Coronavirus & Planned Parenthood: Josh Hawley Writes to SBA about Improper Loans

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Sen. Josh Hawley during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., December 11, 2019 (Erin Scott/Reuters)

Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) has sent a letter to the Small Business Administration, asking its officials to explain how Planned Parenthood affiliates were able to receive $80 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans despite being ineligible and accusing the abortion business of committing fraud.

The CARES Act, which created the PPP to administer forgivable loans to small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and related shutdowns, explicitly stated that nonprofits organized as affiliates — Planned Parenthood’s business model — did not qualify as small businesses for the purposes of the loans.

Even so, the SBA disbursed a total of $80 million in those loans to 37 Planned Parenthood affiliates across the country.

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“Section 1102 of [the CARES Act] says that nonprofits are eligible for the program only if they and their affiliate organizations have no more than 500 employees. As the White House correctly said last month, Planned Parenthood, at about 16,000 employees nationally, fails to meet this requirement,” Hawley wrote in his letter.

“In the light of the clear text of the CARES Act and Planned Parenthood’s own admission that every one of its offices are affiliated with each other, it is hard to conclude anything other than that Planned Parenthood committed fraud,” the letter went on. “The SBA application form required each of the 37 Planned Parenthood affiliates to certify that Planned Parenthood, as a whole, employs no more than 500 employees. The application form further required Planned Parenthood to certify that it ‘underst[oo]d that knowingly making a false statement to obtain a guaranteed loan from SBA is punishable under the law.’”

It is worth noting, too, that Planned Parenthood itself has openly acknowledged that its affiliates were ineligible for the PPP loans, complaining about that fact on its website: “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.”

Among his many requests, Hawley asks the SBA to identify the Planned Parenthood affiliates that improperly applied for funds, provide copies of their applications, and identify those that receives loans, as well as the SBA officials responsible for disbursing them. He also asks that the SBA outline the steps it is taking to ensure that the Planned Parenthood affiliates in question return the funds they received, with interest.

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