June 11, 2020
It’s okay to protest a black man’s death. It is not okay, it turns out, to protest millions of them. That much was clear when two pro-lifers were hauled away from an NYC abortion clinic in handcuffs in the middle of the George Floyd riots. “We’re black women,” they said, but this isn’t just about black lives mattering. It’s about “all lives matter[ing].”
Bevelyn Beatty and Edmee Chavannes are Christians. They’ve watched American cities burn to the ground and wondered, like Ryan Bomberger and others, why so many people are screaming that everyone is racist, except the one industry that kills for a living? Where are the mobs screaming that Black Lives Matter outside of the city’s abortion clinics, where more African-American babies are aborted than born? If we want to defund things to protect black lives, Matt Walsh insists, then start with Planned Parenthood — not the police.
“The black abortion rate is nearly 4 times higher than the white abortion rate,” he points out. So Planned Parenthood can complain about the “systemic racism that festers in our nation,” but let’s face it: they’re as much to blame for the brutality against blacks as anyone. And perhaps more, since their public hypocrisy hides the lucrative fact that their business model was built on the backs of minority women. As many as 79 percent of Planned Parenthood surgical facilities were built within walking distance of African-American and Hispanic neighborhoods. So if black lives matter to them, it’s to their bank account.
A bank account, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) reminded us Wednesday, that got a big bump last month when the country’s richest abortion business stole $80 million dollars in taxpayer money. This is a company, many of us have pointed out, with a billion dollars in assets (half of which already comes courtesy of the U.S. government), that was still raking in the profits during coronavirus. Yet still, their clinics decided they deserved a government loan more than thousands of hurting mom-and-pops. And they took it — knowing full well they weren’t eligible.
More than 37 affiliates cheated the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) by crying poor — despite ignoring the shutdown orders and jamming women into waiting rooms to cash in on the panic. But that was almost a month ago. And while more than 120 senators and congressmen have intervened, demanding the money be returned and an investigation launched, nothing — it seems — has happened. The Small Business Administration (SBA), which has had its hands full doling out loans during the shutdowns, was certainly under pressure to act.
As Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on “Washington Watch” weeks ago, fraud like this is criminal. But “the ball,” he insisted, “is in the court of the administrator at the U.S. Small Business Administration.” In a hearing on the progress of the CARES Act, Republican senators reminded SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza of exactly that. “It’s a black and white issue,” Senator Hawley declared. Like Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), he pressed to see what’s happened. If anything has, Carranza certainly wasn’t sharing. In an exchange that showed off some of the GOP’s frustrations, real answers were hard to come by.
HAWLEY: Tell me about the Planned Parenthood affiliates that wrongly received funds. How many of those has SBA contacted?
CARRANZA: At this point, I wouldn’t be able to speak about a particular loan situation…
HAWLEY: I’m not asking about a loan situation. I’m asking how many you’ve contacted… How many Planned Parenthood affiliates have returned the funds?
CARRANZA: Again, I have to take the position that I am not able to share that borrower information.
HAWLEY: When are you going to be able to? How are we going to conduct oversight if you won’t give us this?
CARRANZA: I look forward to meeting with you and discussing the situation. But at this point, I won’t be able to speak to it publicly.
HAWLEY: What’s different between discussing with me in person and discussing it here when you’re under oath?
CARRANZA: I wouldn’t be able to divulge any of the details.
HAWLEY: When will you?
The White House, Congress, and taxpayers want to know that the SBA is taking this as seriously as they are. And while they’re doing a yeoman’s job at holding this part of the economy together, there must be urgency and accountability for Planned Parenthood. “The pattern of unresponsiveness… has been disturbing,” Hawley said forcefully. “I want answers.” So do the American people. This is $80 million dollars that could be in the hands of dozens of struggling businesses. At Planned Parenthood, the only ones suffering are the patients.