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.
