Calls for Legislature to Intervene to Defend Patient Protections from Planned Parenthood
(Madison, WI) State Senator André Jacque (R- De Pere) issued the following response and call to action today regarding Governor Tony Evers’ announced intent to funnel millions of dollars to prominent campaign benefactor Planned Parenthood, the state and nation’s largest abortion provider that is currently under audit by the Wisconsin DHS Office of Inspector General for widespread taxpayer overbilling:
“Both before and after taking office, it has been abundantly clear that Gov. Evers and Attorney General Kaul are ready to rig the system for Planned Parenthood, an organization that has made a literal killing out of billing taxpayer dollars from all levels of government. In fact, Planned Parenthood only waited ten days into the Evers administration to sue the state in an effort to eliminate basic competency and care standards and turn every one of their locations into an abortion center.
It is equally disturbing and beyond hypocritical that Gov. Evers has the audacity to reference a desire for healthy babies in a budget proposal that would send millions more taxpayer dollars to Wisconsin and the nation’s largest abortion provider and advocate- an organization largely responsible for the demographic challenges we face, dead set on eliminating a large portion of the next generation. Gov. Evers is playing Planned Parenthood’s puppet by seeking to repeal legislation I authored which currently directs state and federal tax dollars away from abortion providers and toward vital community health services and the Wisconsin Well Woman Program. It is particularly telling that Planned Parenthood has repeatedly been unwilling to testify about how it has spent the tens of millions of dollars it has received through Title X in Wisconsin to pad its bottom line.
During the last throes of the Doyle administration Planned Parenthood’s sweetheart deal were uncovered and legislatively ended, an audit by Wisconsin’s DHS found that as many as two-thirds of all Medicaid payments to the state’s Planned Parenthood locations were fraudulent, inappropriate or overbilled. These systemic abuses made it the worst offender among all family planning entities investigated. In the 2017-’19 state budget, my colleagues joined me in demanding a more thorough accounting and return of tax dollars defrauded by Planned Parenthood. That audit, conducted by the Office of Inspector General, is ongoing and scheduled to conclude by the end of June. Unfortunately, Gov. Evers has responded to Planned Parenthood’s legal cloud by appointing several of its current and former leaders to prominent advisory and administration positions. The person who supervised Planned Parenthood’s last two major lawsuits against the state for them is now third in command at DHS as they are suing us yet again. AG Kaul has already given a private legal defense contract for a prominent recusal to the law firm of Planned Parenthood’s favorite attorney, who is currently suing the state for Planned Parenthood.
It is absolutely clear that Gov. Evers and AG Kaul cannot be trusted to capably defend longstanding patient safety protections from Planned Parenthood in a lawsuit brought against the state by one of their most deep-pocketed and prominent campaign boosters. The necessity of last year’s action to prevent “sue-and-settle” lawsuit abuses by the executive branch has been unmistakably demonstrated as well. It is critical that the Wisconsin legislature choose to intervene in Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit and assault against our state, and I call on my colleagues to join me in ensuring we do so expeditiously.”
Sen. André Jacque represents Northeast Wisconsin’s First Senate District, consisting of Door and Kewaunee Counties and portions of Brown, Calumet, Manitowoc, and Outagamie counties.