Anti-abortion-rights group accuses Planned Parenthood of 'potential fraud'

By Julian Pecquet - 02/07/12 03:50 PM ET

An anti-abortion-rights group unveiled a new report Tuesday aimed at fueling calls for congressional hearings into Planned Parenthood.

The Alliance Defense Fund prepared the report for House Energy and Commerce Oversight Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), whose ongoing probe into the nation's largest abortion provider was cited by the Susan G. Komen foundation as a reason to cut off its funding. The report's authors say they identified examples of "waste, abuse, and potential fraud" at Planned Parenthood, and called on Congress to schedule investigatory hearings "immediately."

"Americans deserve to know if their hard-earned tax money is being funneled to groups that are misusing it," ADF senior counsel Steven Aden said in a statement. "Planned Parenthood has to play by the same rules as everyone else. It certainly isn't entitled to a penny of public funds, especially if it is committing Medicare fraud."

Specifically, the report found that:

• from 1995 to 2009, audits of seven Planned Parenthood affiliates in New York, California, Washington and Texas revealed significant fraud, waste and abuse amounting to $7,867,547.15;

• Planned Parenthood affiliates nationwide are involved in 12 types of potential fraud, including fraudulent billing and reimbursement by Title XIX agencies for medications and/or services provided in connection with an abortion; and

• one in five Planned Parenthood affiliates in the United States are implicated in waste, abuse and potential fraud either by publicly available audits or federal lawsuits that have come against them.

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America dismissed the report as coming from the same groups behind Susan G. Komen's defunding decision.

"This document is part of a campaign by conservative groups seeking to outlaw access to reproductive health care and uses recycled or overstated allegations," the group said in a statement. "Planned Parenthood takes seriously its role as a trusted health care provider. PPFA and its affiliates have a strong record of fiscal responsibility and compliance with laws applicable to the receipt and use of government funds. If a potential irregularity is identified, it is taken seriously and handled swiftly and appropriately."

Senior Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee and Stearns's Oversight panel have accused him of abusing his position with the probe.

"Your fervent ideological opposition to Planned Parenthood does not justify launching this intrusive investigation," Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) wrote in a Sept. 27 letter.