WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) issued letters to 38 affiliates of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), the largest provider of abortions in the United States, requiring them to produce documentation proving they were eligible to receive more than $88 million in COVID-era relief through the SBA Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) while the program was operational. The letters, part of a new review by the agency, aim to uncover whether PPFA affiliates misrepresented the size of their respective organizations or the nature of their affiliation with PPFA to fraudulently qualify for the loans.
Affiliates who fail to provide the required material may face a determination that they were ineligible for the PPP loan and any subsequent loan forgiveness. Affiliates who are found to have provided incorrect or false eligibility certifications will be subject to severe penalties, including repayment of the loan, ineligibility for loan forgiveness, and possible referral for civil or criminal penalties.
“At the height of the pandemic, affiliates of Planned Parenthood took $88 million in taxpayer dollars to fund their abortion-on-demand agenda – and the Biden Administration made sure they got nearly every cent forgiven, even after the first Trump Administration protested,” said SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler. “Six years later, the Trump SBA holds the same conviction: Planned Parenthood Federation of America was never eligible to receive a dime in pandemic-era relief from taxpayers. As part of the review underway, not only will we expose the Planned Parenthood affiliates who took advantage of the American people – we will take every necessary step to force every bad actor to pay them back.”
The PPP Program was designed to support small entities during the COVID-19 pandemic, and applicants were required to self-certify their size and affiliate eligibility status. Each Planned Parenthood affiliate certified that they were an independent qualified entity with fewer than 500 employees. However, during the first Trump Administration in 2020, the SBA preliminarily concluded that none of them were eligible for PPP due to numerous indicators of PPFA’s control over them and their services – including requirements to perform on-site abortions – in violation of SBA’s affiliation standards.
