Three major abortion providers took home more than $1.5 billion in taxpayer funding over a three-year span, according to a report released this week by the Government Accountability Office.
Planned Parenthood, Marie Stopes International and the International Planned Parenthood Federation spent $410 million in federal funding between 2013 and 2015, the report found. The groups also received $1.2 billion from federal health programs that share funding with states, such as Medicaid and Medicare.
The study was spearheaded by Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Republican Reps. Diane Black of Tennessee, Pete Olson of Texas and Chris Smith of New Jersey.
“This report once again illustrates the absurd amount of taxpayer dollars funding the nation’s single largest abortion provider of abortion services, Planned Parenthood, and its international affiliate organizations,” Ms. Ernst said in a statement. “More than $1.5 billion in tax payer’s dollars should not go to an organization with such a blatant disrespect for human life.”
More than 120 congressional Republicans requested a study in 2016 to examine the amount of taxpayer funding doled out to abortion providers.
The report found that four of the five Planned Parenthood affiliates that received the most taxpayer funding were later subject to referrals from the Department of Justice over the potentially criminal transfer of fetal body parts from abortions.
Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion provider, performing more than 320,000 procedures per year.
Ms. Black, author of the Defund Planned Parenthood Act, said the report shows that “atrocities” are being committed “at the expense of taxpayers.”
“Abortion is not family planning. Abortion is family destruction, and the fact that $1.5 billion in taxpayer dollars is funneled to this industry is sickening,” Ms. Black said in a statement. “The American people deserve better.”
President Trump reintroduced the Mexico City Policy last year to strip billions of dollars from international organizations that promote abortion overseas. The International Planned Parenthood Federation stood to lose $100 million in annual funding with the policy’s implementation.
Mr. Smith said the president’s directive “ensures that US international aid funds life-affirming care for both women and children.” He called for a similar policy to be introduced for domestic organizations that receive taxpayer funding.
“A similar protection should become the standard for all government funding; abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood — responsible for killing more than 7 million unborn children – must no longer be subsidized by the American taxpayer,” Mr. Smith said in a statement.
• Bradford Richardson can be reached at brichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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