On June 16, 2010, Rep. Pete Olson (R-Tex.) announced a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report detailing federal funding levels for pro-abortion organizations, including Planned Parenthood. The report reveals that over the reporting period contained in the report the selected organizations spent roughly a billion dollars in federal taxpayer funds, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America received over half of that billion dollars. Specifically Planned Parenthood Federation of America received $657.1 million dollars over seven years, which averages just under $100 million federal taxpayer dollars each year—and that does not include state and local taxpayer funding. Notably, these funds underwrite abortion promoting organizations, but do not directly pay for abortion due to the Hyde and Helms amendments. However, by providing cash to groups like Planned Parenthood, the federal government offsets the abortion funding of these groups and enables all of their activities.
Organizations Covered by the Report
The six selected organizations are listed below along with their funding level over the reporting period. Depending on which numbers were more reliable, either disbursement data or expenditure data is listed, explained in more detail below.
- Advocates for Youth ($8.7 million over 8 years)
- Guttmacher Institute ($12.7 million over 7 years)
- International Planned Parenthood Federation ($93.8 million over 8 years to affiliates willing to comply with the Mexico City Policy when it was in place)
- Planned Parenthood Federation of America ($657.1 million over 7 years)
- Population Council of the United States ($284.3 million over 7 years)
- Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States ($1.6 million over 8 years)
Information Regarding the Type of Data Included in the Report
GAO gathered two types of information. First, they collected obligation and disbursement data from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). This data is limited to funds given directly to the selected organizations by HHS or USAID. It does not capture funds that HHS or USAID gave to another entity that then passed federal funds on to Planned Parenthood or another selected organization, resulting indirect federal funding. (This secondary funding is referred to as a subcontract or a subgrant.) Generally, obligation and disbursement information is available for the full 8 year period covered in the report.
Since indirect funding is not captured through obligation and disbursement data, GAO collected expenditure data directly from reports filed by the selected organizations. The reports containing expenditure data are referred to as single audit reports. They list all of the federal funds spent by domestic organizations that receive more than $500,000 in federal funds in a given year, including funding received as a subgrant or subcontract. Foreign organizations and organizations that fall below the $500,000 threshold are not required to file a single audit report, so data from such organizations is not captured in the report. Generally expenditure information is available for only 7 of the 8 years covered in the report.
According to GAO, obligations, disbursements and expenditures “in this report may understate the actual amount of federal funds the selected organizations and their affiliates spent,” but totaling obligations, disbursement and expenditures will result in over-counting.
See also 2010 GAO Report Technical Summary and Selected Organization Information; 2010 GAO Planned Parenthood Services Chart:
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) report is available.