In 2019, Reps. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO), Pete Olson (R-TX), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) led over 120 House and Senate Members in a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) requesting data on federal taxpayer dollars received by certain abortion vendors.

Last week, GAO released the report, which includes documentation of the funding received over a 3-year period (2016 through 2018) by 3 large abortion organizations: Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), Marie Stopes International (MSI) and International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). It also documents the funding received by four domestic regional vendors.

These abortion groups received $1.8 billion in taxpayer dollars over the three-year period, mostly through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Planned Parenthood (PPFA) from 2016-2018:

• Received a total of $1.6 billion federal taxpayer dollars (averaging $533 million per year) including:
  • $304 million from grants and cooperative agreements
  • $1.3 billion from Medicaid, Medicare, and CHIP (this accounts for 81% of all federal funds received)
• The 6 PPFA affiliates that received the most funding included:
  • Planned Parenthood Mar Monte
  • Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties
  • Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest
  • Planned Parenthood Los Angeles
  • Planned Parenthood Northern California
  • Planned Parenthood of New York City
• 21 out of about 50 total PPFA affiliates received at least $21 million federal taxpayer dollars

International Planned Parenthood (IPPF) from 2016-2018*:

• Received a total of $20.96 million federal taxpayer dollars
• Reported expending a total of $15.55 million federal taxpayer dollars. 95% of these expenditures went toward supporting international family planning organizations.

Marie Stopes International (MSI) from 2016-2018*:

• Received a total of $86.5 million federal taxpayer dollars
• Reported expending a total of $84.8 million federal taxpayer dollars

Four Regional Domestic Abortion Providers from 2016-2018:

• Received a total of $124.48 million federal taxpayer dollars from Medicaid and CHIP

It is a BIG deal that billions of American taxpayer dollars went to abortion vendors worldwide. It is wildly unpopular even to fund our own country’s abortions, much less foot the bill for the extermination of the preborn citizens of other countries. Students for Life recently commissioned a poll that found that 48% of young people (millennials and Gen Z) don’t support forcing taxpayers to fund domestic abortions, and 53% don’t support funding it worldwide.

Students for Life will continue working to build a pro-life future in our nation – including identifying the many sneaky ways that abortion-supporting politicians have found to funnel our money into this dirty business.