A newly released Government Accountability Office (GAO) report confirms that Planned Parenthood Federation of America and five other groups are using taxpayer funds to advocate for abortions as “reproductive health care.”
The report of the GAO investigation, which was called for by over 60 members of Congress in 2013, indicates that the six organizations—Planned Parenthood Federation of America; International Planned Parenthood Federation; Guttmacher Institute; Advocates for Youth, which claims to assist young women and youth of color access contraception and serves gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning (GLBTQ) youth; Population Council; and the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS)—spent over $482 million in federal funding between 2010 and 2012.
The report states:
In summary, two federal agencies, HHS [Department of Health and Human Services] and USAID [U.S. Agency for International Development], reported obligating about $236 million in grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts to the six organizations from fiscal year 2010 through fiscal year 2012. Of this amount, HHS obligated about $107 million to the six organizations, while USAID obligated about $128 million to two of the six organizations, Population Council and member associations of International Planned Parenthood Federation. During this same time frame, the six organizations reported expending over $482 million in federal funding. In addition to funding they received directly from HHS and USAID, the six organizations reported expending funding they received indirectly from HHS and USAID as well as the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Housing and Urban Development, and Justice.
In response to the GAO’s report, U.S. Reps. Diane Black (R-TN), Pete Olson (R-TX), Chris Smith (R-NJ), and Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) said the following in a press release:
The report found that the six organizations spent $481 million in federal funding from Fiscal Years 2010 to 2012, as well as about $1.2 billion in combined federal and state funds under federal health programs that require shared funding. Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) spent the greatest share of this public funding – approximately $1.5 billion in combined state and federal dollars, or an average of about $500 million each year.
The GAO also indicated, note the members of Congress, that federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) that provide health services not offered by the six organizations that promote abortion, served 21 million individuals without providing abortions. Black, Olson, Smith, and Vitter view these FQHCs as “offering a positive alternative to abortion providers like Planned Parenthood.”
Black and Vitter have authored the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act which “would end Title X grants for ‘health care’ providers that perform abortions.”
“This report confirms what we suspected all along: hard-earned taxpayer dollars continue to be used to promote abortions,” said Black. “The GAO study found that Planned Parenthood Federation of America alone – the nation’s largest abortion provider – spent about $1.5 billion in combined federal and state funding during this reporting period.”
“This is shameful and we have a responsibility to stop it. As a nurse for more than 40 years, I know that abortion is not health care,” she continued. “In light of this report, Congress should act swiftly by passing the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act, which would help cut off federal funding of organizations like these that promote the destruction of unborn life.”
As Black observed and Breitbart News reported earlier this week, the GAO report is released as Senate Democrats are working to upend a human sex trafficking bill that would help victims of trafficking in order to protect the abortion industry. The bill contains the Hyde Amendment which would forbid taxpayer funding of abortions.
“It shouldn’t take a GAO request from Congress for the American public to know where their tax dollars are being spent,” Olson said. “Yet, since I’ve been in Congress, this is the only way we can get answers.”
“Planned Parenthood—Child Abuse Incorporated—is responsible for killing more than 6 million unborn children, and it is unconscionable that this organization continues to be subsidized by the American taxpayer,” said Smith.
“Taxpayer funding should in no way support abortions. But when we hand out funding to groups like Planned Parenthood, we know exactly where it’s going – they proudly admit that the majority of their pregnancy-related resources go toward abortions,” Vitter said.
“The amount of government money that Planned Parenthood has received over the last three years is astounding,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, in a statement to Breitbart News. “The abortion giant committed close to one million abortions over that time period, yet the government continues to fund them and, still, they aren’t happy.”
“They successfully held up a bill in the Senate that helped victims of sex trafficking because it had a provision that prohibited government money from paying for abortion,” Hawkins added. “It’s sickening that taxpayers are continuing to fund this organization and Congress should be ashamed to vote in favor of sending Planned Parenthood a taxpayer check every year worth millions.”
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