Congressional Hearings on Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz Possible

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jul 8, 2011   |   1:57PM   |   Washington, DC

The day after a national pro-life organization released a new comprehensive report showing the numerous abuses at Planned Parenthood abortion centers as reasons for a Congressional investigation, one top Republican says that’s possible.

Yesterday, Americans United for Life issued a new report featuring a groundbreaking analysis of the nation’s largest abortion business and saying it has uncovered evidence of systemic financial irregularities within the abortion giant, which receives more than $363 million in federal and state taxpayer funding, and that Congress should investigate.

AUL staff combed through 20 years of Planned Parenthood financial data and the report documents the known and alleged abuses by Planned Parenthood, including the misuse of federal health care and family planning funds, failure to report criminal child sexual abuse, failure to comply with parental involvement laws, assisting those in engaged in prostitution and/or sex trafficking, and dangerous misuse of the abortion drug RU-486.

Now, Rep. Cliff Stearns, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce  Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee says he is potentially planning hearings on the abortion business.

“I believe my Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee should review the findings of this report and possibly hold a hearing on why taxpayers are funding Planned Parenthood with its record of abuse and violations of state laws,” Stearns told Politico. “The American people deserve a concrete reason for funding Planned Parenthood; a reason I do not believe exits.”

Stearns later told Americans United for Life more about his feelings on the matter of Planned Parenthood.

Stearns said the following: “Taxpayers deserve accountability, and the report prepared by Americans United for Life demonstrates egregious abuses of taxpayer funds by Planned Parenthood. The legal team at Americans United for Life reviewed two decades of reports, audits, and financial statements regarding Planned Parenthood.”

“The report outlines Planned Parenthood’s record of violating state sexual assault and child abuse reporting laws, and of encouraging young girls to lie about their ages to circumvent state reporting laws. They also found as government funding of Planned Parenthood rises, so does the number of abortions. They found repeated instances of overbilling government health care programs,” he added.

Stearns, a pro-life Florida Republican, previously told Politico he would consider holding hearings on legislation pro-life Rep. Mike Pence sponsored that would revoke taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood and any other abortion agency that receive money under the Title X family planning funding portion of the budget.

Planned Parenthood has responded to the report by saying it “rejects scientific evidence, promotes false health claims, and recycles misleading and discredited charges, as well as old issues that have already been addressed.”

“In an effort to undermine women’s access to Planned Parenthood, AUL draws unfounded and inaccurate conclusions from select pieces of data often taken out of context. … Simply put, this so-called report actually insults the intelligence of anyone who reads it,” the Planned Parenthood statement claims.

In her comments accompanying the report, Americans United for Life president Charmaine Yoest called on Congress to conduct hearings.

The pro-life group poses questions aimed at uncovering the depth of the problems within Planned Parenthood and substantiates, synthesizes and gives clear direction for members of Congress to thoroughly investigate the abortion business.

“Americans United for Life is calling for a Congressional investigation and hearings into the nation’s largest abortion provider,” AUL president Charmaine Yoest told LifeNews.com in a Wednesday statement. “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.”

“Momentum for defunding the abortion industry comes from the grassroots,” Yoest noted. “More than 70 percent of taxpayers, whether pro-life or pro-abortion, agree that they don’t want their tax monies subsidizing the abortion industry. This is a bi-partisan budget cut available for Congress and every state.”

Yoest said Congress needs to follow the example of several states that have already stopped or cut Planned Parenthood taxpayer funding, including New Jersey, Kansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Texas and Ohio. The AUL report substantiates, synthesizes, and gives clear direction for the case against Planned Parenthood, which enjoys one-third of a billion in taxpayer support as a result of its intensive lobbying efforts, Yoest noted.

See the full report at https://www.aul.org/aul-special-report-the-case-for-investigating-planned-parenthood/