Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
Businesses with fewer than 500 employees that apply for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans under the CARES Act will be forgiven for the principal if they keep employees. Planned Parenthood isn’t a small business, so the organization and its affiliates were disqualified from receiving loans through this program.
But some Planned Parenthood affiliates have received Paycheck Protection Program loans. Fox News reported that 37 Planned Parenthood affiliates applied for and received $80 million in loans.
But the government wants the affiliates to return all the money.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) is reaching out to each involved Planned Parenthood affiliate explaining that affiliates of larger organizations with more than 500 employees aren’t eligible for PPP distributions, Fox News is told. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PFFA) alone has had more than 600 employees.
A Planned Parenthood affiliate in Metropolitan Washington (PPMW), for example, will receive a letter stating that although self-certified that it was eligible for a $1,328,000 PPP loan in accordance with the SBA’s affiliation rules, it will need to return the money.
Fox News reported two Planned Parenthood affiliates in California received $7.5 million, “the largest single government loan.” Why did these affiliates apply for money, knowing Planned Parenthood did not qualify? Regardless, they can’t keep it. SBA has warned of “severe penalties” in addition to the returned funds.
Senator Marco Rubio said the affiliates should return the money and be held accountable if they knowingly violated the law, and “whoever helped them do this knowingly needs to be held accountable. That includes potentially the people on staff at the SBA, the banks, and anybody else.”
Planned Parenthood receives around half a billion dollars in taxpayers’ money every year. Religious Americans have wondered why, while elective surgeries were canceled and businesses closed, Planned Parenthood remained open and continued performing abortions.
Photo credit: ken fager (Creative Commons) – Some rights reserved
