Congress Investigates Planned Parenthood for Abortion, Transgender, Organ Harvesting Practices

REPRINT from The Washington Stand by Ben Johnson – senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

Congress has launched a federal investigation into the nation’s largest abortion business, Planned Parenthood, for illegally using taxpayer funding to promote abortion and transgender procedures to minors, violating parental consent laws, committing partial-birth abortions or allowing babies to be born alive during botched abortions, and profiting from the harvesting and sale of aborted babies’ organs and tissue. The chair stated the investigation comes in part, because “as a Christian, I believe every life is a gift from God.”

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Subcommittee “is concerned that Planned Parenthood may be commingling federal funds and using them for unpermitted purposes,” wrote Subcommittee Chairwoman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to Planned Parenthood CEO Alexis McGill Johnson last Friday, June 13. The letter detailed numerous potential criminal violations.

Chief among them is the concern Planned Parenthood violates parental consent laws, triggered by a Live Action investigation in which an undercover investigator posing as a 16-year-old was able to obtain same-day transgender hormones, and the parent could be out of the room at the time. In a press release, Live Action praised “Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and the DOGE subcommittee for which she chairs for investigating Planned Parenthood, questioning whether the nonprofit is misusing federal funds for unpermitted purposes, such as abortions and gender-affirming care, in violation of the Hyde Amendment.”

Long known as the nation’s largest abortion business, Planned Parenthood stepped deeply into transgender procedures, referring children as young as 12 on how to obtain puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones. Planned Parenthood’s annual report obscures how many transgender procedures the business carries out by lumping them in with “other procedures.” But Greene’s letter lists Planned Parenthood as “the second largest provider of gender hormone therapies in the United States,” citing Planned Parenthood’s Southeastern Pennsylvania chapter, with at least 45 affiliates carrying out transgender procedures.

At least one Planned Parenthood office advertises transgender surgeries. “Planned Parenthood also offers some gender affirming surgeries to patients in the St. Louis area and refers to other providers when needed,” proclaims Planned Parenthood Great Rivers (PPGR) in Missouri.

The committee is also concerned Planned Parenthood is using some of its nearly $800 million in taxpayer funding to promote these procedures, in violation of federal law. The business committed 402,230 abortions and received $792.2 million in taxpayer funding in 2024.

Taxpayer funding accounts for 39% of Planned Parenthood’s $2 billion budget, up from 34% last year.

“Money is fungible, and all the dollars flowing into Planned Parenthood are no exception. When I worked at Planned Parenthood, all the money we received went into one account,” Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood manager who founded of And Then There Were None, told The Washington Stand. “Abortion was — and still is — the organization’s top concern, which is why you see their other services declining year after year.” Prenatal services fell by 63%, contraceptive dispensing decreased by 38%, and the total number of services shrank by 10% since 2013, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute. Yet more than a dozen Planned Parenthood executives receive a higher salary than Anthony Fauci.

Planned Parenthood officials paid the state of Texas $4.3 million to settle a Medicaid fraud investigation in 2013 for “improperly bill[ing] the Texas Medicaid program for products and services that were never actually rendered.” (Planned Parenthood admitted no guilt.) Texas again sued Planned Parenthood for $1.8 billion of “fraudulent” Medicaid claims in 2023. A 2016 Wisconsin investigation found two-thirds of all billed Planned Parenthood procedures were fraudulent.

“We have no doubt Planned Parenthood is misusing federal funds,” said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue. “Planned Parenthood doesn’t just need to be investigated, it needs to be prosecuted.”

The letter also raises concerns Planned Parenthood uses the partial-birth abortion method and profits from harvesting fetal organs, citing a contract for the University of California San Diego to provide Planned Parenthood “valuable consideration” for organs and tissue.

The investigation comes a decade after undercover videos produced by Center for Medical Progress journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt exposed the practice — and Planned Parenthood officials apparently flouting the law. “The federal abortion ban is a law, and laws are up to interpretation. So, if I say on day one that I don’t intend to do this [violate the law], what ultimately happens doesn’t matter,” explained Dr. Deborah Nucatola, then-senior director of medical services for Planned Parenthood nationally, who still works for the abortion giant.

The DOGE investigation also seeks to learn whether Planned Parenthood engaged in “racial targeting” for its fetal organ harvesting program. “The mission of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was to create, ‘a cleaner race.’ Her goal was to control who had children and to limit how many. In her own words, ‘the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective.’ It should not be shocking to anyone that today Planned Parenthood is sterilizing children and performing abortions on minors,” Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand.

“Planned Parenthood is an abortion giant that harvests organs from babies and uses nearly all of its resources to kill babies, not provide real healthcare,” said Greene. “As a Christian, I believe every life is a gift from God, and I believe it’s time Congress holds them accountable and stops the flow of federal funds to this evil and barbaric organization.” She requested:

• “All of Planned Parenthood’s non-public financial statements and annual reports” from January 2020 through June 2025;
• A list of all independent affiliate health centers supported by Planned Parenthood, whether in-person or virtual;
• All policies and procedures for abortion and transgender services, particularly noting how they comply with partial-birth, born-alive, and parental consent laws; and
• All records about the collection of fetal organs and tissue “for any research or experimental purposes.”

The abortion giant has until June 27 to turn over all the information.

“We’re encouraged to see scandal-plagued Planned Parenthood finally under investigation. Even The New York Times and NPR admit the abortion giant is crumbling under a growing list of scandals,” Emily Davis, vice president of communications at the Susan B. Anthony List, told TWS. “A recent NYT exposé revealed leaking sewage, botched abortions, and a culture of patient neglect.”

“In 2017, Congress referred Planned Parenthood for 13 criminal referrals for its role in the illegal harvest and sale of baby body parts. One Missouri facility was caught helping a man traffic a minor across state lines for an abortion. Meanwhile, this organization takes over $2 million a day from taxpayers,” Davis noted. “It’s clear Planned Parenthood prioritizes profit, abortion, gender transitions, and partisan politics over women’s health and safety — and it deserves full accountability.”

The organization also has a long history of covering up sexual abuse.

Original Department of Government Efficiency co-chairs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy pledged to end taxpayer funding “to progressive groups like Planned Parenthood” in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal last November.

“Planned Parenthood should not receive a dime of taxpayer dollars,” Szoch emphasized.

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