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Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, received $80 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans designed to assist small businesses survive in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
While there was widespread media outcry over corporations getting this funding, compete will calls for them to return the money, there has been relative quiet over 38 Planned Parenthood affiliates across the country receiving millions of dollars of aid included in the $2.3 trillion coronavirus stimulus measure.
And now Democrats are making a public appeal to let the abortion providers keep the money, insisted they are non-profit “health centers” — how’s that for audacity?
To the SBA:
In the CARES Act, the PPP program ensured nonprofits that meet the qualifications would be eligible for help.
You need to stop the ideologically-driven action against Planned Parenthood’s local health centers to score political points for the Trump admin. pic.twitter.com/rv8Cxkwl8T
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) May 23, 2020
Led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., forty-one Senate Democrats sent a letter Friday to the Treasury Department and Small Business Administration refuting Republican efforts to point out that Planned Parenthood does not qualify for the loans, The Hill reported.
Democrats boldly declare any attempt to have the money returned as “ideological,” even as Planned Parenthood reported almost $1.9 billion in net assets in 2018 alone, and is on the receiving end of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid yearly.
“It is critical that the SBA implement the PPP [Paycheck Protection Program] as Congress directed, without ideological efforts to treat certain nonprofit organizations differently from others,” the letter read. “The SBA must administer the PPP in a manner that is uniform and that does not target any entity or subset of entities for exclusion, especially if doing so is based on a political ideology, the services provided by that entity, or any other factor unrelated to the criteria established by law in the CARES Act.”
The Democratic effort to allow Planned Parenthood to keep the funding comes after Republicans called for an investigation, insisting that the PPP loan program “was not designed to give government funds to politicized, partisan abortion providers like Planned Parenthood.”
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and twenty-six Republican senators sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr asking him to investigate whether affiliates knowingly applied for PPP loans for which they were ineligible.
“We write to urge you to investigate the activities of dozens of Planned Parenthood affiliates that reportedly applied for and received approximately $80 million in loans from the Paycheck Protection Program, despite actual knowledge that they were ineligible for such loans,” they wrote.
The letter cited a rule issued by the SBA on April 15, that affiliation rules apply to the PPP program, excluding organizations like Planned Parenthood.
The GOP senators also noted that Trump administration officials were “quoted in public reports, explicitly clarifying that the SBA’s interim final rule ensured that no funds from the Paycheck Protection Program could go to Planned Parenthood.”
“Most damningly,” the Republicans highlighted a statement the abortion provider’s political action committee, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, made in response to the CARES Act, complaining that “the bill gives the Small Business Administration broad discretion to exclude Planned Parenthood affiliates and other non-profits serving people with low incomes and deny them benefits under the new small business loan program.”
“Based on these statements, it seems clear that Planned Parenthood knew that it was ineligible for the small business loans under the CARES Act long before its affiliates fraudulently self-certified that they were eligible,” the letter concluded. “As you know, fraudulent loan applications can trigger both civil and criminal penalties.”
Here’s a quick sampling of responses to Sen. Schumer’s tweet:
The country is falling apart and Schumer and Dems are more worried about Planned Parenthood and other special interest groups. They don’t care about regular Americans. Disgusting
— Texas Will Always Be Red (@realguy761) May 23, 2020
Woah Wait, Planned Parenthood has half a billion in assets, they’re not a small business & don’t fit the criteria for loan, meaning, they lied on the loan app. I would think you may want to look at that. Also, what percentage of clients of Planned Parenthood are actually Parents?
— john basile (@johnecto) May 23, 2020
They don’t Qualify, Period!!
They need to give the 80 million back!— 🇺🇸 I’m awake 🇺🇲 (@Wendy18534774) May 23, 2020
Planned parenthood is also heavily funded by taxpayers dollars. Who in their right mind would call pp a small business. Killing babies & newborns is BIG BUSINESS. @realDonaldTrump @DonaldJTrumpJr @greggutfeld @GovRonDeSantis
— Vlbam (@Vlbam1) May 23, 2020
Planed Parenthood gets millions of dollars from the government, right? But Planned Parenthood also GIVES millions to the DNC, yes? So essentially, that’s just taxpayer money going to the DNC, correct? If PP needs money so bad, how are they donating millions of dollars? 🤔 🤡 🌎
— Harrumph, I Say! (@harrumphisay) May 23, 2020
Didn’t the dems allow planned parenthood to remain open during the shutdown?
— Vance Murphy (@vancemurphy) May 23, 2020
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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