Blackburn urges IRS probe of Planned Parenthood's tax-exempt status over Botox treatments

FIRST ON FOX—Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., is urging the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to investigate following reports that some Planned Parenthood affiliates are offering cosmetic services like Botox in an apparent effort to stabilize funding amid federal cuts.

"I write to draw your attention to a concerning article describing—and in some respects even promoting—efforts by Planned Parenthood affiliates to ‘attract a new clientele’ by offering neurotoxin injections similar to Botox and other aesthetic treatments while operating as tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charitable organizations," Blackburn wrote in a March 26 letter, obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital, to Robert Malone, director of Exempt Organizations and Government Entities at the IRS. 

"Planned Parenthood Mar Monte in Northern California—the organization’s largest affiliate—now operates a dedicated aesthetics program, marking a significant shift from the organization’s claim to be a charitable health care organization providing public health services," Blackburn wrote. 

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In an interview published in March, Dr. Laura Dalton, the chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, told KCRA News that the affiliate, headquartered in San Jose, which runs 30 centers in California and Nevada, would be offering Botox injections and nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, for pain management.

KCRA News reported that Botox treatments will be offered at $9 per unit compared with $12 or $15 at many medical spas.

"Let’s be clear what is actually occurring here," Blackburn wrote in the letter. "Planned Parenthood, in an effort to abuse its 501(c)(3) status, is appealing to the women’s beauty market after the Working Families Tax Cut Act (Public Law 119-21) imposed a restriction on federal Medicaid funding for tax-exempt community abortion providers."

Blackburn added, "In a clear statement of admission, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte President and Chief Executive Officer Stacy Cross, stated the affiliate broadened its services to ‘keep [our] doors open’ and fill in the estimated $100 million revenue gap for the one affiliate alone." 

In the interview with KCRA News, Dalton said Planned Parenthood's offering of cosmetic services provides supporters another way to back the organization financially.

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"If you were going to get this service anyways, and you want to support Planned Parenthood, why not do it together?" Dalton said.

In her letter, Blackburn asked Malone to clarify what guidance the IRS gives to tax-exempt organizations like Planned Parenthood and its affiliates offering elective cosmetic procedures such as neurotoxin injections and fillers, as well as how the agency decides when such activities constitute unrelated business income. 

Blackburn asked if Planned Parenthood affiliates have reported revenue from aesthetic or cosmetic services as unrelated business income and, if so, asked the IRS to provide that publicly available documentation.

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Among other questions posted to the IRS, Blackburn also asked if there are safeguards that "exist to ensure that federal funds, reimbursements, or federally supported facilities are not used—directly or indirectly—to subsidize elective cosmetic services offered by these or other affiliates?" 

In February, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation for $90 million in emergency funding after President Donald Trump signed legislation prohibiting federal funding for abortion providers.

Additionally, Blackburn asked if Planned Parenthood’s offering of cosmetic services like Botox "fall within the scope of the organization’s ‘crucial resources,’" if any reviews are being made of the entity’s additional state funding, and asked the IRS to decide if the new cosmetic services fall under the organization’s tax-exempt status. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the IRS and Planned Parenthood Mar Monte for comment.