The Obama administration will give three Planned Parenthood chapters a combined $1 million in grants to help sign up people for Obamacare.
The grants come as Republican lawmakers want to defund the women’s health organization due to a series of undercover videos detailing the donation of and compensation for aborted fetal parts.
More than $1 million in grants is going to three Planned Parenthood chapters in Iowa ($304,373 in anticipated funding), St. Louis ($388,787) and Montana ($337,555).
The grants were awarded for a three-year period but the funding figures are only for the first year. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services did not disclose the funding totals for the second and third years of the program.
The grants are under Obamacare’s Navigator program, which provides money to nonprofits and other groups to promote Obamacare’s marketplace. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Wednesday that about 100 organizations will receive $67 million in grants.
Open enrollment for next year’s Obamacare coverage begins in November and runs through the end of January.
Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis chapter will use the money to target uninsured residents who qualify for Medicaid or financial assistance.
Planned Parenthood chapters have received Navigator grants for the past several years since the program was created.
The nonprofit group has received heightened scrutiny recently because of nine undercover videos, and calls for it to be defunded have intensified.
Planned Parenthood has said the videos that feature undercover conversations with Planned Parenthood officials, even full footage versions, are heavily edited to misconstrue their remarks.
But that hasn’t stopped lawmakers from seeking to investigate the nonprofit. The House Judiciary Committee announced Wednesday that its first hearing on the issue will be held Sept. 9.
Opponents also have sought to defund the organization, which receives about $500 million in federal funding annually. Some lawmakers have even suggested going as far as shutting down the government if the funding isn’t stripped.
But such efforts were dealt a serious blow Tuesday after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said that Congress wouldn’t attempt to defund the group in government spending bills this fall.
Some lawmakers were not pleased by the administration’s grant.
“The Obama administration is thumbing its nose at Congress and taxpayers by using this backdoor maneuver to boost funding for the scandal-ridden abortion giant,” said Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn.
