After the governor of South Carolina and Attorney general both indicated they were looking into the scandal of Planned Parenthood selling aborted babies and their body parts, the South Carolina legislature took a step to start its own investigation. The probe will look at the abortion industry overall and, specifically, funding of Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry.
Yesterday, the South Carolina House Legislative Oversight Committee voted 9-7 to investigate the funding ties of three State agencies with Planned Parenthood and other abortion companies in South Carolina. The Committee joins Governor Nikki Haley and Attorney General Alan Wilson to probe South Carolina’s abortion industry and its funding sources. (See how members voted by scrolling to the bottom).
The moves comes at the same time the abortion giant is facing intense criticism over its sales of aborted babies and their body parts. In total, eight videos have been released exposing the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
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Holly Gatling of South Carolina Citizens for Life informed LifeNews about the vote and discussed what happened.
“Committee Chairman Weston Newton, R-Beaufort, explained that the committee cannot investigate Planned Parenthood, a non-government agency, but it can investigate the relationship between government agencies and non-government agencies,” Gatling explained. “He said he will appoint a task force to look into the relationship between abortion providers including Planned Parenthood and the Department of Health and Human Services which governs Medicaid reimbursements; the Department of Health and Environmental Control which regulates abortion businesses; and the Department of Social Services which has funding for “pregnancy prevention” programs.”
Gatling said Representative Donna Hicks, R-Spartanburg, presented information supporting the request of a number of House members for the Oversight investigation.
“Interest in probing abortion providers that receive State funding has been triggered nationwide following a series of undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood officials in California discussing the sale of the organs and tissues of aborted babies,” she said.
On the other side, pro-abortion Representative James Smith, D-Richland, a militant abortion supporter, said the investigation is “political red meat” for Republicans. Representative Hicks countered that the investigation is about women’s health and is non-partisan.
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Earlier this month, Governor Haley launched an official investigation. Haley asked the South Carolina health department to look into the practices at the state’s abortion clinics, according to a local news report, and complained that the state health department has been lax about inspecting abortion clinics:
The eighth video in the ongoing controversy over Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted fetal body parts shows the CEO of StemExpress, a major buyer of fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood, admitting the company gets “a lot” of intact fetuses, suggesting “another 50 livers a week” would not be enough, and agreeing abortion clinics should profit from the sale.
Meanwhile, 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.
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, 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.
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