Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Planned Parenthood Receives Tax-Exempt Status with No Oversight


Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA), a member of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight,requested that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) conduct an audit of Planned Parenthood after more recent videos revealed Planned Parenthood’s alleged illegal harvesting and selling body parts of unborn children.



Planned Parenthood is a tax-exempt, 501(c)(3), organization that receives millions of dollars from federal and state governments.  In Rep. Kelly’s letter to the IRS, Kelly urges the IRS to ensure Planned Parenthood’s compliance with the Internal Revenue Code.  Kelly notes that:

[T]he IRS has sole responsibility for enforcing our nation’s tax laws as well as determining whether certain organizations qualify for tax-exempt status…Engaging in the sale of fetal tissue and organs is illegal in the United States and is not an appropriate action for an organization that receives special treatment and exemptions under the tax code.

The lack of IRS oversight on this issue is ironic to say the least considering the IRS’ targeting of conservatives. Only after a Freedom of Information lawsuit, the IRS admitted it targeted the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to come under “high scrutiny” and used donor lists of conservative tax-exempt organizations to target individual donors for audits.

Meanwhile, the IRS paves the way for Planned Parenthood to receive tax-exempt status, and the White House claims the issues surrounding Planned Parenthood do not have anything to do with the IRS.


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