Newly-filed court documents in Arizona indicate the Arizona Attorney General’s office is now conducting an active investigation into allegations concerning Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted babies and their body parts. Arizona’s investigation joins Congressional investigations and probes from a handful of other states looking into whether the abortion business is selling aborted baby body pats in their states and whether such sales violate state or federal laws.
As Capitol Media Services reports, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has filed papers in court with a federal judge in California to obtain additional information. U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick of the Northern District of California issued a limited injunction preventing the Center for Medical Progress from releasing certain additional videos.
Brnovich wants to ensure that his office is able to get as many videos and as much information as possible to conduct a thorough investigation of the abortion company.
Assistant Attorney General Maria Syms, according to Capitol Media Services, says the Attorney General “believes the injunction, unless amended, will impede his legal obligation to investigate whether state laws are being violated”
It remains to be seen, however, whether Brnovich will be able to get the videos he is demanding.
Following a hearing earlier this week, Orrick rejected arguments by Syms that federal courts cannot interfere with pending state investigations. But that’s not the end of it.
“The court recognizes that the Arizona Attorney General has an interest in the matter,” the judge wrote. And he agreed to look at the issue again after hearing further arguments from all involved.
That includes contentions by the National Abortion Federation, which sponsored the conferences where the videos were taken, that it and its member organizations would be harmed if more of them were released. But there also is a claim by the Center for Medical Progress that surrendering the videos under subpoena could implicate its Fifth Amendment rights against providing evidence against itself.
Exactly who or what Brnovich is investigating remains confidential.
On orders from Gov. Doug Ducey, the state Department of Health Services enacted emergency rules last month requiring abortion providers to disclose what they do with fetal tissue, including whether it is sold and to whom. While the sale of fetal tissue for profit is forbidden by federal law, there is no similar prohibition in state statutes. There are, however, civil regulations that govern the procedure.
In a statement to LifeNews.com about the investigation, Syms added:
“The Arizona Attorney General’s Office was in federal Court yesterday to provide the perspective of the chief law enforcement officer of the state and his authority to conduct investigations that are in the in the interest of the people of Arizona. There is a temporary restraining order that is delaying our investigation of any possible wrongdoing. Arizona was joined by Michigan, Oklahoma, and Alabama because they see the far-reaching implications of any federal limitation on state investigations aimed at serving the interests of its citizens. We believe state law enforcement has an interest in being able to follow all potential leads and interview witnesses consistent with our legal authority and discretion.”
The Planned Parenthood abortion business in Arizona claims it does not sell aborted babies or their body parts and doing so appears to be a violation of state law.
This week, the Center for Medical Progress released the 9th video in the series exposing Planned Parenthood’s sale of abroted babies and their body parts for research. This latest video catches a Planned Parenthood medical director discussing how the abortion company sells fully intact aborted babies — including one who “just fell out” of the womb.
Previously, the Center for Medical Progress released a supplemental video that sheds more light on the profit Planned Parenthood makes associated with the ale of aborted babies and their body parts.
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On Friday, the Center for Medical Progress released the full, uncut video of the conversation between undercover investigators form CMP and top officials with StemExpress, which buys aborted babies and their body parts from Planned Parenthood. The full footage is of a shorter video that summarized the meetings earlier this week. A House committee will hold its first hearing next week investigating Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted babies and their body parts.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives is planning a vote on legislation in a couple weeks that would de-fund the Planned Parenthood abortion business. The two votes would follow one the Senate had weeks ago, which saw Senate Democrats filibuster and block legislation to revoke $550 million in taxpayer funding. The Senate is expected to vote soon on a second attempt to de-fund Planned Parenthood.
Also, two committees in the House of Representatives have already launched investigations of Planned Parenthood.
One committee is looking into whether or not the abortion business is breaking federal law by altering abortion procedures to better obtain aborted baby body parts for sale. Another committee, among other things, is investigating the Obama administration and whether there is any connection between it and the abortion giant. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform wants to know if the Obama administration, via the Department of Health and Human Services, provided any federal grants to Planned Parenthood that ultimately went to pay for the sales of aborted baby body parts and if they were used by Planned Parenthood to “support transactions involving fetal tissue.”
The expose’ videos catching Planned Parenthood officials selling the body parts of aborted babies have shocked the nation. Here is a list of all eight:
- In the first video: Dr. Deborah Nucatola of Planned Parenthood commented on baby-crushing: “We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.”
- In the second video: Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Mary Gatter joked, “I want a Lamborghini” as she negotiated the best price for baby parts.
- In the third video: Holly O’Donnell, a former Stem Express employee who worked inside a Planned Parenthood clinic, detailed first-hand the unspeakable atrocities and how she fainted in horror over handling baby legs.
- In the fourth video: Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Savita Ginde stated, “We don’t want to do just a flat-fee (per baby) of like, $200. A per-item thing works a little better, just because we can see how much we can get out of it.” She also laughed while looking at a plate of fetal kidneys that were “good to go.”
- In the fifth video: Melissa Farrell of Planned Parenthood-Gulf Coast in Houston boasted of Planned Parenthood’s skill in obtaining “intact fetal cadavers” and how her “research” department “contributes so much to the bottom line of our organization here, you know we’re one of the largest affiliates, our Research Department is the largest in the United States.”
- In the sixth video: Holly O’Donnell described technicians taking fetal parts without patient consent: “There were times when they would just take what they wanted. And these mothers don’t know. And there’s no way they would know.”
- In the seventh and perhaps most disturbing video: Holly O’Donnell described the harvesting, or “procurement,” of organs from a nearly intact late-term fetus aborted at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s Alameda clinic in San Jose, CA. “‘You want to see something kind of cool,’” O’Donnell says her supervisor asked her. “And she just taps the heart, and it starts beating. And I’m sitting here and I’m looking at this fetus, and its heart is beating, and I don’t know what to think.”
- In the eighth video: StemExpress CEO Cate Dyer admits Planned Parenthood sells “a lot of” fully intact aborted babies.
- The 9th video: catches a Planned Parenthood medical director discussing how the abortion company sells fully intact aborted babies — including one who “just fell out” of the womb.
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Including Arizona, 13 states have responded to the Planned Parenthood videos and launched investigations into their abortion and organ harvesting business including South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Kansas, Missouri, Arizona, Indiana, Ohio, Georgia, Texas and Louisiana. The district attorney in Houston Texas is also investigating after the Houston-based Planned Parenthood abortion facility was caught selling aborted babies.
Congress has expanded its investigation into the Planned Parenthood abortion business and five states have revoked taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood’s abortion business, including Utah, Arkansas, Alabama, New Hampshire and Louisiana and Iowa’s governor has ordered a review of Planned Parenthood funding.
The full, unedited videos have confirmed that revelations that some aborted baby remains sold by Planned Parenthood go to biotech companies for the purpose of creating “humanized” mice. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood has been exposed as having sold body parts from aborted babies for as much as 15 years.
The federal law that technically prohibits the sale of aborted babies and their body parts was written by a pro-abortion Congressman decades ago and essentially spells out a process by which sellers of aborted baby body parts can meet certain criteria that allows the sales to be legal. That’s why a Colorado congressman has introduced legislation to totally ban the sales of aborted baby body parts.
