The GAO says a request from lawmakers to investigate was accepted. | John Shinkle/POLITICO GAO probing Planned Parenthood

Spurred by a group of anti-abortion lawmakers, the Government Accountability Office is investigating how Planned Parenthood, the Guttmacher Institute, and other prominent family planning-related organizations spend public funds, the GAO confirmed Friday.

More than 50 members of Congress had written in February to Comptroller General and GAO head Gene Dodaro asking the office to follow up on a 2010 GAO report that detailed federal monies provided to the groups.


On Friday, the GAO confirmed to POLITICO that the request from the lawmakers was accepted and an investigation opened. No press release or pubic statement was put out by the office at the time.

Chuck Young, GAO managing director of public affairs, said the scope of the investigation was still being determined, and no completion date had been set.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America Vice President Eric Ferrero said in a statement that the move was not an investigation, but instead “a routine report by GAO in response to a request by opponents of Planned Parenthood in Congress.”

“In fact, they have produced reports very similar to this one six times over the past several years, with an almost identical request made by some lawmakers and an almost identical GAO report released in 2010,” Ferrero said. “This is just another attempt by opponents of women’s health care to attack women’s access to Planned Parenthood’s preventive health services and spread misinformation about the care our health centers provide to 3 million men, women and young people every year.”

The request from lawmakers asked the GAO to look into a list of family planning organizations, including Planned Parenthood, Guttmacher, The Population Council and the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, and report the amount of federal funding awarded to them and how that funding was distributed. It also seeks a report on “exactly how many women’s health services including family planning services are provided by community health centers and federally qualified health centers, a comprehensive list of these services, and the number of individuals served in each category.”

Though federal funds can’t be used for abortions, they can be used by groups that provide abortions as long as the money pays for other services.

Several supporters of the request hailed the GAO’s decision to investigate.

“Planned Parenthood and other organizations that provide abortions clearly benefit from Uncle Sam, but there’s no accounting to prove how they actually use that money,” Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said in a statement. “This GAO report would shine a light on how our tax dollars are being spent.”

Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) took it a step further, saying she hoped to use the information to stop federal funding for abortion providers. “I look forward to reviewing the results and ultimately, mobilizing the support needed to stop federal funding of abortion providers once and for all,” Black said in a statement.