ADF to Wis. lawmakers: Better health clinic choices exist for taxpayers than Planned Parenthood

WHO: ADF Senior Counsel Casey Mattox, former Planned Parenthood clinic director Sue Thayer

WHAT: Testimony on Wisconsin Assembly Bills 310 and 311

WHEN: Wednesday, Sept. 2 at 9 a.m. CDT (testimony of Mattox and Thayer expected closer to 11 a.m. CDT with media availability at around 12 p.m. CDT)

WHERE: Wisconsin State Capitol, Assembly Committee on Health, 2 E. Main St., Fourth Floor, Madison

MADISON, Wis. – ADF Senior Counsel Casey Mattox and former Planned Parenthood clinic director Sue Thayer will testify on Wednesday on two bills which could redirect taxpayer dollars away from Planned Parenthood’s Wisconsin affiliate.

ADF attorneys represent Thayer in a whistleblower lawsuit against Planned Parenthood’s affiliate for Iowa, Nebraska, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. The lawsuit, Thayer v. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, claims that Planned Parenthood submitted “repeated false, fraudulent, and/or ineligible claims for reimbursements” to Medicaid and failed to meet acceptable standards of medical practice.

Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit held that Thayer’s claims could proceed because she had sufficiently alleged that Planned Parenthood “violated the FCA [False Claims Act] by filing claims for (1) unnecessary quantities of birth control pills, (2) birth control pills dispensed without examinations or without or prior to a physician’s order, (3) abortion-related services, and (4) the full amount of services that had already been paid, in whole or in part, by ‘donations’ Planned Parenthood coerced from patients.” If Thayer prevails, Planned Parenthood could be ordered to pay the United States and Iowa as much as $5.5 billion in False Claims Act damages and penalties.

 

Thayer will testify on her experience and familiarity with Planned Parenthood’s activities and practices. Mattox will testify about how Wisconsin can legally direct government funds to the many healthcare providers available in the state that offer a broader spectrum of healthcare for low-income women and that are not entangled in potentially illegal activities. He will also testify about evidence that Planned Parenthood, which is currently embroiled in an undercover video scandal involving the sale of aborted baby parts for profit, is abusing Medicaid and other federal programs.

“Not one more penny should go to Planned Parenthood, a billion-dollar abortion dealer caught on camera negotiating the sale of hearts, lungs, and livers from aborted babies,” said Mattox. “Our tax dollars instead should fund local public health clinics, which outnumber Planned Parenthood locations nationally more than 20 to 1. Americans have real choices other than Planned Parenthood.”

Alabama, Louisiana, Utah, Arkansas, and New Hampshire have recently cut government funding to Planned Parenthood in light of the videos released by the Center for Medical Progress.

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.