A whistleblower lawsuit against Planned Parenthood under the federal False Claims Act could force the nation’s largest abortion business to repay as much as $1.8 billion in fraudulent Medicaid claims.
The lawsuit, filed in 2021 by an anonymous whistleblower identified only as “Doe,” accuses Planned Parenthood of continuing to bill Medicaid for services in Texas and Louisiana even after those states revoked the abortion organization’s eligibility in 2015. The revocations followed undercover videos released by pro-life activist David Daleiden that showed Planned Parenthood altering abortion procedures to harvest and sell aborted baby parts.
“As the courts debated Planned Parenthood’s eligibility, the group continued to make Medicaid reimbursement claims despite the uncertain status until 2020, when the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the states,” the lawsuit alleges.
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Designed to protect taxpayer dollars from fraudulent actors, the False Claims Act requires that “any person who knowingly submits, or causes to submit, false claims to the government is liable for three times the government’s damages plus a penalty that is linked to inflation,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments Thursday in Doe v. Planned Parenthood, focusing on whether the pro-abortion organization’s national office could be held liable for advising affiliates in Texas and Louisiana to keep billing Medicaid during the litigation.
A recent federal appeals court decision reversed a Texas judge’s ruling, sending the state’s case against Planned Parenthood to trial and opening the door for the potential $1.8 billion judgment, including repayments, damages and fines.
Pro-life leaders hailed the developments as a potential “existential threat” to Planned Parenthood, which normally receives about $700 million annually in taxpayer support, much of it through Medicaid, until Congress and President Donald trump passed a defunding bill this year.
“Under the False Claims Act, money obtained from the government while ineligible — even if collected under a court order that is later overturned — must be repaid in full,” said Jennie Bradley Lichter, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund.
Katie Glenn Daniel, director of legal affairs for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said the whistleblower is “suing on behalf of the people to recover taxpayer dollars Planned Parenthood had no right to take and still has not voluntarily paid back, plus fees and interest.”
She added that “the nation’s largest abortion business felt so entitled to taxpayer money, it spent years billing Medicaid after being disqualified by Texas and Louisiana — a direct result of their disregard for human life exposed by David Daleiden’s undercover videos showing their role in the sale of baby body parts.”
“Despite reports of medical negligence, declines in actual health services, and record political spending, Planned Parenthood demands the taxpayer faucet stay flowing forever,” Glenn Daniel said.
The Texas Office of the Inspector General found that Planned Parenthood violated federal regulations by altering abortion procedures to harvest baby body parts, leading to the termination of its Medicaid provider contract. Texas officials are seeking to recover $17 million in fraudulent claims from the state alone.
In Iowa, a 2016 audit found that Planned Parenthood of the Heartland overbilled taxpayers by tens of thousands of dollars for abortions, violating rules that prohibit such charges under the state’s Medicaid program. The organization was ordered to repay $69,360.94 to Iowa and the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
A whistleblower lawsuit in Iowa by former Planned Parenthood employee Sue Thayer, a friend of ex-Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson, resulted in an additional $4.3 million repayment.
Johnson, now a pro-life advocate, detailed widespread fraud in a column for The Federalist: “We rarely saw women at the Planned Parenthood I worked at in Texas for anything other than abortion, and if we did, like many other Planned Parenthood facilities, we overbilled Medicaid.” She added, “My facility would bill Medicaid $30 for a package of birth control pills costing only $3, pocketing the difference.”
Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, criticized the abortion organization, saying, “Planned Parenthood demonstrates, again and again, a total lack of care for the patients unfortunate enough to walk in their doors. They are incompetent because they are indifferent. Their clinics are just a facade propped up on Medicaid so Planned Parenthood executives can rake in millions of dollars in donations, pay themselves six figures, then use the rest to further political power all in the name of their ‘sacred cow,’ abortion.”
“Taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for America’s abortion giant,” Newman said.
