Congress Expands Investigation Into Planned Parenthood Selling Body Parts of Aborted Babies

National   |   Cheryl Sullenger   |   Aug 7, 2015   |   5:14PM   |   Houston, TX

Just days after a 5th expose’ video was released showing the Planned Parenthood abortion business engaging in the sale of aborted babies and body parts from aborted babies, a House committee has announced it has expanded its investigation.

The video, which follows Senate Democrats defeating a bill to de-fund Planned Parenthood, makes it appear the Planned Parenthood abortion business may be selling the “fully intact” bodies of unborn babies purposefully born alive and left to die.

Planned Parenthood could be breaking the federal law known as the Born Alive Infants Protection Act that requires abortion clinics, hospitals and other places that do abortions to provide appropriate medical care for a baby born alive after a failed abortion or purposefully birthed to “let die.” That would be one of the potential ways Planned Parenthood could produce a “fully intact” baby to sell to StemExpress for research. Most “crunchy” abortion methods would do damage to the baby’s body.

The fifth undercover video in the controversy over Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted baby parts shows the Director of Research for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Melissa Farrell, advertising the Texas Planned Parenthood branch’s track record of fetal tissue sales, including its ability to deliver fully intact aborted babies.

SIGN THE PETITION! Congress Must De-Fund Planned Parenthood Immediately

Today, House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders today sent letters to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Advanced Bioscience Resources, Inc. (ABR), Novogenix Laboratories, and StemExpress requesting briefings and information regarding each organization’s practices relating to human fetal tissue collection, sale, and/or donation.

The letters were signed by full committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-PA), Health Subcommittee Chairman Joe Pitts (R-PA), full committee Vice Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and full committee Chairman Emeritus Joe Barton (R-TX).

In the letter to Planned Parenthood, committee leaders are seeking informal interviews with Dr. Mary Gatter, president of PPFA’s Medical Director’s Council, Ms. Melissa Farrell, director of research for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, and Savita Ginde, M.D., vice president and medical director of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains.

The letter says, “As you know, in several recent videotapes made public, these individuals have made statements concerning the manner in which fetal tissue is procured. We are examining whether these statements accurately reflect PPFA’s position on the acquisition and disposition of fetal tissue, and whether their statements, if accurate, are consistent with existing laws.”

The House committee letters also requested Planned Parenthood to, “(I)dentify the appropriate representatives from PPFA affiliates, other than those referenced above, who are currently engaged in the donation and disposition of fetal tissue.”

In the letters to ABR, Novogenix Laboratories, and StemExpress, the committee leaders outline six questions seeking information:

  1. Your organization’s procedures to assure proper informed consent for fetal tissue donation.
  2. Your organization’s practices for collecting fetal tissue, including guidance to, and training for, agents or representatives involved in the acquisition of fetal tissue.
  3. Your organization’s practices and/or policies relating to the quality or quality control of fetal tissue, and how your organization decides what types of fetal tissue to collect.
  4. The prices or fees that ABR/Novogenix/StemExpress pays for each type of fetal tissue, and how much ABR/Novogenix/StemExpress paid in 2014 for fetal tissue.
  5. The prices or fees that ABR/Novogenix/StemExpress sets for each type of fetal tissue provided to researchers, including what guidance or criteria, if any, ABR/Novogenix/StemExpress provides to researchers on prices and fees, and the total amount of fees collected and costs expended by ABR/Novogenix/StemExpress relating to fetal tissue.
  6. The number of years ABR/Novogenix/StemExpress has engaged in fetal tissue collection and whether and how ABR/Novogenix/StemExpress assures that the collection, sale and/or donation of fetal tissue is in compliance with federal and state legal requirements, or is in accordance with rules made by ethics boards by institutions buying fetal tissue from ABR/Novogenix/StemExpress.In the letter to ABR, the committee leaders posed one additional request:
  7. For the last ten years, any contracts and/or other arrangements with the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and/or any other Federal government agency or department, including date(s) of each contract, amount(s) of each contract, and nature of deliverables or services.

The investigations are a response to horrifying footage of Planned Parenthood executives negotiating the sale of aborted babies, admitting to using altered abortion procedures to obtain salable body parts and casually discussing “less crunchy” methods for procuring fetal “tissue.”

As LifeNews reported, the first video of undercover footage shows Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Senior Director of Medical Services, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, describing how Planned Parenthood sells the body parts of aborted unborn children and admitting she uses partial-birth abortions to supply intact body parts.

In the second video, Planned Parenthood doctor Mary Gatter discusses the pricing of aborted baby body parts — telling the biotech company officials that the prices for such things as a baby’s liver, head or heart are negotiable. She also tells the officials that she could talk with the Planned Parenthood abortion practitioners to potentially alter the abortion procedure to kill the baby in a way that would best preserve those body parts after the unborn child is killed in the abortion.

So far, 12 states have responded to the Planned Parenthood videos and launched investigations into their abortion and organ harvesting business including South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Massachusetts, KansasMissouri, 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.

Three states have revoked taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood’s abortion business, including Alabama, New Hampshire and Louisiana.

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.

plannedparenthood138