'Transgender madness' under fire after Congress lets taxpayer funding ban lapse
Congress’ ban on tax dollars flowing to Planned Parenthood is about to lapse, and a Senate Republican wants to investigate piles of taxpayer money that has allegedly been used by the organization to push transgender procedures.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., in a letter first obtained by Fox News Digital, is demanding that Planned Parenthood be put under a microscope for roughly $1.5 billion in Medicare and Medicaid funding that he alleges "are flowing to an organization that promotes transgender treatments on minors."
Fox News Digital did not hear back from Planned Parenthood for comment.
Hawley wants Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services Administrator Mehmet Oz to open an investigation into Planned Parenthood as part of the agency’s continued pursuit to uncover fraud in federally funded healthcare programs.
"I urge you to direct your investigative efforts toward Planned Parenthood and its role in pushing transgender madness onto minor children," Hawley said.
Republicans last year banned federal tax dollars from flowing to abortion providers in President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill," but that ban is set to lapse on July 4.
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Hawley and others have tried to extend the ban, with his attempt to amend the latest budget reconciliation package to keep the ban going failing earlier this year. That amendment would have extended the ban on providing Medicaid funding to abortion providers until 2035.
His focus now is on uncovering whether the $1.5 billion in funding was directed toward pushing minors toward gender-affirming medication or referring minors for gender-affirming surgical procedures.
Hawley accused Planned Parenthood of exploiting "legal loopholes to provide these dangerous and irreversible gender-transition drugs to minors without their parents’ consent."
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"The organization openly advertises that it provides sex-change drugs and refers for transgender surgeries," Hawley said. "According to one recent report, Planned Parenthood’s provision of this so-called "gender-affirming care" has exploded — with a 40% year-over-year increase."
Hawley is pinpointing a stream of money between 2019 and 2022 that was tracked by the Government Accountability Office in a report first published in November 2023. That report did not outline that the money was used to push transgender surgeries nor medication.
"In other words, billions of taxpayer dollars have been taken from those in poverty and the elderly and given to Planned Parenthood," Hawley said. "Moreover, these funds apparently have been used to prop up Planned Parenthood’s provision of transgender procedures to children."