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Iowa Planned Parenthood Should be Subject to State Audit, Pro-Life Group Says

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor

Des Moines, IA (LifeNews.com) -- Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, an abortion business that does abortions in Iowa using the controversial tele-medicine procedure, should be subject to a state audit. That's the formal request the pro-life group Operation Rescue made with Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller.

With the organization giving women the dangerous RU 486 (mifepristone) abortion drug via a telemed process with no physician present, OR has alleged for months that PPH is putting women's health at risk.

Now, on the heels of a May federal Governmental Accounting Office report showing $2.3 billion dollars in taxpayer money has been doled out to Planned Parenthood organizations nationwide from 2002-2008, Planned Parenthood's own financial reports show that only $657.1 million has been spent, leaving 1.8 billion dollars in tax funds not accounted for in its reports.

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, based in Des Moines, has been the recipient of Title X funds as well as money from other federal programs. Thousands of tax dollars have been disbursed directly to PPH through the Iowa Attorney General's office, and OR president Troy Newman suggests some of the missing money could be headed to PPH.

"We believe the public has a right to know where their tax money is going. It is time that Planned Parenthood gives an account for the money that it has siphoned from hard-working taxpayers," he told LifeNews.com today.

"We are especially concerned about possible misappropriation of funds after discovering that PPH is overbilling insurance companies for their remote-controlled abortion pill distribution scheme, known as telemed abortion," he added.

Evidence of overbilling by a number of Planned Parenthood affiliates has surfaced in California, where a state audit discovered that Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties had overbilled the state in excess of $5.2 million.

A Federal whistleblower lawsuit filed by former Chief Financial Officer of Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles revealed that the state of California was overbilled for a total of $180 million by Planned Parenthood affiliates in that state.

"There is enough history of Planned Parenthood bilking taxpayers and other financial improprieties to justify this request for an audit of PPH," said Newman.

Operation Rescue released an investigative report on PPH's telemed abortion scheme in March, 2010, then filed a complaint concerning its dangers with the Iowa Board of Medicine the following month. That investigation is ongoing.

OR also filed a formal complaint with the Attorney General's office requesting a criminal investigation telemed abortions. Miller indicated that his office was unlikely to investigate. Operation Rescue then discovered connections between Miller and PPH, including a PPH abortion practitioner who sits on one of Miller's advisory boards. In addition, Gov. Chet Culver recently met with PPH officials and received their endorsement of his re-election campaign.

"In light of Miller's and Culver's connections with PPH, we are asking for an independent audit to be conducted by someone not associated, either personally or politically, with Miller or Culver," said Newman. "That is the only way the public can be assured of an honest accounting."

 

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