LITTLE ROCK — The Legislative Council on Friday approved state grants to Planned Parenthood of Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma Inc. for HIV-prevention and syphilis education.
But state Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Bigelow, who opposed the state Health Department grants to the family-planning group, said he plans to seek an audit by the Division of Legislative Audit of Planned Parenthood’s use of state funds.
The Health Department had proposed adding $20,000 to a $180,000 grant to the group to continue providing HIV-prevention education to students in the Little Rock School District, according to the Bureau of Legislative Research.
The department also proposed adding $13,000 to a $39,000 grant to the group to continue providing syphilis education to students in the Little Rock School District, the bureau said.
The Legislative Council’s approval of these grants came after the council’s Review Subcommittee held a 45-minute hearing to allow Rapert and other lawmakers to query a representative of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, which includes Planned Parent- hood of Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma.
Tamya Cox, an Oklahoma City-based staff attorney and lobbyist for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, told lawmakers that Planned Parenthood of Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma has merged into Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, which also covers Iowa and Nebraska and is based in Des Moines, Iowa.
The group has clinics in Little Rock and Fayetteville that see almost 5,000 patients a year, she said, adding that 98 percent of the services it provides in Arkansas are preventative in nature and range from breast examinations to pregnancy tests, she said.
The state HIV grant the group receives helps teenagers and young adults make healthy decisions and pays for two educators to provide needed information in five schools in the Little Rock area, she said.
“The curriculum does not speak to anything about abortions. We make no referrals to our Planned Parenthood clinics,” Cox assured lawmakers.
But Rapert said there are two court cases involving the Planned Parenthood of the Heartland in Iowa and Oklahoma in which there are allegations of either misuse of taxpayer funding, overbilling of the Medicaid program and inflating reimbursements through the Women, Infants and Children program.
An 18-year employee of the group in Iowa is in a whistle-blower lawsuit against Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, he said. The employee has recorded a few minutes of testimony that Rapert said he wanted to play for state lawmakers.
Rapert said Oklahoma’s Department of Health has cut off funding through the WIC program for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, after allegations it was inflating its reimbursements.
Planned Parenthood has filed a lawsuit challenging Oklahoma’s decision.
In addition, Rapert said, Planned Parenthood has been defunded in Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin.
“If there is an answer and a response and these matters are completely cleared up, then you should have the ability to apply for grants to provide HIV training and syphilis training like [anybody] else,” Rapert told Cox.
“My concern is that when you have a list of states like this and two very serious allegations that I am aware of directly with Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, I do not feel comfortable putting taxpayer money into your organization when we have these kind of issues that have been ongoing,” he said.
Cox said many of these states’ decisions to no longer provide funding to Planned Parenthood have been challenged in lawsuits that have not been resolved.
The lawsuits in Iowa and Oklahoma “are pending litigation, so I am not at liberty to speak specifically and directly regarding some of the issues,” she said.
Cox said a disgruntled former employee in Iowa filed the lawsuit against Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and the former employee is represented by a group that targeted Planned Parenthood chapters across the nation.
The state and federal government have declined to intervene in the lawsuit after an audit of Planned Parenthood, and a judge is considering the group’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, she said.
Subcommittee Co-Chairman Sen. Randy Laverty, DJasper, later ruled the committee was barred under Legislative Council rules from hearing the former Planned Parenthood employee’s taped testimony.
Cox said Planned Parenthood has had a contract with Arkansas’ Health Department since 2005, and “we have never had any issues.”
The group isn’t paid by the department until it provides detailed receipts and documents for reimbursement, he said.
In response to Rapert’s remarks, Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, said there is “a national agenda” aimed at Planned Parenthood that’s spawned numerous allegations.
“But in this great country, whether it be a person or an entity, he is innocent until proven guilty,” she said.
“We can pile enough stuff on folks to make them look like they sank the Titanic. But until someone comes forward and is able to prove that there have been material findings, then as far as I am concerned, you are innocent of those charges.”
With the growth of sexually transmitted diseases, “we need as many folks as we can doing what they can to help us keep our children, our young adults and even us older citizens healthy,” Chesterfield told Cox. “I salute your group.”
But Rapert said the Health Department couldn’t provide the Family Council a copy of a Planned Parenthood grant application in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the conservative organization.
Robert Brech, chief financial officer for the department, said the department failed to find an original grant application from 2005.
“To be honest with you, I am not sure what would be in our interest to hide the application. There wouldn’t have been anything in that application that would have been damning in any way,” he said.
Rapert said he finds it interesting that “I have colleagues that want to turn a blind eye when [the department] cannot produce the document that even authorizes this grant and will sit here and have at their fingertips information about these ongoing lawsuits and litigation and literally not try to hold your organization accountable.”
Afterward, department Deputy Director Ann Purvis said officials found the grant-application documents and intended to provide them to the Family Council.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 12/22/2012