[16] The origins of Planned Parenthood date to October 16, 1916, when Margaret Sanger, her sister Ethel Byrne, and Fania Mindell opened the first birth control clinic in the U.S. in the Brownsville section of the New York borough of Brooklyn.

[24] In 1923, Sanger opened the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau (BCCRB) for dispensing contraceptives under the supervision of licensed physicians and studying their effectiveness.

By the end of World War II, the Federation was no longer solely a center for birth control services or a clearing house for contraceptive information but had emerged as a major national health organization.

The leadership of the PPFA, largely consisting of businessmen and male physicians, endeavored to incorporate its contraceptive services unofficially into regional and national public health programs by emphasizing less politicized aspects such as child spacing.

[25] During the 1950s, the Federation further adjusted its programs and message to appeal to a family-centered, more conservative post-war populace, while continuing to function, through its affiliated clinics, as the more reliable source of contraceptives in the country.

[31] During his tenure, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the sale of the original birth control pill, giving rise to new attitudes towards women's reproductive freedom.

[34] In the years that followed, the organization played a key role in landmark abortion rights cases such as Roe v Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v Casey (1992).

[35][36] During her term, Planned Parenthood grew to become the seventh largest charity in the country, providing services to four million clients each year through its 170 affiliates, whose activities were spread across 50 states.

Feldt also launched the Responsible Choices Action Agenda, a nationwide campaign to increase services to prevent unwanted pregnancies, improve the quality of reproductive care, and ensure access to safe and legal abortions.

[46] In October 2021, a hacker gained access to the data network of the Los Angeles branch of Planned Parenthood and obtained the personal information of approximately 400,000 patients.

In the first year, it was awarded to four men: Carl G. Hartman, William Henry Draper Jr., Lyndon B. Johnson, and Martin Luther King Jr.[48][49][50][51] Later recipients have included John D. Rockefeller III, Katharine Hepburn, Jane Fonda, Hillary Clinton, and Ted Turner.

[55] Services provided by PPFA include birth control and long-acting reversible contraception;[56] emergency contraception; clinical breast examinations; cervical cancer screening; pregnancy testing and pregnancy options counseling; prenatal care; testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections; sex education; vasectomies; LGBT services; and abortion.

[79] Among specific countries and territories serviced by Planned Parenthood Global's reproductive planning outreach are Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Dominican Republic, Barbados, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guadeloupe, Saint Martin, Guyana, Cape Verde and Samoa.

[80] Nixon described Title X funding as based on the premise that "no American woman should be denied access to family planning assistance because of her economic condition.

3762 (Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015) which would have prohibited Planned Parenthood from receiving any federal Medicaid funds for one year.

[113][114] To justify this position, Planned Parenthood has cited the case of Becky Bell, who died following an illegal abortion rather than seek parental consent for a legal one.

[115][116] Planned Parenthood also takes the position that laws requiring parental notification before an abortion can be performed on a minor are unconstitutional on privacy grounds.

The ultimate ruling was split, and Roe v. Wade was narrowed but upheld in an opinion written by Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony Kennedy, and David Souter.

[148] In 2006, Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, a Republican, released some sealed patient records obtained from Planned Parenthood to the public.

His actions were described as "troubling" by the state Supreme Court, but Planned Parenthood was compelled to turn over the medical records, albeit with more stringent court-mandated privacy safeguards for the patients involved.

[148] In 2007 Kline's successor, Paul J. Morrison, a Democrat, notified the clinic that no criminal charges would be filed after a three-year investigation, as "an objective, unbiased and thorough examination" showed no wrongdoing.

[160][161] As part of her efforts to promote birth control, however, Sanger found common cause with proponents of eugenics, believing that she and they both sought to "assist the race toward the elimination of the unfit".

[165][166][note 2] Essayist Katha Pollitt and Sanger biographer Ellen Chesner criticized Planned Parenthood for succumbing to pressure from the anti-abortion movement.

[179] No criminal convictions resulted,[180] but some Planned Parenthood employees and volunteers were fired for not following procedure, and the organization committed to retraining its staff.

Officials in twelve states initiated investigations into claims made by the videos, but none found Planned Parenthood clinics to have sold tissue for profit as alleged by CMP and other anti-abortion groups.

The charges against Daleiden and Merritt in Texas were dismissed six months later on the grounds that the grand jury's indictment authority had extended only to Planned Parenthood.

[186][187] Planned Parenthood clinics have been the target of many instances of violence by anti-abortion activists, including but not limited to bombing, arson and attacks with chemical weaponry.

[199] In 1994, John Salvi entered a Brookline, Massachusetts Planned Parenthood clinic and opened fire, murdering receptionist Shannon Elizabeth Lowney and wounding three others.

During his arrest, he gave a "rambling" interview[207] in which, at one point, he said "no more baby parts", echoing language used in the news media about the clinic following the Center for Medical Progress videos.

[208][209][210] Dear was declared incompetent to stand trial for the shooting, citing experts' finding that he has "delusional disorder, persecutory type" and is now confined indefinitely to a state mental hospital.