Senators ask Justice to see if Planned Parenthood groups fraudulently applied for SBA loans

Twenty-seven Republican Senators sent a letter Thursday to Attorney General William Barr encouraging the Justice Department to investigate affiliates of the abortion and women’s health care provider Planned Parenthood for applying for and receiving $80 million in loans from the Paycheck Protection Program.

The letter states that at least 37 Planned Parenthood affiliates received loans from the Small Business Administration, despite their “clear ineligibility under the statutory text of the Coronavirus, Aid, Relief, and Economic Securities Act.” The letter claims that it was “well-publicized at the time that the CARES Act did not allow Planned Parenthood affiliates to utilize these loans.”

According to the letter, Planned Parenthood affiliates understood they were ineligible for the Paycheck Protection Program.

Planned Parenthood’s political action committee issued a statement on the CARES Act following its passage.

“The bill gives the Small Business Administration broad discretion to exclude Planned Parenthood affiliates and other non-profits serving people with low incomes and deny them benefits under the new small business loan program,” implying that they understand their affiliates were ineligible for loans from the SBA," the statement reads.

The senators accuse the Planned Parenthood affiliates of fraudulently self-certifying themselves as eligible for loans that they are not, in fact, qualified or meant to receive.

The letter also states that the SBA loan program is “not designed to give government funds to politicized, partisan abortion providers like Planned Parenthood. The funds in the program are not unlimited, and were depleted once already because of high demand. Planned Parenthood fraudulently taking tens of millions of dollars that were intended to  help keep those small businesses and nonprofit organizations afloat cannot stand and must be addressed.”