Rand Paul Forces Democrats to Remove Provision Funding Planned Parenthood From COVID Bill
National | Steven Ertelt | Mar 5, 2021 | 4:46PM | Washington, DC
Senator Rand Paul has forced Democrats to remove a pro-abortion provision in their massive $1.9 trillion COVID bill that would have allowed every Planned Parenthood across America to receive free money through the Paycheck Protection Program.
Paul (R-KY), ranking member of the Senate Small Business Committee, says the money in the PPP loan program was meant for small businesses, not abortion companies.
"Democrats knew this was never about COVID relief or helping small businesses," said Dr. Paul. "It was a shameless attempt to fund their radical agenda on the taxpayers' backs and I was successful in preventing that from happening by stopping these funds from going to abortion mills."
The original congressional intent of PPP was to limit large and well-financed groups, such as Planned Parenthood from receiving a loan, and instead provide relief to small business affected by COVID-19. But Democrats, under their House-passed COVID relief bill, made it so individual Planned Parenthood locations would be treated as separate and distinct entities and be eligible for taxpayer-funded under the program.
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Democrats had planned to waive affiliation rules for nonprofits to provide paycheck protection loans to Planned Parenthood in the House version of the COVID-19 relief package, but Senator Paul strenuously argued to the Senate Parliamentarian that this waiver would only benefit Planned Parenthood and thus violated the so-called Byrd rule. Before the Parliamentarian was able to rule on the arguments presented, the Democrats filed an updated version of the bill that did not include the offending provision – a concession that avoided setting a precedent against Planned Parenthood funding.
Last year, the Planned Parenthood abortion business improperly applied for and received $80 million in federal funds meant to support small businesses as they battle the economic fallout from the coronavirus.
That is despite the fact that the rules and regulations associated with the program specifically prohibited affiliates of larger organizations with more than 500 employees from applying. That covers Planned Parenthood as Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PFFA) alone has had more than 600 employees.
Some 37 Planned Parenthood affiliates received the funds from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), despite the abortion corporation being explicitly blocked from doing so. Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties in California received the largest loan of $7.5 million, and that affiliate was caught selling the body parts of aborted babies.