Spain’s high court strips “public service organization” status from Planned Parenthood

The National Court of Spain has stripped the Family Planning Federation (FPF), Spain’s division of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, of its status as a “public service organization.” FPF had failed to make necessary reforms after receiving illegal funding for seven years.

This illegal activity included a failure to “declare[] income from ads they ran in a pharmaceutical magazine, prohibited under Spanish law,” for which they were not penalized.

According to an ACI Prensa translation courtesy of the Catholic News Agency, the FPF originally “lost its designation in May 2016” but it had been “temporarily reinstated the designation after reforms were promised.” Then, on November 25, after these promises were not kept, the National Court revoked the group’s status, meaning the group also lost “numerous tax, economic, administrative, and legal benefits.” The organization was reportedly receiving “more than €400,000,” equating to approximately $445,000 annually.

The Catholic News Agency notes that to receive a PSO designation, an institution must “tend to promote the public interest and… promot[e] constitutional values and human rights.” Covering up sexual abuse, aiding and abetting human traffickers, giving women inaccurate information about fetal development and abortion, and giving teens disturbing advice on sex do not generally “promote the public interest,” and the fact that Planned Parenthood commits more than 320,000 abortions every year in the United States alone proves that “human rights” is an issue that the organization ignores in favor of monetary gain.

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The law states that the “benefits” of having the PSO status are that “organizations… can state their PSO status on all types of documents after their name; enjoy exemptions and financial benefits recognized by law for such organizations under the terms and conditions provided by current regulations; enjoy economic benefits established by law; and free legal aid under the terms of the specific legislation.”

The Christian Lawyer’s Association, who, along with the Minister of the Interior, had sought to have the FPF’s “public service organization” status revoked, applauded the Court’s decision, saying, “[A]n organization which has systematically failed to comply with the law cannot be granted that status.”

Luis Losada Pescador of Spain’s CitizenGo campaigns added that the Court’s ruling could be “important” for those in the United States, “because it opens the door to penalties against the American parent company,” which has also financially supported Spain’s Family Planning Federation. “An organization that hides income and dodges penalties is not serving the public interest. From the international point of view, this comes when the FBI may be starting an investigation into the largest abortion multinational in the world with great influence in Latin America through its subsidiaries,” Pescador said.

On November 13, Live Action News’ Cassy Fiano reported that the FBI appears to have begun the process of investigating Planned Parenthood. The government agency has made requests for documentation pertaining to Planned Parenthood’s involvement with fetal tissue harvesting and trafficking:

This evidence consists of an extensive list of referrals, on suspicion of breaking multiple federal laws — laws that ban the buying or selling of human fetal tissue (42 U.S.C. § 289g-2), HIPAA privacy laws, and alleged violations of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 and the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002. It appeared that babies were born alive and then killed by abortionists. In addition to these charges, multiple other letters were sent to both state and federal officials, requesting criminal charges for various abortion industry staffers and agencies.