House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Constitution and Civil Justice Subcommittee Chairman Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) sent a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) yesterday asking them to provide further information into the Department's previous investigations into the altering of abortion procedures in order to obtain fetal body parts.
As the letter points out, recent videos featuring executives from Planned Parenthood discuss the sale and possible alteration of abortion procedures in order to gain intact fetal body parts.
"I'd say a lot of people want liver," an executive from Planned Parenthood stated in a video released on July 15, 2015. "And for that reason, most providers will do this case under ultrasound guidance, so they'll know where they're putting their forceps."
She further stated: "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 another video, released on July 21, a Planned Parenthood executive says: “Let me explain to you a little bit of a problem, which may not be a big problem, if our usual technique is suction at 10 to 12 weeks and we switch to using an IPAS [manual vacuum aspirator] or something with less suction or to increase the odds that it will come out as an intact specimen, then we're kind of violating the protocol that says to the patient, ‘We're not doing anything different in our care of you.’ Now to me, that's kind of a specious little argument and I wouldn't object to asking Ian, who's our surgeon who does the cases, to use an IPAS at that gestational age in order to increase the odds that he's going to get an intact specimen.”
Chairman Goodlatte's letter to the DOJ specifically states that "[N]ew evidence suggests that this disturbing practice of altering the procedure is more than an isolated instance."
Based on the evidence presented in the videos featuring Planned Parenthood executives, Chairman Goodlatte has called upon the DOJ to assess three federal laws that may be implicated by these videos, and expressed the Committee's "interest in understanding the history of the enforcement of these laws at the Department of Justice."
A copy of the signed letter sent on August 17 can be found here.
LifeNews.com is reporting on another congressional request, this one from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Specifically, investigators are asking 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.”
Just last year, Planned Parenthood and its affiliates received $344.5 million in federal funds and another $1.2 billion in funding from Medicaid (which includes a combination of federal and state funds) for a total of $1.5 billion over three years from federal programs.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform sent letters to HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell and Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, asking for documents related to all grants received from the Obama administration and how the money was spent.
In addition, it is asking for a list of the 50 highest-paid Planned Parenthood employees and contact information for each of its 770 health centers across the U.S.
It is also asking the organization to “Identify, specifically, what procedures, services, or other medical treatments are available only or exclusively at a Planned Parenthood affiliate or health center… Do not include services or procedures that could otherwise be provided by a private health care provider.”
Both the Obama Administration and Planned Parenthood have until August 28 to respond.
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