The Guttmacher Institute is a non-profit organization which works to advance reproductive health as defined by the World Health Organization. The institute operates in the United States and globally "through an interrelated program of social science research, policy analysis and public education."[1] According to their mission statement, this program aims to "generate new ideas, encourage enlightened public debate, promote sound policy and program development and, ultimately, inform individual decision making."[1]
The Guttmacher Institute has played a leading role in the movement for women's sexual and reproductive rights since the institute's inception in 1968, when it was founded as the "Center for Family Planning Program Development", a semiautonomous division of The Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The Center was renamed in memory of Alan Guttmacher, an Ob/Gyn and former president of Planned Parenthood, and the Guttmacher Institute became an independent, not-for-profit corporation in 1977.[2] Guttmacher's nearly four decades of experience claims to demonstrate that scientific evidence — when reliably collected and analyzed, compellingly presented and systematically disseminated — can make a difference in policies, programs, and medical practice.
The institute has offices in both New York City and Washington, D.C. As of 2005, it has an annual revenue of $7.9 million and expenses of $9.1 million, with an asset reserve of $15.6 million dollars.[3] The institute produces two peer reviewed periodicals, International Family Planning Perspectives and Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, in addition to a third periodical on public policy, The Guttmacher Policy Review.[4]
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