Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), a reproductive health care organization dedicated to the principle that every individual has a fundamental right to choose whether or not to have a child.

PPFA has more than 150 affiliates and operates nearly 1000 clinics throughout the United States. It has headquarters in New York City. The more than 20,000 volunteers and staff that work at the organization's centers provide medical and educational services to nearly 5 million people each year. These services include counseling on fertility and pregnancy; screening for cancer and sexually transmitted infections (STIs); treatment for STDs; testing and counseling on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS); sexuality education; parent/child communication programs; and services related to contraception, prenatal care, abortion, and adoption.

PPFA's independent political arm, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, engages in lobbying and electoral activity to help expand and preserve reproductive health and rights for all Americans. In the mid-1990's PPFA established a political action committee to make financial contributions to political campaigns.

PPFA also is involved in international family planning programs. The organization provides support for family planning projects in developing countries through Family Planning International Assistance, a program Planned Parenthood established in 1971. In 1994 PPFA established Global Vision, a program that disseminates information about global population issues. PPFA is a founding member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. This organization, established in 1952, consists of family-planning associations from more than 140 countries.

During the 1990s PPFA has been troubled by internal disagreements over the organization's direction. After Pamela Maraldo became the PPFA president in 1993, she moved to change the emphasis of PPFA from reproductive care to general family medicine. Her efforts caused widespread concern among PPFA affiliates and the board of directors, and in 1995 Maraldo resigned. In 1996 Gloria A. Feldt, a longtime PPFA regional administrator, became president of PPFA. Feldt planned to refocus the PPFA on advocacy of a woman's right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.

PPFA traces its origins to the efforts of Margaret Sanger, an American nurse who worked to give all women access to information on contraception and reproduction. In 1916 Sanger, along with two other women, opened the first birth control clinic in the nation in Brooklyn, New York. Sanger founded the American Birth Control League in 1921, an organization that worked to legalize birth control, and in 1923 she established the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau to provide services related to contraception and to collect data to use in lobbying efforts. In 1939 these two organizations merged to become the Birth Control Federation of America, renamed the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1942.

Reviewed by: Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc.