Biden instructs HHS to undo Trump Administration’s Title X ‘Protect Life Rule’

During his bid for office, Joe Biden vowed to fully fund Planned Parenthood despite the corporation’s numerous abuses and fraud, which should disqualify them from taxpayer funding. Now, the president is moving swiftly to keep his promise. In January, President Biden issued an executive order instructing the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to review President Trump’s 2019 Protect Life Rule which blocked facilities that received federal Title X family planning funds from providing or referring for abortion. When this rule went into effect, abortion proponents like Planned Parenthood voluntarily withdrew from the Title X program rather than comply, freeing up millions of needed dollars for organizations not connected to abortion.

This week, Biden issued a “Memorandum on Protecting Women’s Health at Home and Abroad,” directing the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to consider “as soon as practicable, whether to suspend, revise, or rescind, or publish for notice and comment proposed rules suspending, revising, or rescinding, those regulations, consistent with applicable law, including the Administrative Procedure Act,” the Office of Population Affairs (OPA) noted in a press release.

A 2015 report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that Planned Parenthood and its affiliates receive approximately $60 million annually through the Title X program.

Money is fungible, and taxpayer dollars sent to abortion organizations like Planned Parenthood free up other dollars which would normally be used for salaries, facility rent, and general overhead. Live Action’s video below previously explained this process.

Taxpayer Funding of Abortion at Planned Parenthood

Title X is administered through the OPA in the Department of Health and Human Services. Biden’s radical pro-abortion pick to head HHS, Xavier Becerra, was recently confirmed to the office and is now in control of one of the largest government-funded agencies in the nation. Becerra’s favoritism toward the abortion industry and his hostility toward pro-life activists have many Americans concerned. He has no experience in health care.

The federal program consists of “grantees,” or a “direct recipient” of Title X funds, defined as “the entity that receives Federal financial assistance by means of a grant, and assumes legal and financial responsibility and accountability for the awarded funds, for the performance of the activities approved for funding and for reporting required information to the Office of Population Affairs.”

Funding can also go to “sub-recipients,” which, according to requirements, are “[t]hose entities that provide family planning services with Title X funds under a written agreement with a grantee. May also be referred to as delegates or contract agencies.”

The facilities where grantee or sub-recipient locate are called “service sites.”

In January 2021, Planned Parenthood of Maryland and Planned Parenthood of Metro Washington, D.C., were listed as a sub-recipient of Title X funding with multiple locations shown as “service sites.”

Planned Parenthood receives half a billion taxpayer dollars annually and has come under fire for Medicaid fraud, for discriminating against pregnant employees, for aiding sexual abusers, for giving women medical misinformation, for willingness to aid sex traffickers, for willingness to commit sex-selective abortions, and more. Their many instances of abuse, scandals, and fraud should be enough to rescind all state and federal contracts.

A review of Title X requirements below seems to indicate that Planned Parenthood is not eligible to receive any of those taxpayer dollars.

1. Racism and Discrimination

While Title X discusses the necessity of providing services without discrimination (notably, “Nondiscrimination on the basis of handicap” and Nondiscrimination on the basis of age”), it does not address discrimination of a recipient or sub-recipient discriminating against its own employees. Yet Planned Parenthood has been steeped in racism, according to hundreds of past and current Planned Parenthood employees who published an open letter which alleged the abortion organization was “founded by a racist, white woman” and had a “present steeped in white supremacy.”

Additional employees at other affiliates told Buzzfeed News they had witnessed “open racism,” endured “segregated” offices, and experienced overall unequal treatment of Black and minority employees at multiple Planned Parenthood centers across the country. Planned Parenthood’s “systemic racism” was later acknowledged by multiple affiliates. An internal audit also confirmed that Planned Parenthood Federation of America had a racism problem.

Live Action News previously documented accusations of the corporation’s discrimination against its own staffers for:

• Violation of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

• Violation of Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

• Failure to accommodate disabilities

• Racial comments

• Sexual harassment

• Retaliation

• Identifying conflicts of interest

• Pregnancy discrimination (and here) and profit over care.

2. Failure to comply with mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse 

Title X recipients must report abuse. Requirements state: “[C]oncern with respect to the confidentiality of information, however, may not be used as a rationale for noncompliance with laws requiring notification or reporting of child abuse, child molestation, sexual abuse, rape, incest, intimate partner violence, human trafficking, or similar reporting laws.”

Yet, Live Action’s Aiding Abusers investigative report and docuseries, which includes actual criminal cases and testimony from the attorney of two victims, exposed how Planned Parenthood covers up child sexual abuse. In addition, Live Action undercover investigative videos documented Planned Parenthood employees at 15 different facilities showing a willingness to cover up child sexual abuse and child sex trafficking.

An interview between Live Action president Lila Rose and a former Planned Parenthood manager revealed that instead of helping employees identify and report potential abuse, the corporation’s training sessions instructed staff on how to identify undercover journalists and whether they were being recorded.

Sex Abuse Cover Up at Planned Parenthood - Overview

3. Failure to protect patient confidentiality

“All information as to personal facts and circumstances obtained by the project staff about individuals receiving services must be held confidential…”

Live Action News has previously detailed Planned Parenthood’s multiple violations of privacy under the federal HIPAA law. including massive privacy breaches due to Planned Parenthood’s negligence, which exposed thousands of Planned Parenthood patients.

• Planned Parenthood of the Heartland – 2,500 patients

• Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio – 5,000 patients

• Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho– 10,700 patients

HHS, Office of Civil Rights: Planned Parenthood Privacy Breach

The Office of Civil Rights portal revealed an investigation from November 2020 against Planned Parenthood of Metro Washington for a hacking incident which affected 500 clients. As stated earlier, this Planned Parenthood affiliate is currently listed as receiving Title X taxpayer dollars.

In addition to that investigation, a 2017 article published in HIPAA Journal noted how “Planned Parenthood Mar Monte (PPMM), Planned Parenthood Shasta Pacific (PPSP), and Family Planning Specialists Medical Group (FPS), routinely violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s Privacy Rule. The organizations’ HIPAA violations were found to be systemic and occurred over a 6-year period between 2010 and 2015.”

And there have been many others.

Over the past decade, it is estimated that Planned Parenthood has committed more than 3.3 million abortions and received nearly $6 billion from U.S. taxpayers while accumulating $1 billion in excess revenue over expenses. Planned Parenthood’s 2019-2020 report shows the highest amount of taxpayer revenue ever received by the corporation in a year: $618.1 million.

The Biden administration’s obsession with funneling millions of dollars back to this scandalous abortion behemoth must end.

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