Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) sent a letter Thursday to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz demanding an investigation into approximately $1.5 billion in federal Medicaid and Medicare funding that he alleges Planned Parenthood used to provide transgender procedures to minors.
The letter, first obtained by Fox News Digital, calls on Oz to examine whether that funding stream was directed toward gender-transition medication or surgical referrals for children. Hawley cited a Government Accountability Office report, published in November 2023, that tracked $1.5 billion in federal healthcare dollars flowing to Planned Parenthood between 2019 and 2022.
“I urge you to direct your investigative efforts toward Planned Parenthood and its role in pushing transgender madness onto minor children,” Hawley wrote.
The senator accused the organization of exploiting legal loopholes to administer gender-transition drugs to minors without parental consent. According to the letter, Planned Parenthood’s provision of what the organization calls gender-affirming care grew 40 percent year over year.
“The organization openly advertises that it provides sex-change drugs and refers for transgender surgeries,” Hawley wrote. “According to one recent report, Planned Parenthood’s provision of this so-called gender-affirming care has exploded.”
The demand comes as a congressional ban on federal funding for abortion providers, included in President Trump’s budget reconciliation package, is set to expire July 4. Hawley pushed earlier this year to extend that ban through 2035, but his amendment failed in the Senate.
“In other words, billions of taxpayer dollars have been taken from those in poverty and the elderly and given to Planned Parenthood,” Hawley wrote. “Moreover, these funds apparently have been used to prop up Planned Parenthood’s provision of transgender procedures to children.”
The GAO report cited by Hawley tracked the funding totals but did not draw a direct link between those dollars and transgender services specifically. Hawley’s letter asks CMS to determine whether any of that funding underwrote trans-related care.
The investigation request puts Dr. Oz, Trump’s pick to lead CMS, at the center of a renewed congressional push to block Medicaid dollars from flowing to abortion and gender-transition providers. CMS has broad authority to audit how Medicaid funds are used by recipient organizations.
The July 4 lapse of the Planned Parenthood funding ban adds urgency to the request. If Congress does not act to renew the prohibition, federal dollars will resume flowing to the organization through standard Medicaid reimbursement channels.
Hawley has been among the most aggressive Senate voices on both the defunding effort and the investigation into Planned Parenthood’s transgender services. His earlier amendment would have locked in the funding ban for a decade, but it did not advance through the reconciliation process.
The senator’s letter was addressed directly to Oz and called on CMS to fold the Planned Parenthood inquiry into the agency’s broader Medicaid fraud and abuse enforcement work.
