A list of recent recipients of the Paycheck Protection Program loans associated with the CARES Act has shown the program to be an extraordinary success, saving as many as 50 million jobs and keeping businesses afloat amid a crushing public health lockdown. However, a number of bad actors have exploited the rush to disperse cash to businesses in urgent need of assistance. This leaves questions that need to be answered by the Small Business Administration.
One recipient that is clearly unqualified for the loans is the Florida Democratic Party, which, after criticism, brazenly responded that “it was the government’s fault for approving the loan.” Although Florida Democrats have agreed to return the sum, the SBA must explain how the party received the cash in the first place. An even more concerning recipient is abortion giant Planned Parenthood, which received a total of up to $150 million. Unlike the Florida Democratic Party, Planned Parenthood is refusing to return the cash.
When the CARES Act was debated, language was included to protect taxpayers from further subsidizing Planned Parenthood. It excluded entities with more than 500 employees and affiliated entities whose aggregate number of employees exceeds 500. The SBA generally considers affiliation to be “when one controls or has the power to control the other, or a third party or parties controls or has the power to control both.” The loan program also requires applicants to attest their affiliation and establishes that borrowers bear liability for wrongful attestation.
Planned Parenthood officials knew they were ineligible to receive PPP loans, given the organization’s roughly 16,000 employees and its organizational structure by which management can unilaterally impose policies and practices upon affiliates. Its political arm effectively admitted it was aware of this, but that didn’t stop them from applying.
On top of its disregard for the eligibility requirements for PPP loans, it should also be noted that Planned Parenthood reported close to $1.64 billion in revenue for 2018-19 and a gross profit of almost $245 million this past year alone. Over the last three years, the multibillion-dollar abortion giant received more than $1.5 billion in taxpayer funds.
And Planned Parenthood’s abortion business is booming. According to its most recent annual report, it performed 345,672 abortions for 2018, a grisly record. That accounts for 40% of all abortions performed in the United States in 2017, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
When news that Planned Parenthood had received the illicit loans came to light, 34 Senators requested the Justice Department review them. At the same time, the March for Life filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the SBA to release the original applications from the Planned Parenthood affiliates to determine whether they included false or misleading information.
After all, deception is standard in the Planned Parenthood playbook. The business has a history of covering up statutory rape and sex trafficking and committing fraud against taxpayers, and it is currently under investigation for the trafficking of aborted baby body parts. Planned Parenthood is just as political as the Florida Democratic Party, with little interest in authentic women’s healthcare. In case that wasn’t already evident, just last year, the organization’s leadership fired a president with a background as a legitimate physician, replacing her with the head of its hyperpartisan political arm.
Planned Parenthood must follow the lead of the Florida Democratic Party and return the tens of millions it has taken from taxpayers. But, beyond that small measure of justice, we need to investigate how the organization was approved for PPP loans in the first place. Even if we expect a business such as Planned Parenthood to swindle taxpayers, the government cannot be complicit in its deception.
Marco Rubio is Florida’s senior U.S. senator. Jeanne Mancini is the president of the March for Life.
