House Republicans launched a multi-pronged attack on Planned Parenthood Tuesday, taking advantage of their first-ever opportunity to publicly berate Cecile Richards, the head of the country’s largest abortion provider.
In their effort to paint Planned Parenthood as an organization so wasteful and corrupt that it should be singled out among other healthcare providers to lose access to federal reimbursements, they wanted to know how much revenue Planned Parenthood makes from performing abortions. They wondered why the group spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on travel and parties. They asked why it spends millions on political activities. And they pushed Richards to say whether the group could provide healthcare to women even if it lost some federal dollars.
Planned Parenthood, which operates nearly 700 clinics around the country, relies on federal funding for about 40 percent of its budget, mostly through Medicaid reimbursements and family planning funds. The group lays that data out in its annual financial report.
Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers aren’t allowed under federal law to use taxpayer funds on abortions. But Republicans insist the group should be banned from federal funds anyway, since getting the money frees up other funding and because there are questions about whether Planned Parenthood broke the law.
They threw out a lot of numbers during the five-hour hearing, as they plied Richards with a wide range of questions. Richards answered some questions but said she didn’t know the answer to others. Here’s a guide to some of the controversial numbers discussed.
$14,000
House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz kicked off the hearing by blasting Richards over her group’s generous employee salaries, spending on parties and travel, contributions to political causes and efforts to get Democrats elected.
Chaffetz noted that Richards earns more than $500,000 annually and other top Planned Parenthood officials have salaries around $400,000. He also said that according to tax records, Planned Parenthood’s total spending on travel amounts to $14,000 per day.
Richards didn’t dispute any of those numbers, but she did defend them, saying Planned Parenthood has programs around the country that require employee travel. She said the group has been transparent in disclosing its spending on travel and other non-health services.
“We have programs in Latin America and Africa as well,” Richards said. “I think we have provided very detailed information.”
3 percent vs. 12 percent
Planned Parenthood says in its annual report that of all the health services it provides, abortion comprises just 3 percent. But abortion foes have long taken issue with that number, saying the more important statistic is that out of all Planned Parenthood patients, 12 percent get an abortion.
The issue surfaced at Tuesday’s hearing, with Reps. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., and Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., asking Richards to explain the percentages. Both lawmakers also used the dispute to lead into another question about how much money Planned Parenthood collects from abortion payments.
28 percent
At one point during the hearing, Meadows asked Richards to read aloud from a tax document filed by a Planned Parenthood affiliate in Rochester, N.Y. The document said the affiliate received $1.4 million in compensation for abortions out of a total $5 million in revenue—about 28 percent.
Meadows used the document to illustrate that at least one Planned Parenthood affiliate gains a significant share of revenue from performing abortions, a procedure most Republicans call immoral. He asked Richards to provide similar documents for all Planned Parenthood affiliates.
Planned Parenthood doesn’t include that information in its annual report. Richards initially declined to respond to his question of how much revenue comes from abortions, but after Chaffetz echoed the request, she agreed to provide the documents to the committee.
“I do think it’s important to understand that abortion procedures are more expensive than some of the other procedures we provide,” Richards said.
If the documents show that Planned Parenthood clinics receive a significant share of funds through abortion services, that would boost Republican arguments that it has financial incentive to encourage women to undergo the procedure even if they may be uncomfortable with it.
$60 million
There was a tense exchange between Richards and Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., who drilled her on whether Planned Parenthood would have had to refuse healthcare services to some women if it lost $60 million in federal funding.
While Planned Parenthood receives roughly $500 million in federal funding every year, Congress only has the ability to halt the discretionary part of it, about $60 million paid through Title 10 family planning funds.
“If you’d had $60 million less last year, could you have provided every service to every woman last year?” he asked. “I think the answer is unequivocally ‘yes.’
Mulvaney noted that Planned Parenthood listed $127 million in excess revenues in its most recent annual report. Richards didn’t explicitly say the group would have had to cut back services without the discretionary funds, but she pushed back by saying excess revenue is used to expand healthcare services.
“Like every other nonprofit, we set money aside to expand services,” Richards said. “We are a nonprofit, so we don’t do anything else with our money other than put it back into services, education and sometimes the advocacy that we provide.”
