Lawsuit Againt Planned Parenthood Alleging Fraud Moves Forward

Another blow for the taxpayer heavily-subsidized ”Lens Crafters” of Family Planning:

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, June 5, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is reinstating Gonzalez v. Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles, a case alleging that Planned Parenthood defrauded taxpayers of tens of millions of dollars by overbilling government programs for birth-control pills and similar items.

Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), whose attorneys are handling the case, said that although “this case is by no means over, winning this appeal means we have gotten the federal claim over the threshold hurdles and can now get down to the heart of this case: the alleged fraud.”

Victor Gonzalez, a former Chief Financial Officer for Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles (PPLA), had filed his suit on December 19, 2005, shortly after he was fired allegedly for voicing concerns about PP’s illegal accounting practices.

According to Gonzalez, Planned Parenthood had been billing California’s Department of Health Services (DHS) since at least 1997 at the ”usual and customary” rates for oral contraceptives rather than at the lower “acquisition cost” rates. This was despite the fact that the DHS had repeatedly instructed the Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California (PPAC) to seek reimbursement for drugs solely at the acquisition cost.
 

Those pro-lifers who are going after Planned Parenthood have got the right idea. The fight over Planned Parenthood moves the issue of abortion from “a woman’s right to choose” and emotional hard cases to a fight against “big abortion.” (See this story  of the “sacred and holy” world’s largest abortion clinic in Houston.)

Probably, the pro-life policy that would have the biggest impact right now is to defund Planned Parenthood, just as ACORN was defunded. Let there be no doubt it, “Big Abortion” only survives because of numerous taxpayer subsidies at all levels. And while they may protest that “those funds” go somewhere else, money is fungible and money that taxpayers give Planned Parenthood for non-abortion related services frees up funds for abortion. Defund Planned Parenthood, and you’ve crippled the number one provider of abortions.