Democrats Complain GOP Gets $300,000 to Investigate Planned Parenthood, Which Gets $500 Million

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Nov 25, 2015   |   7:50PM   |   Washington, DC

Pro-abortion Democrats continued their attack today of a Congressional panel that will begin investigating whether abortion businesses such as Planned Parenthood are illegally selling aborted babies’ body parts and changing abortion procedures to harvest them.

Republicans recently gave the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives, chaired by pro-life Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, a budget of $300,000 – and now Democrats are complaining.

USA Today reported today that Democrats opposed giving the money to the investigative panel because, they say, there was no public debate and taxpayer money should not be used for the investigation.

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

“On the substance, we believe spending 1 cent on this investigative panel would constitute an indefensible use of public funds, if not a deliberate betrayal of public trust,” according to a letter signed by the three Democrats on the House Administration Committee, led by Rep. Robert Brady of Pennsylvania.

While the Democrats quibble over $300,000, they continue to support giving hundreds of millions of tax dollars to Planned Parenthood every year. Planned Parenthood currently receives about $550 million in taxpayer funds annually despite the fact that it is the nation’s leading abortion business — killing over 330,000 babies in abortions every year.

Democrats attacking the committee also are among Planned Parenthood’s biggest donation recipients. LifeNews previously reported that all of the Democrats appointed to the investigative panel have received donations from Planned Parenthood.

Some of the money allocated for the new investigative panel will be used to pay for a new staff director, who will help lead the year-long investigation, according to USA Today. March Bell, a former Justice Department lawyer with experience investigating human trafficking, was hired recently to fill the position, the report states.

The U.S. House formed the panel earlier this year to investigate Planned Parenthood and other abortion centers after a series of undercover videos by the Center for Medical Progress showed top Planned Parenthood abortion doctors discussing how they harvest and sell aborted babies’ body parts.

Democrats have called the investigative panel a “witch hunt” and “a radical assault on women’s health”; but panel leader Blackburn, who has watched the videos unlike many of those attacking her, says everyone she knows who has watched the videos is “unsettled and disturbed.” She described the footage as “abhorrent.”

“Our charge is to be an information-gathering, fact-finding committee,” Blackburn said. “We always know that individuals who don’t agree with you are going to be looking for a reason to disagree with you. But what we are going to do is continue with our work and the mission we were given and fulfill the charge that we have been asked to fulfill.”

The committee is made up of eight Republicans and six Democrats, nine of whom are women. The group will spend approximately a year thoroughly investigating, and then will submit a report to Congress with recommendations, Blackburn said.

Under Blackburn’s leadership, the committee will investigate:

  1. Medical procedures and business practices used by entities involved in fetal tissue procurement;
  2. Any other matters with respect to fetal tissue procurement;
  3. Federal funding and support for abortion providers;
  4. The practices of providers of second and third trimester abortions, including partial birth abortion procedures that may lead to a child born alive as a result of an attempted abortion;
  5. Medical procedures for the care of a child born alive as a result of an attempted abortion;
  6. Any changes in law or regulation necessary as a result of any other findings made.

The work of this panel will be in addition to the ongoing investigations at the House Judiciary Committee and Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

“This is about getting answers to questions about how we treat and protect life in this country,” Blackburn said, previously. “This is a discussion that this country must have; we cannot shy away from what is an unsettling topic. The allegations raised in these disturbing and abhorrent videos have led us to ask: What have we come to in this country? This select panel will allow us to have this conversation and help us get the facts about how infant lives are being treated.”

SIGN THE PETITION! Congress Must Investigate Planned Parenthood for Selling Aborted Baby Parts

The expose’ videos catching Planned Parenthood officials selling the body parts of aborted babies have shocked the nation. Here is a list of all eleven:

  • 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 ninth 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.
  • The 10th video: catches the nation’s biggest abortion business selling specific body parts — including the heart, eyes and “gonads” of unborn babies.The video also shows the shocking ways in which Planned Parenthood officials admit that they are breaking federal law by selling aborted baby body parts for profit.
  • Unreleased Videos: Unreleased videos from CMP show Deb Vanderhei of Planned Parenthood caught on tape talking about how Planned Parenthood abortion business affiliates may “want to increase revenue [from selling baby parts] but we can’t stop them…” Another video has a woman talking about the “financial incentives” of selling aborted baby body parts.
  • The 11th video catches a Texas Planned Parenthood abortionist planning to sell the intact heads of aborted babies for research. Amna Dermish is caught on tape describing an illegal partial-birth abortion procedure to terminate living, late-term unborn babies which she hopes will yield intact fetal heads for brain harvesting.

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