<div dir="ltr"><br clear="all"><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6pt;line-height:27pt;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><b><span style="font-size:24pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(17,17,17)">GOP
Probe Into Planned Parenthood Funding Comes Up Empty</span></b></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:7.5pt 0in;line-height:15pt;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(17,17,17)">Jason Chaffetz says he's found no evidence of wrongdoing by the
family planning provider.</span></b></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:12pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;color:black"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-bendery"><span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in;text-decoration:none">Jennifer Bendery</span></a> </span><span style="font-size:8.5pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;color:rgb(102,102,102);border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">White House & Congressional Reporter, The
Huffington Post</span><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;color:black"></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:12pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Symbol;color:black">·<span style="font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:'Times New Roman'">        
</span></span><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;color:black"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:12pt;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:8.5pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;color:rgb(153,153,153);border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">Posted: 10/08/2015 08:05 PM EDT</span><span style="font-size:8.5pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;color:rgb(153,153,153)"> | <span style="border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">Edited: 1 hour ago</span></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:18pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">WASHINGTON -- Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight
and Government Reform Committee, said Thursday that the GOP's investigation
into Planned Parenthood's use of federal funds hasn't turned up anything.</span><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black"></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:11.25pt;line-height:18pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">"Did
I look at the finances and have a hearing specifically as to the revenue
portion and how they spend? Yes. Was there any wrongdoing? I didn't find
any," he said during a Judiciary Committee hearing on the family planning
provider.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:18pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">Chaffetz, a candidate for House speaker, grilled Planned
Parenthood president Cecile Richards<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/planned-parenthood-congress-hearing_560af940e4b0dd8503099da7" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(44,145,120);border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in;text-decoration:none">during a five-hour hearing</span></a> last week. He <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jason-chaffetz-carolyn-maloney-planned-parenthood-defund_560a93f9e4b0768126ff1597" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(44,145,120);border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in;text-decoration:none">questioned her salary</span></a>, asked about the organization's expenses
and revenues, and pressed Richards on why the group had revenue of $127 million
last year if it's a nonprofit. (Nonprofits put their revenues back into their
programs.)</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:11.25pt;line-height:18pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">But after
all that, he concluded that Planned Parenthood isn't doing anything
sketchy with its money. "Did we find any wrongdoing? The answer was
no," Chaffetz said.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">His
concession will be music to Democrats' ears, who have long accused Republicans
of trying to sink Planned Parenthood because they oppose abortion. The
women's health care provider gets about $500 million a year in federal
funds, but federal law prohibits any of it from being used for abortions.
Instead, the money is used to subsidize a range of health care services for
low-income women, including birth control, cancer screenings and tests for
sexually transmitted diseases.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:18pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">Republicans have been ramping up their attacks on Planned
Parenthood after anti-abortion activists released </span><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/planned-parenthood-edited-videos_5612fe6de4b0baa355ad046f"><span style="color:rgb(44,145,120);border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in;text-decoration:none">heavily edited undercover
videos</span></a><span style="border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in"> a few months ago that purported to show the family planning
provider selling fetal tissue after abortions. Multiple state
investigations and a federal investigation have so far been unable to find any
facts to support that claim. </span></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:18pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">Planned Parenthood, which legally accepts money to cover the costs
of transporting donated fetal tissue to medical researchers, has slammed the
videos as "deceptively edited" and </span><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black"><a href="http://ppfa.pr-optout.com/ViewAttachment.aspx?EID=mr9WXYw4u2IxYnni1dBRVmMQR51KNkcLKWgR2hTdC2Y%3d"><span style="color:rgb(44,145,120);border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in;text-decoration:none">denies any wrongdoing</span></a><span style="border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">. </span></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:11.25pt;line-height:18pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">Chaffetz
said Thursday that he still supports digging into Planned Parenthood's
activities, even if they're using their money appropriately.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">"I
think there will continue to be investigations," he said.</span><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black"></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"> </p></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div>   <div style="height:auto;width:auto">   <div> <div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:10pt"><div><span style="font-size:13.3333px">A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. </span><br style="font-size:13.3333px"><br style="font-size:13.3333px"><span style="font-size:13.3333px">-Greek proverb</span></div><div><br>
“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. 
Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance 
from another. This immaturity is self- imposed when its cause lies not 
in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it 
without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! ‘Have courage to use your 
own understand-ing!—that is the motto of enlightenment.<br>
<br>
--Immanuel Kant<br>
<br><br></div></span></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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