Today, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on its investigation into federal funding of Planned Parenthood.
The GAO investigated six different abortion-associated organizations, but Planned Parenthood was given the most taxpayer dollars, by far. The total handed to the organizations by federal and state governments was $1.7 billion, from 2010-2012. Planned Parenthood received the lion’s share, coming in at a stunning $1.5 billion in a mere three years.
Day after day, taxpayers are forced to fund America’s abortion giant with the hard-earned money from their own pockets. Planned Parenthood’s grand total of $1.5 billion in three years comes out to $500 million each year and over $1.36 million every single day.
Should taxpayers be forced to give a single cent – much less $1.36 million every day – to an organization that commits over 300,000 abortions every year? In comparison to the 1,880 adoption referrals Planned Parenthood listed in its own 2013-2014 annual report, Planned Parenthood reported 327,653 abortions. In fact, 94 percent of Planned Parenthood’s pregnancy related services for mothers consist of abortion.
Planned Parenthood can easily focus on abortion, its cash cow, because taxpayers are forced to fund the organization that performs roughly 40 percent of our nation’s abortions. Roughly 41 percent of Planned Parenthood’s yearly budget comes from taxpayer dollars, and Planned Parenthood rakes in $170 million a year (by conservative estimates) from abortions.
Alliance Defending Freedom Litigation Counsel Catherine Glenn Foster responded to the GAO’s report:
“The government should use the tax dollars of Americans responsibly, but this report confirms overwhelmingly that it has not.
“It’s bad enough that the government is funneling the hard-earned money of Americans to pay for elective abortions, contrary to what federal law is supposed to allow, but as ADF has reported annually to Congress, Planned Parenthood and other organizations have bilked taxpayers out of millions through waste, abuse, and potential fraud.
That’s why Congress has been investigating Planned Parenthood, why some members of Congress have proposed additional legislation to help stop the funding stream, and why ADF will continue its fight in court against Planned Parenthood’s misuse of tax dollars in multiple lawsuits, including Thayer v. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland.”
Congressman Tim Huelskamp responded:
Sixteen months ago, I joined seventy-one fellow Members of Congress to demand a Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation into how Planned Parenthood, the largest abortionist in the world, uses our tax dollars.
Last week, GAO finally completed their investigation and confirmed much of what we already knew – massive amounts of taxpayer dollars are being pocketed by a group that is snuffing out the lives of nearly 900 babies every day.
Handing over 500 million tax dollars annually to a group of abortionists rife with abuses, including fraudulent Medicaid claims, cover-up of rape and incest, and violations of the Hyde Amendment is not only controversial – it is immoral.
Clearly, we have even more to uncover when it comes to Planned Parenthood.
