control at a Ku Klux Klan rally in New Jersey. She considered the event a success and received “a dozen invitations to speak to similar groups” afterwards. By 1939, however, Sanger was working with a group of Southern black ministers who promoted her birth control measures as a solution to poverty among the black population. ^[18]

In July 2020, the Margaret Sanger Planned Parenthood center in Manhattan removed its founder’s name following a backlash inspired by the Black Lives Matter demonstrations of the previous two months. Despite previously maintaining that Sanger did not support all aspects of the eugenics movement, the organization reversed course and acknowledged the “overwhelming evidence for Sanger’s deep belief in eugenic ideology.” ^[19]

Marketing and Publicity

In September 2017, luxury women’s-wear brand Proenza Schouler released a short film for PPNYC. It portrays women lying on the ground, exposing themselves, and shaving their heads, while stating that human bodies are “flesh prisons” and that gender is “extremely limiting.” The video attacks the idea of distinct male and female genders and gender roles. ^[20]

In July 2018, PPNYC released a profane ad telling people to “f*ck New York and everyone in it” and “f*ck whoever the f*ck” they want,” encouraging people to be promiscuous and engage in casual sexual relations while supporting PPNYC. ^[21]

Management

In May 2019, at least 10 PPNYC employees wrote letters to the Planned Parenthood Board of Directors condemning organization president Laura McQuade and opposing her selection as future president of PPGNY. The letters questioned her qualifications, criticized her for placing efficiency above quality of care, and accused her of forcing employees to sit through her husband’s insurance sales pitches. ^[22]

In July 2020, the letters resurfaced on the site “Save PPGNY,” where hundreds of self-described current and former employees had signed a new letter demanding McQuade’s resignation. The letter added “abusive behavior” and “financial malfeasance” to the list of accusations against her. ^[23] The PPGNY Board of Directors initially released a statement supporting McQuade, but apologized several days later and announced that she had left the organization. ^{[24] [25]}

Leadership

Laura McQuade served as president of Planned Parenthood of New York City through its merger into Planned Parenthood of Greater New York. In 2017, she left her position as president of Planned Parenthood Great Plains and took over from Joan Malin, who had served as PPNYC president since 2000. ^{[26] [27]} In 2020, she took over the newly-formed PPGNY.

Financials

In 2017, PPNYC made over $61 million and spent over $51 million. The government-funded Medicaid program covered nearly half of the over 51,000 abortions performed by PPNYC and other abortion providers in New York City that year. ^[28] In 2018, the organization made just over $57 million but spent close to $57.5 million. PPNYC’s net assets declined from just over $147 million in 2017 to just over $136 million in 2018. ^[29]

Contributors to PPNYC included major left-progressive foundations like the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation,^[30] abortion-supporting groups like the Society of Family Planning Research Fund,^[31] and donor-advised fund providers like Schwab Charitable. ^[32]