UPDATE, 5/1/20: Phase 4 of the COVID-19 relief packages was signed into law by President Trump on April 24th and extends the funding available to the Paycheck Protection Program. The administration has ensured that the additional $320 billion dollars for the Small Business Administration to administer in loans to small businesses fall under the same rules for excluding large businesses, including abortion giant Planned Parenthood. A White House official told the Daily Signal, “While each Planned Parenthood affiliate has fewer than 500 employees, nationwide it has over 16,000 employees. So when applying PPP’s affiliation rules neutrally, it’s clear that Planned Parenthood is one large employer and not eligible for PPP money. The interim final rule made crystal clear that an organization with Planned Parenthood’s corporate structure doesn’t qualify.”
3/27/20: Late Friday afternoon, President Trump signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), or “Phase 3” of the coronavirus relief packages, into law. The bipartisan $2.2 trillion COVID-19 relief package passed in the Senate by a unanimous 96-0 vote on Wednesday, followed by a voice vote in the U.S. House Representatives Friday afternoon.
The CARES Act aims to financially assist American families and businesses in the wake of the economic disruption of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic sweeping the nation and world. The Act provides direct cash payments of $1,200 to most American adults, and an additional $500 per child to parents under a certain salary threshold. It also provides up to $350 billion in aid and loans for small businesses to cover payroll and other operational losses from the coronavirus pandemic.
One provision is an Emergency Small Business Loan program with the Small Business Administration (SBA) for businesses and nonprofits with fewer than 500 employees. Under the program, eligible businesses and nonprofits can take up to $10 million in forgivable loans if they keep staff on payroll from March 1 to June 30. Because the loans are forgivable, they effectively serve as operational grants. However, the SBA will treat businesses and nonprofits as “affiliates” to determine whether they exceed the 500-employee threshold.
This provision disqualifies Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) and its nearly 600 facilities, since Planned Parenthood has approximately 16,000 employees nationwide. On its website, PPFA refers to its “49 unique, locally governed affiliates.” These affiliates operate approximately 587 facilities, according to a new report. In fact, PPFA routinely refers to its “affiliates” in financial statements and annual reports. Even though most Planned Parenthood locations have staffs of fewer than 500 employees, the law was written so that Planned Parenthood will be treated as a single business entity and therefore ineligible for these SBA loans.
READ: Abortion giant Planned Parenthood seeks PPE donations during COVID-19 pandemic
Many in the pro-life movement are celebrating this as the first time Planned Parenthood has ever been excluded from a funding stream under federal law. While it remains to be seen how the SBA will apply its rules on affiliation, all indications point to Planned Parenthood being ineligible to receive these forgivable loans, and the abortion giant has expressed indignation at this reality.
Outside the Planned Parenthood network, however, and despite the best efforts of pro-life lawmakers and champions of life, abortion businesses with fewer than 500 employees may be eligible for SBA loans.
Live Action News has reported that abortion businesses across the country are openly defying state and local restrictions on non-essential businesses during this critical time, as most of the nation works to stop the spread of the coronavirus and to preserve personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare providers and infected patients. Healthcare workers are placing their lives at risk trying to save the most vulnerable citizens, and many have become infected. Some healthcare workers have tragically died from exposure to patients with the coronavirus.
Abortion businesses that remain operational pose a clear and present danger not only to the preborn children killed every day in these facilities, but to healthcare workers in need of PPE, and to others who are potentially exposed to coronavirus during these abortion procedures — which are absolutely non-essential.
The CARES Act is intended to provide relief from the economic harm caused by the coronavirus, and the SBA should not reward the abortion industry as it actively compounds COVID-19’s deadly threat to public safety.
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