Planned Parenthood accused of violating tax-exempt status with abortion van at DNC

CNA Staff, Aug 23, 2024 / 15:44 pm

The pro-life group 40 Days for Life has filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over a mobile abortion clinic operated by Planned Parenthood in Chicago this week. 

The abortion giant offered free abortions and vasectomies to residents and visitors in Chicago as the 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC) was held in the city’s downtown from Aug. 19–22. 

Planned Parenthood described the service as a “mobile health clinic” set up in the city’s West Loop neighborhood. The van reportedly sold out of abortion appointments before it opened. 

In a complaint obtained by CNA, 40 Days for Life told the IRS that Planned Parenthood, in using its abortion van, may have engaged in “potentially prohibited political activities” that could “impact the tax-exempt status” of the abortion provider.

The mobile clinic “openly advertise[d] and provide[d] free services from not-for-profit entities to participants of and in direct relation to a nationwide political rally for one party and certain political candidates,” the complaint said.

Those actions “clearly are and/or suggest direct or implicit endorsements of a certain party, platform, and candidates,” which would qualify as “prohibited political activities” under U.S. nonprofit rules.

Planned Parenthood itself is constituted as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization; the IRS dictates that such organizations are “absolutely prohibited” from “directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.”

The IRS “should assess whether Planned Parenthood’s activities violate the prohibitions against political activities,” the 40 Days for Life complaint said. 

40 Days for Life CEO and president Shawn Carney noted in a press release that Planned Parenthood pulls down “$700 million a year from taxpayers.” 

“Targeting political parties and candidates with free abortions and other in-kind gifts is strictly prohibited by the IRS — a basic rule that every nonprofit understands,” Carney said.  

“Planned Parenthood’s recklessness on such a public stage is astounding. They clearly cannot read the room, or, apparently, the tax code,” he said.