Last year, as many Americans remember, The Susan G. Komen Foundation was concerned that Planned Parenthood was not using grants that Komen provided for breast cancer screenings as the grants required, so it announced it would no longer provide grants to Planned Parenthood affiliates, and a political firestorm erupted.
The firestorm occurred even though Komen was also concerned about allegations of “Medicaid fraud” by Planned Parenthood and then ongoing congressional investigations. This is because Planned Parenthood orchestrated a broadside political and media campaign that brought Komen to its knees.
In a Feb. 2, 2012 letter to Komen, 26 pro-abortion U.S. senators urged Komen to reconsider. They said, “It would be tragic if any woman—let alone thousands of women—lost access to these potentially life-saving screenings because of a politically motivated attack.” This, by the way, was the beginning of the so-called “War on Women”—a phony war if ever there was one.
As is so often the case with those who dissemble and deceive, the proverbial chickens are coming home to roost. Indeed, the real war—a war that Planned Parenthood is currently waging—is against American taxpayers whose hard-earned tax dollars are being funneled to groups, well, like Planned Parenthood, which in turn misuse those funds.
Alliance Defending Freedom has long known and reported that Planned Parenthood, which rakes in $542 million in taxpayer dollars each year from the pro-abortion Obama administration, is more concerned about its bottom line than about providing quality healthcare to women. In fact, Alliance Defending Freedom has previously reported the following:
· Claims by Planned Parenthood that it relied on Komen grants to provide breast cancer screenings, including mammograms, for low-income, Medicaid-eligible women, were false. Indeed, Planned Parenthood is not licensed to provide mammograms and has no mammography equipment in any of its clinics.
· Planned Parenthood appears to have billed the Title XIX-Medicaid program for services, including breast cancer screening, already rendered to the same low-income women covered by the Komen grants.
But there is much more. Recently, Planned Parenthood paid $4.3 million to settle a lawsuit that accused Planned Parenthood of submitting “false claims . . . for medically unnecessary or unneeded items and services . . . [and for] items and services that were never provided by” Planned Parenthood.
Was Komen right to conclude that Planned Parenthood was engaged in fraudulent conduct? Does an innocent organization pay $4.3 million without reason?
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Time will tell. But as Planned Parenthood pays millions in fines, and investigations continue, it seems like concerns over alleged fraud may be more widespread than we’ve been led to believe.
And that should give hope to all those who believed in Komen’s original decision to withhold its funds from Planned Parenthood and the basis on which that decision was made.
LifeNews Note: Michael Norton is a senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom.
