Did Planned Parenthood in Vermont get paycheck protection?

By Guy Page

The news that 37 Planned Parenthood affiliates nationwide have applied for and received $80 million in Small Business Administration (SBA) loan funding from the Paycheck Protection Program raises an obvious question: Is Vermont’s Planned Parenthood affiliate also improperly receiving federal funding from pandemic economic recovery programs?

Media reports in Fox News, the New York Post and the Washington Examiner list only a handful of the involved affiliates. None are from New England. The SBA website contains no reference to the improper funding. However, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, yesterday outlined the problem and called for an immediate solution:

“There is no ambiguity in the legislation that passed or public record around its passage that organizations such as Planned Parenthood, whose parent organization has close to half a billion dollars in assets, is not eligible for the Paycheck Protection Program,” Chairman Rubio said. “Those funds must be returned immediately. Furthermore, the SBA should open an investigation into how these loans were made in clear violation of the applicable affiliation rules and if Planned Parenthood, the banks, or staff at the SBA knowingly violated the law all appropriate legal options should be pursued.”

Guy Page

This morning, I reached out by phone for a comment from Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (PPNEE) Vice-President of Public Policy Lucy Leriche. She and I know each other from the State House. We have had cordial conversations. Calling the phone number provided on the PPNEE website, I identified myself in my Vermont Daily capacity and asked directly if PPNEE has applied for and is a recipient of federal SBA Paycheck Protection Program funding.

After a brief pause, Leriche said she didn’t recognize my number on her caller ID and said she had to get back to a phone call, immediately. Then she said she would get back to me. Then she said it might be better if I sent her an email and she would respond “when I can.”

“You can’t just give me a yes or a no on that?” I asked.

“I really need to get back to my call,” Leriche answered.

After that unproductive phone call, I sent the requested email to Leriche, using the email address on the same website. If/when Leriche responds, Vermont Daily will report her answer.

At Gov. Phil Scott’s press conference today, Vermont Daily asked the governor: “Given the news that 37 Planned Parenthood affiliates nationwide have improperly received Paycheck Protection Program funding, have you been told if Vermont’s affiliate is among them? If so, what can you tell us?” The governor replied that he had no knowledge of it, and suggested contacting the SBA. A spokesperson for the Vermont office of the SBA said he doesn’t know, either.

Imbroglios over federal funding are not new to Planned Parenthood, either the national organization or its Northern New England affiliate. Neither are frustrated attempts by Vermont media and abortion opponents to learn the details.

In 2019, the Trump administration cut off Title X family planning funding to all organizations performing abortions, consistent with the Hyde Amendment, first passed in 1977. This amendment prohibits federal spending on organizations providing abortions.

In August 2019, Vermont Health Department Commissioner Mark Levine responded immediately and publicly by replacing with state revenue the $769,000 in federal funding that Planned Parenthood chose to forgo, rather than stop performing abortions. A Vermont Daily public records request to the Vermont Attorney General’s office yielded just two documents, heavily redacted and shedding significant light on the funding source and appropriations process.

One document, an August 19 letter from Health Dept. employee Michelle Roberts to DOH legal counsel Margaret Vincent, included this unredacted, somewhat cryptic information:

“This grant the PPNNE Title Ten grant and is fairly large ($760,000). As you already know we have opted out of the Title X funding. However we are processing a grant under a different name with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.The grants Scope has not changed.   The program manager (Kim Swartz) went through and removed the references to the Title X funding. Thank you, Michelle Roberts, 802-863-7235.

In a phone call earlier this month, Assistant Attorney General Charity Clark suggested a public records request to the Scott administration and the Vermont Department of Health might yield more results. Stay tuned on that front.

Two days ago Vermont Daily sent the following email to the Vermont Department of Health media contact: “If you could send me what information you can about the funding sources and process for the August 2019 DOH funding of Planned Parenthood due to federal government not providing family planning $$ anymore to abortion providers, that would be very helpful.” As of noon today there has been no answer. Similar inquiries to several legislators since last August also have been unproductive.

