[Vision2020] House Investigation of Planned Parenthood Turns Up Nothing

[Nicholas Gier]

*GOP Probe Into Planned Parenthood Funding Comes Up Empty*

*Jason Chaffetz says he's found no evidence of wrongdoing by the family
planning provider.*

Jennifer Bendery <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-bendery> White
House & Congressional Reporter, The Huffington Post

·

Posted: 10/08/2015 08:05 PM EDT | Edited: 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight
and Government Reform Committee, said Thursday that the GOP's investigation
into Planned Parenthood's use of federal funds hasn't turned up anything.

"Did I look at the finances and have a hearing specifically as to the
revenue portion and how they spend? Yes. Was there any wrongdoing? I didn't
find any," he said during a Judiciary Committee hearing on the family
planning provider.

Chaffetz, a candidate for House speaker, grilled Planned Parenthood
president Cecile Richardsduring a five-hour hearing
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/planned-parenthood-congress-hearing_560af940e4b0dd8503099da7>
last
week. He questioned her salary
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jason-chaffetz-carolyn-maloney-planned-parenthood-defund_560a93f9e4b0768126ff1597>,
asked about the organization's expenses and revenues, and pressed Richards
on why the group had revenue of $127 million last year if it's a nonprofit.
(Nonprofits put their revenues back into their programs.)

But after all that, he concluded that Planned Parenthood isn't doing
anything sketchy with its money. "Did we find any wrongdoing? The answer
was no," Chaffetz said.

His concession will be music to Democrats' ears, who have long accused
Republicans of trying to sink Planned Parenthood because they
oppose abortion. The women's health care provider gets about $500 million a
year in federal funds, but federal law prohibits any of it from being used
for abortions. Instead, the money is used to subsidize a range of health
care services for low-income women, including birth control, cancer
screenings and tests for sexually transmitted diseases.

Republicans have been ramping up their attacks on Planned Parenthood after
anti-abortion activists released heavily edited undercover videos
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/planned-parenthood-edited-videos_5612fe6de4b0baa355ad046f>
a
few months ago that purported to show the family planning provider selling
fetal tissue after abortions. Multiple state investigations and a federal
investigation have so far been unable to find any facts to support that
claim.

Planned Parenthood, which legally accepts money to cover the costs of
transporting donated fetal tissue to medical researchers, has slammed the
videos as "deceptively edited" and denies any wrongdoing
<http://ppfa.pr-optout.com/ViewAttachment.aspx?EID=mr9WXYw4u2IxYnni1dBRVmMQR51KNkcLKWgR2hTdC2Y%3d>
.

Chaffetz said Thursday that he still supports digging into Planned
Parenthood's activities, even if they're using their money appropriately.

"I think there will continue to be investigations," he said.


-- 

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they
shall never sit in.

-Greek proverb

“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.
Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance
from another. This immaturity is self- imposed when its cause lies not in
lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without
guidance from another. Sapere Aude! ‘Have courage to use your own
understand-ing!—that is the motto of enlightenment.

--Immanuel Kant
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