Congress should investigate Planned Parenthood for its alleged misuse of government funds and circumvention of state laws, according to an extensive report released July 7 by the leading legal organization in the American pro-life movement.
Americans United for Life (AUL) called for the congressional action in a 181-page document that chronicles over a 20-year period known and alleged abuses by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), the country’s leading abortion provider. According to Planned Parenthood, it received more than $363 million in government grants and contracts in 2008–09, and its affiliates performed more than 332,000 abortions in 2009. Both years are the most recent for which statistics are available.
Among its charges, AUL says some Planned Parenthood affiliates are guilty of:
• Misusing federal funds, including overbilling the Medicaid program.
• Violating state laws by refusing to report sexual abuse of under-age girls and aiding abusers in covering up their crimes.
• Failing to abide by state laws requiring parental involvement before performing abortions on minors.
• Showing a willingness to help pimps and sex traffickers with birth control and abortions for under-age girls.
• Providing inaccurate information to women regarding the development of the unborn child and the health risks of abortion.
• Refusing to comply with the federal government’s rules governing use of the abortion drug RU 486.
“It is time to find out what happens behind Planned Parenthood’s closed doors and to receive full accounting for the funds taken from American taxpayers to support the abortion industry,” AUL President Charmaine Yoest said in calling for congressional hearings.
“This report provides the intellectual foundation for an investigation of Planned Parenthood as well as revealing gaps in the information available to the American taxpayer, who is forced to subsidize the politically powerful abortion industry,” she said in the written statement.
AUL’s charges generally are not new, but the Washington-based organization’s report brings them all together and provides an analysis that may be a milestone in the growing effort to hold Planned Parenthood accountable.
The abortion giant has been plagued increasingly in recent years by evidence of scandalous and/or illegal practices in its clinics. This year, several states have acted to restrict funding of Planned Parenthood.
Members of Congress also have sought to eliminate money for PPFA. The House of Representatives has twice passed this year legislation to eliminate federal funding of Planned Parenthood, but the measure has failed in the Senate.
In each section of the 31-page main body of the report, AUL offers questions that could be asked in a congressional investigation. It also suggests a list of 44 potential witnesses. The report is heavily documented, with an appendix of more than 130 pages, as well as 11 pages of endnotes.
AUL’s report may be accessed online at http://www.aul.org/aul-special-report-the-case-for-investigating-planned-parenthood/.
Requests by Baptist Press for comment from Planned Parenthood did not receive a response in time for publication. (BP)
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