Abort-clinic $$ clawback

Planned Parenthood affiliates applied for and received $80 million in loans from the Paycheck Protection Program — and now the Small Business Administration reportedly wants the money back because the organizations should have known they weren’t eligible for the funds.

The SBA is reaching out to the 37 groups to explain that under PPP rules, they are ineligible because they are affiliates of a larger organization that has more than 500 employees, Fox News reported Tuesday.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the nation’s largest abortion provider, has more than 600 employees.

The SBA in the letter warned that “severe penalties” were possible and that incorrect or false eligibility certifications for the stimulus funds could lead to criminal or civil sanctions if it is determined the borrowers knowingly made false statements.

The report said a Planned Parenthood affiliate in Metropolitan Washington, DC, will receive a letter stating that although selfcertifying it was eligible for a $1,328,000 loan in accordance with SBA rules, it will have to return the money.

The Planned Parenthood of

Orange and San Bernardino Counties in California got a $7.5 million loan — the largest granted to the organization’s affiliates.

Planned Parenthood in a statement said some of its nonprofit organizations applied and received awards “under eligibility rules established by the CARES Act and the SBA, which they met.”

“Planned Parenthood health centers play a core role in the social safety net, and there is no more critical time for the care they provide than during a public health crisis,” reads the statement written by Jacqueline Ayers, vice president of government relations and public policy for Planned Parenthood.

Republican elected officials, including Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Josh Hawley of Missouri, have called for an investigation while demanding that the money be returned.

“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,” Rubio said.