WASHINGTON — Anti-abortion lawmakers in Congress have determined that federal taxpayers poured at least $967 million into family planning organizations such as Planned Parenthood over the last eight years — money they said potentially freed the health-service enterprises to use other donations to perform abortions.
Rep. Pete Olson, R-Texas, who led an effort by 31 Republican lawmakers to obtain the audit by Congress' watchdog Government Accountability Office, said he hopes to use the findings to generate momentum for his proposed legislation to require states and the federal government to provide annual public reports on taxpayer funds that are appropriated to “abortion providers.”
“It is disturbing to learn that these organizations spent nearly $1 billion in taxes over eight years,” Olson said. “That this tax money is spent by organizations and practices that offend the majority of Americans only further justifies the need for this alarming report.”
Olson's staff said the public spotlight on federal funding for family planning organizations was designed to give taxpayers a better picture of the alleged “shift” that anti-abortion activists claim takes place within many private nonprofit organizations that receive federal funds and provide abortion services.
The enterprises are not allowed to use federal funds to provide abortions at taxpayers' expense, but they can use other grants and donations for that purpose.
“Obviously there is no direct link between the taxpayers' money and women getting abortions because that would violate federal law,” a congressional staffer said. “But this report helps track the offsets that we know are taking place at these organizations.”
Of the $967 million, $657 million in federal funds was spent by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, an organization that provides exams, screenings, contraception, abortion care and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases to an estimated 3 million patients a year.
Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas recently debuted a $26 million project in a former bank building in Houston's East End to help expand family planning services across the region beyond the 90,000 health care visits at 10 branches last year.
Spokeswoman Rochelle Tafolla said the chapter was providing crucial medical services to residents of a city with the highest number of uninsured residents of any city in the nation.
It would be “bad public policy” to cut federal spending on health care that benefits poor and low-income patients because that would boost costs for the state.
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