Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, is asking Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz to investigate the use of taxpayer dollars that will soon resume flowing to Planned Parenthood.
“The idea that over a billion dollars has been taken from Medicaid and Medicare from the needy and from our seniors in order to fund transgender procedures on minor children that are illegal, by the way, in many states, including the state of Missouri – I think that is the definition of fraud,” Hawley told The Lion in an interview Thursday.
Hawley sent a letter to Dr. Oz regarding Medicaid and Medicare funding intended to support the elderly and needy in America. But at the start of the new fiscal year on July 1, some of those funds will again be available to Planned Parenthood, which is a top provider of abortions and sex-change hormones and other sex-change treatments.
“These funds apparently have been used to prop up Planned Parenthood’s provision of transgender procedures to children,” Hawley wrote in his letter. “The organization openly advertises that it provides sex-change drugs and refers for transgender surgeries.”
Planned Parenthood’s prescription of sex-change drugs has seen a 40% year-over-year increase, and many of its facilities have prescribed such drugs to minors at their first appointment without any medical documentation, Hawley wrote.
Congress paused funding for the abortion giant for fiscal year 2025-26, but that restriction is about to end. More than $1.5 billion in Medicaid and Medicare dollars will flow to Planned Parenthood over the next three years, according to Hawley’s letter. This funding is set to resume after the senator’s legislation to block the payments failed to pass the Senate in April.
“It is outrageous that Congress is going to allow federal money to go to these trans surgeries for minors,” Hawley told The Lion. “It is truly outrageous. It is an abomination and I cannot believe that a Republican Congress has not banned this, so let’s not forget that or lose sight of it.”
He is asking Dr. Oz to investigate Planned Parenthood for fraud, specifically whether the funds are being misused.
“The organization’s transgender activities appear at the least to subvert Congress’s intent to direct Medicaid and Medicare funds to basic healthcare needs,” Hawley said in his letter. “They may also violate regulations governing how these dollars may be spent and fail to comply with Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rules.”
