New report: almost $1.7 billion tax payers money goes to ‘pro-abortion’ groups
A new report puts Planned Parenthood and other groups in the spotlight for receiving tax payer money, money which is used to fund abortions. The new U.S. Government Accountability Office report released Wednesday which revealed that federal and state governments together provided nearly 1.7 billion taxpayer dollars to six pro-abortion groups (mostly to Planned Parenthood, which received $1.5 billion) from 2010-2012.
Below is the full statement from the report.
Planned Parenthood’s condom turkey to “education” students on safe sex
“The government should use the tax dollars of Americans responsibly, but this report confirms overwhelmingly that it has not. It’s bad enough that the government is funneling the hard-earned money of Americans to pay for elective abortions, contrary to what federal law is supposed to allow, but as ADF has reported annually to Congress, Planned Parenthood and other organizations have bilked taxpayers out of millions through waste, abuse, and potential fraud. That’s why Congress has been investigating Planned Parenthood, why some members of Congress have proposed additional legislation to help stop the funding stream, and why ADF will continue its fight in court against Planned Parenthood’s misuse of tax dollars in multiple lawsuits, including Thayer v. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland.”
A previous ADF report details how “Planned Parenthood’s use of abortion as a method of family planning, biased abortion counseling, and failure to report statutory rape, coerced abortion, and human trafficking, these seven former Planned Parenthood employees stated that “PPFA failed to properly account for and maintain separation between government funds prohibited from use for elective abortions and [other, unrestricted] funds . . . .”
Images approved by Planned Parenthood were rejected by major newspapers as too graphic when a pro-life group put together this ad: view it here
What GAO Found
From fiscal year 2010 through 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) reported obligating about $236 million to six organizations and their affiliates and member associations: Advocates for Youth, Guttmacher Institute, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Population Council, and the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States. While HHS obligated funding to each of these six organizations, USAID obligated funding to two of the six organizations. In addition, the six organizations reported expending funding they received directly and indirectly from federal agencies, including HHS and USAID, as well as the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Housing and Urban Development, and Justice. The six organizations reported expending over $482 million of federal funding during the same time frame.
Federal agencies reported obligating over $19 billion to federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), which provide primary health care services, from fiscal year 2010 through 2012. Of this amount, HHS obligated over $15 billion. FQHCs reported expending almost $10 billion in federal funding from HHS in calendar years 2010 through 2012. In 2012, FQHCs provided services during approximately 84 million visits to over 21 million individuals. The majority–about 60 million–of the visits provided were medical visits. Other types of visits included dental and mental health. GAO is not making any recommendations. HHS and USAID reviewed a draft of this report and provided comments, which GAO incorporated as appropriate.
Why GAO Did This Study
In order to achieve their programmatic goals, federal government agencies, including HHS and USAID, provide funding to various entities through programs such as the Title X Family Planning Program and the Health Center Program. Federal agencies obligate funding to entities, which the entities then expend for a range of activities, including providing health services. Among these entities are FQHCs, which provide health services to low-income individuals as part of the nation’s safety net, and six organizations engaged in health-related activities.
GAO was asked to update its 2010 work on the federal funding obligated to and expended by these six organizations from 2010 through 2012. GAO was also asked to expand upon its prior work by including information about FQHCs. This report describes (1) federal obligations to the six organizations; (2) these organizations’ expenditures of federal funding; (3) federal obligations to FQHCs; and (4) FQHCs’ expenditures of federal funding.
