Senators Want Justice Department Update on Investigation of Planned Parenthood for Selling Aborted Baby Parts

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Jun 19, 2019   |   10:27AM   |   Washington, DC

Two leading pro-life senators sent a letter to the Department of Justice on Tuesday asking for an update on the investigation of Planned Parenthood for allegedly selling aborted baby body parts.

The Washington Times reports U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley, of Iowa, wrote the letter to Attorney General William P. Barr and FBI Director Christopher A. Wray asking about the investigation.

“Preventing the illegal sale of human fetal tissue remains a priority for the committee,” the Republican senators wrote.

In December 2017, the U.S Department of Justice said it would investigate eight Planned Parenthood affiliates and fetal tissue procurement groups after a Senate investigation found evidence of potentially illegal activity.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, as well as a U.S. House investigative committee, both recommended that the DOJ investigate Planned Parenthood after finding strong evidence that it broke the law by selling aborted baby body parts.

The investigation came about as a result of undercover videos by the Center for Medical Progress that exposed the baby body parts trade inside the nation’s largest abortion provider.

Since then, however, there has been no news about the federal investigation.

Graham and Grassley asked for an update by July 2.

“The investigation found evidence suggestion that the buying or selling of human fetal tissue may have occurred …” their letter states. “Additionally, the investigation uncovered facts that raised a reasonable suspicion that The Planned Parenthood Federation of America may have conspired with affiliates to violate the federal tissue law.”

The National Right to Life Committee praised the Senate leaders for requesting an update on the investigation.

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“Thank you @LindseyGrahamSC and @ChuckGrassley for continuing the Senate Judiciary Committee’s oversight of the DOJ and FBI’s response to organizations, like [Planned Parenthood], that may have violated laws that ban the buying or selling of fetal human tissue,” the pro-life organization wrote on Twitter.

Planned Parenthood repeatedly has denied all allegations of wrong-doing. However, in 2017, two human tissue procurement companies that worked with the abortion group were shut down after the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said they illegally sold aborted baby parts.

The sale or purchase of human fetal tissue is a federal felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000 (42 U.S.C. 289g-2). However, it is not illegal for groups to charge a compensation fee for the handling and shipping of the aborted baby parts.

It is this compensation loophole that Planned Parenthood allegedly exploited for profit.

The abortion chain receives approximately half a billion taxpayer dollars every year, while performing about 330,000 abortions annually. Its CEO, Leana Wen, recently said abortions are their “core mission.”

The expose’ videos catching Planned Parenthood officials allegedly selling the body parts of aborted babies have shocked the nation. Here is a list of all 14:

  • 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.
  • The 12th video in the series shows new footage of Jennefer Russo, medical director at Planned Parenthood in Orange County, California, describing to undercover investigators how her abortion business tries to harvest intact aborted babies’ bodies for a local for-profit biotech company and changes the abortion procedure to do so.
  • The 13th video: exposes a Planned Parenthood medical director admitting that babies born alive after abortion are sometimes killed.
  • The 14th video: catches Planned Parenthood executives discussing gruesome abortion procedures and the sale of body parts from aborted babies for profit.