Thursday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report that shows during FY 2013-2015 over $1.5 billion in federal taxpayer money went to three abortion providers: Planned Parenthood Federation of America, International Planned Parenthood Federation, and Marie Stopes International.
The study was requested by a coalition of 120 members of the U.S. House and Senate led by U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Congresswoman Diane Black (R-Tennessee), and Congressman Pete Olson (R-Texas).
GAO found that these three organizations spent $410 million in federal funding between 2013 and 2015, and received $1.2 billion combined federal and state funds under federal health programs that require shared funding.
The report also showed that more than one-third of Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s funding ($544 million) went to four affiliates that have since been referred by Congress to the U.S. Department of Justice for investigation for their role in the harvest and sale of the organs of aborted babies.
The top five Planned Parenthood recipients are listed below, with the four bolded referred by Congress for criminal investigation:
1. Planned Parenthood Mar Monte – $229 million
Supplied organs to StemExpress; Chief Medical Officer Dr. Dorothy Fulgerson is quoted in promotional materials that tout “financially profitable” partnerships between abortion facilities and the procurement company
2. Planned Parenthood of Orange & San Bernardino Counties – $118 million
Supplied organs to DV Biologics, which admitted violating federal law as part of a settlement with the Orange County District Attorney’s office
3. Planned Parenthood Los Angeles – $106 million
Dr. Deb Nucatola, an abortionist at Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, is seen in the first Center for Medical Progress video explaining how to manipulate the baby into breech position in a late-term abortion to get intact organs.
4. Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest – $105 million
According to former medical director Dr. Katharine Sheehan, Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest supplied organs to Advanced Bioscience Resources, Inc. (ABR) for more than ten years. ABR charges $340 per second-trimester fetal tissue specimen, from which abortion facilities were paid $60 per specimen.
5. Planned Parenthood Northern California – $104 million
The Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives referred Planned Parenthood Northern California (as well as Planned Parenthood Mar Monte) for systematic violations of HIPAA for disclosing individually identifiable, private medical information about patients to StemExpress to meet the company’s organ harvesting quotas.
“This report once again illustrates the absurd amount of taxpayer dollars funding the nation’s single largest provider of abortion services, Planned Parenthood, and its international affiliate organizations,” Ernst said. “More than $1.5 billion in tax payer’s dollars should not go to an organization with such blatant disrespect for human life. That is why I introduced legislation to defund Planned Parenthood and redirect those dollars to federally qualified health centers that provide actual comprehensive care and family planning services for women. We have made great strides to protect life under the Trump administration, but there is more work to be done, and we remain committed to protecting the most vulnerable in our society.”
“I spent my entire career as a nurse fighting for the dignity of every human being, and I have witnessed the emotional, physical and psychological effects abortion has on mothers. All of us in the healthcare field took an oath to fight for life, and abortion destroys that. Industry giants like Planned Parenthood perform more than 320,000 abortions every year, and this GAO report exposes that these atrocities are done at the expense of taxpayers. No matter our views on abortion, or the party label beside our name, we must ensure that our money is spent responsibly and with integrity,” Black stated. “Abortion is not family planning. Abortion is family destruction, and the fact that $1.5 billion in taxpayer dollars is funneled to this industry is sickening. The American people deserve better.”
“I thank the GAO for helping to shed a light on how American taxpayer money goes to organizations that promote or perform abortions. I remain committed to defunding Planned Parenthood and protecting the unborn, and we deserve full transparency on tax dollars for these organizations. The numbers are clear and the taxpayers deserve better. I thank Rep. Black and Sen. Ernst for joining me in this effort on behalf of American taxpayers and the unborn,” Olson added.
“It is bad enough that the nation’s largest abortion business, Planned Parenthood, continues to receive more than half a billion dollars a year from American taxpayers while embroiled in the horrific scandal of harvesting babies’ body parts for profit. Now we can see that the worst offenders benefit most from taxes paid by America’s working men and women,” SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said. “This outrageous abuse of public trust must end. Planned Parenthood does not deserve our compulsory donations every paycheck. Community health care alternatives outnumber Planned Parenthood facilities more than 20 to 1 nationwide and could make infinitely better use of those funds to provide comprehensive health care for women and families. We call on Congress to finally follow through on the promise to defund Planned Parenthood once and for all.”
In 2016, Ernst introduced legislation to redirect federal funds from Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliate organizations to other eligible women’s health care providers.
Congressman Black is the author of the Defund Planned Parenthood Act, which would place an immediate moratorium on all federal funding to Planned Parenthood until it certifies that it will no longer perform elective abortions or give funding to entities that do. The bill would also reallocate federal funding to more than 13,500 clinics nationwide that provide primary care to low-income and under-served populations that do not perform abortions.
Additionally, Senator Ernst and Congressman Black’s bicameral legislation to overturn an eleventh-hour rule issued by the Obama administration, and restore state choice about how to best distribute Title X grant money was signed into law by President Trump on April 13, 2017.
In December of last year, the Justice Department confirmed a formal investigation into Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business, for its role in the harvest and sale of aborted babies’ body parts for profit.