On the same day a Congressional panel found that Planned Parenthood and others broke either federal or state laws when selling the body parts of aborted babies, the House of Representatives voted to double the budget of the committee investigating the abortion business.
Yesterday, the House Select Panel on Infant Lives released a list of nine criminal and regulatory referrals against abortion providers and/or fetal tissue procurement companies made as a result of their investigation into the illegal practice of selling aborted baby remains for profit. That list included the Planned Parenthood abortion company.
Then the House voted on H. Res. 933, which would cover the expenses of the Select Panel’s work through the end of the year. It approved the bill to authorize funding necessary to allow the Select Investigative Panel to complete its inquiry into America’s abortion industry and fetal tissue procurement entities.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican who heads the panel, told LifeNews she was pleased with the vote:
“Our Panel was tasked with investigating areas that, prior to the revelations of undercover journalists, received too little attention. For most of us, it is nothing short of an outrage that Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics supplement their budgets by selling human fetal tissue from aborted babies. The House charged members of this Panel with investigating fetal tissue trafficking, second- and third-trimester abortion practices, the standard of care for infants who survive abortions, and the role played by our taxpayer dollars in this sector of society. Over the last year, we have held hearings that explored the bioethics surrounding fetal tissue use and that revealed the sobering reality of how some bad actors seek to profit from the sale of fetal tissue in violation of federal law.
“The work of our Panel is specifically focused on protecting the integrity of research, scientific advancements, and voluntary organ donation in America. Evidence we have uncovered reveals that the unethical and potentially unlawful practices of some bad actors may be putting important research at risk. Considering all that our Panel has identified, despite having barely a year to conduct this investigation, it is now up to us to build on this work, to hold our government accountable, and to stop these affronts to human dignity.”
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Lawmakers passed the measure along party lines, 234-181 as Democrats objected to the vote.
“This panel and its investigation are a disgrace to this House of Representatives,” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (Ill.), the panel’s top Democrat. “Instead of providing more funding for this divisive and dangerous inquisition, Congress should shut down this panel and put an end to its shameful proceedings.”
The panel is now likely to spend nearly $1.6 million in total investigating the sales of aborted baby parts.
The Select Panel was created in October 2015, in response to undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress that showed Planned Parenthood officials haggling to achieve the highest price for aborted baby tissue and organs that were to be provided to a middle-man organ procurement business.
“Rep. Marsha Blackburn has done an outstanding job chairing the Select Investigative Panel in the midst of vicious opposition from those involved with the Abortion Cartel,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue, who also served as a Founding Board Member for the Center for Medical Progress during its undercover journalistic study of the trafficking of aborted baby remains.
In addition to the nine criminal and regulatory referrals, the Select Investigative Panel has issued 41 subpoenas – not all of which have been met with full compliance. At least two late-term abortionists, LeRoy Carhart and Warren Hern, who conduct abortions through all nine months of pregnancy received subpoenas but have not yet fully complied.
