Spain strips Planned Parenthood subsidiary of government benefits

A Spanish court has stripped a subsidiary of Planned Parenthood of government benefits for allegedly hiding income from authorities.

The National Court of Spain has ruled that the Family Planning Federation (FPF), a subsidiary of Planned Parenthood International, can no longer be designated as a "public service organization" after it failed to declare income from advertisements that it ran in a pharmaceutical magazine.

As a public service organization, FPF used to received taxpayer-funded benefits, but in May 2016, the group lost its designation when it was discovered that it had been illegally financed for seven years.

According to Catholic News Agency, the National Court temporarily reinstated the designation after the organization promised reforms, but on Nov. 25, the court definitively revoked its status after the group apparently failed to make changes to its operations.

Spain's Interior Ministry withdrew the public service designation from FPF, saying the group's "illegal conduct is incompatible with the advancement of the public interest, in this case, protecting the public's health."

The ministry further stated that "it involves betraying the confidence that society places in that entity which claims to benefit the community in exchange for receiving important advantages."

The Christian Lawyers Association (CLA), which filed the complaint against FPF, celebrated the ruling and called on the government to cut off taxpayer funding from the abortion group as well.

CLA President Polonia Castellanos pointed out that the organization is funded by its American counterpart, Planned Parenthood, which has been under investigation for its alleged involvement in the illegal trafficking of aborted baby parts.

Luis Losada Pescador, director of Spain's CitizenGo campaigns, said that the National Court's decision was "really good news from the Spanish perspective because justice is being done."

"An organization that hides income and dodges penalties is not serving the public interest. From the international point of view, this comes when the FBI may be starting an investigation into the largest abortion multinational in the world with great influence in Latin America through its subsidiaries," he went on to say.

Pescador also contended that the case "is very important because it opens the door to penalties against the American parent company."

In the U.S., Planned Parenthood performs more than 320,000 abortions each year and receives about half a billion in taxpayer funding from the U.S. government annually.

Earlier this month, the FBI signaled that it may be conducting an investigation on Planned Parenthood's alleged involvement in sales of fetal tissue and body parts after the government agency requested unredacted documents obtained by the Senate from abortion providers.