Republican lawmakers will introduce a bill Tuesday that explicitly bans abortion providers from receiving coronavirus aid.
The Abortion Providers Loan Elimination Act, sponsored by Republican North Carolina Rep. Greg Murphy, would “prohibit abortion providers from receiving a covered loan under the paycheck protection program,” according to a draft of the proposal provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation. The bill is a direct response to accusations from Republican lawmakers that Planned Parenthood affiliates illegally accepted millions in coronavirus aid.
GOP lawmakers had previously demanded an investigation into $80 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to Planned Parenthood affiliates, saying they were obtained illegally.
The Small Business Administration has repeatedly declined to comment on the Republicans’ claims.
“Abortion providers have absolutely no business receiving PPP loans,” Murphy told the DCNF. “It is a scandal that Planned Parenthood received loans through PPP in the first place.”
“The money they received could have gone toward saving your favorite local restaurant or mom and pop shop, but instead Planned Parenthood took this money and used it to kill the unborn,” Murphy said. “I’m proud to join Senator [Roger] Marshall in a bicameral effort to right this wrong and explicitly outlaw Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers from receiving these loans ever again.”
Marshall, a Republican from Kansas who will introduce the bill in the Senate, told the DCNF that he was “outraged” to hear that “Planned Parenthood affiliates gamed the system and illegally obtained $80 million through the program.”
“It’s clear to me that Americans don’t want their hard earned tax dollars to fund abortions, and to Planned Parenthood’s dismay, our bill claws back the money and investigates into how it ever was allowed to happen,” Marshall said. “As a physician who delivered thousands of babies in rural Kansas and now a U.S. Senator, I consider my efforts to protect the sanctity of life my most important work, and I’m pleased my colleagues joined me in this fight.”
Planned Parenthood’s Action Fund previously issued a statement in March 2020 acknowledging that the CARES Act legislation gave SBA the power to exclude Planned Parenthood affiliates from receiving loans. Despite this statement, Planned Parenthood confirmed in May 2020 that “some independent Planned Parenthood 501(c)(3) organizations applied for and were awarded loans under the eligibility rules established by the CARES Act and the Small Business Administration (SBA), which they met.”
Following this revelation, Republican lawmakers called for SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza to investigate how 37 Planned Parenthood affiliates received $80 million in loans.
Since May, SBA has repeatedly refused to discuss the matter to the DCNF. SBA repeatedly told the DCNF that it does not “comment on individual borrowers.”
In January, Republican lawmakers again called on SBA to investigate the PPP loans.
“Planned Parenthood affiliates are well aware that they are ineligible to receive PPP loans, on the basis of SBA’s letters and the frank admission of their political action committee,” senators wrote in a January letter to SBA. “Their attempts to apply for PPP loans are naked attempts to defraud the United States government.”
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