The Paycheck Protection Program was part of the stimulus package passed by Congress last year to help businesses that were forced to close due to government-imposed lockdowns in response to COVID-19. The program provided loans to small businesses so they could pay their employees and their bills as lockdowns rendered them unable to open and consequently, unable to make money. A coronavirus relief package passed last month authorized additional PPP loans.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and 29 other Senate Republicans, wrote a letter to Small Business Administrator Jovita Carranza on the 14th of January, urging her to “take precautions so that affiliates of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest and most notorious abortion provider, do not receive loans under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), as they did earlier this year in defiance of the law.”

They contended that Planned Parenthood, which employs about 16,000 people nationwide, was ineligible to receive PPP loans. Despite the fact that the organization knew that it did not qualify for loans under the PPP, it still received loans from the program.

“At least 37 Planned Parenthood affiliates illegally obtained more than $80 million in taxpayer funds during the initial rounds of PPP by self-certifying their eligibility for the program,” the senators continued. “In response, the SBA determined that these affiliates were ineligible to receive PPP loans and issued letters informing them of the consequences of false certifications of eligibility, including repayment of loans, loss of loan forgiveness, and other civil and criminal penalties.”

The letter concluded with senators describing Planned Parenthood’s attempts to apply for PPP loans as a “naked attempts to defraud the United States government” and stressing the importance of ensuring that “additional relief funds go to those who need it, in accordance with the law, rather than unscrupulous organizations like Planned Parenthood.”

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