Planned Parenthood Los Angeles began in 1939 in the homes of volunteers.

The first birth control facility in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Mothers' Clinic, was opened in 1925 by Dr. Henry Frainerd, who envisioned a health center that would promote and provide birth control materials to women. In 1927, it came under the direction of the County Health Office. The Mother's Clinic was deleted from the county health budget in 1939 and volunteers organized Planned Parenthood as a non-profit agency to carry on the family planning programs that otherwise would have disappeared.

Planned Parenthood Los Angeles health centers were in the homes of volunteers until 1960, when the county again assumed partial responsibility for family planning programs.

The organization known today as Planned Parenthood Los Angeles was founded in April of 1965 to meet the growing need for reproductive health care in Los Angeles County. At the time, there were an estimated 200,000 families of child-bearing years with annual incomes under $4,000, of which only 8,000 were receiving family planning services.

In 1965, oral contraceptives were new and the first IUD had just been released for general use. Abortion was illegal in California, as in the majority of states, and a minor could not receive contraceptive services without parental consent. The tools and resources needed to provide family planning services were limited and the need for them in Los Angeles was enormous.

Today, Planned Parenthood Los Angeles offers the full range of reproductive health care services to teens, women and men throughout Los Angeles County. The county's largest provider of reproductive health care, Planned Parenthood Los Angeles operates 14 health centers and one mobile unit.