This Associated Press story uses about 140 words. There's no background, no details, no follow up interviews. Indeed, there's not only no outrage about this remarkable claim of malfeasance and fraud; there's not even curiosity! Imagine the different treatment the AP (and a whole lot of others) would have given had the alleged crimes involved a pro-life organization, an evangelical preacher, or a conservative politician.Anyhow, here's the mini-story as told by the AP.
Planned Parenthood affiliates in California overbilled the government by $180 million for birth control pills, a fired executive claimed in a lawsuit. Details of the 2005 whistle-blower lawsuit by P. Victor Gonzalez were unsealed and made public last week.
Gonzalez was vice president of finance and administration of Planned Parenthood's Los Angeles affiliate. His suit, filed under the federal False Claims Act, contends he was fired in 2004 after raising concerns about "illegal accounting, billing and donations practices." The case involves reimbursement to Planned Parenthood for contraceptives under state and federal public health programs.
The alleged overbillings began in the late 1990s. They continued until state law was changed in 2004 to allow Planned Parenthood to bill at a higher rate, said Gonzalez's lawyer, Jack Schuler. "I can't comment because we have yet to actually see the suit," Ana Sandoval, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, said Saturday.
Fuller treatment of this genuinely momentous story, by the way, can be found. It's just not being covered by the mainstream press, except for this very pro-Planned Parenthood piece done by the L.A. Times. Here, for instance, is coverage by the California Catholic Daily and Catholic News Agency.
