Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers Broke the Law to Send COVID Funds to Planned Parenthood

State   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Feb 28, 2022   |   4:52PM   |   Madison, Wisconsin

Wisconsin pro-life organizations accused Gov. Tony Evers this week of illegally giving $2.4 million taxpayer dollars to the abortion chain Planned Parenthood instead of to COVID-19 relief.

In a letter Monday, the conservative law firm Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty demanded that Evers, a pro-abortion Democrat, provide answers about the grant money from 2020 and 2022.

“We believe these grants were unlawful: they were created without statutory authority and administered without validly promulgated rules,” the letter states.

In 2020, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin received $1.4 million from the COVID-19 Pandemic Response Nonprofit Grant Program through the Evers administration. Then, earlier this year, Evers gave another $1 million to the abortion chain from the Equitable Recovery Grant Program.

By giving Planned Parenthood more than one grant, the Evers administration appears to have violated its own rules, according to the law firm. The state administration department created a rule prohibiting groups from receiving more COVID-19 grants if they already “have received funding from another CARES Act program,” the firm noted.

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They said the funds also violate state laws that prohibit taxpayer funding for abortions and abortion groups.

“This is a grave injustice to preborn children and a violation of our state laws,” said Gracie Skogman, legislative director of Wisconsin Right to Life. “We, along with these other life-affirming organizations, demand to know what authority Governor Evers believes he has to create illegal grant programs that take COVID-19 relief funds away from his constituents to fund Wisconsin’s largest abortion provider.”

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty is representing Skogman’s organization, Wisconsin Family Action and Pro-Life Wisconsin in the matter.

Lucas Vebber, deputy counsel for the law firm, said they want Evers to explain why he ignored the rules.

“We want to know exactly what legal authority Governor Evers thinks he has to create grant programs and ignore the rulemaking process,” Vebber said in a statement. “Additionally, we want to know why he thinks he can ignore clear and explicit state law prohibitions on funding entities, like Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, that provide abortions and related services.”

Pro-life lawmakers also have accused the governor of misusing the COVID relief funds to help his political allies as he runs for re-election in November.

“It’s such a brazen political giveaway at this point,” state Sen. Andre Jacque, R-De Pere, told Empower Wisconsin earlier this year. “I don’t know what else there is to say, other than Gov. Evers would rather give $1 million to the state’s largest abortionist as opposed to law enforcement or any number of ways he could be helping kids.”

Planned Parenthood does not help families; it primarily is an abortion business. Its annual reports show its legitimate health services, such as cancer screenings and well-woman exams, are dropping, and its prenatal care and adoption referral numbers are so small that they are almost non-existent.

Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood’s abortion numbers continue to grow, and it now does about 40 percent of all abortions in the U.S., or more than 350,000 a year. It also reported $1.64 billion in revenue in 2020.

Evers is a pro-abortion Democrat who vetoed a pro-life bill to protect newborns from infanticide.

At the national level, LifeNews reported how the Planned Parenthood abortion chain also received $80 million in federal funds in 2020 meant to support small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.

Planned Parenthood has been accused repeatedly of unethical and illegal activities, including selling aborted baby body partsbotching abortions that killed womencovering up the sexual abuse of minorsdiscriminating against pregnant and racial minority employees, exploiting young girls by selling cross-sex hormones and more.