New report to Congress exposes Uncle Sam’s investment in Abortion Inc.

Federally funded programs like Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) routed at least $1.89 billion between 2019 and 2021 to major groups that provide abortions, according to a report released Tuesday from the investigative arm of Congress that gives one of the most complete assessments of taxpayer investments in the abortion industry.

The Government Accountability Office reported Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliates received $1.78 billion from federally funded programs, International Planned Parenthood Federation received $2.03 million, MSI Reproductive Choices received $1.35 million, and four domestic regional abortion providers received $107.74 million.

GAO said the assistance included $90.4 million in COVID relief aid to Planned Parenthood affiliates from the Paycheck Protection Program designed to assist small business, a total that rankled pro-life lawmakers in Congress.

You can read the full report here.

Federal law generally prohibits federal tax dollars from being spent directly on abortions except in case of rape, incest and endangerment of a mother. But Republicans have long argued federal agency support to abortion providers for their other programs like HIV/AIDS screening, family planning and preventative health care free up other funds for the procedure.

“It is appalling that big abortion providers are continuing to receive billions of dollars in federal taxpayer funding,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, one of the requesters of the GAO report, said Tuesday.

“While small businesses struggled to make ends meet during the pandemic, Planned Parenthood illegally siphoned over $90 million from the Paycheck Protection Program, specifically designed to help our mom and pop shops keep their doors open,” she said.

Blackburn, R-Tenn.. joined Reps. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., and Chris Smith, R-N.J., and 139 other lawmakers in asking GAO to tally federal program funding from 2019 through 2022 for Federally Qualified Health Centers, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, International Planned Parenthood Federation, MSI Reproductive Choices, and four domestic abortion providers.

GAO cautioned the total of monies it tallied from federal programs did not all come from federal tax dollars since some programs like Medicaid split costs with states. It said it could not practically determined how those splits broke down.

But the report gave significant insights into federal program monies flowing to entities involved in the abortion industry.

For instance, the U.S. arm of Planned Parenthood, which reported performing more than 1.1 million abortions during the time period studied, received $1.53 billion in reimbursements from Medicaid, Medicare, and CHIP reimbursements as well as grants and cooperative agreements totaling $148.5 million, GAO reported. Those totals did not include the forgivable loans from PPP.

The report also chronicled how elections impact the flow of federal program funds to abortion providers.

In 2019, President Donald Trump’s administration issued the Protect Life Rule, requiring all grantees receiving Department of Health and Human Services Title X funding to refrain from referring patients for abortion and to maintain separation from abortion providers.

During the Obama years, Title X was Planned Parenthood’s second largest source of federal funding after Medicaid with $61 million alone in 2016, according to information provided by members of Congress. Planned Parenthood forfeited most Title X funds after the Trump rule, lawmakers told Just the News. In. 2020, the last year of the Trump administration, HHS funding to Planned Parenthood in the United States had slowed to $4.1 million.

But when President Joe Biden lifted the Title X prohibition in November 2021, the funds started flowing again. Between 2021 and 2022, the Biden administration’s HHS  increased grants to Planned Parenthood from $5.71 million to $27.06 million, the GAO report showed.