On Monday, the Small Business Administration released the names of more than 650,000 companies that received emergency small business aid due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Among them are 43 Planned Parenthood affiliates.
Each of these affiliates received at least $150,000 with 16 getting between $1-2 million, 16 getting between $2-5 million, three receiving $5-10 million, and eight receiving $350,000-$1 million. In total, Planned Parenthood received between $65.8 million and $135 million, according to LifeSiteNews.
In addition, other pro-abortion organizations received PPP loans as well, including the National Network of Abortion Funds ($350,000-$1 million), National Abortion Federation ($350,000-$1 million), and NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation ($350 – $1 million). Independently owned abortion businesses also received loan money.
The loans were given out as part of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program. Companies who received funds were required to use the money to pay their employees while the businesses were closed down. To qualify, companies had to employ fewer than 500 people. Despite this, multiple private equity-backed businesses received loans, which, if used properly, do not have to be repaid.
Nationally, Planned Parenthood employs more than 16,000 people and was estimated to have received over $80 million in PPP loans with the knowledge that it was, in fact, ineligible for the funds. The corporation has assets totaling over $2 billion. News of Planned Parenthood’s acceptance of funds first broke in May, leading senators to demand answers from the SBA and request that the Department of Justice investigate Planned Parenthood for fraud. The letter to the SBA pointed out that Planned Parenthood had actually complained about being ineligible for the loans, proving that America’s largest abortion corporation stole the money with full knowledge that it did not qualify for it. The SBA asked Planned Parenthood to return the money and said that the abortion giant would fact “severe penalties” if it was found to have made false statements on its loan applications.
READ: Senate to SBA: We want answers about how Planned Parenthood got $80 million in COVID-19 relief
“It has come to our attention that affiliates of Planned Parenthood improperly applied for, and received loans, through the program,” the letter to the SBA stated. “While we appreciate the Small Business Administration’s (“SBA”) efforts to promptly cancel those loans, the circumstances under which they were made merit further investigation of possible wrongdoing.”
In late May, Planned Parenthood defended its choice to take funding for which it did not qualify. Planned Parenthood Federation of America Vice President Jacqueline Ayers said the loans allowed the organization to pay the staff in its health centers so it could “continue to provide patients with essential, time-sensitive sexual and reproductive health care during this crisis.”
What Ayers is speaking about in terms of “time-sensitive… health care” is abortion. Some Planned Parenthood locations shut down during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, while others remained open to offer abortion only despite the low supply of personal protective equipment available for doctors on the front lines of the pandemic. Ignoring the safety of women, Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry has also fought for “no-test” do-it-yourself abortions during the shutdown, putting women’s lives in danger in order to procure profit.
As of yet, Planned Parenthood has failed to return any of the stolen $80 million.
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