Read more of Guy Page’s reports. Vermont Daily is sponsored by True North Media.

Image courtesy of Guy Page

8 thoughts on “Did Planned Parenthood in Vermont get paycheck protection?

  1. Planned parenthood is an organization that has gotten away with so much for so many years, just like the Dems and Libs, they feel complacent and not accountable to anyone. We need someone in the federal government DOJ to step up and prosecute them, and harsher punishments as they know better. Many of us who served are still waiting for Hillary and company to be prosecuted for a private server, as if was any of us with Gov material on our private computer, we’d be in Leavenworth. They are a slippery bunch in my opinion, but keep up the good fight conservatives, as it’s all catching up to them. Soon some real concrete muscle is coming with the Durham report, and many are in fear! Great article Guy and we are watching and listening as they slither.

    • The why are you not criticizing Scott for his stand on this? Your masquerade is patently obvious.

      • Or perhaps it’s because you learned a hard lesson decades ago by speaking ill of Governor Snelling.

  2. This is an interesting story in light of what I’ve learned of Planned Parenthood and its associations.

    Most people know that Planned Parenthood was founded by a eugenicist, Margaret Sanger, and that Bill Gates’ father was a president of that organization. Bill Gates himself has long advocated for population control and for vaccines, and has been a major donor and hence influential voice in the WHO. Where this gets interesting is that there have been reports that the tetanus vaccine had been laced with human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), producing a birth control vaccine, and that this vaccine was given according to a schedule conducive to hCG activity and inconsistent with established tetanus vaccine protocols. This was allegedly done in Kenya, the Philippines, and Mexico. Here’s a document that establishes evidence for the practice in Kenya (this document doesn’t open a new webpage, but is a direct link to a pdf): https://doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1103937

    What does this have to do with anything? I’ve been pondering the meaning of the Catholic Appeal to humanity to stop what they call a new world order which will establish a government beyond control. Why might they say that? They might say that because it was the Catholic church that first brought to light the vaccine abuses in Kenya, wherein in secret and without consent, vaccines were allegedly laced with hCG. Why? If true, undoubtedly to further the goal of population control, only not on a voluntary basis.

    Vaccines would have to be mandatory for this to work worldwide, and censorship would have to be in place to prevent protest. Vaccines are a central platform in the current crisis: we must have one in order to be free of restrictions, we’re told (but it seems we’re also being primed to carry some sort of immunity passport, which could easily be digital, and which would allow us access to whatever venues needed to be controlled.)

    Is Planned Parenthood considered essential? Will it get funded no matter what? Is lockdown part of the overall goal of controlling the population? Is that why clergy within the Catholic church sent out an appeal to the good people of the world to stop this?

    Why did we lockdown everyone, virtually worldwide, when we knew that 81% of Covid victims were those over 65? Below 65 years and the Covid IFR is a mere 0.01%, which is 10 times less than that of the flu. Voices of reason who were pointing this out have been ignored, and now the powers-that-be are resorting to censorship. Is the Catholic Appeal a legitimate warning of government powers going far beyond necessity and of potentially nefarious intents? Is this why Planned Parenthood is immune to defunding?

    So many questions.

  3. Oh yes Guy, direct interviews, they will avoid you like the plague. Great work!

    These people never get exposed for their votes, for their positions individually. They really have no idea how to talk with a real reporter, we did a couple of interviews. One with Adam Greshin and Maxine Grad, they said one thing in writing, then at town hall in Waitsfield the exact opposite.

    we’ve got many misguided people in this state….

  4. Yeah they did, Scott sent them $700,000 so they could fund the democratic party in Vermont and everybody could keep their paychecks!!!!

  5. Guy, did you really think you would get a straight answer from these liberal
    hacks, just more run around hoping you’d give up and go away.

    The Governor is no better, he knew who got what and was just trying to
    deflect, so he didn’t have to answer “Pathetic Phil” just a follower not a
    leader……………………….I’ll wait for the answer along with you.

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