News

SEATTLE, March 20, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Planned Parenthood defrauded Washington State's Medicaid program by overbilling for contraceptive and abortifacient services at least 50,000 times, pocketing $377 million in taxpayer dollars, according to a lawsuit filed by a whistleblower.

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed the lawsuit on behalf of Jonathan Bloedow in July 2011, but only made the suit public on Tuesday.

Image

According to the suit, Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest asked the state for more reimbursement funds than it is entitled to for contraceptives and abortifacient Plan B “emergency contraception.”

Its total damages could be as much as $377,134,130, according to the ADF.

Bloedow said he discovered “repeated false, fraudulent, and/or ineligible claims for reimbursement” to Washington’s Department of Social and Health Services and its Health and Recovery Services Administration, which runs the state's Title XIX Medicaid program. Bloedow discovered the fraud through using state open records requests.

“Compliance with the law should not be sacrificed for the sake of Planned Parenthood’s bottom line. They have cheated the American taxpayer for too long,” said Senior Counsel Michael J. Norton, a former U.S. Attorney. “It’s time the abortion giant is held accountable.”

The allegation dovetails with others the ADF has carefully documented over the years.

Image

Last year, the ADF released a 23-page report that stated Planned Parenthood had engaged in upwards of $99 million in waste or possible fraud, including the illegal taxpayer funding of abortion and abortion-related procedures. Overbilling was rampant, according to audits launched by officials in pro-abortion states.

Click “like” if you want to end abortion!

“Americans deserve to know – especially in economic times like these – if their hard-earned tax money is being funneled to groups that are misusing it,” Norton said.

The latest revelation will spur on efforts by 72 Congressmen to investigate Planned Parenthood.

Rep. Diane Black of Tennessee, Pete Olson of Texas, U.S. Senator David Vitter of Louisiana, and scores of Congressmen and five U.S. Senators signed a letter in February asking the Government Accountability Office (GAO) for a comprehensive list of grants being made to the abortion giant.

Taxpayer reimbursement of Planned Parenthood has outraged pro-life American citizens, who point to Planned Parenthood's abortion work and who say that such funding is not authorized by the U.S. Constitution.

Last year, Planned Parenthood performed a record number of abortions and received a record amount of U.S. taxpayer dollars. In 2011-2012 PPFA performed 333,964 abortions and received $542.4 million in taxpayer funding – nearly half the organization's budget.

Rep. Black introduced a bill to defund Planned Parenthood at the federal level in January.