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9/29/17

Complaint: Texas taxes for family planning services were illegally spent by forced-birther group

The nonprofit government watchdog Campaign for Accountability filed a complaint Tuesday with the Travis County (Texas) District Attorney alleging thievery by the Heidi Group because it accepted millions of dollars in state funds to provide services that it never provided. It also filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service, asking that the Heidi Group lose its tax-exempt status on the grounds it’s engaging in political activities not permitted by groups holding that status. Nicole Knight at Rewire reports:

“Texas taxpayers deserve to know where their hard-earned money has gone,” Katie O’Connor, the Campaign for Accountability’s legal counsel, said in a statement.

Texas officials contracted with the Heidi Group to provide $7 million in family planning services to families with low incomes when it barred health-care provider Planned Parenthood from the state health-care program. Reports showed the Heidi Group shifted the money to anti-choice crisis pregnancy centers, or fake clinics. A six-month investigation by the Campaign for Accountability found the Heidi Group misspent the money. [...]

Through a public records request, the Campaign for Accountability discovered the Heidi Group had spent as much as 11 percent of its annual expenditures in one year on the “Heidi Group Cruise.” The anti-choice organization allegedly engaged in unreported lobbying and prohibited acts, such as electioneering and endorsing political candidates for state and federal office.

Texas authorities chose several years ago to fund crisis pregnancy centers instead of Planned Parenthood. As noted here, CPCs are forced-birther propagandists notorious for lying to women about abortion, failing to discuss contraception, and offering few if any of the health services that Planned Parenthood has justly been widely applauded for over many decades. 



from Daily Kos http://ift.tt/2hBUmqj

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