GOP Bill Would Ban Abortion Providers From Receiving COVID-19 Relief
Mary Margaret Olohan /
Republican lawmakers will introduce a bill Tuesday that explicitly bans abortion providers from receiving coronavirus aid.
The Abortion Providers Loan Elimination Act, sponsored by Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., 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 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 [Paycheck Protection Program] loans,” Murphy told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It is a scandal that Planned Parenthood received loans through [the Paycheck Protection Program] in the first place.”
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“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 Daily Caller News Foundation 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 the Small Business Administration 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 Small Business Administration Administrator Jovita Carranza to investigate how 37 Planned Parenthood affiliates received $80 million in loans.
Since May, the Small Business Administration has repeatedly refused to discuss the matter to The Daily Caller News Foundation. The Small Business Administration repeatedly told The Daily Caller News Foundation that it does not “comment on individual borrowers.”
In January, Republican lawmakers again called on the Small Business Administration to investigate the Paycheck Protection Program loans.
“Planned Parenthood affiliates are well aware that they are ineligible to receive [Paycheck Protection Program] loans, on the basis of [the Small Business Administration]’s letters and the frank admission of their political action committee,” senators wrote in a January letter to Small Business Administration. “Their attempts to apply for [Paycheck Protection Program] loans are naked attempts to defraud the United States government.”
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